Proverbs 24: 23-34

²³These also are sayings of the wise
To show partiality in judgment is not good.
²⁴He who says to the wicked, "You are righteous,"
Peoples will curse him, nations will abhor him;
²⁵But to those who rebuke the wicked will be delight,
And a good blessing will come upon them.
²⁶He kisses the lips
Who gives a right answer.
²⁷Prepare your work outside
And make it ready for yourself in the field;
Afterwards, then, build your house.
²⁸Do not be a witness against your neighbor without cause,
And do not deceive with your lips.
²⁹Do not say, "Thus I shall do to him as he has done to me;
I will render to the man according to his work."
³⁰I passed by the field of the sluggard
And by the vineyard of the man lacking sense,
³¹And behold, it was completely overgrown with thistles;
Its surface was covered with nettles,
And its stone wall was broken down.
³²When I saw, I reflected upon it;
I looked, and received instruction.
³³"A little sleep, a little slumber,
A little folding of the hands to rest,"
³⁴Then your poverty will come as a robber
And your want like an armed man.

Today's Thought Question:

1. What proverb in today's passage spoke to you and why?
   

Verses 30 to 34 seem quite removed from the Proverbial form that we've come to know and present more like a parable--perhaps a follow-up to Jesus' parable of the sower.

"I passed by the field of the sluggard
And by the vineyard of the man lacking sense,
And behold, it was completely overgrown with thistles;
Its surface was covered with nettles,
And its stone wall was broken down.
When I saw, I reflected upon it;
I looked, and received instruction.
"A little sleep, a little slumber,
A little folding of the hands to rest,"
Then your poverty will come as a robber
And your want like an armed man."

Solomon has addressed laziness, so he was obviously inspired by kings before and God Himself in continuing to make the subject known through his writings after them.

What gives me pause for thought today is Verse 32, and the series of verbs following: saw and reflected; looked and received instruction. In contrast to yesterday--when I would judge, condemn and praise God for crushing the enemy--today, I stop and think, and wait for God to fill me with His wisdom. It is not my place to berate the sluggard, but, perhaps there is something I might learn from him and from the picture he creates on the landscape.

"Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; and you will eat the plants of the field...."

--Genesis 3:18

The cross-reference for Verse 31 ties back to land from the earliest days of earth. This is the land given to Adam by God after his expulsion from the Garden of Eden. Adam's sin in the Fall led to God giving him a new land to till for the rest of his days. It would be a land that would bear not the luscious, tasteful fruit of the Garden, but a land of thorns and thistles, in addition to edible plants.

The thing about thorns and thistles is that they can be weeded out of one's garden. The problem with the sluggard is that he is lazy, and he is unwilling to do the work of, first, confessing that he has such things in his life in the first place and, then, working to attain the wisdom necessary to keep his weed problem from festering. Instead, we witness the decay of everything that he has. God may lead us to help him remove some of these layers, but, in the end, the root of those thorns and thistles needs to be removed by the sluggard himself, with God's working in him.

Verse 33 is the same as Proverbs 6:10. It reminds us that it takes but an inopportune nap to bring us a step closer to receiving another thorn. "Your poverty will come as a robber." Our falling away from wisdom doesn't come in an obvious lightning strike kind of experience. It sneaks and creeps into our hearts, as a robber who has staked out our home and knows the very entry point into our valuables. Let us sleep when it's time to sleep, but be refreshed and alert to the receipt of wisdom always!

"When we see fields overgrown with thorns and thistles, and the fences broken down, we see an emblem of the far more deplorable state of many souls. Every vile affection grows in men's hearts; yet they compose themselves to sleep. Let us show wisdom by doubling our diligence in every good thing."

--Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Bible

Photo: http://cmprather.tripod.com/Encino_NM/broken_down_house_field.jpg

* * *

Tomorrow's Scripture Focus and Thought Question:

Proverbs 25: 1-10 (of the transcribed proverbs of Solomon)

1. What proverb in today's passage spoke to you and why?
   

* * *

Note: I read from the New American Standard Bible translation, specifically, The MacArthur Study Bible (NASB). I will quote other sources if used in a post.
I also use Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (with notes from the King James Version).