Posted on 05/25/2022 11:47:30 PM PDT by Pilgrim's Progress
“The slothful man saith, There is a lion in the way; a lion is in the streets. As the door turneth upon his hinges, so doth the slothful upon his bed. The slothful hideth his hand in his bosom; it grieveth him to bring it again to his mouth. The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason” (Proverbs 26:13-16).
Now we come to a series of verses about the sluggard, the slothful man.
These are the excuses of the slothful man.
- It's too hard. - I can't. - There’s no way. (There’s a lion in the streets). Just anything to get out of responsibility and get out of work.
You know, a lot of Christians won't witness because of the devil. The devil is like a lion (I Peter 5:8) and they're afraid of the devil. The say, “I can't do.” The devil has them cornered, they use him for an excuse.
Notice how the lazy man is a coward. He said, “There's a lion in the way.” Well, that won't stop a man that's really got determination and got a need, and if somebody else has a need, he will go. He will take the message.
“As the door turneth upon his hinges, so doth the slothful upon his bed.”
That is descriptive. Do you know why he tosses and turns like this? Number one, he doesn't do any work, so he doesn't sleep well. A man does a lot of good hard labor and he hits that sack, and he won’t hardly move. Seven hours and he is just flat out gone, and he’ll wake up like he went to sleep and be refreshed. But there is very little work in his life, he’ll have trouble sleeping. He'll be tossing and turning all night. And then he just stays in bed longer than he should. He is just like a door on hinges.
“The slothful hideth his hand in his bosom; it grieveth him to bring it again to his mouth.”
Something similar is found here: “A slothful man hideth his hand in his bosom, and will not so much as bring it to his mouth again” (Proverbs 19:24).
“The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason.”
“The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit,” he just thinks he's so smart. He’s got the whole thing figured out. He's wiser in his own conceit “than seven men that can render a reason.” In other words, no amount of truth will straighten this fellow out. You can send him seven men that can render a good reason why he shouldn’t be doing what he’s doing, but he’s wiser than these men in his own conceit. He is so self-sure, so self-righteous. Lazy people justify their laziness. “Oh, I’ve got this problem, and I’ve got that problem. And I was dealt a dirty deal, and I have a bad back . . . and on ad nauseum. You could say, “I know ten people that have bad backs and they are working just fine.” Of course, he’ll answer, “Well, they are not like me. I must have a dislocated fibia, tibia, or bibia, or something like that.”
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