Proverbs 6:4 AMP

Give not sleep to thine eyes,
nor slumber to thine eyelids.

Proverbs 6:4 KJV

 
aDailyProverb.com

Don’t procrastinate— there’s no time to lose.

Proverbs 6:4 MSG The Message

The Message is a helpful version of the Bible. I use it a lot as a companion to my study Bible. I don’t hide the fact that some verses of the Bible go right over my head. This verse from MSG is very direct but worded different than most other versions.  Almost all other version of the Bible for this verse are similiar to the KJV…

Give no sleep to your eyes, Nor slumber to your eyelids.

You can decide for yourself if God is referring to life itself or if God is asking us not to procrastinate our relationship with him. Personally I think the latter because, at least for me, when I focus more on the Lord it helps my day to day living and when I focus on me and my life, not so much.

Proverbs 7 NIV w/ Proverbs 6 NIV

 
Are you a self-starter? Do you have a great enough sense of responsibility to know what you ought to do and to do it? Solomon continues his condemnation of sluggards by comparing them to ants (6:6-8). These little people do not need a meeting every morning to be told what to do and how to do it. They just go to work and get things done, now!
 
The ants provide an excellent lesson in wise planning, diligence, frugality, and investment. They work hard all summer to provide for their needs during the fall, winter, and spring (6:8; 30:25). They work hard, consume little, and save much. All three of which are great virtues.
 
And they do it without direction. The ants do not have a guide, overseer, or ruler to remind them of diligence, frugality, and saving. They do these things instinctively by God’s wise creation. It is a shame that most men cannot copy the virtues of these insignificant little people. Solomon must warn his son about sluggards of the human race who do not work during harvest (10:5; 20:4).
 
Many men must be forced to work, reminded to work, told how to work, reproved for jobs poorly done, reminded how to do the job right, and constantly followed to keep them working (6:9-11; 20:13). They will take a day off for a cold or headache. If the boss is away, they will play. These are sluggards.
Other men spend everything they make, much of it on pleasure (21:17,20; 23:21). They will spend next month’s labor by using credit cards for entertainment and toys today. Others like them will invest their money in foolish schemes that rob them and their family (28:19). These two kinds of men – the sluggard and the waster – are brothers. They both come from the family of financial ruin (18:9). They both could learn much from the ant.
 
Parents, you are responsible to teach your children hard work, wise foresight, spending discipline, and constant saving. These four simple traits will do more for their future financial and personal success than any other natural investment you can make in them. Teach them about the ant!
 
The cure for sluggards and spendthrifts is simple and obvious. Starve them. They will learn both virtues – diligence and saving. This is the wisdom of God, and humanistic shortcuts like public education, welfare, jobs programs, and charity will not cut it (20:4; II Thess 3:6-14). Christian charity extends only to acts of God, not consequences of slothor waste, only to necessary things, not toys or entertainment.
 
The locusts are also praised in 30:27 for not having a king, but the virtue there is social responsibility and cooperation, for they all go forth by bands. But the ant is singled out twice for its great diligence and frugality, with a wise eye to the future (6:8; 30:25). Paul warned that every man shall bear his own burden (Gal 6:5).
 
Dear reader, what should you be doing today? Do you need someone to tell you, again? Do you need to be punished by authority or circumstances to do it? Consider the ant, and go do what you ought to be doing. You will be blessed in the deed naturally and spiritually. And you should be especially eager to get at your spiritual duties.
 
Our Lord Jesus Christ was the ultimate self-starter. He was focused on obeying His Father from the beginning, which He showed even at twelve years of age in the temple. And He did this in spite of His mother and Joseph not understanding or helping Him toward His goal (Luke 2:49; John 4:34). Listen to Him speak of His burden to serve His Father: “I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work” (John 9:4).
 

6 Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: 
7 Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler,

Proverbs 7 KJV w/ Proverbs 6 KJV

If you work hard you will get rich and if you are lazy you will be poor. Wouldn’t that be great if God worked that way. All we would have to do is work hard and we would be rich. God is telling us that we need to work hard but at what? I have worked hard on a lot of things in my life and they didn’t make me rich. We have to work hard to understand what God wants from us. A hamster can run for hours on a wheel but he isn’t going anywhere. I have been on that wheel too, many times…

Some may disagree but for me faith takes hard work. If I don’t pray, read my Bible, go to church, etc I loose faith and shoulder the burdens myself. I need my faith to be strong because if I work hard on my own, my plate gets full, I feel overwhelmed, and end up looking like the hamster on the wheel. I know when I start to get really stressed and overwhelmed, I need to work harder to understand what God wants be to do.

I remember watching a NASCAR race at Bristol and the announcer kept repeating that the key to Bristol, a high banked short track, was to slow down to speed up. That didn’t make sense to me at first but I noticed that the drivers in the top ten where not steering their wheel nearly as hard as the drivers in the back of the field. The leaders were more concerned with hitting there marks and not just hammering the gas and then stomping on the breaks like the drivers that were hitting the wall or wrecking.

Sometimes God needs us to slow down so we can speed up. Laziness is just not someone who sits on the couch all day watching TV, it can also be someone who is lazy in worship.

The path of lazy people is overgrown with briers; the diligent walk down a smooth road.

Proverbs 15:19 MSG

When I avoid doing what I know needs to be done, it always takes longer to do it when I finally get around to doing it. Knowing that I keep avoiding it making it continue to worsen and the cycle continues. When it gets to the point I can’t take it anymore, I attack it and its done. I don’t have to have it over my head anymore and I feel really good that the task in finished. The more that I complete in any given day, the better the next day is because I don’t have to carry over all the stuff I didn’t do from the day before.

This Proverb takes the macro view of procrastination and gets right to the point of laziness. Just like procrastination can cause a cycle like the one above so can laziness. I don’t know a lot of really happy lazy people. Usually they are in denial and blame everyone else. The diligent people I see are usually happy and seem to have more time for the important things in life.

I received an email from James the other day and he recommended this Proverb for today. He uses this verse to reflect on his faith and worship. When he is diligent in his faith, his life is more smooth but when he is lazy in his faith, his life is overgrown with briers. Thank you James for the Proverbs suggestion and how you use Proverbs 15:19 to strengthen your faith.