Danny Fourie

Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest. Proverbs 6:6-8

Solomon’s advice to the sluggard is to go and look at the ants busying themselves at his home. They are hard at work. One drags a seed and another carries material for their nest. There is great activity around the nest. The sluggard has to observe carefully and learn from the ants.

Different studies suggest that ants are very wise and have a zest for work. Someone wrote: ‘I have seen more immense architecture with the ants than in the palaces of Naples.’ Someone else wrote: ‘The ants gather wheat grains, dry it in the sun, bite the ends off and take it underground where they preserve it.’ It has been estimated that ants work on average 16 hours a day.

It is not just about the ants’ zest for work, but also about the period of time when they join forces. It is in summer during the harvest. It is precisely at this time that  they gather their food. It may be that later nothing will be left on the land – that is why they work now. Doing this ensures that there will be plenty to eat in the winter.

In such a way the ants provide for their future, for their livelihood. In any case, the baby ants are born in the winter and they too will need something to eat. The one generation provides for the next.

The sluggard should also look carefully at how the ants work. There is no leader, no commander, no overseer or ruler. None of the ants is forced to work. They all do it of their own free will. There is no boss who gives orders and they do not have strikes.

A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest – and poverty will come on you like a thief and scarcity like an armed man. (Proverbs 6:10-11) You will not find this with the ants. The poverty of the sluggards is their own doing. Their laziness leads to their demise.

Prayer: Lord, how often do we see our work as a heavy burden and hope that our work and provision will somehow get on by itself. Teach us to work as the ants, of our own free will and do our best to provide for our loved ones. Amen.