Mensa Otabil - The Danger of Laziness
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Proverbs chapter 26, verses 15 and 16. The lazy man buries his hand in the bowl. It wearies him to bring it back to his mouth. The lazy man is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who can answer sensibly. I just like the constructions in the book of Proverbs. There is some humor there when you read them. And so the lazy person is a person who is slow and idle.
In the book of Proverbs, the lazy man is also sometimes called the fool. It’s not a pleasant way to be called, but if you’re lazy, that’s how you’re labeled- a fool. Some people prefer to take the easy way out. This passage talks about the lazy man. It says first that the lazy man buries his hand in the bowl. He’s likened to a person sitting at a table eating food. The food has been prepared and set before him. He puts his hand into the bowl to pick up something to eat, but his hand stays stuck and doesn’t come up.
So what does that mean? It means that the lazy man is a person who is given an opportunity; he gets involved but stays and doesn’t do anything. There are people like that. You plan for them, you work for them, you fill out applications for them, you fix meals for them. All they have to do is eat it. For some reason, they put their hands in there but lack the commitment to work and bring back what they have started the process with. The lazy man is that person. You give them an assignment, and they stay where they are. Their hand is buried in the bowl. One week later, their hand is still buried in the bowl.
Every year, they give you the same excuse. They provide the same report: no progress made, nothing forward, and their hand is buried in a bowl. If you are that person who keeps giving the same excuse every year, please know that your description is being played out in the scriptures. The second thing about the lazy man is that it wearies him to bring his hand to his mouth. It wearies him. The whole process of taking what he has touched and bringing it out requires energy that he lacks.
The lazy man represents those who don’t follow through on projects. They don’t follow through on assignments. They tell you, «I’m going to do this,» but their hand is buried, and they don’t put in the effort and work needed to translate an opportunity into reality. You give them an opportunity, and they’re stuck. The third thing the passage says about the lazy man is that he is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who can answer sensibly. In other words, you can’t even reason with him. He makes up his mind, his excuses, and feels right in his own eyes. He debates, and although he doesn’t make sense, he holds his own against sensible people.
The tragedy of a lazy person is that you can’t even convince him that he’s wrong. It is only when a person is convinced they' re wrong that they can change, turn around, or repent. If a person thinks that their way is right while all logic shows that their way is wrong, and they never see it, they can never change. That is why, year after year, decade after decade, they remain where they are — hands buried in the bowl and never taking advantage of the opportunities created for them. Unfortunately, they sometimes blame everybody else for their failure, not themselves, because the lazy man cannot be reasoned with.
There are individuals, unfortunately, who are like the lazy man. Sometimes it’s in a group; a family can share this attribute, where everyone adopts the same approach to life. Sometimes you can see it in a company or a nation or in a community among a group of people who never take advantage of the great opportunities available to them. I know none of you is like that. I’m convinced you are not like that. But in case you are, I hope this helps you turn around and become a diligent person.
Let us pray. Say with me, «Heavenly Father, deliver me from all forms of laziness. Help me to never shy away from the work that needs to be done, in Jesus' name. " Amen. And amen.