Proverbs 19:15 Commentary and Bible Study

We may be surprised at the number of times Solomon returns to this subject, because we think that idleness or laziness is not as serious as other faults, and is more a matter of omission than of commission. In secular matters it arises from an unwillingness to carry out a duty because of the effort and possible discomfort involved. The individual pampers themselves and does not see the importance of a matter sufficiently to overcome their reluctance to leave the bed, or the armchair, or their current state of relaxation. They ought to throw off sleep, to galvanise the mind to think through the issue, to face up to the hardship of some difficult task and not to put it off any more. Delay will make the task harder, and if energy cannot be summoned early, it is unlikely to be summoned late, when the effort required will be even greater. Instead, the slothful man turns his mind away from the subject and embraces unreality because it places less demand on him. As a result he becomes like someone who is asleep at a critical time. He is dreaming on his bed when it is harvest time, the busiest times of the year, or when there is no food on the table, or when he should be revising for an exam, or when enemies are approaching his community, or when the house is on fire. All of this is bad enough in the affairs of this world, but it is far more disastrous in matters of the soul, and yet here too there is a powerful urge to put off what needs to be done.The soul also suffers greatly as a result of slothfulness. In this case the consequences are far more terrible and more long lasting. The state of unbelief could be looked at as a state of slothfulness of the soul. The unbeliever does not wish to think about the position he is in because it is too disturbing. He would rather take refuge in unreality so that he can get the maximum enjoyment out of this world, for to think of the consequences of sin will trouble his conscience so much that he will be unable to take any pleasure in the affairs of this life. The knowledge that eternal destruction is hanging over his head will make it very hard to enjoy a night out with friends, or even a walk in the sunshine, far less the deliberate pursuit of sin. Only by hardening his own heart and forcing himself not to think of death and hell can he derive a little pleasure from what he knows is going to be taken from him shortly. This is a form of slothfulness. What the soul ought to do is to stir itself to grapple with the matter of its eternal destiny. It should face up to its alienation from God, its debt to him because of sin, the terrible prospect of being condemned by the Lord and his sentence against the unrighteous which can never be revoked. It should consider the loss of freedom which it has incurred through offering to be the servant of sin, and the impossibility of setting itself free. It should remember that sin is a degenerative process which cannot be expected to be reversed, but proceeds inevitably towards death. The influences which tend to slothfulness in physical life have their counterpart in the slothfulness of the soul. Though they are not necessarily the same and indeed, a man can be very busy in the affairs of this world and yet give no attention to the needs of his soul, yet the one illustrates the other. The soul prefers what it thinks is ease, but if it is really going to be delivered it has got to stir itself to hear the gospel, to assess its own health, to search realistically for God’s solution, to face the terrible dilemma it is in and to despair of self-help and turn to God alone for a solution. All this is painful, and laziness of the soul makes it an undesirable activity to begin. We must rouse ourselves from the sleep of death and put off the dreams of death and struggle to seek the Lord with all our hearts.