Bible Studies for Students - Week of 2/5

Becoming a sluggard requires little effort

Proverbs 24:33-- A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest—and poverty will come on you like a thief.

The “sluggard” is lazier than a pig on vacation. His only exercise is turning on his bed; Proverbs says he is hinged to it. Any farfetched excuse—“There is a lion in the road!”—will keep him from going to work. Proverbs laughs at the sluggard a little, but uses him to teach serious lessons. You can be like him very easily, for it doesn’t require much: “a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest.” Putting things off, making excuses, sleeping in—who doesn’t sometimes fall victim to these tendencies?

The result of such a life? Poverty, frustration, broken relationships. The sluggard still wants the luxuries hard work earns, but he never gets them. “The craving of a sluggard will be the death of him” ( Proverbs 21:25 ).

Proverbs on laziness: Proverbs 6:6-11; Proverbs 10:4, Proverbs 6:26; Proverbs 12:24, Proverbs 12:27; Proverbs 13:4; Proverbs 15:19; Proverbs 19:15, Proverbs 19:24; Proverbs 20:4; Proverbs 21:25; Proverbs 22:13; Proverbs 24:30-34; Proverbs 26:13-16.