Proverbs 10:5, Asleep in Time of Harvest!
April 21, Proverbs 10:5
Luke 13:24-30; 2 Cor. 9:6-8 “The harvest is past; the summer is ended, and we are not saved” (Jer. 8:20).
Asleep in Time of Harvest!
1. The Summer is the Right-Now Time of Life. A wise son is contrasted with one bringing shame. A wise son is identified by a. His Particularity: He is meticulous about the smallest things, the details of the crop, the weather, the seasons. He takes care of little coins as of larger, of moments as of hours, of every engagement, the trifling with the most important. Mr. Gladstone, once Prime Minister of England, when speaking to the young, said, “Thrift of time will repay you in after-life with a usury of profit beyond your most sanguine [hopeful] dreams.” b. His Opportunity: He seizes or makes the most of it. He gathers in summer. He does the work at hand; never leaves till tomorrow what is today’s duty. A sense of timing is important to him. He tries to master his circumstances rather than be their victim. When God opens a gate he goes through it at once. c. His Prosperity: His hand makes rich. The law of industry is generally a benevolent law. Sloth is the mother of poverty. We hear today about working smarter not harder. There’s nothing wrong with that, provided it does not mean shady or dishonest work. God expects His children to use brains as well as brawn. Why should the children of darkness be smarter than the children of light? d. His Spirituality: It is equally true of holiness. Put your whole soul and mind into that business (2 Cor. 6:2). It will repay richly, for your labour is not in vain in the Lord. Strive for the Master’s Well done!
2. The Winter is the Not-Now Time of Life. A Sleeper in harvest is a son of shame. Are many professed believers sleeping through the harvest for God? Yet the Lord still calls us to labour for Him. Conversely, is it not a shame that many do so little when there is so much to do? Am I improving the time or am I waiting for a better tomorrow and thus making my testimony a sham? A son of shame is a. Neglectful of Providence: Little things as well as big things are neglected. A wise son will prosper, but a son of shame will perish. Who hath despised the day of small things (Zech. 4:10)? Answer: He who does not appreciate what he has been entrusted with. b. Unmindful of Possibility: He lets it slip into oblivion. The man asleep in harvest is a fool indeed. Christians should be sensitive to God’s leading. At each stage of life, we have only the Right-Now time to make our lives count. Don’t lightly forfeit that possibility. Give your prime-time to the Lord. Hannibal could have taken Rome, but would not. When he would, he could not. c. Resentful of Prosperity: He excuses his poverty and the ruin it brings. Sleep and ease are more important to him than redeeming the time. What folly and what shame he brings upon himself. Drowsiness clothes a man in rags (Pr. 23:21). A woman took her son to a psychiatrist because of his aversion to work. The doctor examined him and said: “Madam, your son is suffering from an aggravated condition of constitutional inertia,” on which the boy promptly commented, “There, Mom! and you said I was just plain lazy.”
Thought: “The tender plant of grace cannot grow in the garden of sloth.”
Prayer: Save me from resting on my laurels.