Proverbs 12:11, God’s Labour Laws

June 10, Proverbs 12:11

1 Thes. 4:11-12; 2 Thes. 3:10-12 “Man should not eat of honey like a drone from others’ labour.”

God’s Labour Laws

It has become fashionable to criticise the so-called Protestant work-ethic in the interest of a socialist utopia. This work-ethic, however, goes away back long before Protestantism. It had its rise in the Old Testament! The Hebrews were taught that hard work, honestly done, would yield its own rewards. Warnings abound about the folly of reckless money-speculations. Don’t go the get-rich-quick route that is today making us nations of gamblers. It is no blessing to be freed from the law of labour, nor does God free man from that law. It is not labour itself that is the curse of the Fall; it is sin! Man was to cultivate Eden as God’s happy co-worker. Rather, we should see work as a blessed condition of life. Remember the admonition of Martin Luther on work, “A dairymaid can milk cows to the glory of God.”

1. The Devoted: Be Busy! Be Blest! He that tills (works) his land shall be satisfied with bread. God has so framed the Law of Labour, that, while there is a division of labour, He has enjoined labour upon all. Christianity was meant to hallow life in all its phases- in business, in labour, in recreation. There is an old saying that the Sabbath of the Christian is a life-long Sabbath, an everyday Sabbath, a perpetual serving of God. It is a labour both earthly, for the body’s need, and heavenly, for the soul’s good. Remember, however, the earthly seed-corn will produce only earthly results. Only heavenly seed-corn, supplied from the heavenly storehouse by the heavenly husbandman, will provide the heavenly Bread of Life. Jesus said to Nicodemus, That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I say unto thee, ye must be born again (Jn. 3:6-7). If you are devoted in both sowings, God will give you the increase in the fruits of the earth and in the fruits of Heaven. Thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands, and be received into everlasting habitations (Ps. 128:2; Lu. 16:9).

2. The Destitute: Be Lazy! Be Left! He that follows vain persons is void of understanding. Idleness is the sin of Sodom and her daughters. In the beehive, nature condemns drones. They are done to death by the worker bees! The verb followeth is an intensive form. It comes from the root to pursue. It refers to those who are eagerly pursuing vain persons or things. If vain persons are meant here, then keeping bad company is involved. This is rank folly for vanity means to be empty, and that, in turn, leads to destitution, left without bread. It describes one who is void of understanding. This is the Hebrew idiom meaning lacking heart. He is without wisdom. He may have the energy but lacks discernment. If it is vain things that are meant, then it suggests useless, idle occupations. The man who frittered away his time on useless projects and vain enterprises eventually frittered away his life” (Alden). Let us avoid the folly of the idler as the very nursery of vice and misery. Do they not thereby lose their self-respect, the “very gold of humanity”? That is too high a price to pay; it may last for all eternity!

Thought: No farmer ever ploughed a field by turning it over in his mind.

Prayer: Keep me ever pursuing the upward way.