Proverbs 12:24, The Crowd at the Bottom
June 18, Proverbs 12:24
Romans 12 “No cross, no crown! No pain, no palm! No grace, no glory!”
The Crowd at the Bottom
This proverb furnishes a contrast between Decisiveness and Deceitfulness, between Mastery and Misery. The hand of the diligent shall bear rule; but the slothful shall be under tribute. Slothful also means knavery or deceit (Ps. 101:7, 120:2, Micah 6:12) as well as laziness. It always deceives the slothful in the end (Ps. 78:57). Under tribute is used only here in Proverbs. It is a collective noun for a group of forced labourers or a labour-gang, and leads to slavery. “A lazy spirit is always a loosing spirit” (Brooks). Its message is crystal clear: the lazy are the losers. “Sloth shortens life and lengthens sin”!
2. Deceitfulness Produces a Life of Personal Misery. Solomon knew about labour-gangs. In his building projects he put Israel under tribute, a levy, the same word as in our proverb today (1 Kg. 5:13, 9:15). The words and they shall serve thee shows that it was not with money but with labour that the tribute was paid (Deut. 20:11; Ex. 1:11). Still, for all that, Solomon did not treat them as bondmen as he did the Canaanites (1 Kg. 9:21-22). We might say that Israel was a labour-force but not forced labour. Yet the deterioration from the one to the other is not difficult to imagine. It was this very charge that the complaining Israelite leaders brought against Solomon later when the tribute had become a yoke of misery (1 Kg. 12:4). And, since misery loves company, there’s a crowd at the bottom!
a. Treachery then Slavery: The slothful man is deceitful (marg), treacherous. Thus the Psalmist cries that the deceitful shall not dwell within my house (101:7). In another place, the Psalmist prays, Deliver my soul, O Lord, from a deceitful tongue (120:2). What evils spawned by this word slothful? As the tribute of forced labour breeds slaves, so also does persistent indolence. The Egyptian, because of ingratitude and then fear, reduced the Israelites to slavery (Ex. 1:8-9). The Canaanites became slaves because of their sloth. Many begin by thinking that rest is justified, and then, becoming lazy, expose themselves to want, and, in the end, they are driven to slavish dependence on others.
b. Shiftless then Useless: When applied to professing Christians, what a tragic testimony it produces! “Spiritual sloth weakens men, and exposes them to the power of their spiritual enemies” (Lawson). Let us tremble at such a condition that leads to doing nothing but living for one’s own indulgence, neglecting the upward call in Christ. How will such face the final judgment? Has not the welfare state created many such slaves, even to the third and fourth generations? Many of these claimants are deceitful or fraudulent. Yet they are the real losers. They will never become rulers or leaders in anything. The slothful man becomes a slave to the diligent in the end. This idleness is a damnable blight. What he has is taken from him, and he is finally cast into outer darkness.
Thought: “Sloth begat poverty, and poverty begat fraud.”
Prayer: Lord, grant that I might strive to ‘reach for the top’ in my Christian life.