“Sluggards do not plow in season;
so at harvest time they look but find nothing.”

We live next to a bean field these days. This led perfectly into discovering the seed of wisdom the proverb contained and we prayed for God to plant it firmly and deeply into the gardens of our hearts, souls, and minds.

Sluggards are one of the 5 residents of the Imposter’s House- one of the 3 houses in the book of Proverbs. Other inhabitants of the Imposter’s House include: the violent man, the perverse man, the scoundrel, and the gossip, 16:27-29. These 5 give an enticing but false view of wisdom which proverbs like this one reveal to the discerning.

Sluggard’s don’t want to work, they won’t even bring their hands from the bowl to their mouth, 19:24. We talked about the field next door and the timing involved; the plants are almost 3 feet tall. If the farmer decided to sleep instead of to plow would there even be a harvest? He would look and find nothing. The poor sluggard, always causing his own problems, but always expecting none.

Then we looked for Jesus, Wisdom’s fulfiller, in this proverb and found He talked about it in Mark 4, the parable of the sower. We decided the sluggard was most like the stony ground. The proverb didn’t say the sluggard doesn’t plow, just that he doesn’t in season. His inactivity left him without a harvest; like the plants of the rocky soil, it all withered and died.

We then began to talk about a mystery of God: The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few, Luke 10:2. Would a sluggard even see the harvest when he looks out over the field? Does God hide it from him, and if so, why?