Go To The Ant?

Maybe you’re already familiar with this passage:

“Go to the ant, you sluggard!
Consider her ways and be wise,” (Proverbs 6:6 NKJV).

What does it mean? Most of us say it means to work as hard as the ant. Maybe you’ve used this passage to encourage your kids to work harder. Maybe it’s a reminder for you to work harder.

There are plenty of passages that talk about working harder, but this passage doesn’t. Read the whole thing.

“Go to the ant, you sluggard!
Consider her ways and be wise,
Which, having no captain,
Overseer or ruler,
Provides her supplies in the summer,
And gathers her food in the harvest” (Proverbs 6:6-8 NKJV).

Why are you supposed to consider the ant? Because she has no captain, overseer, ruler. But she still plans and works.

It’s easier to work when you have an employer holding your feet to the fire. It’s easier to be an athlete with a coach planning out your every move. It’s easier to learn when you have a teacher threatening to give you bad grades.

But a freeman plans and works without an employer, coach, teacher.

A freeman might have an employer. Or use a coach. Or learn from a teacher. The difference is the freeman takes responsibility for his own results.

The employer, coach, or teacher isn’t there to goad the freeman into action. They should be resources that enhance the planning and work that the freeman was doing already.

So, go to the ant.

What do you think?
Joseph