The Bread of Idleness

Prov.31:27

 

Idleness is simply doing nothing. If a person is idle he is inactive or doing nothing. So what is the bread of idleness? Probably the things you consume or take part in that promote idleness. You probably have heard the phrase “Idle hands are the devil’s workshop”. All though not a Biblical phrase, it does reveal some truth concerning the danger of idleness. If children are not supervised with specific activities to do, no doubt trouble is on the way.

 

Laziness is the bread of idleness

[Ecc.10:18] “By much slothfulness the building decayeth; and through idleness of the hands the house droppeth through”. Idleness is often the effect of laziness. But not everyone that is idle is lazy. A person who is unemployed is not necessarily lazy, yet in employment he is idle.

[iTim.5:13] You can learn to be idle. Who do you hang around with? [Prov.13:20] “He that walketh with wise men shall be wise” [Prov.22:24-25] you can learn the ways of an angry man.

[Prov.31:27] This woman, “she looketh well to the ways of her household”, and nothing in this proverb hints that she had a lazy bone in her. Many things of great importance go idle because we are too lazy to care. We leave our children’s education up to the school house, and we leave their spirituality up to the Sunday school teacher. Don’t eat the bread of idleness.

 

Prosperity is the bread of idleness

[Eze.16:49] the fullness of bread (prosperity) was included in their abundance of idleness. Prosperity is most often not as good for us as we might think [Rev.3:15-17]. We all spend a lot of time and effort seeking prosperity, when we should be content [1 Tim.6:6]. For it is great gain.

In the effort to seek prosperity we are very busy at jobs, education, house work, child rearing, etc. the problem is that we can get too busy to notice that we are idle at a very important task. It is very easy to wake up one day and realize that you children are not children anymore, or that the love of your life is now dying of cancer. You cannot go back now and put the time in that you may have wished to. It’s too late. You were so busy that you were idle at something that really was very important.

[Eph.5:16] we are to redeem the time. Make every day count. Far too often we “appear busy” every day and are truly idle at what God wanted accomplished. Don’t eat the bread of idleness.