The sluggard buries his hand in the dish. He is weary of bringing it to his mouth again.
It’s a bad sign when everything is wearisome—even eating.
Those who eat heartily usually work heartily.
Our attitude affects all our activities.
This caution must be important, since the text is repeated almost verbatim in Proverbs 19:24, “The sluggard buries his hand in the dish, but will not bring it back to his mouth.” Check the question: Laziness: How does it grow?
The Free Lunch Test
My dad often told this story about his experience as a boy in Zabrze, Poland, in the 1920s. When his parents wanted to hire farm hands, they first gave them a free lunch. The men loved the free food, but didn’t know they were being tested by their host and potential employer. My grandparents had discovered a pattern. In German, “Wie zum essen, so zum arbeiten”—“as a man eats, so he works.” Those who ate with gusto worked with gusto. Hired! Slow and picky eaters were usually slow and picky workers. They got one free meal, but no job.
Laziness Spreads
This is not, of course, a foolproof hiring technique for a Human Resources Department, but eating habits are at least one sign of a person’s work ethic. We all know that lounging at the table and grazing is a waste of time and food, buy sometimes it’s okay to linger over a meal. Sometimes we sit at the table just to keep company with others. Sometimes we are ill and don’t want any food. But are these the exceptions or the norm?
It may seem silly to imagine anyone so lazy that they can’t be bothered to feed themselves. But this proverb shows that sloth is a failure to love life; one long choice that less life is better than more. When the dying Moses takes leave of his Israelites at the border of the Promised Land, he warns them, “Today I set before you the choice between life and death… Choose life!” (Deut 30:19). We might not think that we need to be told this, but in a thousand little ways, day after day, the sluggard is choosing that life simply isn’t worth the effort. Tragic.
Classic Comments
Matthew Henry (d. 1714) observes that the sluggard...
...dreads, as if it were a mighty toil, to lift his hand to his head. It is an elegant hyperbole, aggravating his sin, that he cannot endure to take the least pains, no, not for the greatest profit [although eating is not the “greatest profit,” it is probably the most basic], and showing how his sin is his punishment.
Matthew Poole (d. 1679) says likewise: “He will not take the least pains for the most necessary things.”
John Gill (d. 1771) comments: “The sluggard hides his hand not caring to make use of it for labour; or covers it out of sight in his bosom, pretending some weakness or ailment in it, which hinders him from working.”
Matthew Henry amplifies his earlier warning, that the sin is its own punishment, by warning that one’s whole life can be infected by the lie, “It is common for those who will not do their duty, to pretend they cannot.”
Wealthy At Risk
The wealthy have a higher risk of sloth than the poor, since wealth gives them convenient access to food and frees them from effort. It’s hard enough to free the lazy from their habits, so easy feeding only enables their inertia. The privileged have a narrow comfort zone, and any effort beyond their ingrained habits seems impossible. It’s tragic when they don't make an effort to feed themselves. Children of wealthy parents, if not deliberately disciplined, are often lazy. Their sloth loosens their grip on life so much, they can barely be bothered to live.
Our Maker, Saviour, and Friend
Jesus enjoyed eating, but He was not controlled by it. He was no ordinary man. His enemies called Him a “gluttonous man and a drunkard,” (Matthew 11:19), implying that they saw Him eat heartily. Obviously, He enjoyed food and drink, but He was not mastered by them. Consider the following.
After fasting for forty days and nights He became hungry. Hunger is strongest at the beginning of an extended fast, then remains largely dormant until the point of starvation. If the body is not nourished when hunger reawakens, death is near. Precisely at the brink of death, the devil tempted Jesus to use His divine power and turn stones into bread. He could have done it, but refused to do anything not willed by His Father in heaven (Matthew 4:2-4).
As the Devil departed, the Father sent angels to minister to the dying Jesus. Jesus loved food, but He loved and trusted His Heavenly Father much, much more.
- Memorize the text in your favourite Bible translation and think about it often.
- Participate in your meals. Prepare it, clean up, help pay, or (as a minimum) say “thank you!”
- Watch your eating habits.
- Watch how others eat. Slow eaters tend to be lazy. Wasteful eaters tend to overspend.
Which of these steps, if any, does Jesus want you to take now? Ask Him.
Related Illustration