When Solomon says in Proverbs 6, “Go to the ant, O sluggard,” it is easy to completely misunderstand his meaning. We think of ants as mindless drones, so it sounds like we’re being told to engage in mindless labor. Maybe there’s some wisdom to that, but Solomon has a different view of ants.
Did the ancient world know about insect “queens” for ants and bees? Probably. But Solomon is referring to ants that he sees. His observation is that the ants 1) are providing for themselves 2) without being supervised on the spot.
Go to the ant, O sluggard;
consider her ways, and be wise.
Without having any chief,
officer, or ruler,
she prepares her bread in summer
and gathers her food in harvest.
So you provide for yourself without having to be forced to do so. Since Proverbs is written as the words of a son who is becoming an adult, perhaps it is relevant to remember that a child doesn’t feed or clothe himself. To put it another way, he doesn’t parent himself. But what happens if he doesn’t learn to parent himself when he gets older?
He’ll have to be placed under other “parents” to survive. Proverbs 12.24
The hand of the diligent will rule,
while the slothful will be put to forced labor.
So lets look at the ant lesson in its context:
Proverbs 6:1–11
[1] My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor,
have given your pledge for a stranger,
[2] if you are snared in the words of your mouth,
caught in the words of your mouth,
[3] then do this, my son, and save yourself,
for you have come into the hand of your neighbor:
go, hasten, and plead urgently with your neighbor.
[4] Give your eyes no sleep
and your eyelids no slumber;
[5] save yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter,
like a bird from the hand of the fowler.
[6] Go to the ant, O sluggard;
consider her ways, and be wise.
[7] Without having any chief,
officer, or ruler,
[8] she prepares her bread in summer
and gathers her food in harvest.
[9] How long will you lie there, O sluggard?
When will you arise from your sleep?
[10] A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to rest,
[11] and poverty will come upon you like a robber,
and want like an armed man.
So we start with an exhortation not to go into debt (even for a charitable cause) with the warning that, if you can’t repay the debt, you will be like a trapped animal. In Solomon’s day, you could be sold into slavery to repay a debt, but even today debt can be a horrible burden that limits your options. It is a form of captivity.
Then, after the lesson of the ants, Solomon warns against sleep. At some point, I will share my argument that sleeping in and missing work is the least of the problems Solomon is addressing. His larger point with sleep is that we need to pay attention to our lives and what we need. If we’re sleep walking through life we are not providing for our future needs because we’re not aware of them.
A good parent has to stay aware of the needs of his children. Adults are people who are supposed to parent themselves. Stay alert.
Or else you’ll be stuck with supervisors all your life.