As vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes,
so are sluggards to those who send them.
Summary: What makes a sluggard a sluggard? The answer is another example of how we need to discern the reasons for a person’s behavior.
Of all the proverbs in Proverbs, this one stands alone. Thousands of years are between us and Solomon, but truth remains the truth. Nobody liked smoke in the eyes then, and we still don’t today. I’m not sure who drinks vinegar, but just thinking about it makes my teeth hurt, so I get that one, too.
A sluggard is not necessarily a bad person. They may just not know how to work. In our culture, there are a lot of people who have never learned how to work. Part of the reason is that we have made it illegal to hire people at less than a “living wage.” I think it is fine to pay people a living wage who can do the work, but I am sad that there is no longer an option for a learning wage.
A learning wage is what you pay someone who doesn’t know how to work. If you hire someone who knows nothing, you are going to spend a lot of time teaching them what you need them to do and how to do it. At first, they will not be able to do much work that is worth anything. In time, if they are willing to learn, they develop skills and understanding that is valuable. Then they can earn a living wage without any problem.
The kind of sluggard Solomon is thinking of is different. They have been trained. They know what to do. They could do the work if they tried… but they won’t try. Such people are the sluggards that are like vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes.
Like so many other things the Bible talks about, this is a characteristic of the heart. We cannot see directly into the heart, but we see the attitudes of the heart reflected in what a person does. The sluggard doesn’t care, and it shows. If you have to rely on a sluggard to get something done, don’t expect it to happen quickly or even at all.
So why is this passage here, stuck in the middle of a discussion of the righteous and the foolish? Is it a warning to Solomon’s kids to avoid relying on sluggards or a cautionary tale of what not to become? Maybe it is both.
Application: Examine what you do and say for a mirror-like insight into your own heart.
Food for Thought: What do sluggards and fools have in common?
What do sluggards and fools have in common?
They are both not interested in righteousness. Both know what they should be doing, but choose their own way. The fool chooses their own knowledge, and the sluggard knows what is required of them but choose to wait, or (as we called it in the military) “sandbag.” In that sense, the sluggard is a fool as well.
I liken sluggards’ to a phrase my aunt used to say when I was a child and would take a bath in under 30 seconds: “you gave yourself a lick and a promise.” Sluggards often tell themselves that they will do, or do better, later.
Proverbs 20:4 The sluggard does not plow in the autumn; he will seek at harvest and have nothing.
Proverbs 28:26 Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered.
Chris,
You bring to mind some sayings I had not thought of in years. It is interesting how much wisdom there is in old sayings. Thank you for sharing!
L and S…….. sorry still sick.
Get to feeling better my friend. Praying for you.
Tim,
At least I get the joke today! 🙂
Get feeling better, brother.
A sluggard is lazy. It is foolish to be a sluggard, but not all fools are lazy. You could be very active working against God’s wisdom and purposes. You may even work harder than most doing exactly the opposite of what God wills.
Rich,
GREAT point! I like the way you said that.
05-06-2022, Proverbs 10:26, What do sluggards and fools have in common?
They come from Gibber, call themselves Progressive and speak Gibberish.
LOL!
Thanks, Ron. Sounds like one of those Old Testament towns in Canaan. 🙂
Yes, I checked it out, found it in the book of hesitations. 🙂
Wait, wait, wait. Aren’t we missing something?
“To those who send them”
First, sluggard implies choice. Not injured, not sick, not naive, not even just lazy. A habitual choice to not do what is needed, or is their duty.
Second, sluggards are smoke and vinegar to those who send them. That means someone entrusted a task or a message to someone who makes a habit of not doing what is theirs to do.
So a sluggard is most definitely a fool. But I agree with above comments that not every fool is a sluggard.
So, who trusts a sluggard??
A –
Great analysis, and you are right. Who sends a sluggard to do something? My guess is that the sluggard is never the first choice and when you do have to rely on a sluggard because no one else is available, then it is a Solomon says — painful.