Proverbs 22:13 The slothful man saith, There is a lion without, I shall be slain in the streets
What would you do if there were a lion roaming the streets outside your house? The conventional wisdom when faced with a threat these days is run, hide, or fight and in that order. If you were confronted with such a situation, it might tell you a bit about yourself. Would you run, hide, or fight? What would you do? If there was a lion outside the door, some people would immediately hide. Others would try to outrun the beast if they were already outside. Other people would grab their rifle, go out and shoot it, and then mount it on their wall the next day. Now, this may be a fun exaggeration, but all of us see something of ourselves by how we respond to such a danger.
In Proverbs 22:13 it says, “The slothful man saith, There is a lion without, I shall be slain in the streets.” This is a weird thing for even a slothful person to be saying. It is kind of melodramatic. Essentially what is happening is that a slothful man is saying, “I can’t go to work. There is a lion outside so I must stay on my bed in front of my TV because if I go outside, I will inevitably be eaten.” What is this all about? What is very clear is who we are talking about. We are talking about the slothful person.
I saw a shirt recently that said, “Sloth Race Team.” Of course, it was a joke and it had a picture of a sloth. I don’t know much about sloths, but a sloth is not exactly overactive or inactive. It is slow; it appears lazy. So, we know who the person in this passage is and we know what he says. What he says is an excuse. What kind of excuse is it? The excuse he has is one of the inevitable; a kind of fatalism where there is a lion outside so it is out of my hands.
There are two types of people. One type feels like they are responsible for everyone and everything all the time. They are frenetic, hurried, and worried about things they cannot control. On the other side of the road in the other ditch are those people who do nothing because they say, “Hey, if it is going to happen, it’s going to happen” or “It’s not my responsibility” or “There’s nothing I can do.” I’m not saying these statements are intrinsically wrong, but these are all statements of a person who is avoiding responsibility.
On the one hand, you have people who do nothing and on the other you have people who feel responsible for everything. In the middle you have what we probably should be doing. Something is not inevitable if you have some form of responsibility. That kind of fatalism, the idea that everything is inevitable, is just lazy. Sometimes, it can even be cowardly. The slothful man saith, “There is a lion without, I shall be slain in the streets. I can’t do what has to be done because if I do that, there is a lion out there and I’ll be eaten.”
So, what should you do? Shoot the lion? Run from the lion? Hide from the lion? There are two things I would say. First, work like it all depends on you; pray like it all depends on God. That is a familiar saying, but it is true. Proverbs 21:31 says it better, “The horse is prepared against the day of battle: but safety is of the LORD.” So, God is in control of everything and I can rely and rest in His power and sovereignty. But that doesn’t mean I don’t prepare what needs to be prepared, don’t do what I should do, and don’t take responsibility where I will be held accountable. Trusting God with all your might does not mean serving Him with half your strength. Work like it all depends on you; pray like it all depends on God. Fatalism is lazy. Accepting everything as inevitable is lazy; it is even cowardly. We have been put on this earth to trust God and take action.
Second, stick with it. Proverbs 22:29 says, “Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean [common] men.” Maybe no one recognizes your position or you don’t have a position. Maybe no one rewards you for what you do, but there is a God in heaven who is sovereign, in control, and knows all. So, stick with the things you should be sticking with. You can’t do everything, but you should do some things. You can do something and trust God with the results.
In 1964 Ronald Reagan spoke a number of times on behalf of the Republican candidate Barry Goldwater, who of course lost. In one speech he said, “We have a rendezvous with destiny,” echoing the words of Franklin Roosevelt from years before. Was he talking about mere fate, fatalism, there’s nothing we can do, it’s not my responsibility? No, the speech was entitled “A Time for Choosing.” As I recall, he basically said, “We have a choice which spells duty.” Sometimes there are things in life that may be stronger or bigger than you; you must trust God and do what you should. God will do what you can’t when you do what you should. God is not going to do what you should, and you can’t do what God can. So, do what you should and God will do what you can’t.
It may occur to you, “How do I know when I should be trusting God and when I should be taking action?” These are not competitive things; they must harmonize. That is why we have to come back to the main theme in Proverbs: wisdom, specifically discernment, recognizing the differences between things that appear the same but are not. You cannot do what you should do and trust God as you should if you don’t have the wisdom that only God can give.
Friend, every day we need wisdom to know what to worry about and what not to worry about. It is all in God’s hands, but God gives us some problems that spell responsibility. Don’t sit on the couch and say, “There is a lion outside.” There are things we should pay attention to, but fatalism is lazy. Trusting God is not a cessation of work; it means trusting God as you work.