Proverbs 22:13

The Sluggard as a Fantasizer

0:01 Proverbs 22 and verse 13, the sluggard says, there's a lion without, I should be slain in the streets. And as we indicated, I believe, in a previous study, this is what Pastor Huffstetler calls in his four powerful messages on the doctrine of the sluggard in Proverbs, the fantasizer. The sluggard is a fantasizer. He has a mind that is very prolific, not in designing ways to be productive, but in finding out all kinds of specious excuses for not getting out of bed and getting off his duff and doing his duty.

0:43 The sluggard says, there's a lion without, I should be slain in the streets. Everybody else, they are going about their business for some reason. And the lion just doesn't like the meat on their bones. But I'm sure that I am in that lion's nose and in all his juices, I am choice meat for the lion.

1:07 I mean, the texture of my skin, the amount of hair on my arms, the shape of my body. I mean, a lion looks at me and says, mm-hmm, filet mignon, lion style. Others, I mean, look how ridiculous it is. If the lion's out in the street, why isn't everybody splitting?

1:24 Why isn't everybody eating up? But the lion's very real in the mind of the sluggard. He's always fantasizing. Now, see the difference?

Imagined vs. Real Difficulties

1:33 The sluggard will not plow by reason of the winter. There you have real difficulties faced by the sluggard, and they intimidate him, and he backs off from his duty. Here you have imagined difficulties. And you parents will find very early in the development of your children.

1:53 And why it's that way with one and not another? I don't know, but you know it's true. Some have the spirit, anything to be done that they've not done before. There's a sense in which they rise to it, they love a challenge, and they tackle it.

2:11 It may be way over their head. They may get their nose bent. They may come back totally frustrated, but they're ready to go back at it again. And they show that temperament very, very early.

Temperamental Differences in Children

2:23 Now, someone was telling me about my grandson recently. That there was something he wanted, and it was a legitimate object. It wasn't a no-no for which he'd get his hands spanked. And he climbed up on the chair and reached over and tried to get it, and fell off the chair on the rug.

2:39 And went, got up the chair again, reached out a second time, fell again. And up the third time, fell again. Went up, and the fourth time, he got it.

2:55 Now, if God will ever get that thing channeled, he'll be worth something.

3:00 But there's some of us, the way God... God put us together in our mother's womb.

3:05 Halfway up the chair, we saw we might fall, and we never even climbed up the chair. We are naturally timid. We are naturally fearful. And you can't explain that.

The Devil's Exploitation of Timidity

3:17 But if you see that tendency, here's where the devil will seek to settle into the psyche of the soul of your son or daughter and make him a sluggard who will then fantasize that the whole world is full of lions. The school is full of lions. There's a lion's teachers expect too much of me. They give too much homework.

3:43 They make too many demands. Sunday school teacher makes us memorize verses in the church. And they're just full. Their world is full of lions.

3:53 Everyone else gets by fine. No teeth mark, no fang mark, no shredded skin and bone and blood. But they're convinced the lion is there. And you as a parent, you can't just holler.

Parental Response to Imagined Fears

4:07 You can't just holler at your kid and say, that's stupid. You've got to draw near and encourage and seek to admonish and lovingly exhort until they realize, no, no, there is no lion. Mommy or daddy go with you right out in the street. And let's show you there is no lion out here.

4:25 And lo and behold, you go out to the task together. And you, as it were, gently nudge it into the lap of your child. And you see that he accomplished it. You come back home and say, where was the lion?

4:36 Well, he wasn't there. He wasn't there today. But he's going to be there tomorrow. Well, that's not me too sure.

4:41 And you labor at overcoming this disposition, or they will end up like this adult fantasizing sluggard who stays in his home, lies upon his bed saying, I can't go to my work. I'll be slain in the streets. Being lazy is bad, but being dead is worse. And he rationalizes as well as fantasizes.

Further Study

5:04 Read Matthew Henry on that passage. Excellent. Page 9. 1-8.