“Go to the ant, you sluggard, consider his ways and be wise. 7. It has not commander, no overseer or ruler, 8. Yet it stores in provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest.”
Solomon uses the ant as an example for people who refuse to work. (That what is meant by “sluggard.”?) We can all learn from the activity of the ant, and this text makes a good case. What does the text tell us about what we can learn from the ant? The first lesson is that of purposeful industry. Ants are always at work, they are never still. (Perhaps there is no such thing as a lazy ant.) Ants are always busy with a purpose. They are not just running around on the ground, they are busy carrying what appears to be assigned tasks. One lesson we need to learn from the ant is that “busyness” is not what gets the job done. Busyness in churches does not mean that the church is carrying out the great commission, or its ministry to the needs of the world. Paul is a good example for us in this matter. He was always busy, but the result was numbers of people won to the Lord, and new churches. Churches need to be busy with studying the word of God, busy sharing the word of God with the world, and busy living the word of God in their daily lives. The second lesson is about perseverance, or “keeping on keeping on.” I have seen ants carry objects much bigger than themselves. They had a real struggle, but they kept going until they got to the hill. (There is no record of an ant ever giving up. lol I will admit that witnessing and ministering to the world can be discouraging, sometimes it seems that the job is too big for us, but we need to be convicted by the leadership of the Holy Spirit and not giving up on what God has called us to do. I must confess that as a pastor there were times that I had to deal with the temptation to give up. The rewards are great when we do not give up. If you are being tempted to give up on your church, or your life, just don’t quit. Follow the example of the ant and keep going. No one has ever succeeded by giving up! The third lesson is about unity. Each ant does his job in cooperation with other ants until they have the food stored. I don’t know if the ants ever have a problem with lack of cooperation, I do know that Christians can get sidetracked by peripheral issues. I guess that ants get irritated with each other, but even with they did, the work of storing food is so important they will not be sidetracked. We need to remember that sharing Jesus with the world through the different ways that we can go about it should not be sidetracked. Such things as ego struggles should not paralyze us and keep us from the important work that we have been called to do. I think that you will agree that this is three important lessons. Bro. Joe.
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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