Proverbs 19:15

Slothfulness casts into a deep sleep; and an idle soul shall suffer hunger.

When a young man is controlled by slothfulness, it is as if he has fallen under a spell. In our day, this slothfulness is characterized by the young teen who is addicted to computer games. When he is away from his games, he walks around in a dream-like state. He finds work boring and unfulfilling, because he has learned to live his life in a fantasy world. Sadly, there are millions of young men and some young women who will never wake up from their technology-enhanced stupor. Now some experts tell us that 70% of young men are not grown up by thirty years of age, and that ratio is up from 30% just forty years ago! Of course, our economies cannot survive this severe deprivation of character. For a time, children will live off the capital of previous generations, and then they will spend their children and grandchildren into debt (which has already happened in nations like America, Japan, and most of Europe). But then they will suffer hunger. Because of the many safety nets provided by socialist nanny states, it is hard for people to imagine the gnawing hunger pains they will experience when the nets break and economies collapse. Nevertheless, these truths cannot be denied or reasonably argued against. Without thorough repentance on a national level, we will no doubt see these truths enforced with a vengeance in our lifetimes. It’s hard to imagine emaciated forms of starved men and women gripping their game controllers while economies collapse. But then we will understand that slothfulness casts into a deep sleep; and an idle soul shall suffer hunger.

Proverbs 19:16

He that keeps the commandment keeps his own soul; but he that despises his ways shall die.

When a family appreciates a pet, they will usually keep the pet. That means they will feed it, watch out for it, and be careful that it does not wander off. Should the pet dog be run over by a car in the road, the members of the household might be distraught for a few days or weeks. But most families don’t turn every animal in the house into a pet. They do not pay much attention to the three mice that live in the basement. They couldn’t care less if the mice wandered off into some other home. In fact, they would prefer that! They do not “keep” the mice. The idea of “keeping” the commandment is to watch out for the commandment and be sure that it remains with us. Should a father keep the seventh commandment, he considers it important and relevant. If a father neglects to keep the seventh commandment, he will forget about it and probably abandon his wife and run around with other women. Hence, we would conclude that the seventh commandment is not important to him. This would be akin to a family that enjoyed a pet dog for five or six years, and then just forgot about it and let the thing wander off. Of course, this almost never happens with families who have grown fond of their pets. But you see that some people who remember to keep track of their pets often forget about the commandments of God.

Should a pet wander off, it is not uncommon for an entire family to trek around the surrounding neighborhood with posters in an effort to retrieve the wayward animal. But what if one of God’s commandments should begin to fade away? What happens if things begin to slip in the household in respect to the use of God’s name? Hopefully, there would be some urgency on the part of the head of the household to bring back the fear of God and respect for the Lord’s name! He will go after the commandment if he has a special respect for the commandments of God. Keeping the commandments does not equate to sinless perfection because obedience can be a slippery thing. Pets wander and so do the commandments of God. But those who keep the commandments of God will go after those commandments when it is apparent that they are beginning to wander.

Now, if you are keeping track of the commandments of God, you will be keeping track of your own soul. When commandments wander, souls will wander, and every day hundreds of thousands of souls around the world wander into the yawning gates of hell. To ignore the commandments of God is to despise your own soul. But to love God is to love His commandments and to love your own soul.

Family Discussion Questions:

1. Does the temptation to slothfulness ever seep into our family? Will our children live off the capital of our generation, or will they add to it? How might they do this?

2. Do we keep an eye out for God’s commandments ourselves? Which of the commandments seems to wander more than the rest? Are there some that we have ignored recently?