But require them to make the same number of bricks as before; don’t reduce the quota. They are lazy; that is why they are crying out, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our God.’

• Exodus 5:8

Laziness brings on deep sleep, and the shiftless go hungry.

• Proverbs 19:15

Sow your seed in the morning, and at evening let your hands not be idle, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or whether both will do equally well.

• Ecclesiastes 11:6

“If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the Lord’s holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words,

• Isaiah 58:13

I apologize to all three-toed sloths out there.  You move slowly, but humans that have a choice to move faster, yet move that slow, are called sloths.

I am concluding the series of quizzes on the “seven deadly sins: Pride, Greed, Lust, Envy, Gluttony, Wrath, and Sloth.”

There are no mentions of “sloth” in the NIV.  The questions relate to verses that have the word “sluggard (14), lazy (8), laziness (3), idle (10), and idleness (2)” in them.  Oddly, only one book in the Bible uses the word “sluggard.”

As I did with gluttony, this will be a fill in the blank quiz with a word list provided.  The questions are in Biblical order, with the first seven from the Old Testament.  The word list is in alphabetical order.

The Questions:

	Question	Bible References	Answers
1	Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be ____!
2	As vinegar to the teeth and ____ to the eyes, so are sluggards to those who send them.
3	Diligent ____ will rule, but laziness ends in forced labor.
4	The lazy do not roast any game, but the diligent feed on the riches of the ____.
5	The craving of a sluggard will be the death of him, because his hands refuse to ____.
6	She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the ____ of idleness.
7	Through laziness, the rafters sag; because of idle hands, the house ____.
8	And we urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle and disruptive, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be ____ with everyone.
9	We hear that some among you are idle and disruptive. They are not busy; they are ____.
10	One of Crete’s own prophets has said it: “Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy ____.”
Word List
Bread, Busybodies, Gluttons, Hands, Hunt, Leaks, Patient, Smoke, Wise, Work

On the day that I wrote this, I started the day with a load of clothes, actually bed linens.  So, stripping the bed came first.  Then I put the same linens back on the bed after they were dry.  I washed the dishes and cleaned out the in-box.  Note: I wrote recently about how it had been months since both were clean at the same time.  And alas, it did not last long.  E-mail continues to come in.  And usually as soon as you have washed dishes, you are ready to cook something else.

And I sorted through a pile of things that were either junk or paperwork that needed to be kept.  I guess I have picked up the habit of an old boss that I respected.  He had an in box, out box, and a one-month box.  Don’t hold me to the time frame.  The In Box contained things that legitimately had to get done in a hurry.  I got the lion share of those since I was the most experienced and my security clearance could get me into places that most of the others could not go.  The Out Box was cleared by the secretary a couple of times each day.

But the One-Month Box were things that there was no hurry in getting done.  A lot of those requests simply made no sense.  Some seemed to be busy work.  The point was that when those things had been in that box for a month and no one had asked the status of the request, he threw those requests in the trash.  If some boss was serious about the request, he would follow up.

I have written about this boss and his boxes before.  It applies to this topic.  We need to be busy.  The old saying, “Idle hands are the devil’s workshop.”  But there must be some purpose in what we are doing.  Engineers argue over the ROI, Return of Investment.  If the return of investment is not quick enough, management will not do it, even though the long-term effects could save the company millions of dollars.  But to obtain a legitimate return on investment estimate, you must know the process intimately.  You must know the financial impact of the proposed project.  Thus, running off half-cocked because it sounds good usually backfires on you.

Praying and Planning are part of the doing.

Bible References:

	Question	Bible References	Answers
1	Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be ____!	Proverbs 6:6
2	As vinegar to the teeth and ____ to the eyes, so are sluggards to those who send them.	Proverbs 10:26
3	Diligent ____ will rule, but laziness ends in forced labor.	Proverbs 12:24
4	The lazy do not roast any game, but the diligent feed on the riches of the ____.	Proverbs 12:27
5	The craving of a sluggard will be the death of him, because his hands refuse to ____.	Proverbs 21:25
6	She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the ____ of idleness.	Proverbs 31:27
7	Through laziness, the rafters sag; because of idle hands, the house ____.	Ecclesiastes 10:18
8	And we urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle and disruptive, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be ____ with everyone.	1 Thessalonians 5:13
9	We hear that some among you are idle and disruptive. They are not busy; they are ____.	2 Thessalonians 3:11
10	One of Crete’s own prophets has said it: “Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy ____.”	Titus 1:12

I remember being a Cub Scout, at least I remember things that happened and things we did.

At one pack meeting, we had Mexico as the theme.  Our den leader taught us the song, Mañana.  The lyrics of the chorus were Mañana, Mañana, Mañana is good enough for me.  Regardless of the task, tomorrow is when we would work on it.  Of course, tomorrow never comes.  Yes, the den leader taught us to not procrastinate.  We all got our Arrow of Light award, and each year a lot of arrowheads.  There was no procrastination with us.

Procrastination and postponement are the tricks of the sluggard.

When we say we will do it tomorrow, we will spend the rest of the daydreaming up an excuse why tomorrow is not a good day to work on that project.  The weather is bad: too hot, too cold, raining, lightning in the area, too windy, or if you are to make kites with the boys, no wind at all so why bother?

Yes, I have made some very interesting kites over the years.  I got my Ichthus kite off the ground at a church youth group meeting.  It wasn’t very stable.  I needed a curved support in the fish’s center to make it three dimensional.

But there is something that we need to balance with our work.  Another old saying is “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.”  Personally, I have never met that Jack.  I have met several Jacks that might be guilty of goofing off, but not the all work one.

And besides that distraction of something fun, we need our rest.

I remember an old army notice.  It was sent out as being “official.”  It talked about an officer who had a request from a soldier.  The officer’s reply was to explain how much time the soldier spends sleeping, eating, doing exercise, standing in formation while the commander talks to them, etc.  Then, they have time off for the weekends, holidays, and training holidays.

The officer mentioned the average amount of time a soldier is usually sick and other legitimate reasons to not be at work.  And the punch line is that when you added all the hours of non-work activities together, you were left with one day that the soldier was actually working.  And then the officer writes, “And you want that day off!?!?!?!”

Note about training holidays: One of our training holidays in Europe was Super Bowl Monday.  Since “everybody” would watch the game in the middle of the night, no one was physically awake that Monday anyway.  But then NATO, in all their wisdom, would call an alert, everyone to their station on that Monday to prove we were still on the job.  But training holidays were usually given when we were out doing something important and we worked more than the usual eight hour day, possibly not getting sleep for three days in a row.  We needed that day off after those ordeals.

And to explain the joke, the weekends and holidays were counted as 24 hours each day even though the officer had counted sleeping as eight hour times 365 days.  And other tricks to make it look like there was only one day left.  So, the soldiers earn their pay.

So we need to focus on the task and get it done.  The Scriptures talk about “Now is the time!”

Let’s not put it off.  We may not have tomorrow.

   …

   …

   …

The Answers:

	Question	Bible References	Answers
1	Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be ____!	Proverbs 6:6	wise
2	As vinegar to the teeth and ____ to the eyes, so are sluggards to those who send them.	Proverbs 10:26	smoke
3	Diligent ____ will rule, but laziness ends in forced labor.	Proverbs 12:24	hands
4	The lazy do not roast any game, but the diligent feed on the riches of the ____.	Proverbs 12:27	hunt
5	The craving of a sluggard will be the death of him, because his hands refuse to ____.	Proverbs 21:25	work
6	She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the ____ of idleness.	Proverbs 31:27	bread
7	Through laziness, the rafters sag; because of idle hands, the house ____.	Ecclesiastes 10:18	leaks
8	And we urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle and disruptive, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be ____ with everyone.	1 Thessalonians 5:13	patient
9	We hear that some among you are idle and disruptive. They are not busy; they are ____.	2 Thessalonians 3:11	busybodies
10	One of Crete’s own prophets has said it: “Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy ____.”	Titus 1:12	gluttons

Whether you did well on this quiz or, ummm, not so well, for the first video, here is Laziness and Sloth from Lumen Verbi, a Catholic app.

Here is Stephen McWhirter with Leaning On. 

Here is Zauntee, rapping Work Hard God First.

There is always work to be done.  If you find nothing, look around you and pray.  If you have everything shipshape, what about your neighbor?  The church needs helpers all the time, even if it is just a prayer warrior.  I have seen so many people whose bodies have betrayed them, but they were great prayer warriors.  Find your place and stick to it.

And remember to balance work with rest.

If you like these Saturday morning Bible quizzes, but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Saturday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.