WISDOM FROM THE ANT
Adapted from a sermonpreached during evening service of PCC, 13 Aug 2000

“Go to the ant, thou sluggard; considerher ways, and be wise: Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler,
Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest. Howlong wilt thou sleep,
O sluggard? when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep? Yet a little sleep, a littleslumber,
a little folding of the hands to sleep: So shall thy poverty come as one thattravelleth,
and thy want as an armed man.”
(Proverbs 6:6–11)

There are many different kinds of ants in the world. Some ants are solitaryinsects, but the vast majority are social insects with highly developed socialorganisation and complex behaviour patterns. An ant hive would typically have aqueen, though some have multiple queens. The function of the queen is to layeggs to sustain the colony, but apart from that she does not do anything. Thereare also drones or male ants. Their only function is to fertilise the queen.They die after they complete their task. All the other ants in the colony aresterile females. In many species, these sterile females have specificfunctions. There are nursing ants, which look after the queen and the larvae.There are worker ants, which collect food and build the nest. There are soldierants, which protect the hive from intruders and sometimes also protect theworker ants while they are working outside.

Some types of ants are very specialised. The parasol ants eat only a certainkind of fungi, which the ants cultivate themselves. They are called parasolants because they are most well-known for carrying large pieces of leaves intotheir hives. Once the cutters have brought the leaves in, the farmers takeover. They will use the leaves to build a massive structure on which thespecial fungus grows. Do you know that parasol ants are very common inSingapore?

Ants, if you care to study them, are some of the most fascinating of God’screatures. But ants are not only interesting scientifically. The proverb we areconsidering teaches us that important spiritual lessons may also be learnedfrom observing the ants.

Brute Wisdom of the Ants

In the first place, consider the wisdom of the ants. Ants have no guides,overseers or rulers (v. 7). Make no mistake: the queen is no ruler. She is anant-producing machine. Again, the drones are also no rulers, the sole purposeof their existence is to fertilise the females, and then they die. The ants donot receive instruction from anyone. While ants can and do communicate using theirantennae, at the most, they communicate with one another on where a food sourceis. And it is communication between individual ants. You must not think that anant discovers some food, that it rushes back to the queen and then the queendispatches soldiers and workers to go and collect the food. That is pureHollywood or Disney fiction. Solomon knew better!

Ants have no leaders. Yet, ants know how to prepare for winter. This isespecially so for ants in temperate countries, such as the harvester ants, whichSolomon probably observed. Somehow, they know that come winter, it would benear impossible to find food. They know that whether they survive winter wouldbe much determined by how well they prepare in spring and summer. So throughoutthe warmer months, we find the ants extremely busy. They are collecting foodall the time. They collect more than sufficient, and they are never complacent.They keep collecting. They never know if winter is going to last longer thanexpected. They have to be prepared for the worst scenario. If there is snow,for example, there is no way for the ants to come out to collect food withoutfreezing to death. Remember that ants are not warm-blooded. No, come winter,they will have to remain underground. Though they slow down in their metabolicand locomotive rates in winter, they will need to eat occasionally especiallytowards the end of winter, and all the way until food becomes available duringharvest time. This is why there is a need for the food cache.

Where does this wisdom of storing food come from? There are people who thinkthat ants must have evolved from lower life forms. But they will find itimpossible to show how an amoeba can ever become an ant. I mean: what are thesteps? How could one step lead to the next? Could random evolving bring out thecomplex skeletal structure of an ant? Not only so, but they will find it alsoimpossible to explain how the ants got the wisdom to organise their complexsocial structure in the first place. Were it possible, evolutionalists shouldat least be able to speculate some intermediate steps of evolution betweenamoeba and social ants. But it is simply impossible. It is irrational andillogical. It takes not faith, but sheer intellectual stubbornness, to believethat ants evolved to what they are today.

No, no. The wisdom of ants must have come from God who created them and endowedthem with a blue print for how they are to function and how they are tosurvive. The theory of evolution in its pure form can only be found among thosewho are hostile to the very existence of God, and hate God. Ants did not evolvewisdom; their wisdom is imprinted by God Himself.

But remember that ants are irrational creatures. They do what they do byinstinct. All insects do what they do by instinct. Their capacity to learn isextremely limited. The same is true for most animals. A parrot may be able totalk, but it does not know what it is saying. Go to the Singapore Zoo and theyhave a show, which features a monkey which can do sums. Can the monkey reallycount? Do you really think the monkey is able to add and to pick the rightanswers? Well, observe carefully and think carefully the next time you see theshow. Man, on the other hand, is created in the image of God. He is endowedwith wisdom and a rational mind.

And while ants have no guide, overseer or ruler, the same cannot be said ofman, for God made man in His own image and imprinted the work of the law in hisheart and has given him a conscience so that he is able to discern betweenright and wrong, good and evil. In that way, it may truly be said that man isguided and governed, in regard to his life by the moral laws of God. And notonly so, but because the Fall of Adam has darkened the knowledge and conscienceof all man, God has given unto man in written form a revelation concerningHimself and what duty He requires of him. I am referring to the Bible. But thatis not all. God has also given man preachers and teachers to expound His Wordunto the people.

These were the prophets and priests in the Old Testament. These are ministersof the Gospel under the New Covenant. It is the duty of ministers to read theWord, to give the sense of it, to cause the people to understand the meaning ofthe text, and to persuade them to believe and obey the Word. Man, in otherwords, are not left without guide, overseer or ruler in so far as our lives areconcerned.

The Obvious Lesson

But what may we learn from the ants? Solomon says: “Go to the ant, thousluggard; consider her ways, and be wise” (v. 6). Therefore, in the firstplace, we must learn not to be sluggards. Rather, we must be hardworking.Laziness is a sin. Slothfulness and laziness are condemned not only here, butalso in many other verses in Proverbs.

It is also condemned in the New Testament. In particular, the Apostle Paulcommands that “if any would not work, neither should he eat” (2 Thes 3:10). Thisis a straightforward principle. God had made us responsible creatures. Heexpects everyone to exercise his God-given ability to ensure his own survival.

Now, note that this is not strictly necessary for every creature of God. Theangels, for example, do not need food to survive. So they need not work forsurvival. Working is a way of life for angels. But angels are of a differentorder of being altogether. In God’s inscrutable wisdom, man is madedifferently. Man is made with a body that has many limitations so that we maylearn a whole range of emotions, including pain and sorrow. But as part of thepackage we must work hard.

We must especially prepare for the rainy day. Even ants, which have no guides,overseers or rulers, know the importance of working hard while there isopportunity to work. How much more should man, who have been endowed withreason and wisdom and knowledge know that it is important to work hard while hecan. Make hay while the sun shines. “The sluggard will not plow by reason of thecold; therefore shall he beg in harvest, and have nothing” (Prov 20:4).Laziness is a dangerous policy because it is akin to complacency. The lazy manis concerned only about today—that he has enough to eat now. He wants to enjoyhimself as much as he can. He wants to escape from work. But he forgets that ifhe were to do so, he will suffer later.

Now, we must not confuse this attitude with the attitude of contentment that istaught elsewhere in Scripture, such as in Matthew 6, or in Paul’s assertion that“godliness with contentment is great gain.” Remember that godliness includesbeing industrious, and excludes laziness. We are not to be overly anxious andworry about the future, but we must not neglect our present duty to thedetriment of our future.

In any case, the general principle that this proverb teaches is that man shouldbe hardworking. It calls us to stir up ourselves to the work. It charges us notto love sleep nor to be complacent. This is what the phrase “Yet a littlesleep, a little slumber” means. It also commands us not to procrastinate: “alittle folding of the hands to sleep.” In whatever areas in our lives, therewill come a time when it would be too late to do anything. When something isimportant and needs to be done, we must never procrastinate, or we may live toregret our procrastination.

Are you intending to upgrade your skills? Do not wait too long, or it will getmore and more difficult to learn. Do you see problems in your relationship ormarriage life and you are desirous of seeking help. Do not wait tillirreparable damage is done. Is there someone you would like to reconcile with,but are procrastinating? Do not wait, or the opportunity may be over before youknow it. Then you will say: “I wish I had spoken to him, but it is too late.”Few of us would delay to seek treatment if we know that we have contractedcancer or a life-threatening disease. But there are just too many things forwhich we procrastinate to do.

But is this proverb only about life in this world? Is it only to teach us howwe can be happy in this world? No, no; it cannot be. If the book of Proverbs isread merely as principles for life in this world and no more, then this proverbmay be used to justify the attitude of the rich fool who was deigned to build morebarns to stash away his excess harvest. No, the inspired Proverbs are part ofGod’s self-revelation. It must not be read as some secular proverbs orself-help books, which have no concern about the destiny of the soul. No, likethe rest of the Scripture, Proverbs is given to us that we may be wise untosalvation. Thus, there is a spiritual lesson for us from the passage.

A Spiritual Lesson

The ultimate and spiritual lesson from this formic proverb is that how we livetoday will determine our future. Right now counts forever! The slothful is notconcern about the future. He thinks, “I am OK now. I have a job, I have ahouse, I have a wife, I have all that I need. I am happy. Why worry about thefuture?” He forgets that man is set in this world only temporally. The Word ofGod teaches us that “God shall bring every work into judgment, with everysecret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil” (Ecc 12:14). Let noneof us go away with the wrong idea. Everything we do in this life has eternalimplication because God will judge everything that we do. God is a perfectjudge. When He judges, everything will be taken into consideration. The LordJesus Christ tells us that even an idle word spoken will be judged. It is,therefore, abundantly clear that what you do in this life will have implicationfor eternity.

Do not procrastinate in your spiritual duties and seeking salvation in Christ.Listen to the counsel of the Apostle Paul: “[do] Not [be] slothful in business;[be] fervent in spirit; serving the Lord” (Rom 12:11). The day of death willcome upon you as a thief. “The night is far spent, the day is at hand” (Rom13:12). If you know that you have only a month left to live, will you livedifferently from what you are doing now? If you know you have a week left, willthere be any difference? The trouble is that most of us live as if we willnever die. But the reality is that we may die at any moment. And it is realitytoo that even if we do not die abnormally, our life is actually so short, andtime passes by so quickly. We must live as if we are going to die, for witheach passing day we are one day nearer to meeting our Creator and Judge. Thinkabout those who have gone ahead of us. Let bad examples remind us of our slothand strike terror in us. But let the examples of faithful saints stir us todiligence: “Be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith andpatience inherit the promises” (Heb 6:12).

Beloved, friends, you have a rational mind, the ants do not. You have the Bibleand also expositors of the Bible. The ants have nothing. What a great irony ifthe ants know how to survive whereas you fail to do anything to prepareyourself. May this lesson from the ants provoke you to think about the futureand to begin to lay up treasures in heaven. May it not be said of you whatProverbs says of the sluggard: “The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit thanseven men that can render a reason” (Prov 26:16).

And, may I remind you of one great difference between ants and you: You have asoul, ants do not. When ants die, they return to the dust and that is the end.When you die, your body returns to the ground and will remain in the grounduntil the resurrection, but your soul returns to your Creator, who will judgeyou for your life. The ants will not be judged. They know nothing. They have noresponsibility. But you will be judged because you ought to know, you haveresponsibility and you are rational and you have been forewarned.

Notice this spiritual implication in a parallel proverb: “The desire of theslothful killeth him; for his hands refuse to labour. He coveteth greedily allthe day long: but the righteous giveth and spareth not” (Prov 21:25–26). Noticehow the slothful is said to be committing suicide? He desires and covets, buthe would not work. He expects things to happen as he wishes, but it does nothappen this way. Moreover, notice what the slothful is contrasted with. Is itthe industrious? Is it the hardworking? No, it is “the righteous”!

Who is the righteous? No man is truly righteous by biblical standards. Onlythose who have been clothed with the righteousness of Christ may be regarded asrighteous. “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every onethat believeth” (Rom 10:4). “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew nosin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Cor 5:21). Howis this so? It is so because Christ loves His Church and lived and died on herbehalf (Eph 5:25b). The Christian, moreover, has a new heart. He has a newheart which loves the Lord, and a new desire to please God. He is enabled todie to sin and live unto righteousness.

What a great irony, is it not: that the tiny ant knows how to prepare forwinter, whereas a man who can squash the ant with the pinkie does not take heedand does not prepare for the winter of his soul? The ultimate sluggard, my dearfriends, is the one who has heard the Gospel and says: “I will think about itanother time.” Or, “when I grow up then I will consider these things.” Or,“when I have settled in my career and enjoyed my life, then I will contemplatethese things.” Or, “why worry: death is a long way to come.” In other words,the worst sluggard is one who hears the Gospel but does not care for his soul.The Bible calls such a person wicked. Because he has no regard for God, thoughGod has so graciously brought him to hear the Gospel. This is why the sluggardcan be contrasted with the righteous.

Conclusion

How should you prepare?

Are you a believer? Persevere on: repent of your sins, trust in the Lord JesusChrist, and make use of the means of grace. Do not neglect them. You know allthese? Yes, but man is a forgetful creature. You need to be reminded.Constantly seek after Christ. Constantly seek to know Him more, and love Himmore. Do not allow your heart and love to grow cold and formal.

Are you an unbeliever? You cannot prepare yourself by your own efforts. Becausenothing you do will be enough. You can read the Bible and you must. You cancome to church and you must. You can pray and you should. But these things arenot going to be enough preparation. Without Christ, whatever you do to prepareyourself is like ants trying to prepare for winter by planting daisies. If youare without Christ, oh what a rude shock it will be when winter comes, for thiswinter is no cool weather. It is fire that burns and cannot be quenched. Whywill you perish? Will you not repent of your sin and believe in the Lord JesusChrist while there is yet time?

Remember the ants. The next time you see an ant, do not squash it immediately.Think about your life. Learn a lesson from the ant. Then squeeze it hard. Andremember how short and meaningless your life will be too—without Christ

—J.J. Lim