Proverbs 19:24

The sluggard buries his hand in the dish
and will not even bring it back to his mouth.

The sluggard begins a task and does not complete it, even the simplest task. “I’m tired,” he says. Everything is work; it takes too much effort.

But if the hand does not bring back the food to the mouth, then the sluggard will become only more tired and even malnourished. What is the prescription for feeling tired? Doctors say exercise. The very thing a tired person doesn’t want to do is what will cure him of his tiredness.

Extend this to productive labor. If the sluggard will push himself to work, he will reap the benefit of affording food and even labor saving devices. He will earn the opportunity to rest if he works productively. His very laziness prevents him from doing what he desires most, which is to rest from strenuous activity.

Thus the sluggard creates worse conditions for himself which makes the smallest activity strenuous; the energetic person can afford rest, but now that he is energized he enjoys activity. And that becomes the true payoff. The true difference between the sluggard and the active person is that the latter has the energy to enjoy life.