1. Putting up Security (verses 1-5)
2. Being a Sluggard (verses 6-11)

From time to time, my thirteen-year-old son and I sit down in front of a computer and watch YouTube videos. One of our favorite YouTube channels is done by a man named Shawn Woods. His YouTube channel name is “Mousetrap Monday.”

Every Monday, he reviews a mousetrap. He talks about where he got it. Sometimes he buys it from a store. Sometimes he buys it online. He is especially into reviewing old mousetraps that he purchases on eBay, some of which are a hundred years old or older. Sometimes he finds old designs in books and makes them himself. Sometimes he finds the designs from old patents. Sometimes viewers send him mousetraps that they have made. These homemade mousetraps come in all sorts. Some have been made with 3D printers. Others have been made as new concepts for a mousetrap. I never knew that there were so many mousetrap designs.

Every Monday, Shawn Woods shows how to set up one of these mousetraps. He tests them with motion cameras to watch them in action, and shows how well they work. For fathers with young sons, this may be the perfect sort of channel to watch. There is something quite amusing about watching a mouse in the last moments of its life before taking the bait and setting off the trap.

Unfortunately, due to restrictions on YouTube, Shawn Woods has to be very careful about what exactly he shows online. He used to show all of the details of the trap killing the mouse, but he cannot show as much detail as he used to. So if you want to see some real action, go to his older videos. You will see how the traps work. When these mice are trapped, they will often flop around and around, trying to get free. But they cannot get free. Quickly, they die.

If he is testing out a live-trap mousetrap, which does not kill the mouse, you will often see the mouse jump around in a panic when it realizes it has been trapped. Eventually, the mouse runs out of steam and sits there, awaiting its fate. When morning comes, Shawn Woods will show the dead mice who were killed in the night by the trap. Or if it was a live trap, he will show a mouse that has given up all hope, just lying there. Then he will open the trap and let the mouse go.

These mice have some lessons for us today as we look at Proverbs. In our text, Solomon will share with his son two traps of life for us to avoid. My message this morning is entitled “Avoid the Traps.” It comes from Proverbs, chapter 6, verses 1-11. Let’s read the passage now.

Proverbs 6:1-11
My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor,
    have given your pledge for a stranger,
if you are snared in the words of your mouth,
    caught in the words of your mouth,
then do this, my son, and save yourself,
    for you have come into the hand of your neighbor:
    go, hasten, and plead urgently with your neighbor.
Give your eyes no sleep
    and your eyelids no slumber;
save yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter,
    like a bird from the hand of the fowler.

Go to the ant, O sluggard;
    consider her ways, and be wise.
Without having any chief, officer, or ruler,
    she prepares her bread in summer
    and gathers her food in harvest.
How long will you lie there, O sluggard?
    When will you arise from your sleep?
A little sleep, a little slumber,
    a little folding of the hands to rest,
and poverty will come upon you like a robber,
    and want like an armed man.

Our text breaks down nicely into two different sections. Each of them talks about ways in which you may be trapped in life. The first is this.

1. Putting up Security (verses 1-5)

We see this in verse 1, when Solomon mentions “putting up security” and “giving pledge.” These phrases are talking about a financial arrangement where you become liable for the debt of another. Today, we call it “cosigning on a loan.” This is often the case when children purchase a first car or a first house. Being young, they haven’t had time to build up equity as collateral for a loan. But their parents have the equity, and so the parents will cosign for the child. Should the child not be able to make the loan payments, the bank is able to turn to the parent to repay the loan. Cosigning also happens with married couples purchasing a house together, where they both sign the mortgage and both are responsible for the loan.

Though these are examples of cosigning a loan, this isn’t quite what Solomon is talking about. Solomon isn’t addressing cosigning for your children or with your spouse, where you are ready and willing to take a loss to help them. Solomon addresses cosigning for “your neighbor” or for a “stranger.” Look again at verse 1.

Proverbs 6:1
My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor,
    have given your pledge for a stranger,

That is, your friend or your acquaintance, not a close relative. Solomon is talking about a next-door neighbor, or someone you just met, a stranger. It may apply to someone you have known for a long time, perhaps a business associate or a friend from work. Solomon says, “Don’t become surety for them.” In other words, “Don’t take financial responsibility for the failure of your friends!” Putting up security for others is a common theme in Proverbs, and it is never seen as a good thing.

Proverbs 11:15
Whoever puts up security for a stranger will surely suffer,
    but he who hates striking hands in pledge is secure.

Proverbs 17:18
One who lacks sense gives a pledge
    and puts up security in the presence of his neighbor.

Proverbs 22:26
Be not one of those who give pledges,
    who put up security for debts.

Solomon’s admonition is clear: “Don’t take financial responsibility for the failure of your friends!” In verse 2, we see more of the same.

Proverbs 6:2
if you are snared in the words of your mouth,
    caught in the words of your mouth,

In context, Solomon probably has in mind making some sort of financial pledge which is bad for you, taking all the risk and receiving none of the benefit. If you are caught in financial distress, verse 3 tells you what to do.

Proverbs 6:3-5
then do this, my son, and save yourself,
    for you have come into the hand of your neighbor:
    go, hasten, and plead urgently with your neighbor.
Give your eyes no sleep
    and your eyelids no slumber;
save yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter,
    like a bird from the hand of the fowler.

Solomon says, “Go and talk to your neighbor, and try to get out of your financial predicament.” Notice the strong words of urgency Solomon uses: “Go! Hasten! Plead urgently!” “Give your eyes no sleep and your eyelids no slumber.” In other words, “Get at it! Don’t delay! You are trapped! You need to get out of the trap today!”

Have you ever seen a trapped animal? They are frantic. They flop and flutter about trying to get out of the trap. At the beginning of my message, I talked about “Mousetrap Monday,” a YouTube channel devoted to testing and reviewing mousetraps. This week, I typed “Trapping Birds” into YouTube and found similar things: people online making bird traps, then filming the birds desperately trying to escape. They jump and flutter and do all they can to find freedom.

That is the picture of a financially trapped person: frantic, doing everything they can to get free.

Even Jesus gave this wisdom. In the Sermon on the Mount, he pictured you being dragged into court.

Matthew 5:25-26
Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.

This is what Solomon is saying. If you have been trapped financially, “come to terms quickly with your accuser.” Do whatever it takes. I think it is appropriate to extend Solomon’s exhortation to all sorts of financial traps. Whenever you have become entangled in a financial trap, do what you can to get out of it. Type emails; make phone calls; call your creditor; talk to your banker; seek advice from a financial counselor.

One of the biggest traps today is credit cards. We live in a world with very low interest rates. The Federal Reserve interest rate right now sits at 2%, which is roughly where inflation is as well. In other words, on its own in the bank, money will decrease in value about 2% every year. That’s why things always get “more expensive”: the purchasing value of the dollar is less and less each year. Yet, according to creditcards.com, which evaluates the annual percentage interest rate of 100 U.S. credit cards, the average interest on credit card debt as of this week is 17.35%. This is the average rate, which means that others are much higher. It is not unusual for a credit card to charge 25% annual interest.

This is not always obvious. I received a letter this week from ExxonMobil. On the outside of the envelope it says, “Never pay full price for fuel again.” Inside, the letter offers rebates on every gallon and savings on overall fuel management costs. It goes on and on telling me of all the benefits: rebates of up to 6 cents per gallon, universal acceptance at 95% of U.S. gas stations, control, security, easy management. But nowhere does it mention the interest rate that will come with late payments. This is typical of the credit card offers that come in the mail all the time. Credit card companies can offer such attractive terms because so many customers are unable to pay their balance in full. It is like gambling: the big casinos are built upon the losses of the gamblers. So credit card companies can offer great things because there are many who are trapped and charged high interest as a result.

So if you are carrying significant credit card debt, you are in financial distress, and I would encourage you to get out of the trap and save your life. I think this applies to any kind of financial trap. I remember my father telling me that when he was perhaps forty years old or so, he bought a piece of property and immediately had no peace about it. He told me he could not sleep for two nights. He knew it was a bad purchase. So he took a loss and got out of it. He said that taking that loss was far better than holding on to something that would have cost him much more in the end. If you make a bad purchase, if you buy a car that isn’t right, return it. Do whatever you can to get out of your financial trap.

In fact, Solomon uses salvation language here in chapter 6: “save yourself” appears twice in verses 3-5. The truth is that getting out of the trap may be difficult and require long years of financial struggle. You didn’t get into your financial mess in a moment, and it will take time to get out of your distress.

But I cannot go on without talking about the most ultimate salvation that you need. If you are in a temporary financial trap, Solomon says to get out of it. But if you are in an eternal trap, it follows that you need to get out of it as well. All of us have been entrapped by our sin, and our sin is leading us to eternal death. The wages of sin is death, eternal death after we die.

Hebrews 9:27
It is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment.

The good news of the gospel is this: your deliverance may come in a moment! When it comes to eternal salvation, you don’t have to work your way out of your sin debt. There is one who is ready and willing to pay the debt. His name is Jesus Christ. You simply need to repent of your sin, confess it to God, and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. His sacrifice upon the cross is sufficient to wipe away your sins.

1 John 1:9
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Can you imagine if it were this easy to get out of financial debt? Simply acknowledge your debt, confess all of the wrong decisions that led to that debt, pledge not to repeat the errors of your ways, and Mr. Benevolence Banker comes along and pays off all your debt! Who wouldn’t want that? Who wouldn’t vote for a politician who promises that? Senator Sanders is promising it. Yet, when the same is true spiritually, few want it. Few are willing to believe in Jesus Christ. It is a sign of the hardness of the hearts of men. But I hope that it is not your hardness this morning. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and get out of your eternal distress.

Consider what Paul writes in Colossians 2:13-15.

Colossians 2:13-15
And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.

That is the picture of redemption: Jesus Christ, the ultimate Mr. Benevolence Banker, pays our spiritual debt in full, nailing it to the cross.

We have seen the trap of "Putting up Security (verses 1-5)." Let’s look now at the trap of

2. Being a Sluggard (verses 6-11)

Solomon invites us to do a bit of study in the animal world. Solomon was an expert in his day about many things, including the animal kingdom.

1 Kings 4:29-34
God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding beyond measure, and breadth of mind like the sand on the seashore, so that Solomon’s wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the people of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt. For he was wiser than all other men, wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, Calcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol, and his fame was in all the surrounding nations. He also spoke 3,000 proverbs, and his songs were 1,005. He spoke of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of the wall. He spoke also of beasts, and of birds, and of reptiles, and of fish. People of all nations came to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and from all the kings of the earth, who had heard of his wisdom.

Particularly, in Proverbs 6, Solomon invites us to pursue our own study of the ant.

Proverbs 6:6-8
Go to the ant, O sluggard;
    consider her ways, and be wise.
Without having any chief, officer, or ruler,
    she prepares her bread in summer
    and gathers her food in harvest.

There are many things we could study about ants. We could study how strong they are: ants can carry objects many times their own body weight in their jaws, a feat proportionally unmatched in the human world.^[1]

We could study where they live and how numerous they are: ants live on every single continent except Antarctica, which is quite ironic when you consider the name, "Ant"-arctica. There are over 12,000 species of ants, and it is estimated that there are at least 1.5 million ants on the planet for every human being.^[1]

We could study their anatomy: ants don’t have lungs but breathe through spiracles, a series of holes on the side of their bodies; they can live underwater for up to 24 hours; they don’t have ears but sense vibrations in the ground; they have two stomachs, one which feeds themselves and another which brings food to ants tending the nest and the queen.^[2]

We could study their ingenuity: they communicate with other ants through chemical signals called pheromones, which can signal danger or point to the trail to a food source.^[3] They have a division of labor: the queen lays the eggs; some workers build and maintain the nest; others go out and forage for food; others guard and defend the nest, like the soldier ant whose head is shaped so that it can block the entrance to the nest like a cork in a bottle. We could study all of these things and only begin to scratch the surface of these amazing creatures.

But Solomon calls us here to study one thing about ants: their work ethic. Without a chief, officer, or ruler to press them on, she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest. This sort of knowledge is available to all of us. I remember as a child, when I had infinite time, sitting down and watching ant colonies. I remember watching the ants come and go, like pedestrians in a subway before work begins. I remember disrupting their work by pouring sand down the main hole and seeing how quickly the ants reconstructed a new hole into their nest. When I was about done observing them, I remember collapsing the entire anthill, to see how well they survived that catastrophe. They always came back. But one thing was obvious: I never saw an ant just standing there. Every ant I ever observed was always hustling about here or there, often with something in its mouth: a grain of sand, a chunk of organic material gathered from afar, an egg being moved to safety. Always something.

This is what Solomon wanted his son to do: look and observe the business of the ants. I encourage all of you children to do the same, and it would be helpful for you adults to do it as well. Watch the ants and notice how hard they work, without anyone pressing them on. This is the signal of a good worker: they don’t always need to be told what to do. In the summer, the ant prepares the bread; in the harvest, she gathers her food. Likewise, the wise child picks up the clutter in the family room, sets the table, cleans the dishes, does the laundry, folds the clothes, vacuums, gets off the computer, does homework, and goes to bed on time, all without being asked by mom or dad. Children, I would encourage you to work hard without mom or dad’s constant badgering. It is a sign of a good worker.

What if you don’t? Poverty. This is the exhortation of verses 9-11 to the sluggard who refuses to work hard.

Proverbs 6:9-11
How long will you lie there, O sluggard?
    When will you arise from your sleep?
A little sleep, a little slumber,
    a little folding of the hands to rest,
and poverty will come upon you like a robber,
    and want like an armed man.

In verses 1-5, Solomon urges his son to avoid financial distress, because it will lead to his ruin. In verses 6-11, it is the same: avoid laziness, because it will lead to your ruin through poverty. Solomon is seeking to save us from ruin. One of the key themes of Proverbs is the blessing that will come to your life if you follow in the ways of God. Your life will be long if you submit to the wisdom of your parents. Your life will be protected from evil if you follow the LORD. Your life will be blessed if you listen to the cry of wisdom. One of these blessings is financial, but financial blessing doesn’t simply come to you on its own. Financial blessing comes through hard work.

Young people, I encourage you to work hard. When it comes to your school, be attentive in class and do your assignments on time. Your work ethic at school will translate into your future work. Did you know that most employers are simply looking for employees who show up on time and put in an honest day’s work? If you do that, you will not lack. Sadly, in our society today, there are many sluggards who prefer their time on the couch to spending their days in industry. This begins in childhood, when children waste their days in video games and websites rather than in outside activity and in hard work.

Solomon speaks much about the sluggard, and often in a humorous way.

Proverbs 26:14
As a door turns on its hinges,
    so does a sluggard on his bed.

Picture a squeaky door, moving back and forth. The sluggard never gets off his bed, or his couch, or his chair. He just sits there and vegetates in front of his screen.

Proverbs 19:24
The sluggard buries his hand in the dish
    and will not even bring it back to his mouth.

The picture here is of one so lazy that he is at the dinner table, fork in hand, digging it into the dish, but being so lazy that he does not even bring the fork back to his mouth to feed himself. That is the utmost picture of laziness.

Proverbs 22:13
The sluggard says, “There is a lion outside!
    I shall be killed in the streets!”

In other words, the sluggard is good at making up excuses. “I can’t mow the lawn right now, it’s cloudy and it might rain.” “I can’t go outside right now because the mosquitoes will bite me, and you know all of the diseases that mosquitoes transmit.” “I can’t go to the store right now to pick up what you wanted because it’s too crowded. I’ll go later when the crowds are less.” With such excuses, nothing gets done. That is why Solomon says.

Proverbs 10:26
Like vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes,
    so is the sluggard to those who send him.

They don’t accomplish what they set out to do, and those who send them are often frustrated and irritated. The sluggard always has an excuse.

Proverbs 26:16
The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes
    than seven men who can answer sensibly.

Know this: eventually, laziness will catch up to you in poverty. “Poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man.” When poverty comes, you will have no way out. The robber is standing before you with knife and gun, and you have no choice but to give up your wallet. It will lead to your ruin because you refused to work.

Notice that verse 10 does not say a year of idleness will bring poverty. It says a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest. Not sleeping away an entire year. Just an extra half hour of sleep today. Just a little more rest tomorrow. That slow, gradual drift of just a little and just a little more is precisely the danger.

Proverbs 21:25
The desire of the sluggard kills him,
    for his hands refuse to labor.

Proverbs 20:4
The sluggard does not plow in the autumn;
    he will seek at harvest and have nothing.

I have written a book that most of you have, entitled Passing by the Field.^[4] I took that title from this very passage in Proverbs 24, because it captures the whole idea: when you pass by the field of a sluggard, you can see his ruin written all over it, in the overgrown thorns, the nettles, the broken-down stone wall. It is a picture of what laziness produces over time.

Proverbs 24:30-34
I passed by the field of a sluggard,
    by the vineyard of a man lacking sense,
and behold, it was all overgrown with thorns;
    the ground was covered with nettles,
    and its stone wall was broken down.
Then I saw and considered it;
    I looked and received instruction.
A little sleep, a little slumber,
    a little folding of the hands to rest,
and poverty will come upon you like a robber,
    and want like an armed man.

There is a beautiful theological parallel in our two points this morning. Putting up security speaks to the financial trap we fall into, from which we must be delivered. Spiritually, this is Ephesians 2:8-9,

Ephesians 2:8-9
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

We come to Christ as people trapped in our sin debt, and he pays it all. But then verse 10 warns us not to be a sluggard in your spiritual walk:

Ephesians 2:10
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

The forgiveness of sins does not give us license to be spiritual sluggards. There is a daily walking with the Lord, a cultivating of prayer and Scripture and relationship with him that we are called to. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Be diligent. Don’t be a sluggard in your spiritual walk any more than in your earthly work.

This sermon was delivered to Rock Valley Bible Church on October 20, 2019 by Steve Brandon.
For more information see www.rockvalleybiblechurch.org.

[1] “Fascinating Facts About Ants,” ThoughtCo, https://www.thoughtco.com/fascinating-facts-about-ants-1968070.

[2] “10 Interesting Facts About Ants,” Western Exterminator, https://www.westernexterminator.com/ants/10-interesting-facts-ants/.

[3] “Ant Facts,” National Geographic Kids, https://www.natgeokids.com/nz/discover/animals/insects/ant-facts/.

[4] You can purchase a copy here: https://www.amazon.com/Passing-Field-Steve-Brandon/dp/1304853004.