Book of Virtues # 2 - "The Ant and the Grasshopper"

About five hundred years before Christ, legend has it that there lived a Bulgarian man named Aesop.  Enslaved to a wealthy owner on the island of Samos, his job was to take care of his master’s children.  Aesop became famous for his stories which all conveyed morals for his pupils.  Perhaps one of his most well-known fables was The Grasshopper and the Ants:

In a field one summer's day a grasshopper was hopping about, chirping and singing to its heart's content.  A group of ants walked by, grunting as they struggled to carry plump kernels of corn.

"Where are you going with those heavy things?" asked the grasshopper.

Without stopping, the first ant replied, "To our ant hill.  This is the third kernel I've delivered today."

"Why not come and sing with me," teased the grasshopper, "instead of working so hard?"

"We are helping to store food for the winter," said the ant, "and think you should do the same."

"Winter is far away and it is a glorious day to play," sang the grasshopper.

But the ants went on their way and continued their hard work.

The weather soon turned cold.  All the food lying in the field was covered with a thick white blanket of snow that even the grasshopper could not dig through.  Soon the grasshopper found itself dying of hunger.

He staggered to the ants' hill and saw them handing out corn from the stores they had collected in the summer.  He begged them for something to eat.

"What!" cried the ants in surprise, "haven't you stored anything away for the winter?  What in the world were you doing all last summer?"

"I didn't have time to store any food," complained the grasshopper; "I was so busy playing music that before I knew it the summer was gone."

The ants shook their heads in disgust, turned their backs on the grasshopper and went on with their work.[i]

            The grasshopper learned a very difficult lesson, and paid for it with his life.  The writers of the book of Proverbs hoped to pass on some wisdom to their readers, so they would be spared such hardship.  Many of the sayings in this book of virtues concern the need to work hard, and avoid laziness.  Chapter 6, verses 6 through 11 says:

Go to the ant, you sluggard;
    consider its ways and be wise!
It has no commander,
    no overseer or ruler,
yet it stores its provisions in summer
    and gathers its food at harvest.

How long will you lie there, you sluggard?
    When will you get up from your sleep?
A little sleep, a little slumber,
    a little folding of the hands to rest—
and poverty will come on you like a thief
    and scarcity like an armed man.[ii]

            Certainly, there is a time to play just as there is a time to work.  Neither Aesop nor the Bible come down hard against recreation—but there is “a season for every activity under the heavens (Ecclesiastes 3:1).”  Not long ago, I enjoyed a beautiful vacation—a much needed rest.  But I found that I needed to work extra hard just before going away, to prepare people for my absence, and once I got home I had to play catch-up.  In truth, things can’t go undone—they can only be rescheduled.  Yes, there is a time to take a break and enjoy life, but the Bible warns against laziness.  School students have to return after summer is over, and resume their studies.  Farmers who take the winter months easy need to work extra hard the remaining nine months.  A the ants put their noses to the grindstone, so the book of Proverbs calls us to diligent work.

            Proverbs 10:4-5, 26 says, “Lazy hands make for poverty, but diligent hands bring wealth. He who gathers crops in summer is a prudent son, but he who sleeps during harvest is a disgraceful son…. As vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, so are sluggards to those who send them.”  Likewise, Proverbs 12 says, “Those who work their land will have abundant food, but those who chase fantasies have no sense…. Diligent hands will rule, but laziness ends in forced labor…. The lazy do not roast any game, but the diligent feed on the riches of the hunt (vv. 11, 24, 27).”  Certainly, this book of virtues encourages diligence, prudence, and hard work.

            I know some people who say, “I’ve done my time.  I’ve raised my kids, and worked fifty years, and now I’m retired.”  As a result, they put their feet up, get lazy, and that’s when old age really sets in.  Did you know that retirement isn’t a biblical concept?  No—it’s a Western invention that’s only a couple hundred years old.  So how did retirement get invented, anyway?  It used to be that if you were alive, you worked.  In the U.S, in the mid-1800s, public servants and soldiers were offered pensions, and by the 1920s, pensions were offered by many companies, to support employees in their older years—mostly beginning at age 65.  In 1935, the Social Security Act was passed, beginning retirement benefits at 65.  But the life expectancy of the average American man was only 58 at the time![iii]  Now, the average life expectancy in the U.S. is 78.8 years[iv]—leaving over thirteen years from retirement to death to sit back and collect. 

            Now, there’s nothing wrong with collecting Social Security, for those who paid into it.  But what is wrong is retiring from life, once you’ve retired from your full-time job.  In my experience, it’s once a person retires, not from their job, but from life, that they really begin to get old.  Hard work and diligence keep you young—and that’s a fact!  Many seniors retire from service at their church, too, saying, “I kept kids in the nursery or taught Sunday school for years—now it’s somebody else’s turn.”  First, let me suggest that those kids may have made you feel old when you were younger, but now, spending time with them may keep you young.  Second, I must point out that God has no retirement plan here on this earth—God’s retirement plan is called Heaven!  Abraham and Sarah were nearly 100 years old when God called them to start a family.  God didn’t call Moses to lead Israel til he was 80, and he did that for the next forty years!  So unless you’re in the grave, God’s not done with you yet.  Just like the aging heroes of the Bible, God is calling you to the work!

            Aesop told another fable about the value of work:

A farmer, being at death’s door, and desiring to impart to his sons a secret of much moment, called them round him and said, “my sons, I am shortly about to die.  I would have you know, therefore, that in my vineyard there lies a hidden treasure.  Dig, and you will find it.”  As soon as their father was dead, the sons took spade and fork and turned up the soil of the vineyard over and over again, in their search for the treasure which they supposed to lie buried there.  They found none, however: but the vines, after so thorough a digging, produced a crop such as had never before been seen.  There is no treasure without toil.[v] 

            In the same way, God calls every believer to unearth the treasure of God’s kingdom—but there’s work to be done if we’re to see it. In Matthew 9:37-38, Jesus says, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” The Bible, God’s book of virtues, calls us to labor til the Master comes.  And until He comes, He invites you to the work.

           

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[i] “The Grasshopper and the Ants”  http://www.dltk-teach.com/fables/grasshopper/mstory.htm.  July 30, 2018.

[ii] Scripture quotations are taken from the NIV.

[iii] Laskow, Sarah.  “How Retirement Was Invented: The earliest schemes for financial support in old age were pegged to life expectancy.”  The Atlantic.  October 24, 2014.  https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/10/how-retirement-was-invented/381802/.  July 30, 2018.

[iv] Donnelly, Grace.  “Here’s Why Life Expectancy in the US Dropped Again This Year.”  Fortune.  Feb 9, 2018.  http://fortune.com/2018/02/09/us-life-expectancy-dropped-again/.  July 30, 2018.

[v] Bennett, William J.  The Book of Virtues: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories.  Simon & Schuster: New York.  1993.  Pg. 370.