“Whoever is slack in his work
is a brother to him who destroys.” – Proverbs 18:9
The other day, my boss shared with us this scripture: “Whoever is slack in his work is a brother to him who destroys.” He applied it to our landscaping company and teamwork. But as I meditated on it, the Lord drove it into my soul in a way that my boss perhaps had not intended.
The word “slack” there in the Hebrew can be understood as a dropping of the hands. The KJV says “slothful”. Some translators will say “to cast down”. So we could understand it as saying, “Whoever [casts down] his work is a brother to him who destroys.” The implications of this verse to those Christians considering (or perhaps not considering) the pro-life movement are staggering – but crystal clear.
We recently spoke about the call that another Proverb has put on our lives, namely the requirement to “rescue those that are being led away to death”. The Proverb says:
“If you falter in times of trouble,
how small is your strength!Rescue those being led away to death;
hold back those staggering toward slaughter.
If you say, “But we knew nothing about this,”
does not he who weighs the heart perceive it?
Does not he who guards your life know it?
Will he not repay each person according to what he has done?”
- Proverb 24:10-12
I like to call that verse the “Pro-Life Call to Arms”. But Proverbs 18:9, goes one step further in warning soldiers against the greatest burden to the pro-life movement: indifference. And it speaks boldly…
Whoever is slack…-
Meaning, anyone who is slack, slothful, indifferent, having drooping hands. Silence in this case is not only slack, but totally devoid of any sense of work. Whatever the Hebrew word for “doing nothing” is…that is what being silent on the abortion issue consists of. As Chuck Swindoll said, “Silence is no longer an option”. If you saw 20 children in your city get murdered every week (as many of them are) and you did nothing about it, slack would almost be too nice of a word to describe you.
…in his work
What work? What is required of those who believe (and rightly so) that mankind is created in the image of God, and thereby is sacred, and to be protected? It looks different for different people. But one thing I can assure you, it does looks like work. What it doesn’t look like, is avoiding the issue at bible studies, or political debates. It doesn’t look like Christians pretending that an abortion clinic is not right down the street from them, deceiving countless mothers and fathers while no Christian is even within walking distance. It does not look like voting every other year for pro-life candidates and thinking that your job is done. It looks like a movement, not just an ideal. Simply put, it looks like work. Prayers, sweat, and tears.
…is a brother to him that destroys.
Meaning, they are “of the same tribe” or “with the same parents” of those that “destroy, corrupt, ruin, or decay”. When we disregard the call placed on our lives to “rescue” those who are perishing, we are uniting ourselves [or in the biblical language, "yoking" ourselves] with the very ones we are doing the killing, and performing the slaughter. We become co-conspirators with life-destroyers. We become Hitler’s henchmen in Nazi Germany, or the American slave trader on the mid-Atlantic voyage. We bring John 8:44 to life, when Jesus said to the Pharisees: “You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”
The battle is here, and now. It’s in our streets. It’s in our newspapers. It’s in our schools, and our churches. Be not slack, and do not say “we knew nothing about this”, for we as Christians – blood bought children of the Most High God – we should have absolutely no relation to those who destroy the image of God.
Speak up, and stand up.
If you love the children: Say so!
‘Hank
“If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ.Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady on all the battlefield besides, is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point.”
-Martin Luther
(Originally posted at the Journeymen)
