Is The Barn Door Left Open For The Fool?

*At the pinnacle *of harvest *a lazy man *does not continue to plow; *he searches again *the next crop *but nothing remains. (MAST)

Proverbs 20:4 (NKJV)

4 The lazy man will not plow because of winter; He will beg during harvest and have nothing.

*[At the pinnacle] literally, in the time of winter after harvest. This preposition marks the pinnacle of the whole process of the construct that hinges on the two Hebrew verbs in their imperfect form. While the imperfect verbal form doesn’t normally operate with regards to a process of time, this context requires it to act within itself as the construct unfolds. Therefore there is a seasonal operation at the starting point of this proverb. It begins at the time right after harvest. It’s the beginning of a new year after all the crops are collected into the barn, which is often referred to as a “winter house” (Jer.36:21-24).

*[of harvest] literally, winter. Again, the context is indicating the beginning of a new growth period or harvest season. But the word also carries with it a spiritual understanding in the Hebrew regarding the “prime of life” as in the “abundance of youth” (Job 29:4). So for our context, at the conclusion of harvest but also the beginning of a new season, it’s alluding to the abundance of crops that have been stored up for the new use year. This is the backdrop and setting of how the nouns and verbs that follow act out Solomon’s scenario.

*[a lazy man] literally, a lazy man. This needs no explanation except to further expound the context. Why is this man lazy? The context supposes that he has an abundance stored up for himself by his own labors at the end of the previous harvest season (Rom.4:2). So we must ask why he is deemed lazy by Solomon. It can only be defined by what follows at the end of the current season. He trusts in his own abundance and therefore does not continue to plow for the next season. His laziness is inspired by what he hopes in. He hopes in previous labors at the exclusion of continuing to plow in hope with new labors (1Cor.9:9-12). Therefore this man is morally (spiritually) lazy. His laziness is because he is internally immoral or spiritually stupid (Eph.2:12). Therefore Solomon is making a spiritual, not literal application by creating a “straw man” to slaughter a lazy man (Isa.42:17-20;Ps.38:11-16;1Cor.12:1-4). This man begins with hard work (literally) but ends with nothing (spiritually) to show for his work because he is immorally unable to bear fruit and produce a harvest (Jn.9:4-6;15:5;Gen.1:22;9:7). This straw man is of the faith of Cain, who did not receive “the blessing” of God to bear fruit to God because all his works were unto his imagination of God in the image of himself (Gen.4:7;Gen.6:1-3,5;Rom.1:22-25).

*[does not continue to plow] literally, a negation to cultivate. The simple form means to “cut in” or “engrave,” but the context intends for it to cut into the hardness of the soil and soften an area for the seed to have room for its roots to grow. Clay that is left out in the sun hardens, and if the previous season’s roots are left to harden with the clay, it will be twice as hard for any wild seed that may have fallen to have room to spring up above the weeds that quickly sprout and block the light. Therefore serious plowing was necessary to have an equivalent harvest the following season. Therefore a lazy man cannot expect to return to the same field and retain an equivalent harvest without thoroughly cultivating and prepping his field for a new season. The field must be sanctified from dead roots of the previous year and from the clay, which was re-hardened by the sun (Mk.4:8). The lazy man will not “devise a plan” for a new season but will look back to a previous harvest to go from death to death (Lk.9:62;Jn.3:36;9:41;Rev.3:2) living contrary to the command to "grow up” from faith to faith (Rom.1:17;2Cor.3:18;Eph.4:15-16;Heb.12:15). A lazy man puts his hope in yesterday’s evil inventions (Rom.1:30;Matt.12:35) and will not plan for the future where he will surely be devoured by the devil’s devices (2Cor.2:11). He won’t cultivate his own ability to grow because he invests only in what is futile (Rom.1:21;8:28;1Cor.15:17;Eph.4:17;1Pet.2:2). He doesn’t have the Spirit to invest in the Spirit and pours out even the seed he does have on the uncultivated ground (Gen.38:9;Mk.4:3-7;Lk.8:5-7).

*[he searches again] literally, he consults. Here is the hinge that swings the barn door open on these two verbal constructs. We have back to back verbs in the Hebrew construct of the proverb, but they both have the same imperfective starting point. Where the last construct ends with the verb pointing back to the start of a new season, the second construct begins with the verb pointing forward to the start of a new use season. In other words, he sets out to consult with what he began with but finds that what he started with was nothing. This man begins and ends with nothing because he begins and ends with himself. His hands are morally unable to sustain him (Rev.18:14). He consults his own treasury of knowledge and finds nothing to satisfy his appetite (Pr.3:5;18:2;28:11). He hungers, then hungers more. He thirsts, but thirsts even more. He is full of his own consultations and remains unsatisfied. He begs, but he must have more (Ezk.28:1-10). It’s as though his hunger is a never-ending cycle of circular reasoning because self can never satisfy self (Gen.2:18). Because God has written eternity on his heart, he can never be satisfied with the fullness of himself (Ecc..3:9-11;Rom.2:15;3:20;7:7-12). So while he is so fixated on auditing himself (1Cor.11:27-29), he finds himself empty with nothing that can ever satisfy his eternal hunger and starvation (Ecc.3:12-15;Rev.7:13-17). But Solomon knows what he knows and cares nothing for what a man feels he knows. This lazy man felt that his storehouse was full but knew not how full of himself he still is with his empty imaginations (Lk.1:53;Eph.5:6-7;Col.2:8-10). Rather than examining himself by the body and blood of the holy sacrifice (the Lamb of God), the lazy man judges himself by himself (Rom.2:14). His works appear good within himself, but none of his works are in God (Jn.3:19-21;Php.2:9-13).

*[the next crop] literally, the harvest. There is a direct/definite article here to define that this is the harvest in relation to the previous construct at the beginning of the new year. In other words, it’s his personal treasury, but because he burned it all up expecting it to create its own interest (Matt.25:24-27), he goes back and consults an empty storehouse to commend him before the creditor (Matt.7:21-23;25:10-13). The house looked full on the outside, but inside it has nothing to satisfy the hunger (Jn.6:33-40;Matt.5:6). There is no fruit left on the branches, and the boughs are all withering up (Matt.3:8-12). But even more literally, it is referring to the same field of labor that was brought into the storehouse. He returns to consult the field of his labor, but it was built on the previous year’s labor, and of course, the lazy man finds nothing in the new year to show or use for last year’s labor. His field is like a dried-up trust fund because he did not cultivate it for a new use year. He thought he was sowing perennial seeds but has come to find that his seeds were only annual (Matt.10:35-38).

*[but nothing remains] literally, and nothing. This conjunction is Solomon’s way of mocking the thoughts and intentions of an immoral, lazy fool (Ps.10:2-5). He closes the proverb very suddenly. There’s a pause, and then there’s nothing (Matt.25:24-30)! It’s as if Solomon is stating, “You thought you could find a harvest without any work? Poof! Here’s a whole lot of nothing!” My father-in-law has this joke in his household when someone asks him to make them something to eat: They say, “Make ‘me’ a sandwich,” but he says, “Poof! You’re a sandwich.” And so the point is that a lazy man imagines what he shall eat without any work to show for it, but Solomon says, “Poof! You are what you eat (2Pet.2:22;Mk.7:18-23;Mic.7:17;Ps.72:8-11;1Cor.15:42-49), and you consumed your own worthlessness and have nothing left!” Do you trust in the work of your own hands (Jn.6:26-29)? Will you be judged on that day without anything ‘spiritual’ to show for yourself (Jn.12:47-50;1Cor.2:9-16)? Emptiness is really only the nothingness of being full of yourself.