Throughout the poetic books of the Bible, the theme of diligence versus laziness and wisdom versus folly appears. Oddly enough, diligence, laziness, wisdom, and folly go together hand in hand. As Hindson says, “The diligent person is wise while the sluggard is a fool…” (Hindson 2012, 263). Another comparison The Essence of the Old Testament: A Survey makes between wisdom and folly is righteousness and wickedness. From the book of Genesis to the book of Revelation, we see that characters possess, at one time or another, all of these traits. For example, in Genesis, the first man and woman turned their righteousness into wickedness by eating the forbidden fruit. Since then, no one but Jesus has been a stranger to sin. Diligence is when a person makes an effort to accomplish something. Laziness is the opposite of this. In the book of Proverbs, we see several statements comparing diligence and laziness. “Lazy behavior results in poverty while diligence results in wealth” (Hindson 2012, 266). Throughout history, from Biblical times to modern times, people have shown diligence in working for what they want out of life. Many of the Hebrew people were diligent in both their work and worship. As with any group of people, however, some of the Hebrews struggled with the idea that you should draw strength from God, instead of getting angry at Him when things aren’t going the way you’d hoped. Job lost everything, but he praised God and in the end, God doubly blessed him. “The Lord blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the former part.” (Job 42:12). This provides a lesson to everyone. If you bring God with you through both the good and bad times, he will bless you in one way or another. Wisdom deals with two main focuses, according to Hindson: keep God in your daily life and live a good life. “Most proverbs are capsules of wisdom that summarize great truths in simple phrases” (Hindson 2012, 262). Reading the book of Proverbs is one of the easiest ways to firmly grasp the concept of wisdom versus folly. In the poetic books we find many examples, but one that most should follow as a clear outline to God’s expectations is found in Proverbs 6:16-19, “There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies, and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.” We learn here that “The Lord abhors lying and slander, and from the perspective of wisdom, those who speak such are fools” (Hindson 2012, 267). For most people, lying is something we do without thinking. We justify this practice with meaningless reason, but we must remember that we can never lie to God. The ultimate wisdom can be found in fearing God. In Proverbs 9:13-18, we get a glimpse of the Bible’s meaning of folly. We see that “she is simple and knows nothing.” In a world where we think we know everything, this Scripture highlights the reality that we know nothing and we will tirelessly spend our lives trying to understand things beyond our comprehension. In this way, people are, by nature, foolish. Also, the people we surround ourselves with can either be a detriment or a blessing to our relationship with God. Proverbs 22:24-25 teaches us that, “People tend to become like those they associate with. Therefore, it is foolish to befriend an ill-tempered person.” (Hindson 2012, 267). A much easier and more beneficial quest is to seek out people who live their lives nonchalantly and befriend them. The book of Job teaches this valuable lesson. Job lost everything, but he stayed strong in his faith despite his wife and friends telling him not to. We see that to be diligent is wise and to be lazy is foolish. For a lot of people, the difficulty lies in finding a healthy balance. The Hebrews found a similar dilemma. We see during the Exodus that the Hebrew people were happy to be free from their slavery in Egypt, but when times got rough, they disobeyed God and wished they hadn’t been freed at all. If they had stopped complaining about the way God did things, their lives would have turned out much differently. “Wisdom is meant to be applied, not just studied or memorized” (Hindson 2012, 262). One can equate this statement with reading the Bible, but not living by it. Diligence, laziness, wisdom, and folly were words used to describe and instruct ancient Hebrews, but the words ring true today. In the books of the Bible, we constantly read of people seemingly learning their lesson about turning away from God, but in the next chapter, they are building idols to other gods or disobeying the covenant. What modern-day readers fail to realize is that we do this all the time. We put other things above God. "...Wisdom is God given, not manmade but foolishness is manmade, not God given" (Michael McCartney, Sermon Central, entry posted December 2012).

REFERENCES
Hindson, Edward E. "Proverbs: Words of Wisdom" The Essence of the Old Testament: A Survey. Nashville, Tenn.: B & H Academic, 2012.

"Michael McCartney." Sermon Central. December 2012. http://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/laziness-vs-diligence-michael-mccartney-sermon-on-laziness-171738.asp.