In all honesty, the first time I heard that sloth was on the list of deadly sins, I was bit perplexed. Why would someone think an animal from South America constituted a sin? It was only later than I learned that sloth was another word for laziness. Okay, that makes sense!
Most people probably wouldn't consider God lazy because he created this wondrous world for us in only 6 days. While I will give [mythical] credit where credit is due, there still are some instances in which I think God sort of sluffed off.
The first time I think he didn't put his full effort into an activity was when he created woman. Man, if you will recall, was created from the dust and god breathed life into him. This must have been very taxing for the heavenly one because he ended up taking a shortcut in creating the fairer sex.
Woman didn't come from the dust at all. God merely removed that extra rib from Adam. It might have been a bit of a messy operation, but it doesn't sound half as difficult.
Here's another example of sloth. In the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, God was trying to figure out if there were several, a few or even one worthy person in these two ancient cities. Did he go investigate this for himself? Not a chance. He sent two angels instead. Since he is the one who desired the information, it sounds kind of lazy that he couldn't avail himself to go down to seek out the answers on his own.
Aside from these two specific circumstances, the Old Testament relates numerous incidents in which God decided somebody needed to die. In far too many cases, he didn't do the dirty work himself; he sent people to do the job for him. That seems rather slothful to me.
This post is part of a mini-series. To read the intro, go here.
Most people probably wouldn't consider God lazy because he created this wondrous world for us in only 6 days. While I will give [mythical] credit where credit is due, there still are some instances in which I think God sort of sluffed off.
The first time I think he didn't put his full effort into an activity was when he created woman. Man, if you will recall, was created from the dust and god breathed life into him. This must have been very taxing for the heavenly one because he ended up taking a shortcut in creating the fairer sex.
Woman didn't come from the dust at all. God merely removed that extra rib from Adam. It might have been a bit of a messy operation, but it doesn't sound half as difficult.
Here's another example of sloth. In the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, God was trying to figure out if there were several, a few or even one worthy person in these two ancient cities. Did he go investigate this for himself? Not a chance. He sent two angels instead. Since he is the one who desired the information, it sounds kind of lazy that he couldn't avail himself to go down to seek out the answers on his own.
Aside from these two specific circumstances, the Old Testament relates numerous incidents in which God decided somebody needed to die. In far too many cases, he didn't do the dirty work himself; he sent people to do the job for him. That seems rather slothful to me.
This post is part of a mini-series. To read the intro, go here.
I don't see how those two examples would be slothful.
ReplyDelete1. Using a shortcut would be considered a good use of materials. To do it the long-winded way would be inefficient.
2. In the S&G story, God is displaying good management and delegation skills. Again, not slothful.
Now... not bothering to answer prayers and not even delegating the task... that's a different thing altogether.