Wake Thy Slumbering Children

"Go to the ant, O sluggard, Observe her ways and be wise,
Which, having no chief, Officer or ruler, Prepares her food in the summer
And gathers her provision in the harvest.

How long will you lie down, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep?
“A little sleep, a little slumber, A little folding of the hands to rest”—
Your poverty will come in like a vagabond
And your need like an armed man."
(Proverbs 6:6-11)

How often has this been used as a banner to wave about the need for God's people to be hard workers? I don't disagree that we should be hard workers, but let us consider for a moment the spiritual depths of this proverb. It has huge implications for our churches and for the work of preaching.

Indelible Grace music released a CD entitled, "Wake Thy Slumbering Children." Besides this being a great collection of puritan hymns with a modern twist, there is obviously a message embedded within the album. And verses 9-10 of Proverbs 6 captures that meaning. When God's people fall asleep, they must be awakened.

We run to I Thessalonians 4 and are comforted by the fact that those who have died believing in Jesus Christ are only "asleep" until His return. And what comfort this does bring us. It is because of this truth that I no longer mourn the sleeping of my grandparents. But there is a kind of sleep in scripture that brings us no comfort whatsoever. It is a spiritual sleep. It is the kind of sleep that causes indifference, inactivity, and ignorance. This spiritual sleep has fallen upon our churches in America like a great plague. We are the slumbering children.

Sometimes sleep comes because we are too comfortable. Sometimes it is because we have been overfed, like at Thanksgiving. Sometimes sleep is a result of being lazy. Sometimes sleep comes upon us because we are not alert. But I Thessalonians 5:6 declares, "so then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober." Alert means to keep watch and sober means to be self-controlled. The disciples could not keep watch with Jesus for even one hour. In this last hour, before Jesus returns, can we keep watch? Or will we be lulled to sleep by work, family, recreation, comfort, America, or any other thing? The role of the preacher is to shout from the rooftops, "WAKE UP SLUMBERING CHILDREN!!!" We are a city on a hill, the light of the world. If the light house workers fall asleep, what happens to the ships? If the watchmen in the city sleep at their posts, what becomes of the city? I will pray to God, along with the men and women of indelible grace music, that He will wake His slumbering children. And in the mean time, may I never rest until that final year of Jubilee when Christ returns.