“The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their food in the summer” (Proverbs 30:25).

An individual ant does not appear to be very strong.  Most are less than ½ inch long.  Yet, they survive in abundance.  One study suggests that there are a conservative estimate of 20 quadrillion ants on this earth (that is 20 followed by 15 more zeros, or about 2.5 million ants per person on the Earth (How Many Ants Are There on Earth? By Orlando Mayorquin, USA Today, September 20, 2022, usatoday.com).  I have no idea if these numbers are close to accurate.  I do know that ants are abundant.

Ants are workers.  They are not lazy (Proverbs 6:6).  I have never seen a lazy ant, have you?  Leafcutter ants can strip a plant of its leaves in hours.  An ant can carry a burden up to 50 times its weight.  It can do this while sprinting, moving at speeds comparatively proportional to an Olympic miler’s speed.  Ants work while there is opportunity (Proverbs 6:8; 30:25).  They prepare for the future.  They prepare for the winter.  (1) Some ants gather and store food.  (2) Some grow their own fungus farms underground.  (3) Some “fatten” themselves up, huddle together, and go into a dormant state (called diapause) to survive the winter. Regardless how they prepare for seasonal changes, they all work while there is opportunity.  Aesop (c. 620-564 B.C.) once told a fable of The Ant and the Grasshopper.  It was about preparation for winter. 

Ants do their work without a captain, overseer, or ruler (Proverbs 6:7).  Unlike many men, ants do not need to be ordered, or made to work; nor do they need to be supervised in their work.  They simply do what they are supposed to do.  They do not wait around for another ant to tell them what to do.

Applications for us: (1) We should not be lazy.  “Go to the ant, you sluggard!  Consider her ways and be wise…” (Proverbs 6:6).  (2) We should work while we have opportunity.  Jesus said, “I must work the words of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work” (John 9:4).  Paul wrote, “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith” (Galatians 6:10).  (3) We should be self-starters.  We should not wait around for someone to tell us what to do.  We should busy ourselves with what we know to do (James 4:17).  (4) We should prepare for the future.  Paul wrote, “We must all appear the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he had done, whether good or bad” (2 Corinthians 5:10).  Peter wrote, “Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness…” (2 Peter 3:11).  Let us prepare to meet our God.