The Hasty Man

In Pr 21:5, wise Solomon warns us, “The plans of the diligent lead surely to advantage, But everyone who is hasty comes surely to poverty.”

“The hasty man,” says Bridges, “is driven under a worldly impulse into rash projects.” Henry says that this type of man is “rash and inconsiderate in their affairs, and will not take time to think.” Like Icarus, he flies too close to the sun of his inability. The warmth of reality is sure to bring him crashing down but not all at once. The wax melts slowly. From afar, he seems like a quick study but under the rays of the sun the words Jeff Shaara proves true: “Quick words [do] not always mean a quick mind.”

Again, Henry explains that the hasty man’s “thoughts and contrivances, by which they hope to raise themselves, will ruin them.” 

The hasty man dreams of ascending the mountain peaks only to tumble down a ravine for lack of preparation.

The diligent man, however, may be slow but he is steady. Bridges explains, “The patient plodding man of industry perseveres in spite of all difficulties; content to increase his substance by degrees, never relaxing, never yielding, to discouragement.”

He is a man who understands that haste is the enemy of lasting progress and stability.

He is a man who knows most shortcuts are actually detours.

He is a man who isn’t taken in by the grandeur rash projects.

As Bridges puts it, he knows that “excitement is delusion, and ends in disappointment.”

So the diligent man is deliberate in plans and pace. The Icaruses of the world may impressively outpace him for a season. This doesn’t concern him. He knows that God has determined that “the plans of the diligent lead surely to advantage.”

So with joy he relentlessly plods towards his goal.