Proverbs 12:11

Proverbs 12:11 "He that tilleth his land shall be satisfied with bread: but he that followeth vain persons is void of understanding."

Despite the monumental effort by the so-called science community to tell us that humanity has undergone massive changes over the course of millions of years, it hasn’t changed since the Biblical beginning of time.  When man was created, he was given a desire to work and a desire for companionship.  Ever since that sixth day of Creation, humanity has maintained both the desire to work and the desire for companionship.  Certainly, human society has undergone plenty of changes in the area of industry, technology, economy, politics, medicine and many more like fields but humanity still remains generally unchanged.  Men today still think like men at the beginning of time.  Women today still think like women at the beginning of time.  We still make food and water a priority.  We still long for love.  We still crave life and fear death.  We still want security, stability and prosperity. We still want to be liked and we still hate to be corrected.  Infants today still behave as infants behaved at the beginning of time.  Children still act like children did in the beginning of time.  Teenagers still need what teenagers needed in the first century of time.  Adults still want what adults wanted in the first millennium of time.  We are today what we were yesterday.  We will be tomorrow what we are today.  This obvious fact is what makes the Bible so relevant.

What is happening today was happening 3,000 years ago in Solomon’s day.  Solomon saw it and made note of it.  This proverb is Solomon’s observation of the relationship between our desire to work and our desire for companionship.  He was able to see what many can’t or don’t.  He was bold enough to confront what many won’t.  He saw people feeding social desires that cost them severe productivity.  He realized that our social desires are often stronger than our industrious desires.  He observed that people easily choose to occupy their time pursuing social ambitions rather than pursuing industrious ambitions.  He sensed it was less about getting out of work and more about getting into people.  In this case, it’s less about laziness and more about social curiosity; less about slothfulness and more about social hunger.
 
Solomon is not knocking social desires nor is he discouraging pursuing social activity in this proverb.  Given his legacy of romance as well as his extensive writings on relationships of all sorts, Solomon was probably one of the most social men in the Bible.  Solomon is not even discouraging following men in this proverb as he was a king who needed to be followed.  He was simply pointing out the common problem people have in forfeiting the work necessary to feed the belly simply because they choose to feed their social desires instead.  Evidently, Solomon observed people spending too much time following people to social activities that it cost them productivity on the job or on the farm.  He observed people spending too much time following attractive and influential people to unproductive activities that they failed to provide for themselves properly.  In choosing to follow vain people over tilling the ground, these socially-active souls displayed a lack of understanding.  They failed to see the foolishness in playing games with the leader of the pack instead of getting the ground ready for planting.  They failed to see the wisdom in getting the crops planted before playing a game of basketball with their buddies.

Social desires are strong and, in many cases, very appropriate.  We are designed to want to be with people, hear people, watch people, be entertained by people, to learn from people and to interact with people.  God also designed us with a need for wisdom in order to manage our social desires.  We need to manage the balance between social activity and life responsibilities.  Perhaps even more importantly, we need wisdom in choosing what people we attempt to fulfill our social desires with.  Following vain people will lead us away from productivity.  Listening to vain people will cause us to be unproductive.  Watching vain people will cause us to ignore the right people. Vain people are those who have nothing substantial to offer.  Vain people are those who keep your attention but never truly satisfy your desires.  They are attractive to your eyes and ears but lack substance for your heart and soul.   This is why following vain people makes a person so unproductive – they’re hard to walk away from.

Humanity hasn’t changed since the beginning of time.  Without the internet and all of its SOCIAL media, Solomon still watched foolish souls follow vain people 3,000 years ago.  These foolish souls must’ve followed vain people with their feet, going where they went, doing what they did and listening to what they said.   As a result, these FOLLOWERS of vain people became unproductive and ultimately, impoverished.  Today, our world is dominated by SOCIAL media where we all get to become “FOLLOWERS” of anyone and everyone.  When we choose to follow attractive and influential people, we often choose to follow VAIN people.  These vain people get our attention and keep our attention.  These vain people post videos, blogs, photos and sayings that are hard to walk away from.  Instead of following them with our feet to the local playground, we follow them with our fingers and eyes to their backyards or living rooms.  These vain people may not be encouraging you to walk away from God or to divorce your spouse, but they are monopolizing your time and keeping you from being productive.  Solomon’s proverb is as relevant today as it was relevant 3,000 years ago and it will be relevant until the end of time.
 
Presently in America, the average screen time for internet-connected activities per day is over SEVEN hours.  While that impressive statistic doesn’t tell the story as to how much of that time is being used to facilitate legitimate work, we know that the average amount of time people spend on SOCIAL media is over TWO hours a day.  People, most of whom are younger, are spending an average of 93 minutes per day on Tik-Tok!  Surprisingly, the company is actually considering a 60-minute “daily screen time limit” for every account registered to a user under age 18.  There is a place for entertainment, humor, pleasure and social interaction but I think it fair to say that humanity is having a hard time managing its social desires.  Our social gluttony is robbing society of widespread productivity.  We’re having a hard time walking away from VAIN people who captivate us online through their beauty, comedy, sexuality, athleticism, drama and intriguing speech.  They’re attracting us but they’re NOT FULFILLING US, which is precisely why we keep going back for more.  Each minute we spend FOLLOWING these vain people is another minute we fail to spend getting the ground tilled.  Every minute we spend FOLLOWING these vain people is another minute we fail to get our homework done, our Bible read, the grass mowed, the laundry folded, the dishes washed, the house painted and a real friendship formed.

Be social but be productive.  Manage your social desires and vet the people you’re giving your attention and time to.  Interact, engage and follow godly people and they will encourage productivity and promote personal godliness.