Bible Trivia - 4/4/2008

Question: Of what creature does Proverbs 6 say, “Consider her ways, and be wise.”?

Answer: The ant. (Proverbs 6:6)

Comments: The address “O sluggard” indicates that the wisdom gleaned from the ant should relate to work ethic.

Go to the ant, O sluggard,/Observe her ways and be wise, (Proverbs 6:6, NASB)

Ants are one of the oldest living creatures in the world and have not changed much since the time of Solomon. Today, there is a field for those who consider the ways of ants. Myrmecologists study ants as they are model subjects for the study of sociobiology.

Ants are tremendous workers. There are no deadbeat ants as each ant has a specific job. The queen lays eggs to populate the colony. Workers collect food, feed members of the colony, and enlarge the nest. Soldiers are large workers that defend the colony and sometimes attack ants who are strangers. All these hard-working ants are female. Males have wings to fly to another colony, where they mate with a queen and die soon afterwards.

Strong in relation to their size, ants can carry 10 to 20 times their body weight. They work in teams to move extremely heavy things. Sometimes when a catastrophe occurs, the ants respond by quickly adapting their duties to overcome the problem.

Ants are diligent workers but the myth that ants do not sleep cannot be determined. No one knows whether ants "sleep" in the way we do. They do not possess eyelids, so they cannot close their eyes. They do rest, but trying to monitor their brain activity at this time would interfere with it so much that the results would not tell us anything. Ants do look for food only during the day. And in the winter, their breathing and metabolism slows way down.

One of the ways in which ants work that humans can mimic is that each has a function and all work towards a singular goal. The typical ant colony is usually centered around one or more egg-laying "queens." All ant species live in colonies with one to many queens. Whereas ants work for a queen, humans should all be working for a common King.