Consider the Ant
I was challenged recently to justify Proverbs 6:6-8, which reads as follows: "Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest." The challenge, as might be guessed, was not to the instruction of the verse but to the statement that the ant has "no guide, overseer, or ruler". Don't we know that ants have queens? Therefore is it not an error in the Bible to say that the ant has no ruler? Let's consider the verse itself first, and what it means to say that the ant has no guide, overseer, or ruler. The context is the work of the individual ant, and the verse is saying that insofar as this activity is concerned, the ant is independent and free rather than following a leader, being driven by a taskmaster, or obeying the command of a ruler. They are wise because they know the benefit of preparing now, when conditions are good, for