Monotony

The sameness that arises through dull and wearisome routines, and which cause individuals to feel bored. Scripture often portrays monotony as a cause of sin, in that individuals, in seeking excitement, often fall into sinful practices.

Monotony can give rise to sin

Discontent in the desert

Numbers 11:4–6 See also Exodus 16:2–3, Exodus 16:35; Numbers 14:33 The monotony of 40 years in the desert was a judgment on Israel's unbelief.

Meanwhile, the rabble among them had a strong craving for other food, and again the Israelites wept and said, “Who will feed us meat? We remember the fish we ate freely in Egypt, along with the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic. But now our appetite is gone; there is nothing to see but this manna!”

At Sinai impatience leads to idolatry

Exodus 32:1 See also Exodus 32:23; Acts 7:40

Now when the people saw that Moses was delayed in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him!”

Situations which give rise to monotony

Desert

Psalm 107:4–5 See also Deuteronomy 1:19; Isaiah 40:30; Mark 1:12–13

Some wandered in desert wastelands, finding no path to a city in which to dwell. They were hungry and thirsty; their soul fainted within them.

Prison

Psalm 107:10 See also Judges 16:21; Psalm 66:11; Jeremiah 38:6; Matthew 4:12; Revelation 2:10

Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, prisoners in affliction and chains,

Illness

Psalm 107:17–18 See also Leviticus 26:15–16; Job 30:16–17; Psalm 6:3; Luke 13:11; John 5:5

Fools, in their rebellious ways, and through their iniquities, suffered affliction. They loathed all food and drew near to the gates of death.

Storm at sea

Psalm 107:25–26 See also Jonah 2:3; Acts 27:27

For He spoke and raised a tempest that lifted the waves of the sea. They mounted up to the heavens, then sunk to the depths; their courage melted in their anguish.

Darkness

Psalm 143:3 See also Exodus 10:22; Psalm 130:6; Mark 15:33; Luke 2:8

For the enemy has pursued my soul, crushing my life to the ground, making me dwell in darkness like those long since dead.

Work

Genesis 3:17–19 See also Job 7:2; Ecclesiastes 2:11; Galatians 6:9; Revelation 2:2–3

And to Adam He said: “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat, cursed is the ground because of you; through toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it will yield for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your bread, until you return to the ground — because out of it were you taken. For dust you are, and to dust you shall return.”

Siege

2 Kings 6:25 See also 2 Kings 25:2; Isaiah 36:12

So there was a great famine in Samaria. Indeed, they besieged the city so long that a donkey’s head sold for eighty shekels of silver, and a quarter cab of dove’s dung sold for five shekels of silver.

Slavery

Exodus 2:23 See also Job 7:2; 1 Timothy 6:1; 1 Peter 2:18

After a long time, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned and cried out under their burden of slavery, and their cry for deliverance from bondage ascended to God.

Sleeplessness

When I lie down I think: ‘When will I get up?’ But the night drags on, and I toss and turn until dawn.

Monotony arising from difficult human relations

A nagging wife

Proverbs 19:13 See also Proverbs 27:15

A foolish son is his father’s ruin, and a quarrelsome wife is like a constant dripping.

Unhelpful counsellors

Job 6:6 This refers to the useless advice of Job's friends. See also Colossians 4:6 This, by contrast, is how the conversation of Christians is to be characterised.

Is tasteless food eaten without salt, or is there flavor in the white of an egg?