Маттс-Ола Исхоел - Work. The purpose and blessing of your daily labor

I remember what two of my friends in Norway did when we were young. They needed money, and they came up with what they thought was a good idea. They bought some newspapers and cut the paper in the approximate size of bills (Norwegian kroner). Then they put a pillow over them, and prayed the whole night that God would turn the paper into hundred kroner banknotes. When the sun rose and they removed the pillow, they realized that the paper was still paper, and like everyone else in town they would have to get a job to earn the money they needed!

The question is not whether God could have transformed the paper into bills – of course He could! God can do anything! And I am sure that miracles like this have happened somewhere, sometime. But I also believe that God wanted to teach my eager friends that this is not the way He planned to provide for them. Regarding work, there are no shortcuts for Christians. To provide for what we need, we, like anyone else, should find a job!

When the people of Israel wandered in the Sinai desert for 40 years, God fed them by performing some of the greatest miracles in the Old Testament. He let water gush forth from a rock in Kadesh (Num. 20:11) and sent innumerable amounts of quail to their camp to feed them with meat (Num. 11:31). But the most amazing miracle of the desert was the supernatural provision of manna that was used to bake bread. Every morning the ground around their camps was covered with a thin layer of this “heavenly bread”:

Now the manna was like coriander seed, and its color like the color of bdellium. The people went about and gathered it, ground it on millstones or beat it in the mortar, cooked it in pans, and made cakes of it; and its taste was like the taste of pastry prepared with oil. And when the dew fell on the camp in the night, the manna fell on it.

For forty years this miracle repeated itself every morning. God knew the people had to eat, and He had promised to be their provider through this long journey.

But the miracle was not supposed to last forever. The book of Joshua tells about what happened when the people finally entered the promised land:

Now the children of Israel camped in Gilgal, and kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight on the plains of Jericho. And they ate of the produce of the land on the day after the Passover, unleavened bread and parched grain, on the very same day. Then the manna ceased on the day after they had eaten the produce of the land; and the children of Israel no longer had manna, but they ate the food of the land of Canaan that year.

The manna was necessary as long as the people were in the desert – where they could neither sow nor reap. But as soon as they entered the land that God had given them and could till the ground, the manna ended, never to return again. From now on the Israelis were supposed to plow and sow, water and fertilize, and reap the food they needed for their families.

This story reveals something essential about work and God’s miracles. God can do any miracle, anytime, especially when we are in need and for some reason cannot provide for ourselves. But this has never been God’s “plan A” for our sustenance. As in the days of Joshua, so also today, God’s main way to provide for His people is to give them land, hands to work with and then bless their daily labor.

Faith in the supernatural can actually become a cloak for laziness. I have met people who seem unwilling to do their civil and spiritual duty of an honest day’s work, and instead claim that God will provide for them in some kind of miraculous way. I cannot say what God will or will not do for an individual. He can perform any miracle He wants for those who believe in Him. But I do believe with all my heart that it was never God’s intention that we Christians work less than others, or that we should trust that God will let provision rain from heaven when others have to go to work in the morning. No, to work is a part of God’s order for our life; not an exception, but the main way He bestows on us what we need.

Have you ever wondered why laziness is so strictly judged in the Bible? I have. Over and over again the lazy man is described as an abomination! Let us pick some examples of what the book of Proverbs says:

As vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, so is the lazy man to those who send him.

The way of the lazy man is like a hedge of thorns.

The desire of the lazy man kills him.

He who is slothful in his work is a brother to him who is a great destroyer.

These are very strong words! Laziness is spoken about almost in the same terms as idolatry or rebellion against God! At times, when reading these verses, I have almost felt a little pity for the lazy character. Is it really that bad? Is it really so wrong to lean towards idleness…?

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