Cafe Church Talk: Wisdom for Life - Work

Tumble out of bed
and stumble to the kitchen
Pour myself a cup of ambition
and yawn and stretch and try to come to life.
Jump in the shower
and the blood starts pumpin’
out on the streets, the traffic starts jumpin’
for folks like me on the job from 9 to 5.
Workin’ 9 to 5
what a way to make a livin’
barely gettin’ by
it’s all takin’ and no givin’
They just use your mind
and they never give you credit
It’s enough to drive you
crazy if you let it.

That’s what Dolly Parton thinks about working 9 to 5. But what does God think about work? And what wisdom does he give us about work in the book of Proverbs? That’s what we’re asking tonight. But before we get to the specifics of Proverbs, let’s set out the grand context of work in God’s world.

On Sunday mornings we’ve been working our way through the opening chapters of Genesis. And there, we’ve discovered that work is an essential element of God’s world. Work isn’t just something that came in after the fall, as part of the curse on mankind. No, work existed before the fall, part of the original creation mandate - but that work was then cursed because of Adam and Eve’s sin.

So in Genesis 1, the command is to ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.’ (Gen 1:28). And in Genesis 2, Adam is placed in the Garden of Eden ‘to work it and take care of it.’ (Gen 2:15)

Even if Adam and Eve had never rebelled, they still would have been working. But now, in this paradise-lost world, we find that: ‘Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground...’ (Gen 3:17-19).

It’s because of this curse that we find that work can be frustrating, or painful. It’s why we experience (or see others experiencing) the Sunday night blues, or Monday-itis. The weekend has passed, and another week at work approaches. (Apologies if this is bringing on a case of the Sunday night blues right now...)

So how should we go about our work? Is God interested in that? Has he anything to say about work? Well, on the tables, you have a little booklet of all the collected wisdom about work from the book of Proverbs. As you can see, God has quite a bit to say about work - in lots of different ways.

First of all, there are some of the proverbs that encourage and motivate work. They draw out the contrast between working and not working. So consider 10:4 where it says ‘Lazy hands make for poverty, but diligent hands bring wealth.’ Or 12:11 which says ‘Those who work their land will have abundant food, but those who chase fantasies have no sense.’ And there are a few more similar proverbs.

When we read these proverbs, and the Book of Proverbs in general, we need to remember that these are probabilities, not promises. Perhaps you know of someone who worked hard, but didn’t reap the rewards. Or someone who was lazy but came into a fortune through some other means - inheritance or lottery win or something else. Proverbs is an observation of how life normally goes; of what you can usually expect. So generally, those who work are better off than those who don’t bother working.

And so Proverbs wants to motivate us to work. And throughout the book, Proverbs calls on a particular type of person to work. Even in the verses that are before you, you can see that time and time again, the sluggard is addressed.

The sluggard is the one who can’t really be bothered to do very much. In 26:13-16, there are excuses for not going out to work - ‘There’s a lion in the road!’ It’s too dangerous to go out. And so he’s happy to turn on his bed, like a door turns on its hinges. Roll over for a second sleep. But he’s so sluggish that he buries his hand in the dish, too lazy to lift his spoon to eat his porridge or cornflakes.

Now those are humorous characterisations, but there is a serious side too to sluggardliness. They don’t plough in season, then at harvest time, there’s nothing there when they go to look at their field. (20:4). Instead, everyone passing by sees thorns and weeds, and the stone wall in ruins. It’s serious because there was no social security system; no universal credit or Craigavon foodbank. So: ‘A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest - and poverty will come on you like a thief and scarcity like an armed man.’ (24:33-34).

Rather, the sluggard is called to look at the ant. It works, and stores provisions, and gets itself ready for the winter. It’s wiser than the sluggard! Could there be sluggardly ways in some of us?

Perhaps, though, some of us are more in danger of the opposite extreme - not underwork, but overwork. Of always being on; always working, and never resting. Never finding time for Sabbath, for rest and refreshment. The creation pattern (before the fall!) was six days work and one day of rest. Do we think that we can go 24/7, 7 days a week, without needing rest? That wouldn’t be very wise.


So now that we’re motivated to work, and not be sluggardly, how should we go about our work? There’s a collection of proverbs that show that God wants us to have integrity in our work - we should be fair and just. So at 11:1 we find: ‘The Lord detests dishonest scales, but accurate weights find favour with him.’ By contrast, at 16:11 ‘Honest scales and balances belong to the Lord; all the weights in the bag are of his making.’ Again in chapter 20 (verses 10 and 23) there are references to differing weights.

The picture is of buying and selling grain, using the balancing scales. So if you have two different weights - they both say 1 kilogram, but one actually weighs 900grams, then you’d be making more money than the grain you were selling. It would be dishonest.

You may not use weights and scales in your work - but are there ways you could be dishonest? Things that you can get away with and nobody realises? Even if no one else realises, God sees, and God knows. God is looking for integrity and fairness in our work.

We see the perfect wisdom of God for work in the person and work of the Lord Jesus. For the majority of his life, he worked as a carpenter, in Joseph’s family business. Through that, and through his ministry, he completed everything he was to do; so that in John 17 he can say to God the Father: ‘I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do.’ (Jn 17:4). In Jesus we see what it is to work, and to work wisely and well.

Our Saviour is also our example. As Paul writes to the Colossians: ‘Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.’

Doesn’t that sum up what Proverbs is teaching us? In all we do, in whatever job we’re working, we are working for the Lord. So let’s work in a way that will please him.

This talk was given at the Cafe Church in St Matthew's Church, Richhill on Sunday evening 13th October 2019.