section 1
Work is inevitable. Before sin we were still designed to actively serve genesis 2:15 , but sin made what was purposed to be blessed service i john 2:17 hebrews 10:36 proverbs 27:18 into tedious labor genesis 3:17-19 . So, one might ask himself, "Why is my work so tedious?"
When we work for our own selfishness and pride, neglecting the wise work of God, it ends in ruination proverbs 24:30-34 . Or when we deceive ourselves, we fall in love with that which kills us proverbs 8:36 isaiah 28:15, 18-20, 22 and we end up ruining ourselves ecclesiastes 4:5 proverbs 26:28 job 15:31 . The irony is that this often comes in the form of the foolish fantasy of "relaxation", procrastination or avoiding the discomfort of "hard" work proverbs 12:11 proverbs 28:19 . So, we ironically work hard to not work, which that pursued purpose actually only causes unquenchable, frustrating cravings proverbs 21:25-26 , while being a mindful giver, instead of an entitled taker, results in actual relaxation for the soul hebrews 4:11 matthew 11:28-30 proverbs 10:23 john 4:34 .
The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.
The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.
my notes:
You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what He has promised.
He who tends the fig tree will eat its fruit, And he who cares for his master will be honored.
And He said to the man, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘Do not eat from it’: The ground is cursed because of you. You will eat from it by means of painful labor all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. You will eat bread by the sweat of your brow until you return to the ground, since you were taken from it. For you are dust, and you will return to dust."
I went past the field of a sluggard, past the vineyard of someone who has no sense; thorns had come up everywhere, the ground was covered with weeds, and the stone wall was in ruins. I applied my heart to what I observed and learned a lesson from what I saw: 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.
But those who fail to find {wisdom} harm themselves; all who hate {wisdom} love death."
my notes:
You boast, "We have entered into a covenant with death, with the realm of the dead we have made an agreement. When an overwhelming scourge sweeps by, it cannot touch us, for we have made a lie our refuge and falsehood our hiding place."
Your covenant with death will be annulled; your agreement with the realm of the dead will not stand. When the overwhelming scourge sweeps by, you will be beaten down by it. As often as it comes it will carry you away; morning after morning, by day and by night, it will sweep through." The understanding of this message will bring sheer terror. The bed is too short to stretch out on, the blanket too narrow to wrap around you.
Now stop your mocking, or your chains will become heavier; the Lord, the LORD Almighty, has told me of the destruction decreed against the whole land.
Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself, for emptiness will be his payment.
my notes:
Those who work their land will have abundant food, but those who chase fantasies have no sense.
Those who work their land will have abundant food, but those who chase fantasies will have their fill of poverty.
The desire of the sluggard kills him, for his hands refuse to labor. All day long he craves and craves, but the righteous gives and does not hold back.
Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience.
Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.
Doing wickedness is like sport to a fool, And so is wisdom to a man of understanding.
"My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of Him Who sent Me and to finish His work.
my notes:
section 2
You will either work for the Lord’s purpose or you will work for your own. You will either work hard at labor or work hard at avoiding labor. The truth of our existence will always win out. You will work either way: spiritually, financially, physically, relationally, etc.; you will work hard no matter what. The Lord’s way is for you to learn to steadily work willingly, as a self-determining servant not under compulsion but living in the dignity of self-control in our relations with the Lord titus 2:5 leviticus 26:12-13 romans 7:6 ii corinthians 9:7 . The other way is to vainly look to live for your own pleasures in a zombified-state of a living death i timothy 5:6 that inevitably results in being forced by: desperation, conflict, boredom, restlessness, anxiety, etc., into the tediousness of serving your own sin proverbs 12:24 . For if one will not be busy laboring within a relationship with the Lord in its satisfying fashion deuteronomy 28:47-48 one will be laboring tediously for their own pride and selfishness, isolating themselves from the benefits of knowing God ruth 2:12 isaiah 59:1-2 to chasing the wind hosea 2:7 ecclesiastes 2:24-26 hosea 8:7 of a deceptive god that only take away and never adds haggai 1:3-11 ii chronicles 12:8 .
to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the Word of God may not be reviled.
my notes:
I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be My people. I am the LORD your God, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt so that you would no longer be slaves to the Egyptians. I broke the bars of your yoke and enabled you to walk in uprightness.
But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.
Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
Because you did not serve the LORD your God joyfully and gladly in the time of prosperity, therefore in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and dire poverty, you will serve the enemies the LORD sends against you. He will put an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you.
my notes:
May the LORD repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the LORD, the God of Israel, under Whose wings you have come to take refuge."
Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor His ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear.
She will chase after her lovers but not catch them; she will look for them but not find them. Then she will say, ‘I will go back to my husband as at first, for then I was better off than now.’
A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without Him, who can eat or find enjoyment? To the person who pleases Him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner He gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.
"They sow the wind and reap the whirlwind. The stalk has no head; it will produce no flour. Were it to yield grain, foreigners would swallow it up.
my notes:
Then the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai: "Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?"
Now this is what the LORD Almighty says: "Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it."
This is what the LORD Almighty says: "Give careful thought to your ways. Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build My house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored," says the LORD. "You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?" declares the LORD Almighty. "Because of My house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with your own house.
Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops. I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the olive oil and everything else the ground produces, on people and livestock, and on all the labor of your hands."
They will, however, become subject to him, so that they may learn the difference between serving Me and serving the kings of other lands."
my notes:
section 3
Which kind of work is better? Sadly, we usually choose that fantasy of the immediate sense of familiarity, comfort, laziness and procrastination even knowing it results in the same frustrations romans 6:21 ii peter 2:22 hebrews 11:25 rather than put in the blessed labor which at first is unfamiliar so it feels distressing in the immediate, but later on however…? Our way is only frustrating, tedious, dreadful suffering hebrews 10:26-27 deuteronomy 28:65-67 , but God’s way of work is full of sure hope hebrews 12:11 proverbs 4:18 i corinthians 15:58 .
What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death!
What the true proverb says has happened to them: "The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire."
He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.
my notes:
If we deliberately go on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no further sacrifice for sins remains, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume all adversaries.
Among those nations you will find no repose, no resting place for the sole of your foot. There the LORD will give you an anxious mind, eyes weary with longing, and a despairing heart. You will live in constant suspense, filled with dread both night and day, never sure of your life. In the morning you will say, "If only it were evening!" and in the evening, "If only it were morning!"—because of the terror that will fill your hearts and the sights that your eyes will see.
No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, That shines brighter and brighter until the full day.
Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the Lord’s work, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
my notes:
section 4
There is a rest for those who know the Lord hebrews 4:9-10 , a relaxation of the soul that even calls for a rest of the body numbers 29:7, 12 psalm 16:9 ecclesiastes 5:12 i kings 19:5-8 luke 17:7-8 Psalm 127:2 . But this is not by seeking our own recreation or laziness but rather turning our whole being towards serving the Lord’s purpose for us isaiah 58:13-14 whether we eat, sleep, work, laugh or cry i corinthians 10:31 . We should learn to respond to what the Lord lays out for us proverbs 16:9 jeremiah 10:23-24 ecclesiastes 3:1-14 job 37:6-7, 14 . We naturally strive for our own profit rather than work for what really matters to God, others and even our own soul isaiah 55:1-3, 6-7 . We can rest hebrews 4:11 from the striving to feed the insatiable god of selfishness and pride jeremiah 3:23-24 , instead we can learn to enjoy the sabbath rest of simply being in a loving relationship with Jesus colossians 2:16-17, 3:15 as you continue to learn to serve Him freely colossians 3:23 i john 5:1-3 .
There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from His.
" ‘On the tenth day of this seventh month hold a sacred assembly. You must deny yourselves and do no work.
" ‘On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work. Celebrate a festival to the LORD for seven days.
Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure...
The sleep of a laborer is sweet, whether they eat little or much, but as for the rich, their abundance permits them no sleep.
Then he lay down under the bush and fell asleep. All at once an angel touched him and said, "Get up and eat." He looked around, and there by his head was some bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again. The angel of the LORD came back a second time and touched him and said, "Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you." So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God.
"Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? Won’t he rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’?
It is useless for you to work so hard from early morning until late at night, anxiously working for food to eat; for God gives rest to His loved ones.
"If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on My holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the LORD’s holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words, then you will find your joy in the LORD, and I will cause you to ride in triumph on the heights of the land and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob." For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.
So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.
LORD, I know that people’s lives are not their own; it is not for them to direct their steps. Discipline me, LORD, but only in due measure— not in your anger, or you will reduce me to nothing.
There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.
What do workers gain from their toil? I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God. I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him.
He says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth,’ and to the rain shower, ‘Be a mighty downpour.’ So that everyone He has made may know His work, He stops all people from their labor.
"Listen to this, Job; stop and consider God’s wonders.
Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to Me, and eat what is good, and you will delight in the richest of fare. Give ear and come to Me; listen, that you may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David.
Seek the LORD while He may be found; call on Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the LORD, and He will have mercy on them, and to our God, for He will freely pardon.
Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience.
my notes:
Surely the idolatrous commotion on the hills and mountains is a deception; surely in the LORD our God is the salvation of Israel. From our youth shameful gods have consumed the fruits of our ancestors’ labor— their flocks and herds, their sons and daughters.
Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.
Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters,
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves His child as well. This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out His commands. In fact, this is love for God: to keep His commands. And His commands are not burdensome...
my notes:
section 5
So let us be mindful of our pursuits and efforts. Are we shortchanging our employers and customers by stealing the time/effort they have rented from us? Are you a good product…a good producer…for your family, coworkers, employer, neighborhood, country, etc.? Blessed labor is about seeking to do good, not be noticed but rather to bless others i thessalonians 4:9-12 . So let us train ourselves to be like Christ i timothy 4:8-10 . The training can start right now, but are you going to work at it or simply live the frustrating fantasy james 1:22-25 ? Let us sow to find our souls at rest in our work as we seek to be fruitful with the Lord- blessed laborers galatians 6:5-10 .
Now concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another, for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more, and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.
For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come. This is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance. That is why we labor and strive, because we have put our hope in the living God, Who is the Savior of all people, and especially of those who believe.
my notes:
But be doers of the Word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. Because if anyone is a hearer of the Word and not a doer, he is like someone looking at his own face in a mirror. For he looks at himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of person he was. But the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom and perseveres in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer who works—this person will be blessed in what he does.
for each one should carry their own load. Nevertheless, the one who receives instruction in the Word should share all good things with their instructor. Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.
my notes:
Scripture quotations taken from one or more of the following versions as noted:
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NASB = NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE(R), Copyright (C) 1960,1962,1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
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NKJV = New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.