God and Man
Examples of workers from the Bible started from God and Man.
God had a vision of what He wanted to create, then He made man in partnership with the Triune Godhead. He gave a perfect example of the rhythm of work and rest and showed leadership in the way He related with Adam. God then showed His compassionate character by creating Eve to compliment Adam and cared for both even after their disobedience.
God gave us perfect examples of all the five principles of work discussed in the blog. You can read a summary of the principles at https://fmministry.co.uk/review-of-principles-of-work-true-follower-of-jesus-christ-at-work
Adam, on the other hand, gave us bad examples with characters such as disobedience, pride, lying, arrogance, jealousy, envy, betrayal, and general irresponsible behaviour.
Cain and Abel
Abel offered the best of his flock even before he saw the entire harvest whilst Cain grudgingly gave something after he has satisfied himself with the best of his crops. The quality of their offering reflects the condition of their hearts.
Cain and Abel taught us that:
- God is the creator and owner of everything. This includes us and everything we produce
- We must cheerfully offer Him the best of what we have
- We must heed God’s warning when our heart is in the wrong place to avoid falling into sin
Noah
Noah did very well in obedience to God in building the Ark and rescuing his family but sadly, he lost focus in the end.
The same Noah who built an altar and sacrificed very rare animals to God after coming out of the Ark became the person getting drunk on the produce of his vineyard.
This example reminds us to remain focused on our assignment to the end. We are in the position of stewarding on God’s behalf. We must therefore ensure that we use whatever we get to bless God and bless others rather than consuming more than we need.
Like Noah, God wants to use each of us to preserve others for His eternal kingdom. That should be our focus to the end, and we must not let ourselves be distracted by any worldly benefit.
Examples of workers – Abraham and Lot
Abraham showed good examples while Lot showed bad examples of a worker. A focus on the positive examples from Abraham teaches us to:
- Seek God and know our calling for each season
- Trust God to fulfil His promise to us
- Be observant in relationships to recognise when there are issues to be resolved
- Be humble and seek peace with others
- Freely give to others, knowing that God will bless us as promised
- Not harbour bitterness and continue to do good even to people that don’t deserve it
Jacob and Esau
God, with full knowledge of the past, present, and future, had pre-determined that Jacob will be the Father of Israel. The nation that will come from him will be greater than what will come from Esau. Therefore, Jacob did not need to scheme or use deceitful means to get ahead.
The same applies to all of us who have been called according to God’s purpose (Romans 8:28-30).
Therefore, we should quit trying to get ahead by any means. Instead, we must seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and these things will be given to us as well (Matthew 6:33).
Joseph – A type of Christ
The good examples from Joseph’s life include patience, perseverance, positive attitude, and humility.
Joseph was resolute in living within God’s laws and running away from sin, no wonder God was with him everywhere.
He used his spiritual gifts of dream interpretation in the workplace and that is what eventually took him from prison to the palace.
Joseph saw the big picture of God’s purpose in everything that happened to him and so he was joyful in difficulty.
Joseph was described as a ‘type of Jesus’ and a list of such similarities can be sampled from sites such as http://bit.ly/37nV1mk
Every Disciple of Jesus Christ can also be described as a type of Jesus.
Moses – A Shepherd of God’s people
The example of Moses illustrates that God has called each of us for a particular purpose in life. He is patient and will ensure that we are trained and equipped for the task. How long we spend in training for our mission will depend on how quickly we learn.
Moses had to be stripped of everything he had in Pharaoh’s Palace to learn to depend on God. God will do the same for us if required for us to learn.
Our learning is a lifetime activity, so we must permanently enrol in God’s university as He equips us for each stage of our life mission.
Examples of workers – Gideon ‘the weakest and the least’
Lessons we can all take from Gideon’s example are:
- We should pay attention even as we do our daily work so we can recognise when God is speaking to us
- We may feel inadequate in what God is calling us to do but God has already deposited in us what we need
- It is okay to ask God to confirm He will do what He promised, and He will confirm in a way that we will believe
- God will usually ask us to start from where we are before He takes us any further
- God wants to take glory for what He accomplished through us
Like Gideon, God is calling each of us to start from where we are. He is asking us to build a small army around us and to go out and deliver people from captivity to sin, addiction, sicknesses, and all things that are not of God.
David – Shepherd, Warrior and King
David was described as the man after God’s own heart, not because he did not sin, but because he had a passion to obey God. He grieved over his sin and longed to know God with a deep passion. His characters as described above are what God is looking for in all of us.
The encouragement from David’s story is that we can all grow in our faith in the Lord if we make it our passion to seek Him at all cost. As our faith develops, God will increase our mission field, giving us people to shepherd, battles to fight, and eventually, when Christ returns, a throne to rule from. Our journey can then be described as David’s – Shepherd, Warrior, and King.
Daniel and his friends
Two main applications were derived from the example of Daniel and his friends:
First, God always rewards His faithful children. Daniel and His Friends were properly looked after, nourished, and protected from the lion and the furnace. This is because they were faithful and did not forsake their God.
The second application is the importance of having true and faithful friends. Daniel and his friends were able to strengthen each other in their faith. They faced their tests together, obeyed God together, and spent time together in unified prayer.
We must all do the same.
The above is a brief extract from examples of workers from the Old Testament. Please go to https://fmministry.co.uk/our-blog to read the full individual blogs.
Next time we will look to summarise examples of workers in the New Testament ending with Jesus Christ as the perfect one.
God bless you and let us keep growing in the image of our Lord Jesus Christ
Adesina