There are plenty of places in the Bible to turn to when you need guidance. While the New Testament is filled with Christ’s parables that offer strong advice, the Old Testament is also brimming with narratives that can help guide you in life. With kings, queens, and workers all throughout these books of the Bible, you can find vocational life advice. Read below to see how with an excerpt adapted from Faith at Work: Christian Vocation in the Professions.
Finding Vocational Advice in the Old Testament
The Old Testament may seem like an odd place to seek vocational advice. Ancient Israel was a premodern, agrarian society with very limited career choices or social mobility. They had nothing like a modern market economy. Most of the professions of the twenty-first century were not even imagined then, and it is difficult to find equivalents in Israelite society. Moreover, most discussions of the doctrine of vocation usually begin with Martin Luther and the sixteenth century. Nonetheless, if one wishes to find the sources for the Reformation views on work and vocation, the Old Testament is an excellent place to start. There one finds an intense focus on the meaning and purpose of work. Most important, the Old Testament presents a working God who calls His people to imitate His work.
God Works Through His Creation
It is obvious from the Old Testament that God can accomplish all things by Himself without the need for human beings. After all, He created all things before human beings even existed. Nonetheless, in the story of the Old Testament, God often does His work by means of human beings. Moreover, these deeds are still understood as the work of God, even when human beings do them without any obvious miraculous interference. For example, the stories of Ezra and Nehemiah contain no explicitly supernatural events, and yet God is given full credit for building the temple and the walls of Jerusalem. Similarly, in Psalm 104, God is credited with the production of bread, wine, and oil, even though these are “man-made” products (vv. 14–15). God provides the raw materials (grain, grapes, and olives), the environmental conditions (sun, rain, and soil), and the humans to cultivate, process, distribute, and market these commodities, and so it is still proper to say that God feeds all people.
God Gives the Tools for the Task
When God calls human beings to do His work, He also provides all of the skills necessary to bring the task to completion. For example, when Israel was commanded to build the tabernacle, God empowered the artisans with the skill to make it excellently (Exodus 35:35). The Psalmist praises God for training him for success in war (Psalm 144:1). Likewise, Moses prays that God would “establish the work of our hands” (Psalm 90:17). For these reasons, Israel is warned not to take credit for the ability that God has provided or the success that they enjoy (Deuteronomy 8:17–18). Moreover, if God provides the calling and the skill to do His will, He can also revoke it from those who fail to heed His call. This can be seen in the examples of King Saul (1 Samuel 13:13–14; 15:23) or Solomon’s son Rehoboam (1 Kings 11:31), whose kingdoms were taken away because of their disobedience. It is also evident in the story of Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu, who were destroyed for violating their offices as priests (Leviticus 10:1–2). Because all skill and authority derives from God, even the king must remember that his vocation is God’s and not his own, as seen by the limitations that God places upon the royal office (Deuteronomy 17:14–20). Humility before God is appropriate for everyone in every vocation (Proverbs 15:33; Micah 6:8).
God Focuses on the Entirety of You
Whether one is a shepherd or a merchant or a priest, the most important issue is how one approaches one’s work. This is well summarized in Psalm 127: “Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain” (Psalm 127:1). In other words, the most relevant question for the worker is not what occupation to have but whether the Lord is doing His work when the worker is engaged in the occupation. Now, the work of God can be accomplished even when the worker does not understand or acknowledge God’s role. For example, Cyrus of Persia is seen as the anointed king who accomplishes God’s purposes, even though Cyrus was a pagan with no knowledge of or faith in the God of Israel (Isaiah 45:1–6). The work is no less effective or divine when done through such a person. Likewise, Jeremiah shows that God will use even the hated Babylonian regime as a source of well-being for exiled Judah, and so the Judeans should pray for Babylon’s well-being (Jeremiah 29:7).
Work as a Source of Meaning
The book of Ecclesiastes has much to say about the proper sphere for human efforts and labor (what the book calls “toil”). Ecclesiastes systematically tears down every human striving that might be a candidate for the ultimate good and source of meaning. It shows that nothing “under the sun” has permanence and ultimate significance—not wisdom, power, pleasure, or any number of other things. It even includes vocation, which produces only sorrow and vexation when one builds a life around it apart from God (Ecclesiastes 2:22–23).
However, when vocation is moved out of the first place and into a subordinate position, it becomes a source of joy and contentment. In other words, Ecclesiastes teaches that vocation is a penultimate good, that is, something to be enjoyed but not something to occupy the central position in one’s life. Only God can adequately stand in that place (Ecclesiastes 12:1, 13). Therefore, Ecclesiastes commends seeking penultimate meaning in vocation: “Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his lot” (Ecclesiastes 5:18; see also 2:24–25; 9:9–10). Even more, work is called “God’s gift to man” (Ecclesiastes 3:12–13). Therefore, this book reveals how to find meaning in one’s labor without transforming it into an idol that will only disappoint. Vocation is one of the simple joys of a life well lived.
Scripture: ESV®.
To learn more about how your faith intersects with your work, order Faith at Work: Christian Vocation in the Professions below.
