June 2
The one who guards a fig tree will eat its fruit, and whoever protects their master will be honored. (27: 18)
THE DIGNITY OF WORK.
The paradox in the final clause is that even the most menial tasks of a servant who protects their master, if they are done well, are cause for honor. All work done well has a dignity in the eyes of God (cf. Ephesians 6: 5– 8).
In the Babylonian creation myth, the Enûma Eliš, humans were created to do the work considered beneath the gods. Yet in Genesis you see God literally with his hands in the dirt (Genesis 2: 7) doing manual labor and not considering it beneath him. Even now the Holy Spirit renews the face of the earth (Psalm 104: 30). When God created a paradise for humanity, he put work into it (Genesis 2: 15). And when Jesus came to earth, he came not as a man of leisure but as a carpenter. If you’re not doing work, and work in which you can take pride, you’re being cut off from part of your humanity. There will be an atrophy of your soul, because the Bible says work is not a necessary evil; work is a good. Yet it doesn’t have to be a great world-changing career. Any work that is useful to others and done with excellence is deserving of honor.
Q. Do you undervalue so-called blue collar work? Do you mistrust or despise people who have careers that take more skill and education than you have?
Prayer:
Lord Jesus, I live in a society that, in some places, overly values high-paying jobs that require years of education and, in others, deeply distrusts these same people. But these distinctions of class and status don’t matter to you. Let them not matter to me either. Amen.
Keller, Timothy; Keller, Kathy. God's Wisdom for Navigating Life: A Year of Daily Devotions in the Book of Proverbs (Kindle Locations 2851-2865). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.