Establish Your Work

Proverbs 24:27

Introduction

This evening we are returning to the Proverbs.

We are looking at a single Proverb, usually a less well known one, in order to learn from this piece of inspired wisdom.

Many of the less well known Proverbs are ones that are distant from us because of lifestyle differences between then and now.

This one falls into that category.

First the Field, Then the House

The idea is about putting produce before consumption (Prov. 12:11; Deut. 8:11-14).

The field represents a place of labor that is rewarded in produce.

The house represents stable comfort that comes as a result of the produce of the field.

It is about what to think about at the beginning of an endeavor (Prov. 1:4, 8-9).

The Proverbs are written to the young man. The man who can make a better start by learning wisdom from those who have gone before.

This is one of the complaints about the Proverbs is that they are aimed at the one who is yet to fall into all the follies of life. What do they say to the man who is in the middle of the mess?

We can make application to when we are in the middle of an endeavor, but even then, it is often helpful to imagine ourselves back at the beginning of a project.

Nevertheless, it is valuable to try and instruct the next generation even if we ourselves have ignored this wisdom and suffered for it.

This is a proverb about planning and priority (Prov. 21:5; Lk. 14:28-30).

We are a finite people and so we have to make choices about what to do and in what order.

Sometimes we can do multiple things at once, but more often we need to make choices about what to sacrifice or what to put off until later.

When we try to do all of the things at once, we will often find that our limits catch up to us.

Creating Stability

There is the practical consideration of production and consumption (Prov. 20:4; 13:4; 21:17).

The idea of “establish” points to not just working hard but to making something secure and stable.

We live in a time of precarious consumption with increasingly unstable production models.

It is a model that has fooled us sometimes into thinking that the Proverbs aren’t true in the “real world.”

But they are true. Truth that can be ignored or neglected for only so long but then comes back to bite in a tidal wave.

I realize that there will always be an inherent instability that comes from living in this broken world. But there remain stable patterns of living even among this instability.

On the one hand, a man thinks he can mitigate against all uncertainty. But on the other hand, a man think he can do nothing to make his life more stable. It is the latter that the Proverbs are trying to instruct.

Our society teaches you in a million different ways, to focus more on the consumption than on the produce.

You see ads for stuff everywhere you turn. None of that points you to establish your work. All of it tells you how to spend your money or even spend money you don’t have.

This continues to be true even after the house is built (Prov. 27:23-27; Matt. 25:28).

This is often the more difficult time.

Patterns have been established that bring prosperity but the patterns have to continue.

We reach plateaus and believe we can coast on work that was done at the beginning.

People think this about life generally. That they will reach some point where life doesn’t require diligence any more.

The truth is, that if you are doing it right, it requires MORE diligence as you go (Matt. 25:28).

These are not merely economic truths (Deut. 24:5; Prov. 5:18; Lk. 24:28-30; Gal. 6:9).

So we ought to establish our marriages at the beginning but then also give careful attention to them throughout (Deut. 24:5; Prov. 5:18).

It is true of our relationship with God. There is often great change and sacrifice at the beginning but then of course we must continue to grow and maintain our faith (Lk. 24:28-30; Gal. 6:9).

Patient Progress

Time without the house is not wasted time (Ecc. 10:10; 1 Cor. 3:10-15).

We have a tendency to view work as a necessary evil that is keeping us from what life is “really” about.

We develop an impatience to getting the result which leads to shortcuts that ultimately undermine the actual goal.

Houses built cheaply that begin to fall apart as soon as they are constructed.

Get rich quick schemes that seek to avoid the work of stable production.

In ministry, it leads to high rates of baptism with low rates of discipleship.

Taking the time to do preparatory work is never wasted time.

We need to think more generationally in our building (Prov. 13:22; Psa. 78:5-7).

One of the things that leads us to impatience is our sense of brevity in life.

I only have so much time here and I don’t want to spend it all working away without enjoying the fruit of that labor.

In the first place, our true reward was never here (Jas. 5:7-8).

But we need to think in terms of generational building (Prov. 13:22; Psa. 78:5-7).

Our culture has so fractured the generation that each generation uses up the wealth it creates.

We have come to believe that it is normal to call on each generation to start over at the beginning.

But sometimes getting to the housebuilding stage takes multiple generations.

What did Abraham hope to gain by leaving the land of his fathers (Gen. 12:1-3; Heb. 11:8-13).

This is true of tangible projects and of intangible projects.

Are we preparing anything that will sustain our children’s children or just building for the moment?

Am I leaving the field more or less productive than I found it (Gen. 2:15; Matt. 25:14-30).

God expects improvement on what He has given us.

In terms of agriculture, man has been seeking the shortcut for decades now and are just coming around to the idea that they are destroying the soil as they squeeze the last drops of life from it.

They aren’t thinking of how do we leave this to our children better than we found it.

What about spiritually? Spiritual decay is the typical pattern but generational growth is possible. How can we continue to build on the foundations that have been laid.

Too often, the recipients of prosperity learn not to work and so waste the value given to them.

This is certainly true in the realm of spiritual growth.

Godly parents produce children who take hard fought spiritual battles for granted and so squander the maturity and wisdom that they started with.

Instead we ought to be thankful for the faith of those who have come before us and learn to build more growth and maturity onto that foundation.

If I started with an already cultivated field, did I continue to improve or did I waste all of that work.

Conclusion

What needs your attention this week? Where do you need to be creating more stability in your life?

Are you at work in the field so that you can enjoy the house when the master comes?