It was a long day, and a hot one, when Ichibod gazed up at his work and saw that it was massive. For days, he and his many men had been laying bricks. Never before had he seen such a structure, and yet it still was not good enough. Would it ever be good enough? He didn't know, but, he thought himself and his men as the best brick layers in the world, and he believed he had the very best brick makers and morter making crews on his team. Yet, with all that, nothing like this had ever been attempted, so again he wondered, was this good enough? Were his efforts measuring up? How could he know? He wanted to reach God, how could he do so other than doing everything in his power to get there? It was getting dark, so he went home, little did he know that the very next day, an almighty God would see this as folly and intervene in a way Ichibod would never have dreamed. This shining city he had planned would be remembered, but not the way he expected, the blueprints he planned, and the name he chose would be lost to history, it would be remembered as an unfinished, confusing episode, to be chuckled at. It would be called the Tower of Babel.
So was Ichibod real? Not exactly, I made up the name, but yes, you can read how a whole bunch of men were Ichibod and tried to reach heaven through their own strength. See Genesis 11, especially verse 4. Later on, God's people hadn't even reached the promised land before they "needed" to make a physical thing to pray to. See Exodus 32. The golden calf was an idol, so obvious to us. The tower of Babel was foolishness, so obvious to us. However, what about us? Is there a thing we built? A thing that seems good, a thing that consumes us?
Perhaps you own a business. Is your business a thing you do to reach God? What if you make a policy of being the most honest business man in town, and you thrive on not having any unhappy customers, and you love to solve problems. These are good things. Would to God there would be more businessmen like this. What if you have a ministry? What if as a pastor or counselor or whatever title you are, your a problem solver, and as people come to you with issues, you take care of them, your church takes care of them, your ministry takes care of them etc. This is good. Would to God, more ministries and churches actually cared about people's problems. Perhaps, you are an employee, and you have a job. You pride yourself in being punctual, working hard, and generally being the ideal worker, you use the money you earn to give generously. This is good, would to God, we had more workers like this.
So, what's the point? Well, let me make a simple example. Imagine with me a little fishing village by the sea. The best, and surest way to thrive in this environment is to know fish, and to be able to get fish, fish to sell, and fish to eat. In this village we have 2 workers, and these 2 workers are tasked with teaching the young men how to get fish. Both workers have a close friendship with the village mayor. The mayor knows fish. He taught the workers how to fish, and now he wants them to ensure that the young men get fish. Worker A faithfully trudges out every day and catches fish. Every night, he sets up a stand, and passes out the fish to people who come by, and they get their supply of fish from him. He works hard, feeding people is hard work. He works at improving his fishing abilities, he works at improving his stand, to feed more and more people. Worker B has no stand, he goes fishing almost every day, and he takes a young man with him. They come back with enough fish for each of them. He introduces the young man to the mayor, the young man becomes friends with the mayor, nearly as well as worker B. The young man moves on, and worker B takes out another young man. Meanwhile the first young man that worker B took out, has become worker C. Guess which worker he is like? If you guess that he is like his friend and mentor, you are right. So, over the course of 10 years, which worker has accomplished more? The one who gives fish day after day, or the one who raises up new workers? For by now, there is a whole alphabet of workers and then some.
What was the difference? Worker A was looking at how many fish he could give to the people for the Mayer. Worker B, was interested in getting people connected to the source of fish. It is not what you do that matters, what matters here is who owns your work. Is your work something you work hard at for the Lord, or is it the Lord's work that you allow Him to use you to accomplish? Worker B was sensitive to the work of getting people connected with fish effectively. Worker A took the work, and made it his own, and became the biggest fish restaurant in town. Worker A was more known. Worker B was more effective.
In 2018, a French man named Romain Dumas drove a specially made Volkswagen car to a record setting time at the Pikes Peak hill climb. He made it to the top in under 8 minutes. Here is the video. So, the car was specially made for the climb. The climb was the work. Romain Dumas was the right driver for the job. What if you are specially made and completely unique for a work? Is there anyone else like you? I didn't think so. So, the question is, are you the right person to drive you? The work of driving up Pikes belonged to Romain Dumas. The work you are made for belongs to the Lord, who should be in the driver's seat? For this to happen, the car was fully surrendered to Romain, every switch, every pedal, and even the steering yoke was immediately responsive to him. Watch the video, notice how the car flows through the bends, always on the limit, and yet never tumbling off the side of the mountain. This is a flawed analogy, perhaps even a bad one, but shouldn't our life flow like that car? Imagine that car having a will of it's own, fighting Romain's inputs and countering them with it's own? How might the scene look? Would there be a twitching back and forth, costing valuable time? Perhaps even a huge crash that destroys the car? Probably.
Matthew 5:1 And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him:
Christ saw the multitude, and he went up, up the mountain. Only the disciples came. In the following verses, we will see how he spoke to them and they heard about the nature of his work. Today, will you be a multitude gazing up, or a disciple, following Christ into the mountain? Your not knowing why, or what will happen next, but knowing that Christ is who you wish to be with. If so, welcome to discipleship.
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