That I may Know HIM - A Devotional

Day 4: MISSION UNACCOMPLISHED

I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.

Working or not working was not the issue that Jesus was addressing here. He said, “I must work.” Beyond His determination to work, however, Jesus knew that every work and every grace has a duration; every office has its own ‘office hours’ and closing time. He knew that there would come a time when, no matter the zeal to work, the Time Keeper would announce, “Time up!” because the “night” had come. When that time comes, it would not be considered whether the assignment had been finished or not; it would be time to go. In this respect, how long a person has been around, or how long that person has been labouring on the job would not be the indication of whether or not a work had been finished.

“How much” does not mean “How well.” “How long” does not necessarily translate as “Well done!”

Enoch lived for only 365 years at a time when people lived up to 900 years and more. Enoch’s age was only about a third of the average life-span at his time. In relative terms to our age when people have an average life-span of 70 years and more, Enoch would be said to have been only about 24 years old when he completed his assignment on earth and had to hand in his ‘papers’ in grand style.

He had a record that he “walked with God,” whereas the only legacy of his contemporaries was that they fathered “sons and daughters,” or lived record long years (Genesis 5).

It is recorded that Samson judged Israel for 20 long years (Judges 16:31). But did he finish his work? It is doubtful. His marching orders had been to “begin” the deliverance of Israel “out of the hands of the Philistines,” so that Israel would have land to possess, as God had promised them in that Promised Land (Judges 13:5). Unfortunately, he himself died at the hands of those same Philistines out of whose hands he had been ordained to deliver his people. Shortly after he had died, the tribe of Dan, where he had begun his ministry, where he had had his ministry headquarters (13:25), began to look for land to possess (18:1). Why would they seek a place to possess if Samson’s ministry had successfully taken care of that?

Samson worked hard and well. He achieved much. He was feared by the enemies. He judged his people for an impressive 20 years. But he did not finish his task. He was ruined prematurely in the house of a seductress and harlot on whose laps he had expired; his divine power shaved off and his eyes thereafter plucked out (16:4-31). The ‘night’ came for Samson, and he could work no more, although he was still strong and muscular. He had wasted 20 years chasing the Philistine baits that the enemy of his soul had laid in his path to distract him. The size of his might was no measure of his mission accomplished or not accomplished. Similarly, the size of your church or the scope of your ministerial trips is never a true measure of your accomplishments before Jehovah.

After roundly defeating King Ahab and his sorcerous team of 850 false prophets, Elijah was to proceed to confront the Queen Jezebel herself, who had been the matron and chief engineer of that wicked craft of idolatry in the land. Rather than obey his new orders, the prophet fled into the wilderness and began to submit to God his letter of resignation and retirement, as he prayed to die rather than confront Jezebel. At last God asked him to proceed on his way to anoint Elisha as his replacement, as if to say his wish had been granted (1 Kings 18-19).

The ‘night’ eventually came for him, and it was time to go. It did not matter then that the job was yet unfinished. It was time to go.

Do not merely be a starter. Be a finisher.

Of the two apocalyptic olive witnesses, we read in Revelation 11:7: “they FINISHED their testimony.…” They were not merely starters; they were accomplishers; finishers.

4. The Small Finishings Before the Big Finish

In Acts 21:7, Paul shows that there are preliminary little ‘finishings’ which amount to the final Finish. Before a person shall have ‘finished’ a University degree, that person would have had to finish several other minute and preliminary but consequential aspects of the University ‘call.’ That person must have ‘finished’ all the class tests and assignments, finished the class exams in the first, second and third years (depending on the course duration). No one can say that they have ‘finished’ a final University degree if they had failed (or had been unable to ‘finish’) the exams in any of the preliminary years from primary school.

In Acts 21:7, Paul states: “And when we had FINISHED our course from Tyre, we came to Ptolemais….” If he had never finished from Tyre, he could not have proceeded to Ptolemais; and if he never finished at Ptolemais, he could not have been able to say in 2 Timothy 4:7 on his ‘Graduation Day,’ “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course.” The final ‘Finish’ was the cumulative of all the preliminary ‘finishings.’ Therefore, every one step counts in the overall assessment of the race. It is foolish to wait for one big bang of a mighty call to be finished, before one would have finished. How well one ‘finishes’ today in ‘Tyre’ would determine whether there should be a promotion to ‘Ptolemais,’ and whether there would be the ultimate proclamation of an assignment Accomplished.

The prophet Zechariah had to educate Zerubbabel the people’s leader, that if he expected to “finish” the project whose “foundation” his hands had laid, he was not to despise “the day of small things,” because those “small things” would amount to the ultimate big Finish (Zechariah 4:9,10).

If you focus so much on the big calls to mighty places that you despise humble Macedonian calls, it may point to a state of heart that may be more after people and places than after the Master’s will.