Musing – How easy is it to be so busy we forget our purpose?

Hebraic Musing – How easy is it to be so busy we forget our purpose?

In the midst of building the First Temple in Jerusalem during King Solomon’s reign, God had to remind His children to not forget His advice for living a good life.  “As for this temple you are building, if you follow my decrees, observe my laws and keep all my commands and obey them, I will fulfill through you the promise I gave to David your father. And I will live among the Israelites and will not abandon my people Israel.” — 1 Kings 6:12–13  Why would Scripture digress and add these words in the middle of an otherwise descriptive portion of temple construction? When we are in the middle of something we often forget why we began a project in the first place.

In January, Irene and I were in Jerusalem observing the models, the stones, the massiveness of the structures that remain in the excavations and we marveled at the amazing feat involved in building the temple. Solomon had to enlist 30,000 men to chop down Cedar trees in Lebanon, float them down the Mediterranean and then transport them across the rocky terrain up to Jerusalem. There were 70,000 carriers and 80,000 stonecutters working in the hills. The finest craftsmen carved palm trees, flowers, and cherubs into the wood-paneled Temple walls. The holiest room in the Temple was covered in pure gold. Indeed, the Temple was a sight to behold!  How easy would it have been for the workers to get tired, slack off and give up, and thus forgetting to obey Him in everything?

By placing this message in the middle of the description of the Temple’s construction, God is teaching Solomon – and all of us – a lesson. We must never get so caught up in building something that we forget the reasons for our efforts. In Solomon’s case, God wanted to stress that no matter how beautiful the Temple was, it would only be as meaningful as the Israelites made it. If they obeyed God, then the Temple would serve its purpose. Otherwise, it would just be an empty shell, devoid of meaning.

Whether we are building a church, a house, a family, a career, or even a ministry, we need to stay focused on our original purpose. Every man has a purpose, a mission in life.  Churches and ministries have a mission.   We must never forget the mission; nor disregard His life-giving guidelines for expediency sake. What are you building in your life? Take a moment this week to consider your answer, and then – most importantly – remember the reasons why.

Points to ponder

How easy is it to get caught up in the work and forget our purpose?
Does this explain ‘burn-out’?  … or why we listen to Satan saying “Just give it up.”?

Are we sometimes tempted to say “the end justifies the means”
as justification for cutting corners?  Or skipping an act of obedience?
Or letting our emotions of the moment interfere with the objective?
Or cutting short our prayer time?   (Whose time is ‘prayer time’?)

Yosef   a.k.a.  Joe Brusherd                                                                   May 13, 2014