CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT
Completing the Task
Recently I heard from a friend who had work done on his house. The work was of the highest standard, done exactly as my friend wanted it done but when the contractor left, he left behind a driveway full of dried cement and broken bricks. My friend commented that he would not again use that contractor because he felt the rubble represented an unfinished job.
In the book of Judges, we come across the Israelites settled in the Promised Land. The original vision was that they would dwell peacefully and prosperously in the land of milk and honey, but after the death of Joshua, the people lost sight of the original vision, and were content to go about their daily lives basking in past victories, instead of completing the job of removing all potential threats to the rule of God.
It is so easy, once we have reached a comfortable level of success to lose sight of our original goals, and to be diverted, like the Israelites were. They allowed various pagan nations to dwell in their midst, and in time were themselves converted to the pagan gods.
I also will not henceforth drive out any from before them of the nations which Joshua left when he died:
That through them I may prove Israel, whether they will keep the way of the LORD to walk therein, as their fathers did keep it, or not. (Jdg.2:21-22)
A task not completed will return to haunt you later. Centuries down the line, Israel still had to contend with this problem, it was the undoing of Solomon and the reason for their eventual captivity in Babylon.
Finish the task at hand, because sooner or later an incomplete task will require your attention, perhaps even while you are busy with something more important. These things tend to pile up quickly and suddenly you will find yourself with two incomplete tasks, two old jobs pulling you back while, perhaps, another new project calls for attention. An incomplete task could turn out to be your ‘Achilles heel’, a millstone around your neck.
Most of the tasks that are left unfinished are those which are the least pleasant. Those things which we do not want to do, are either the most difficult or, maybe, even the easiest because we feel that they can be done any time. We know that the task must be done, but it is going to take up time that could be better spent doing that which we like.
Why should I sit down to do my taxes, or why should I talk to that person, I do not like him, and besides, it’s not very important. His little business only supplies a small part that I could get anywhere, but what happens the day, when his is the only business supplying that part? Unfinished work is a result of the lack of foresight, it speaks of being unprepared for what might come.
In the Bible there is a book that is only four chapters long. A small book in comparison to some of the others:
Now the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,
Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.
But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.(Jon.1-3)
Jonah ran away from a task that God had given him to do. The Ninevites were his enemies, why should they experience the salvation of God? It would not benefit Israel in any way? He thought it a meaningless task that would only benefit the enemies of Israel, but rather than say no to God (who can say no to God?) he ran away.
He did not realize the importance of what he had been given to do. He did not understand that through him God was sending a message to the whole world. Salvation was not only for the Jews, but for all men, irrespective of tribe, tongue, people or nation.
The Book of Jonah takes up a very small portion of the Bible, but its message is just as important as that of any of the other books. Without it, the Bible would be incomplete, without it we would not know about a big fish that swallowed a man and vomited him up alive on a beach.
A task not done is a business undone. A signature takes up only a moment of your time, but unsigned the task is incomplete.