Thought from today’s Bible reading from Exodus 4-6.
There are many people today who cannot seem to take time away from their busy schedules to worship God or assemble with the saints. If there is work to be done, that takes priority in the minds of many. Pharaoh exhibited a similar attitude when he was first told to let the Israelites leave Egypt to go out into the wilderness to sacrifice to the Lord (Exodus 5:1). He gave the following instructions to their taskmasters:
“But the quota of bricks which they were making previously, you shall impose on them; you are not to reduce any of it. Because they are lazy, therefore they cry out, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our God.’ Let the labor be heavier on the men, and let them work at it so that they will pay no attention to false words” (Exodus 5:8-9).
God’s people are certainly to be hard workers (Ecclesiastes 9:10; Colossians 3:23). But serving the Lord must always come first (Matthew 6:33).
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“And, as already mentioned in the preceding chapter, he at once began to preach, and he never stopped for anything but serious sickness of himself or family. At first it was only an effort to ‘exhort’ a little at the regular meetings of the church, or after someone else had preached. Then an appointment to preach somewhere at night, in some school-house, or in some private dwelling, was ventured upon. To these appointments he would often walk, three, four, or five miles, after a hard day’s work. Two or three of the young preachers generally met together and united in the exercises of the meeting. And thus, gradually, he directed the forces of his mind and body to the work, until he lost his interest in all other employments. Four years after his obedience to the Gospel he sold out the mill property, and was never afterward engaged in any regular secular business.” (The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin, p. 59-60)
