God at Work

500 years ago the Protestant Reformation changed the way we viewed God, the Bible, and ourselves. One of the central teachings of the Reformation was the doctrine of vocation (calling, profession, career). God cares deeply about all work, not just work that involves teaching the Bible or feeding the poor. Throughout history, theologians refer to God using both his left hand (vocation of all people) and right hand (vocation of ministers) to further His will. In chapter 2, King Nebuchadnezzar had a bad dream and he demanded all of the wisemen from the kingdom come tell him what it was about and what it meant. When none of the wisemen in the kingdom knew the king’s dream Nebuchadnezzar became very upset and ordered all the wisemen to be killed. When Daniel heard about this he became worried he and his friends would also be killed. Daniel prayed and asked God to show him the King’s dream and what it meant. God was faithful and answered Daniel’s prayer. He was then able to tell the King what his dream meant, but only because God had revealed it to him. Daniel could have told the king that he was a very wise man, but instead Daniel told the king that the only reason he knew the dream was because the God in heaven had revealed it to him. Daniel faithfully, humbly, and studiously commits himself to his vocation by simply doing his job well and witnessing to God’s glory when given the chance. Through this we see an example of how to behave at work and honor God with our work.