Service, But Not Work

Rabbi Daniel tells the story:


Once upon a time, a pair of 19th-century railroad laborers, Bill and Jeb, were laying track in the desolate wilderness of the American West. This is about the hardest work you can imagine, and the two were old-timers. They’d been laying track for decades. One day a surprise visit was made to the work site by no less a dignitary than the president of the railroad himself. While inspecting the work that was going on, the great and august man came upon our pair of dusty laborers. His eyes lit up.


“Well, hello, Jeb!” he said. “You old scoundrel!”


Jeb looked bashful at first, but then the railroad president threw his arms around the exhausted laborer. He asked about Jeb’s wife and family, shook his hand warmly, then finally moved along to complete the inspection.


Bill was amazed. “When did you ever know him?”


Jeb explained that thirty years earlier the two of them had worked together laying track. Needles to say, through the intervening years the other man had enjoyed greater success than had poor Jeb.


“So,” asked Bill, “what company were the two of your working for back then?”


“Well,” Jeb replied, “he was working for the railroad.”


“What do you mean ‘he was working for the railroad’? What about you? What were you working for?”


“Oh,” said Jeb, looking a bit wistful, “I was working for 50¢ a day.” (Buried Treasure, pp 117-118)


Do you know anyone like Jeb? Do you know anyone like the railroad president?


The word in Hebrew for work is AVoDaH. The word means “service”—from either the type of service you get in a restaurant to a worship service. The first and last letters of the root form of the word (ayin, or A, and dalet, or D) form the word for “witness”. Moreover, some of the other words beginning and ending with these letters are the words for “future” (ATiD), stand (AMaD), and bind (AKaD). Rabbi Daniel says:

Confused? Don’t be; another way to put what I’ve just explained is to say that witnessing ... is an activity that somehow forms the common spiritual link between four related themes: doing service or work (AVoDaH), being in the future (ATiD), standing up (AMaD), and binding (AKaD). (p 118)

A witness has to stand up in court. A witness gives binding testimony. How else are these words related?





In Romans 12:1-2 Paul says to the church in Rome:

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. [i.e. service]


Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

How do witnessing, serving, being in the future, standing up, and binding relate to these verses?


In your Christian walk, do you toil with no view towards the future (like Jeb) or do you serve the boss with a view towards the future (like the railroad president)?