Sometimes you hear preachers or churches claim to be doing God’s work.  Are such claims correct?  Let’s see how the uses the term “the work of God”.

Example 1

When God gave ancient Israel the Ten Commandments written on two tablets, the tablets are described as “the work of God”.

Exo 32:16  Now the tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God engraved on the tablets.

Why?  Because God made or carved the tablets Himself.  Moses broke these first set of tablets and had to carve the second set himself.

Exo 34:1  And the LORD said to Moses, “Cut two tablets of stone like the first ones, and I will write on these tablets the words that were on the first tablets which you broke.

So in this example, the work of God is something that God did.

Example 2

Here is another example. 

Deu 32:3  For I proclaim the name of the LORD: Ascribe greatness to our God.
Deu 32:4  He is the Rock, His work is perfect; For all His ways are justice, A God of truth and without injustice; Righteous and upright is He.

God’s work is perfect.  What man does is imperfect, so the term “His work” is used to describe something that God does.

Example 3

When Nehemiah rebuilt the wall around Jerusalem, the work is described as “this work done by God”.

Neh 2:12  Then I arose in the night, I and a few men with me; I told no one what my God had put in my heart to do at Jerusalem;

Neh 6:15  So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of Elul, in fifty-two days.
Neh 6:16  And it happened, when all our enemies heard of it, and all the nations around us saw these things, that they were very disheartened in their own eyes; for they perceived that this work was done by our God.

In this example, God put in Nehemiah’s heart the desire to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem.  It was God’s will that the wall should be rebuilt.  The actual rebuilding of the wall was done by Nehemiah and his workers, yet it is described as “this work was done by our God”.  Thus we can conclude that another use of the term the “work of God” is to describe work done by God’s servants in performing God’s will.

Example 4

Psa 64:7  But God shall shoot at them with an arrow; Suddenly they shall be wounded.
Psa 64:8  So He will make them stumble over their own tongue; All who see them shall flee away.
Psa 64:9  All men shall fear, And shall declare the work of God; For they shall wisely consider His doing.

This example describes how God intervenes to determine the vanquished in such as way that men recognize God’s intervention.  This intervention is described as the work of God.  Again in this example, the work of God is something that God did.

Example 5

Ecc 7:13  Consider the work of God; For who can make straight what He has made crooked?

Ecc 8:16  When I applied my heart to know wisdom and to see the business that is done on earth, even though one sees no sleep day or night,
Ecc 8:17  then I saw all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun. For though a man labors to discover it, yet he will not find it; moreover, though a wise man attempts to know it, he will not be able to find it.

The term “the work of God” is used here in Ecclesiastes to describe God’s creation or what God has done directly.

Example 6

Isa 29:22  Therefore thus says the LORD, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob: “Jacob shall not now be ashamed, Nor shall his face now grow pale;
Isa 29:23  But when he sees his children, The work of My hands, in his midst, They will hallow My name, And hallow the Holy One of Jacob, And fear the God of Israel.

The offspring of the house of Jacob are described as the “work of My hands”.  The work is something God did.

Example 7

Jer 50:24  You have indeed been trapped, O Babylon, And you were not aware; You have been found and also caught, Because you have contended against the LORD.
Jer 50:25  The LORD has opened His armory, And has brought out the weapons of His indignation; For this is the work of the Lord GOD of hosts In the land of the Chaldeans.
Jer 50:26  Come against her from the farthest border; Open her storehouses; Cast her up as heaps of ruins, And destroy her utterly; Let nothing of her be left.

Jer 51:9  We would have healed Babylon, But she is not healed. Forsake her, and let us go everyone to his own country; For her judgment reaches to heaven and is lifted up to the skies.
Jer 51:10  The LORD has revealed our righteousness. Come and let us declare in Zion the work of the LORD our God.
Jer 51:11  Make the arrows bright! Gather the shields! The LORD has raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes. For His plan is against Babylon to destroy it, Because it is the vengeance of the LORD, The vengeance for His temple.

This example describes how God intervened to destroy ancient Babylon.  This is described as the work of God.  Again in this example, the work of God is something that God did.

Example 8

Joh 6:28  Then they said to Him, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?”
Joh 6:29  Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.”

Here, the work of God is something we do which God wants us to do.  God is bringing many sons (and daughters) to glory.  That is God’s work, what God is doing.

Heb 2:10  For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.

Part of that process involves us believing in “Him whom He sent”.  The term the “work of God” is used in this example to describe work done by God’s servants in performing God’s will.

Example 9

Rom 14:19  Therefore let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another.
Rom 14:20  Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All things indeed are pure, but it is evil for the man who eats with offense.

When you look at the context it is clear that “the work of God” is what was doing with the brethren in the church at Rome in making them more Christ-like.

Conclusion

In this short article we have looked at examples of how the Bible uses the term “the work of God”.  (I have tried to cover all examples.  If I have missed any, please let me know.)  From the way the Bible uses the term we can see two different usages of the term “the work of God”:

1. Something that God does directly.
2. Something done by God’s servants in performing God’s will.

At the beginning we asked if claims that preachers or churches make to be doing God’s work are correct?  If they are God’s servants performing God’s will, then yes.  But determining if this is the case may not be easy.