“Finish the work, otherwise an unfinished work will finish you.”
— Amit Kalantri
When Isaac, the promised son of Abraham, was sixty years old, Rebekah gave birth to twin boys: Esau and Jacob (Genesis 25:24–26). From the very beginning, their lives pointed in opposite directions. “Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the open country, while Jacob was content to stay at home among the tents” (Genesis 25:27). Favoritism soon followed. Isaac loved Esau; Rebekah loved Jacob. The family split along those lines.
Esau grew up valuing what he could see and taste right now. He sold his sacred birthright for a single bowl of stew, later showed no real repentance, and married outside the covenant people. He lived for the present, treated holy things with contempt, and refused to take responsibility for his choices.
God had already spoken the future to Rebekah:
“Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger.”
— Genesis 25:23
Those two boys became two nations. Jacob became Israel. Esau became the father of Edom and of the Amalekites—persistent enemies of God’s people.
Joseph, Jacob’s eleventh son, was sold into slavery by his own brothers. God used that betrayal to save the family when famine struck. Joseph rose to second-in-command in Egypt, and Jacob’s household settled in Goshen. There they stayed for more than four hundred years—first as guests, then as slaves.
Four Centuries of Hatred
God sent Moses to deliver them. Because of their unbelief, the journey that should have been short stretched into forty years of wandering. It was during that weary pilgrimage that the Amalekites struck. They waited until Israel was exhausted and then attacked the stragglers at the rear—the weak, the tired, those who could not keep up. “They had no fear of God” (Deuteronomy 25:17–18).
Moses climbed a hill and watched the battle. Whenever he raised his hands toward heaven, Israel prevailed; whenever his arms drooped, Amalek gained ground. Aaron and Hur held his arms up until the sun set and the victory was complete.
Then the Lord issued a standing decree:
“Write this on a scroll as something to be remembered and make sure that Joshua hears it, because I will completely blot out the name of Amalek from under heaven.”
— Exodus 17:14
The Incomplete Work
Approximately three or four hundred years later, the prophet Samuel gave King Saul the order to finish what God had begun:
“Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.”
— 1 Samuel 15:3
Saul won the battle. He did not, however, finish the work. He spared King Agag and kept the best of the livestock. His excuse sounded spiritual: “The soldiers spared the best of the sheep and cattle to sacrifice to the Lord your God, but we totally destroyed the rest.”
Samuel answered with God’s own words:
“Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord?
To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.
For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has rejected you as king.”
— 1 Samuel 15:22–23
A finished work is obedience. An unfinished work—even one dressed up with a religious excuse—is disobedience. God expects the task to be completed and done well.
The Shadow That Lasted Six Hundred Years
Roughly six hundred years after Saul’s incomplete campaign, the Jews were living as exiles in Persia. Esther, a Jewish orphan, had become queen, and her uncle Mordecai worked in the palace. At the same time another exile rose to power: “King Xerxes honored Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, elevating him and giving him a seat of honor higher than that of all the other nobles” (Esther 3:1).
Haman immediately began plotting “to destroy all Mordecai’s people, the Jews, throughout the whole kingdom of Xerxes” (Esther 3:6). He was a descendant of Agag, the Amalekite king Saul had refused to kill.
Because Saul left the job unfinished, Israel once again faced annihilation in a foreign land. If Saul had obeyed completely, the book of Esther would never have been written. That book stands as a permanent reminder: a mediocre, incomplete piece of work can send shockwaves across centuries.
What kind of work are you doing today? Do you have a “good excuse” for leaving things half-done? Are you always too busy to finish well?
Scripture keeps calling us to excellence:
- “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.” (Colossians 3:23–24)
- “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.” (Ecclesiastes 9:10)
- “All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty.” (Proverbs 14:23)
- “Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people.” (Ephesians 6:7)
- “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” (Galatians 6:9)
Our calling is to finish the work and to finish it well. The future—sometimes far more future than we imagine—depends on it.
Italo Osorio 2026
Photo by Tanja Tepavac on Unsplash
