Damariscotta Baptist Church

 

 

Genesis 2:15-17

We are reading through the book of Genesis and last week began reading through chapter two and I am going to hang out in this chapter for a couple of more weeks. So far we have read how God created the world and put humanity in the heart of it. Last week we focused on the idea of needing a place to belong, of having a home. God created a garden as a physical place for the humans to live with Him. Today, we are the spiritual home for the Holy Spirit and God makes Himself known to others through His believers. Our time of worship should be a place like home, where anyone can walk through the door and feel welcomed and comfortable. So we have looked at the idea of home, today we will focus on work, and next week we will look at the idea of family. 

When we look at today’s Scripture we discover that work was something given by God, 

to humanity, 

before the fall. 

That means it is a part of God’s good creation, and God’s design. Not only do we exist, but we exist for something and we are to contribute to what it is we exist for. We are meant to live and we are meant to live for something that is concrete. In verse 15 of chapter two we read, 

“The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.”

That’s called a job. 

God created a world with the idea of humans taking care of it in partnership with Him. 

Unlike today, where work is a necessity for us to provide for ourselves and our families, 

in the beginning, 

humanity didn’t have to work to get food. 

God said they could eat from any tree, except one. 

Food was abundant.  The command was for humans to join in taking care of the garden. Work at this point was not associated with toil. Work was a gift that gave humans purpose. Humans were more like gardeners before the fall. After the fall they had to become more like farmers. 

So we read that God created humans and then He provides them with purpose. Then in Genesis 2:19 we read, 

“Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 

So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals.”

God again, brings humanity alongside and asks him to  share in His work in naming the animals. By asking humanity to name the animals it’s a way of providing humans authority over the creation. This is also a way for humanity to contribute to the world in a creative way. When you think about it, this authority over creation and contributing to the betterment of the world is a direct correlation to being image bearers of God. 

Unfortunately it won’t take long for things to become messed up. It happens in the very next chapter. You have all heard the story. The serpent deceived the woman. She then offered the fruit to the man, who was sitting on the sideline. They both eat of it and can then decide what is right and wrong. 

The repercussions were that God curses the serpent, the emblem of Satan himself. However, interestingly, God doesn’t curse the man and the woman, what He does is He curses the ground. The Hebrew for that verse, can be translated a couple of ways, 

“Cursed is the ground because of you;” meaning because of what you’ve done, or it can be translated, 

“Cursed is the ground for your sake.”  or “actually for your good.”

Hebrew is such a complicated language to find English words to say what it means. So translations take context into account. I understand the translation that blames Adam and that for his mistake the ground is cursed. But the idea of God responding to Adam’s mistake by providing something for his good, follows my understanding of the New Testament. 

You start out with humans in the perfect garden, a place that humans are always trying to get back to. By cursing the ground God takes the ugliness of sin and brings beauty out of it. God makes it difficult, because if He left them in a place of ease and perfection, they would never again see their need for God. That would be the worst thing for them. God doesn’t punish the human but punishes their actions and the consequences of their actions was making their existence in the world more difficult and seeing their need to turn to God. 

God tells the humans, their work is not going to be easy. Their decision to take it upon themselves to know right from wrong actually brought about curses on eating. 

• The serpent from now on has to eat dust.
• Whatever the humans eat from now on will be difficult for them, it wasn’t going to come easily like it did in the garden. 

Work, like everything else, is convoluted. In fact, the concept of work has changed over the past couple of generations. Think about this. If you were to ask your grandfather this question, 

“Do you find your work satisfying?”

He would probably be confused by that question. He would probably have answered something like, “Yes, I enjoy it because it actually provides for my family.” 

This generation is not like that. It is far less about how it provides for others and more driven by does it make “me” personally happy. This is a complicated thing because it comes down to how we define values. Personal satisfaction or personal happiness in our work has become the most important thing. 

However, if we were to look at the trajectory of having a self-centered reason for working or existing, the things people want to do to bring themselves satisfaction are less hinged on reality and more based on fantasy. 

The number one thing children today want to be when they grow up is….. Famous. Check out the Pastor’s Pondering in your bulletin. 

When asked that question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” The number one answer was, “A YouTube Star.” 

Think about that for a second.

We all know what fame is, but do we really understand it? 

We know what it is when we see it, but once people get it they often no longer want it. It’s not wealth. 

There are lots of billionaires in our world that no one knows their names. 

They have earned wealth by running a company and live on a yacht most of the year.  Wealth is a part of what children want because they want to buy things, but mostly they want to be known at a spectacular level. When in reality, being famous comes at a cost. But this demonstrates where society has come by focusing on the pleasures of the individual. 

It has also corrupted our understanding of what it means to work. We can’t avoid the fact that work is necessary. It is also difficult. And if we believe what our society has told us that work is supposed to be about our personal happiness, then we are bound to be consistently discouraged. 

I would like to focus on three aspects of work from a Biblical perspective.

First, work is a gift, but also a necessity. 

Second, the motivation for work should be to consider others.

Third, work has limitations.

Let’s look at what Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 3:10-12,

“For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.”

We hear that some among you are idle and disruptive. They are not busy; they are busybodies. Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the food they eat.” 

If we go back to Genesis we remember that work was a gift to come alongside our Creator and join Him. It was never cursed. What was cursed was the ground, due to the fall. I don’t think this means God just did something to the ground. I think it was a change in humans. 

Now that humans are having to work to provide and because we are also in a fallen state, things are convoluted. Our weariness and the ways in which we tire and the ways we get bored and lose our sense of wonder. It’s tough getting older. Jesus said we need to become like little children. Somehow little children still have that sense of wonder. They can create fun and be enamored by the simplest things. If you have had toddlers in your home you know what I mean. 

You don’t have to purchase toys, just open the drawer with all the measuring cups and spoons. When Lydia and Emily were little they would spend hours playing with the plastic measuring cups and tupperware in the bottom drawer in our kitchen. 

The reason work gets difficult is that somehow we lose that sense of wonder as we get older. I have especially seen the loss in the sense of wonder around Christians. Much like the Puritans, many Christians are way too serious. Let’s face it, humans are ridiculous. Life is a tragic comedy, but the best way to get through it is to be able to laugh, especially at yourself. We really can’t take ourselves too seriously. The whole idea of being born again, means we get to relive, go back to that childlike wonder, and be grateful. We’ve been saved. We are ultimately okay. So even though work may be difficult, it is still a gift that we should find wonder in. 

Living on earth is difficult. Take a look at the Middle East right now. It’s a mess. Innocent children are being killed because of battles between factions. We are not masters of our universe. So please don’t think that by encouraging you to have a sense of wonder or have a lightness in how we take on our days, means that we diminish the pain and suffering that exists. It’s just that we should not be taking ourselves or our world very seriously, but we should always take Jesus and others very seriously. 

We should see work as a gift, but should also see it as a necessity. Let’s go back to what Paul said. Idleness was not an option. And for Paul, idleness or the unwillingness to contribute to the common good prevents the idle person and others from participating in the ultimate good, which is being a witness of Jesus Christ. 

What does that actually mean or look like? 

Today we live in an instantaneous culture where we are always trying to figure out ways to 

• Get fit without working out
• Get material things without working
• To get to “that goal” as quickly as possible