God made us to work too
There are two main verses where God gives people his instructions for what to do in the world he has made:
“Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” (Genesis 1:28)
The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. (Genesis 2:15)
I’ve taken four phrases from these verses that give an overview of what humanity are called to do. All of these overlap to some extent, and they share the same theme: as those made in God’s image, we are called to work too.
Work
The Hebrew word used here is used later on in the Bible to describe what the priests did in the tabernacle, and later the temple (e.g. Numbers 3:7-8). The priests worked on behalf of the people of God – and in a similar way, humanity is to work on behalf of God. We are his stewards; or to put it another way, we “mediate” his rule to creation. God created the world, and we are to continue to work at it, develop it, find its full potential. We are to be creative, just as he is. This means everything from agriculture to architecture, from manufacturing to music. (Conveniently alliterative, but also all found in Genesis 4!)
Take care
We’re to preserve and protect creation – not destroying what is good, but making something better. We’re to pass things on to the next generation. Here we get hints of teaching, history, parenting. All good forms of work for God’s people to be involved with.
Fill the earth
The Garden of Eden was only the start. Genesis tells us that four rivers flowed out of Eden, watering the earth (Genesis 2:10-14), and God’s people are to do the same – spreading out from the garden to bless the rest of creation. This means having children (“Be fruitful and increase in number”), building cities, developing communities. It means exploration and discovery. It involves geographers, and sociologists, and people to build boats and bridges.
Subdue
The last word sounds more negative than it should, like its neighbour “rule over”. The original word seems to have the idea of ruling over and taming the earth so that it benefits people. It started out with farming, but more generally it’s seen in bringing order out of chaos – taking the world and transforming it into Eden.
So if work is God’s good gift to us, why is it so frustrating? Next time we’ll look at the effects of the Fall on God’s call for us to work, and our experience of it.
(For further reading, try Maximum Life by Julian Hardyman, whose book contains a far more in depth look at this very topic.)
Last week we ran a seminar on work for our fourth year students. As there was too much to cover in the time we had, and as the content might be useful for others, I hope to post a series of entries on the topic over the coming weeks. We thought about what the doctrines of Creation, Fall and Redemption have to say about work, so we’ll begin with Creation.
God worked to create a good, physical world
God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning – the sixth day.
Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.
By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. (Genesis 1:31-2:2)
Work is something that God does. The Bible describes his creating the universe as “work”. And he doesn’t just set the world spinning, then sit back and relax. He continually upholds everything. Colossians 1:17 tells us that “all things hold together” in Jesus. Jesus says in John 5:17, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too am working.”
God is a worker. And he works to create a world that is both physical and good. Too often Christians forget the innate goodness of the physicality of this world. We can start to think that it’s only the spiritual that matters. But the Bible reminds us that when God made this world, he said it was good. Life isn’t meant to be like one long prayer meeting; God made a good, physical world for us to enjoy and live in.
Continued on Wednesday…
I wrote this for the 2010 general election. Given the elections in the US at the moment, I thought it worth revising and reposting.
Christians, listen. The one who currently reigns over the nations of men is the one who died a sinner’s death to bring you to the Father. Jesus is sovereign; Jesus is Lord. Whichever president is elected tonight, this will not change. You don’t need to worry! You can be disappointed, that’s allowed. But Jesus is still Lord.
It’s very tempting for Christians to forget that the ultimate political authority in the world belongs to the one who makes and removes governments according to his sovereign will. In the whirlwind of an election campaign, we can become so impassioned about our party or our candidate that this drops off the radar. We turn on our brothers and sisters from the other parties without realising it by issuing blanket criticisms. If we remember the true King, how can we do this? Politics is vitally important, but not of ultimate importance. We can argue our cases, and seek the common good for this world, always letting the Bible show us what our priorities should be in this. We can throw ourselves into the world of politics, campaigning, running, lobbying and voting. But when Paul writes “there is no Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, man nor woman, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28), he could well have added “no blue or red”. We cannot be too aggressively critical of our political opponents. We may disagree utterly, but we would be no better were it not for God’s grace at work in our lives. We have no right to feel self-righteous. Far be it from us to boast “except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to [us], and [we] to the world” (Galatians 6:14). As we seek to be salt and light in our society, we should be distinctive in this way without exception, whatever our political views.
The president of the US is not the most powerful man in the world. His name is Jesus, and in him we see what a perfect ruler looks like. Let’s pray that our leaders would seek to imitate him – in humility, gentleness and sacrificial love – as we seek to do the same.