Human Work: Assigned, the Cursed, then Redeemed
Human Work: Assigned, then Cursed, then Redeemed.
“The Lord God took Adam and placed him in the Garden of Delight in order to work it and keep it.” (Genesis 2:15).
Mankind’s First Assignment. After Creator God’s magnificent work in His creation of the universe, Adam was put right to work himself. Made in God’s image, Adam had a job to do as well. The Lord was a Worker-man, and thus so was Adam, and later Eve as well. In the beginning of the world, right there in the Garden of Eden, the Paradise of Pleasure, work was assigned to the first man and was intended to be satisfying, meaningful, productive. At that point, work was not a necessary evil, since there was no evil yet before the fall. Work only became a drudgery after the fall from grace, after Adam and Eve’s disobedience to God. Before then, work was obviously planned by the Lord, because He wanted His people to have something useful to do, to give them a stake in their world, a role in caring for themselves. God intended from the start that mankind was to be productive and responsible for their livelihood. Work at this time in history occurred while Adam and nature were in harmony, and work was immensely enjoyable. At this point, the world was not yet a hostile environment. But in the beginning, work was an important aspect of man’s identity and purpose, and so work was inherently a very good thing in the life of Adam and in the mind of the Maker. In other words, work was ordained by Creator God to remain a part of the fabric of mankind’s reason for being. Work is not a consequence of sin and so is an inherently holy activity.
- To Work It: The Hebrew word for “work” in Genesis 2:15 had two meanings… manual labor, and worship. So Adam was put to work in cultivating the garden, tilling it, tending it, caring for it and making it fruitful. But we have largely ignored the other meaning for work in Scripture, which is to serve and minister to God, to worship Him through the work itself. So right from the start manual labor was intended to be a joyful act of worshipping the Creator.
- To Keep It. The Hebrew word for “keep” in this passage means to watch closely over it, to guard it, to protect it, to keep an eye on it. This was God’s plan in the beginning, for man to be a responsible caretaker and guardian, and not merely the gardener. The Lord delegated His creation’s well-being to human kind as it’s protection detail, its watchman, its guardian. Adam was asked to be the Garden’s papa bear, and Eve its mama bear, as they protect Paradise and enable it to flourish to God’s liking.
God’s Curse. But then tragedy struck in the middle of Paradise. Adam and Eve did not trust that God had their best interests in mind and disobeyed His very specific instructions. The results of this Fall from grace were felt throughout creation. First, God cursed the most precious part of womanhood, bringing new life into the world, and declared that birthing a child would henceforth be a painful process. And now God’s attention turned to Adam for His punishment for disobeying the Lord… “The very ground is cursed because of you, Adam. Getting food from the ground will be as painful as having babies is for your wife. You’ll be working in pain all your life long. The ground will sprout thorns and weeds, you’ll get your food the hard way – planting and tilling and weeding and harvesting, sweating in the fields from dawn to dusk. You will now experience sweat from your brow as you work the ground, as you fight for every crumb of food. Your forehead will drip sweat in order for you to taste even a morsel of bread. In sorrow and toil, in anger and frustration, you shall work the ground all your life.” (Genesis 3:17-19). So what was once a completely pleasant experience of working in Paradise has become a terrible struggle, a source of anxiety and worry. What was once a complete joy to sustain life has become a supreme difficulty. What once was a divine assignment and thus a glorious privilege has turned from a blessing into a divine curse full of toil and trouble.
Sweat from the Brow.
“It is not only prayer that gives God glory, but work. Smiting an anvil, sawing a beam, whitewashing a wall, driving horses… To lift up the hands in prayer gives God glory, but a man with a dungfork in his hand, a woman with a slop pail, give Him glory too. God is so great that all things give Him glory if you mean they should.” (from a sermon by Gerard Manley Hopkins).