Working and Caring: “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it…” Why are we here? What is our purpose? So much of our God-given purpose is found in our work. Good work can be paid or unpaid, in or outside the home, in a variety of roles or industries. People were created to do good work. Recorded on Jan 30, 2022, on Genesis 2:4-17, by Pastor David Parks.
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This sermon is part of our series, The Making of Heaven and Earth. There are few more important chapters ever written than the first three chapters of Genesis. These chapters dramatically shape our understanding of who we are, where we’ve come from, and the reason why things are the way they are today. More importantly, they introduce us to the God who created and sustains all things.
Sermon Transcript
All year, we’re talking about The Greatness of God. And today, we’re continuing a sermon series called The Making of Heaven and Earth from Genesis 1-3. As we’ve said, there are few more important chapters ever written than the first three chapters of Genesis. The creation narratives of the Bible shape our understanding of who we are, where we’ve come from, and the reason why things are the way they are today. But more importantly, they introduce us to the God who created and sustains all things. Two weeks ago, Ted kicked off this series looking at the pattern of creation by a God who speaks. Creation doesn’t come by chance or by conflict, but by God’s word which brings light out of darkness and order out of chaos. And the power/authority of God’s word results in flourishing life. Last week, Joe preached on the intent of God in creating human beings, both male and female, and the incredible worth we have as creatures made in the image of God. We’ve already considered some foundational truths: you are not an accident, but the good intention of a creator who speaks. And you are not left having to create your own worth, but rather, you have infinite worth because of how God made you. Well, today we’re considering the creation of work, and this is a story of purpose. We’ve seen, so far, the stage on which these human creatures, loved and made in the image of God, are supposed to play — a beautiful world, teaming with life. But what have we been created to do? People have always wrestled with this question. Why are we here? Is there some God-given purpose for our lives? The answer, in Ge 2, is absolutely yes. If you have a Bible/app, please open to Genesis 2:4.
Genesis 2:4-17 (NIV), “4 This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, when the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. 5 Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth[a] and no plant had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground, 6 but streams[b] came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground. 7 Then the Lord God formed a man[c] from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. 8 Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. 9 The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 10 A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters. 11 The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 (The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin[d] and onyx are also there.) 13 The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush.[e] 14 The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Ashur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. 15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”
Traditionally, the first five books of the Bible, called the Torah, are understood to have been written by Moses, the famous prophet/leader of the people of ancient Israel during the time of the Exodus. Obviously, Moses wasn’t an eyewitness of the events here in Genesis. He would’ve had to rely on the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and the oral record of his ancestors. Moses wasn’t writing these things down in a vacuum but in the cultural context of the near-east about 3,500 years ago. Egypt was the reigning world power and had been for a thousand years. What God had promised to the family of Abraham was in the process of coming true. God had freed them from captivity in Egypt and was leading them into the Promised Land. Now, why do I bring this up? Because it was the perfect time for Israel to learn from God these foundational truths: who God is, what he is like, who they were created to be and what they were created to do. And, of course, we need the same thing today as well. Our understanding of our own identity/purpose shapes everything. So much sin and struggle come from not knowing who you are or what your purpose is. With that said, let’s go back and work through this text together. v. 4.
Genesis 2:4 (NIV), “This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, when the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.” Let’s pause here. So this introductory statement, “This is the account of…” or “These are the generations of…” is one of the design features of the book of Genesis. There are 10 such statements in Genesis starting here with the account of the heavens and the earth. They continue in chapter 5 with the account of Adam’s family line and are completed with the account of Jacob/Israel’s family line from chp 37 through the end of the book. So here, the stage is set, the lights dim, and the curtains rise on the first act of the drama about to unfold in the heavens and the earth. But wait, you might think, didn’t we already get the creation of the heavens and the earth two weeks ago in Ge 1? There’s much more that could be said about this than we now have time. But I will say there is a clue here in v. 4 as to why we need both accounts. It’s subtle, but you might notice there’s a change in the order from the heavens and the earth to the earth and the heavens. I believe this signals a change in focus from God’s perspective of the creation narrative in chapter 1, down to the rich soil of the earth, well-watered and full of the potential for life in chapter 2. Chapter 1 is a zoomed-out view of the cosmos with a divine poet speaking life into being. While chapter 2 is a zoomed-in view of the earth with God working instead as an artisan, sculpting the man like a potter working with clay. We see this in v.7. Let’s look at that.
Genesis 2:7 (NIV), “Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” The man’s name is Adam because he is of the earth. In Hebrew, the man (adām) comes from the earth (adāmāh). But notice how the man is described, as the dust of the ground with the breath of life. He’s both a physical and a spiritual being and this is vital for us to understand. You are both a physical creature, a body, the dust of the earth, made of particles/atoms/molecules/cells and subject to all the laws of biology/chemistry/physics and such. But at the same time, you are also a spiritual creature, a soul, created by God with value and purpose and filled with the breath of life, that is, the Spirit of the living God. You are a soul with a body, an embodied soul who will live forever and ever regardless of what happens to your body or mind. But do you know what this means? This means that our bodies matter to God. If they didn’t, God wouldn’t have bothered with them in creation and wouldn’t need to bother with resurrecting them in the age to come. The body and all the sometimes unusual functions of a body are all part of what God called “very good.” Now, of course, your soul matters too (and maybe more than your body in some ways), but far too many people are ashamed of their bodies or act as if our bodies are disposable. This is simply not true. Human beings are creatures, both male and female, made in the image of God, and are physical/spiritual beings — the dust of the earth with the breath of life in them. Fundamentally, this is who we are, this is our identity. But what about our purpose? What were we made to do?? V.15.
Genesis 2:15-17 (NIV), “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” Ok, I have three observations here. First: Eden is presented as a garden temple for the human creatures. A temple in the bible is a place where heaven and earth, where both God’s space and our space, come together. At this point, there is no separation, no danger, or threat from the holiness of God because everything is holy. Just think of how different this is from the many encounters with God from our previous sermon series, Adam doesn’t fall down in terror or hide in fear or even get a little nervous by the Lord walking in the garden. This was the intention of the creator, to be with us, that we would be his people and he would be our God with nothing to fear, with no guilt or shame. Only holy joy, loving fellowship. This is what we were made to enjoy: an abundant, flourishing life in a garden temple. Amazing. Does God have our best in mind? This is the type of world he made for us!
My second observation is that the creator defines the lives (including the work) of his creatures by his word. God gives the man a job description for the garden: to work it and to care for it. What does this mean? Well, to work a garden means to clear/cultivate the land, to remove rocks and weeds and turn over the soil to prepare for planting, to dig and to build, and to labor to provide the most optimal environment for life/growth. There’s a need to develop the raw materials found in the garden, of gaining knowledge and using hard work/skill (in partnership with God’s providence of sun/rain) to make things flourish. If you’ve ever done any gardening, you know it’s hard, sweaty work. But it’s very satisfying work. You can see exactly what you’ve accomplished and eventually, you get to enjoy the harvest. You can plan your work and work your plan, and watch it all unfold how you intended. This is the kind of work we were all created to do: hard but fruitful work, taking the raw material of God’s creation and developing it so that it might be good, well-ordered, and contribute to flourishing life. But there’s one other responsibility in the job description. God placed the man in the garden to work it and to take care of it. There’s a need for development, but there’s also a need to care/keep/watch over/guard it. What does this mean? I suspect that even in perfection if you let a garden sit or you only develop new land, everything you’ve worked on and all the development you’ve done in the past, will not keep. A garden needs to be tended. There’s a need to protect the environment, to guard the good work that’s already been done, to keep the weeds/predators from consuming/destroying the fruit of your labor. This is true of gardening, but this is true in every possible job/career/industry today, is it not? We need the pioneers/inventors/founders forging new paths/discoveries/technologies. But we also need good managers/governors/leaders to care for and keep the people/systems/structures/organizations that already exist. This is the great purpose of humanity. We all need to be about working and caring for God’s creation. Applied to the home and family, we need both the work of procreation and the care of parenting, of creating new life and working hard to raise those new lives into full maturity. This is working and caring. Applied to the marketplace, we need both the work of starting new businesses which bring order to chaos and contribute to flourishing life, and we need the care of managing/strengthening/protecting those businesses as they grow. Applied to education, we need both the creative work of the arts and the sciences, of creating new stories or architecture or research, but also the care of passing on what has come before to new generations of students. This is working and caring.
My final observation of this brief but important passage is that God’s word provides the only real boundaries in this garden temple. There’s only one rule in Eden, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” Now, as a child, I wondered why in the world would God leave this dangerous tree in the middle of the garden? New parents childproof their cabinets and electrical outlets but God just leaves this deadly tree right there in the middle. But the more I’ve reflected on this it’s become clear to me, this command has far more to do with listening to and obeying God’s word (regardless of whether or not we understand it) than it has to do with the tree itself. Do not pursue moral knowledge. It’s only logical that in a life/world created/sustained by the word of God, to reject the word of God is to choose certain death. Now, there’s much more to say about this topic as well, but we’ll unpack this more in two weeks when we consider the fall in Ge 3. But what does all this mean for us today? How do we apply this teaching to our lives? Hopefully, you’ve already started to think about what this teaching means for your identity and your purpose as a human being: dust of the earth with the breath of life, put in this world to work it and to care for it. But I’d like to close with just one big idea today:
You were created to do good work. The man in the garden is clearly meant to represent all of humanity and our human vocation. This means it doesn’t really matter what you do for work. It doesn’t matter if you’re a doctor/nurse, teacher/student, engineer/architect/artist, pastor, police officer, a cashier at the grocery store, or a stay-at-home mom. It doesn’t matter if you’re highly paid, underpaid, or aren’t paid at all. It doesn’t really matter what industry you work in. You could work in the home/healthcare, education/government, ministry/marketplace, arts/sciences, for-profit/not-for-profit. All of these roles are opportunities to find and enjoy your purpose, to work and care for a little part of our Father’s world. For the Christian, of course, there are jobs or even whole industries that aren’t in line with the character or commands of Christ, but there’s great freedom here as well. Whatever you do for work, can be done for the glory of God. Now, this isn’t the garden of Eden, this isn’t a perfect world anymore. So maybe our work isn’t always as productive as it could be or perhaps our careers haven’t turned out exactly how we had planned or maybe you’ve lost a lot of sleep lately from the difficulty/stress of your work. But this doesn’t mean that your work has been in vain. A good job, done well, working as God works in creation, bringing light into darkness and order into chaos and contributing in big/small ways to abundant, flourishing life — all of this brings glory to God. As the story unfolds, we’ll see that because of sin, our work will never be as fruitful as it might have been. Our fields will produce thorns and thistles as well as fruit and grain. Our work relationships will sometimes be helpful and enjoyable and long-lasting. But at times will also breed conflict, mistrust, envy, dishonesty, and all manner of strife. But all this points to our great need for salvation, our need for grace and redemption, our need for Jesus. But in the gospel, we discover that the God who made all things, came into the world he had made in order to seek and to save the lost. And it was through the work of Jesus, his perfect obedience to the word of God, his life and death and resurrection from the dead, that we might be freed by grace to do the good works that God has prepared for us to do. So today, you were created to do good work. And in Christ, we find that not only our work unlocks our purpose, but that because of his work, we can also rest and find rest for our souls.