Genesis Principles - Work

Continuing with the principles from Genesis that will continue to shape our lives, let's look at the concept of work. (I know, I know. "Look, Stan, if you're going to use four-letter words in this blog, I'm going to stop reading!" Bear with me.)

Many, many today view work as "the enemy". I've heard a lot of Christians who argue that work is a product of the Fall. They idea is that in an ideal world where there was not sin we'd be sitting around eating grapes and doing no work at all. That would be heaven on earth. So ... what does Genesis say about it?

And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth" (Gen 1:28).

Now, that's interesting. Before the Fall, before sin, before Adam really messed things up, we have instructions from God: "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it." Apparently God started with the concept of fruitful labor. Let's see if that's consistent.

Now out of the ground the LORD God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name (Gen 2:19).

It would appear, then, that the very first thing we see God doing with Adam was to give him a job: name the animals. Imagine that! The time, the effort, the creativity, the bookkeeping. Okay, maybe not bookkeeping, but he not only had to name every creature but remember that name. Try it sometime. How many words can you make up? And remember afterwards? And this job that God assigned Adam was for a purpose. God understood that it was not good for Man to be alone, so He had Adam see all the animals (with mates) to recognize his own need for a mate.

The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him (Gen 2:20).

Get it, Adam? You are different. You need something. You need "a helper fit" for you.

One of the fundamental principles set down in Creation was the need to work. Man was given jobs to do. There was the tending of the garden. There was the subduing of the earth. There was being fruitful and multiplying. Work, work, work. It wasn't a curse; it was a product of a good God as a good thing to His good creation.

Later we find that things change. As a product of the Fall, Eve is promised pain in childbearing (which wouldn't have been there if no sin had occurred) and Adam is told

"Cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return" (Gen 3:17-19).

Don't buy the lie. Work is not of the devil. Fruitful labor is not a curse. Doing work is a gift from God, part of His original design for humans, something that remains today. Our popular American attempt to minimize work and glorify play is a product of Satan, not God. While it is true that work was made harder by sin (ironically, part of the sentence for the human race for violating God's command was hard labor for life), God ordained work and it is for our benefit. This is still true today. So is the command -- "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it." We haven't succeeded at either, and today's world is pushing us toward giving up on both. And for those of you who dream of winning the lottery (or hitting it big some other way) and spending the rest of your life in leisure, understand that you'd be doing so against God's original design ... for your good. Hey, I have an idea! How about if we begin to appreciate the work God has given us to do? Well, it's a thought, anyway, even if work is a four-letter word.