Adam & Eve at work
“And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion…” (Gen.1:28). That command has often been applied exclusively to human procreation, but the context of the passage indicates that there is more to it. What are we to multiply? Everything God created. He created food, and we are to multiply and distribute it. God created beauty, and we are to multiply it through the arts, fashion design, architecture, interior decorating, or even gardens and flowers to brighten the house. God created power, and we can harness it.
God called Adam and Eve to work in a setting of abundance. They were not working in order to eat. God provided the food to sustain them while they worked. Although most of us do not enjoy that luxury today, we do need to see an attitude implied here. Working merely to put food on the table soon makes life frustrating and meaningless. Work is our partnership with God in caring for His creation. It starts from the time we first learn responsibility as a child and continues until death.
Work and the Curse
If work was meant to be so good, why do not most people find it satisfying and enjoyable? The answer is in Genesis 3 – the curse. In verses 16 and 17, suddenly there is a new division of labor. The man and the woman get separate, and unequal, job descriptions. Competition, power struggles and contention entered the home and work place.
Understanding the curse helps us to accept the warning that things will seldom work out the way we plan them. Because of the curse we have to battle with disease, injustice, the innocent suffering with the guilty, and a multitude of things that “just ought not to be.” In the final sentence of the curse God described vocation. Under the curse we are locked into a struggle to survive, a struggle that we will inevitably lose. When the American Institute of Public Opinion made a nationwide survey of workers and their attitudes toward their work, it found that three out of every five workers hate their work.
Thankfully the Bible does not stop with the third chapter of Genesis. The story goes on. We are the people of promise and we live with a purpose and a hope (Ephesians 1:11-14). Spiritual activity is an important part of the Christian life, but it is only a small part of the picture. Work is our primary expression of faith and praise to God. Work is one of our ways of being of service to the neighbors He commands us to love. Work expresses our responsible stewardship of His gifts, and is the most effective means of communicating the good news of salvation to the world.
Most adults spend one-third to one-half of their lives working. This is more time than they devote to any other activity. Work was designed to be a partnership with God. There is no more humbling thought than that of St. Augustine: “Without God, we cannot. Without us, God will not.” A good expression of our divine commission is the line from Robert Frost:
“The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.”
What makes life worth living and work sacred is:
1. Having a covenant with God (promises to keep)
2. A sense of mission (miles to go before I sleep)
