Introduction
As disciples of Jesus, we are called to rethink the totality of our lives in accordance to the Kingdom of God. A large portion of our life is our labor, our work. Humans need a story, a grand story that makes sense of all of the days and moments that make up our lives. We need a story that makes sense of our work, why it matters and how it moves the story forward. The Bible gives us this story of work.
God was the first worker in the Bible. Genesis 1 is God transforming the “wild and waste” into a habitable place for humans to be present and flourish. Go makes humans in His image and they become His first co-workers. Work is part of being made in the image of God.
God’s design for work is turning the “wild and waste” into “order and beauty.”
Work is an “others-centered” activity. God works to share the fruits of His labor with others. He gives us a vision of work that is more than for mere survival, but for sharing. God wants to share this creation with humans.
God’s ultimate vision of work is for sharing, not just survival.
Humans in the Image of God
On the 6th Day, God creates His first co-workers. They follow God’s pattern of Work in that they are called to go into the raw potential of the “tohu vavohu” (“wild wastelands”) and harness it into order for the benefit of others.
Genesis 1:26-28 (ESV) Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 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.”
Human beings are the only creatures on Day 6 who are told to reproduce. Humans are commissioned to intentionally reproduce themselves (compared to the animal kingdom, who do so instinctively). The way we are to relate to the “tofu vavohu” world is different than the other creatures; we don not just make more of ourselves, we make families, and neighborhoods, and communities, and cities, that make culture and society. Flowers make more flowers, humans make bouquets. Orange trees make more orange trees, humans make orchards.
To “subdue” the earth does not have any hint of negativity or exploitation with it here. It means to assert our will over something, harnessing its potential for a larger purpose. It literally is referring to agriculture here, to yield the earth’s potential. God has subdued the “tohu vavohu” and turned it into “tov” (“good”), and calls humans to imitate Him in that same work.
Work with Care and Wisdom
Genesis 2 fleshes out a little bit more of God’s work of turning the “tohu vavohu” into a good and beautiful creation and how humans fit into His plans for the world.
Genesis 2:5-10 (ESV) When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground— then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers.
The picture being painted here is God forming (like a potter forming clay into vessel – Jeremiah 18, Isaiah 43) humans from the dust and creating His life into them (dirt and divine breath) in order to be His commissioned gardeners, extending the garden to the rest of the world.
Genesis 2:15 (ESV) The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.
Here we see how God assigns humans work: to labor and to care for His garden. Man was made (formed and fashioned) to work hard. The way humans are to work on whatever they are doing is to “keep” it. “Keep” here is a word that is used many different ways in Scripture, but the framing of the word is generally work done with care, like shepherding. To “keep” sheep was to watch over them, guard them, protect them, pay close attention to their needs, care for them. It’s a word that describes “watchman” on cities walls “watching” or “keeping” the city, they are guarding it and paying attention to potential dangers in order to protect its citizens. It’s also a word used for how we “keep” God’s law, which is to pay attention to them, contemplate what they mean, be careful to obey them in every situation. The word “keep” when it comes to our labor is that whatever we are doing in our work, we are to pay close attention to it, care for our work, consider its effects on our world, and bring God’s goodness and order into it, extending that order and goodness as you bring out the raw potential of whatever you are working on. “Keeping” and caring is the appropriate way we “subdue” the earth. We don’t enslave it, we tend to it.
“Work” (2:2) – labor and property as a result of labor – Proverbs 22:29, 24:27;
“Work” (2:15) – to serve, or enslave, keep in bondage, to compel – Proverbs 12:11
“Keep” (Hebrew – “shamar”) – guard; to protect, attend to, take heed, look narrowly, observe, preserve, regard, reserve, save wait for, watch, as in a “watchman.”
Genesis 17:9 – Abraham instructed to “keep” God’s covenant with him
Genesis 30:31 – Jacob asks for sheep to “keep” as payment
Exodus 31:13 – Israel instructed to “keep” the Sabbath(s)
Psalm 119:9 – our way is made pure by “guarding” it according to God’s word
Psalm 121:3-4 – God “keeps” Israel in protection
Psalm 127:1 – Unless the Lord “watches” over the city
Proverbs 13:3 – wisdom is to “guard” our mouths
Proverbs 19:16 – in “keeping” God’s commandment we “keep” our lives
Proverbs 29:18 – blessed is the one who “keeps” the Law
Genesis 2:16-17 (ESV) And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
God has been the provider of and definer of “good” up to this point (7 times in chapter 1), but God is now giving the humans the dignity of freedom. This boundary represents God giving them a chance for “moral maturity,” discerning what is good and not good. (“Evil” carries with it a connotation of moral evil, but it is a word that can simply mean “bad.”) Will these humans come under the authority of the Creator, whose creation is good and beautiful, humbling themselves and submitting to His definition of good and bad? Or will they seize the opportunity to take the knowledge and defining of good and bad for themselves?
Work is where humans exercise moral judgment, which requires wisdom
There are few places where this has greater implications than in our work. Work is the place where humans exercise moral judgment all of the time, what is good and not good, what is good and not good for themselves and others. Will humans work based on God’s definition of good and not good, submitting to His moral authority on every matter?
Ideally, humans work in concert and cooperation with the Creator extending His order and goodness into the wild wastelands of our world with care and under His wisdom.
Proverbs 9:10 (ESV) The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.