How Does God View Work?

The Whole Story Teaching Series - Genesis to Revelation!

Introductory Comments

Props to Pastor Jim! Awesome!

New Earth, old Earth! New Jim, old Jim!

The issue of the dinosaurs!! Definitively resolved by Gary Larson!

Last time I spoke we saw that God takes joy in what He makes. Every time He made something new, he said, “Good. This is good.” We saw this repetition/rhythm of blessing & benediction!

Last week, Pastor Jim preached about how we’re created in God’s image; and, a big part of what it means to be created in God’s image is expressed in this week’s passage in the work He gives us to do!

Let’s read our passage...

Genesis 2:4–17 (NASB95)

This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made earth and heaven. 5 Now no shrub of the field was yet in the earth, and no plant of the field had yet sprouted, for the Lord God had not sent rain upon the earth, and there was no man to cultivate the ground.

6 But a mist used to rise from the earth and water the whole surface of the ground. 7 Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

8 The Lord God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed. 9 Out of the ground the Lord God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

10 Now a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it divided and became four rivers. 11 The name of the first is Pishon; it flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 The gold of that land is good; the bdellium and the onyx stone are there.

13 The name of the second river is Gihon; it flows around the whole land of Cush. 14 The name of the third river is Tigris; it flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. 15 Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.

16 The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; 17 but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”

I want to look at four things today - four lenses to understand the subject of work from our passage in Genesis 2:

A Message, A Model, A Mistake & A Grace!

Work & Vocation – How Does God View Work?

1. A Message

Dorothy Sayers was an author and playwright. She was a contemporary of C. S. Lewis and Tolkien. I’m going to quote quite a bit from her today, and particularly with reference to things that she had to say about work in a book that she wrote in 1947, called Creed or Chaos.

Experts tell us that we will spend about 1/3 of our lives working! That’s a pretty alarming statistic/piece of information!

In light of this, I love this perspective that Dorothy Sayers offers,

“How can anyone remain interested in a religion which seems to have no concern with nine-tenths of their life?”

The truth is that Scripture actually does have a lot to say about our work, our vocation; and, it’s pretty powerful stuff - beginning in these early chapters in Genesis!

In our passage today, we see God as a Divine Gardener, creating/planting a perfect Garden, and then literally fashioning men and women from the dirt, the dust!

Genesis 2 is a picture of God playing in the dirt, working in the dirt!

Genesis 2:7 (MSG)

God formed Man out of dirt from the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life...

That word formed/fashioned - is used in Scripture of a potter, making earthenware.

This detail seems insignificant, until we remember the dualistic mindset of people living in biblical times, both Old & New Testament times!

The physical world was seen as evil and the spirit world was good/pure.

Craftsman and farmers (and those in similar professions), people who worked with their hands using the raw materials of the physical universe, were seen as having less honorable jobs. Manual labor was seen as demeaning, degrading, dehumanizing.

The noble professions involved those who primarily used their minds - philosophers, poets, writers, orators, rulers...

But here, in the opening chapters of Genesis, we have God correcting/debunking this toxic perspective as He creates the world, creates a Garden, creates humans, with His hands in the dirt!

The message that God is sending, the statement that He’s making, is that manual labor is not demeaning, degrading, dehumanizing. Manual labor is not bad. God has His hands in the dirt, creating Adam. God is a manual laborer, planting a garden, hands in the dirt!

Now, some of you may be tempted to think that this is an isolated text - a biblical anomaly! But, in the NT - we not only see God coming into contact with the physicality of our world - healing a blind man by rubbing mud in His eyes, touching lepers, demon-possessed people… But, we also see Him literally taking on human flesh, assuming a physical body in the person of Jesus, through the incarnation - the Word became flesh!

What’s the Message? What’s the statement that’s being made?

Answer: The dignity of ALL work - even the simplest of work, the most menial tasks, image our Creator!

Throughout Scripture, God is redeeming and perfecting us (as well as all of creation)! He promises that our physical bodies will be resurrected, creation will be made new!

There’s NO separation/distinction between the sacred & the secular! There is no duality of an evil physical world vs. a pure spiritual one.

Remember, God declared the Work of creation as GOOD! Repeatedly!!

What’s beautiful is that the gardener, the farmer, the craftsman, the mechanic, the housecleaner - these are noble jobs that will continue (at least throughout the Millennium!) There are no second-class jobs! God is declaring the dignity of all work!

The message of Scripture is NOT work hard so that you can earn money to support those like me that are doing the Lord’s work! We’re ALL doing the Lord’s work!

Ironically, my job is temporary and will become obsolete, but work that is traditionally seen as ignoble will continue on!!

Message = The dignity & meaningfulness of all work

2. A Model

Notice in verse 5 of our text that the earth (the ground) needed cultivating BEFORE the Fall!

Genesis 2:5 (NASB95)

Now no shrub of the field was yet in the earth, and no plant of the field had yet sprouted, for the Lord God had not sent rain upon the earth, and there was no man to cultivate the ground.

The Earth, the Garden, wasn’t self-sustaining. It needed someone to manage it, protect it, develop it, cultivate it!

In Genesis, in our passage, God presents Gardening as the paradigm (the Model) for work!

“All work is organizing raw materials, rearranging a particular domain, for the flourishing of everyone.” Sayers, Creed or Chaos.

Not destroying, but cultivating, developing, organizing… Music, architecture, construction, manufacturing… are all rearranging raw material to bring about meaning and beauty - for the benefit & the flourishing of everyone!

God brings order out of chaos, and then puts humans in the Garden and says, “Now you do it!”

Continue to be diligent and creative with earthly resources I’ve given you!

God put Adam in the garden to work it - to cultivate it and keep it

Genesis 2:15 (NASB95)

Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.

Cultivate = serve 227x, work 5x, worshipers 5x

Keep it (2:15) = keep 283x, keeper 28x, preserve 21x, watchman 8x, save twice

In essence, God says to each one of us, “I’m giving you resources. They’re my resources, and I want you to manage them for Me. Mess with them. Have fun with them. Make them grow and flourish. Be creative!”

*This is illustrated in the NT through the parable of the talents!

I loved Jim’s comment last week about how when critics of the Bible (and Christianity) try to overemphasize the similarities between humans and animals (thereby devaluing the fact that we’re uniquely created in God’s image) direct them to the commands & responsibilities entrusted to us by God, as His image-bearers! God does NOT make these commands and entrust these responsibilities to ANY other part of His creation!

In His work, God models for us in Genesis that...

The goal of work should always be for the glory of God and the wellbeing of others!

God made the earth as a place of flourishing and wellbeing for us, in order that He would be glorified through us as we reflect His image. Do you see this?

Our work, our significance, should always be God-centered and other centered. Our greatest joy comes, not through serving ourselves, but through serving others! When we’re taking God-given material resources and cultivating them for the glory of God and the benefit of others.

In discussing the biblical doctrine of work in Creed or Chaos, Sayers quotes a surgeon who talked about how people’s concept of work in WWII was changed because (many of them) for the first time in their lives were no longer serving themselves but others!

The surgeon said this: “Before the war, many people were working merely for the sake of getting the thing done. The result of the work was a by-product; the aim of the work was to make money in order to do something else. Doctors practiced medicine, not primarily to relieve suffering, but to make a living – the cure of the patient was something that happened on the way. Lawyers accepted briefs, not because they had a passion for justice, but because the law is the profession that enabled them to live.”

“The reason why men and women often found themselves happy and satisfied in the army was because that for the first time in their lives they found themselves doing something, not for the sake of the pay, which was miserable, but for the sake of the good of others!”

Do you see how this biblical perspective transforms a culture’s concept of work?

Instead of making money in order to serve ourselves, work is whatever we’re doing to manage the resources at our disposal for the glory of God and the wellbeing of others. It’s others-centered, not self-centered!

In our culture, it’s all about getting ahead. So you have to go to the right school and get the right grades in order to get the right degree. But it has to be from the right college if you want to get the right job and the right salary in order to feel that your life is worth anything!

But the Bible says, “No. Work is about glorifying God and serving others!”

Again, this biblical perspective of work transforms our concept of work. It means that ministry, being a preacher or working for a church, is not the only valid means of doing God’s work. It’s ALL God’s work! Both preachers and plumbers, if they’re striving to bring glory to God and serve others, are both doing God’s work!

All kinds of work have the potential to bring glory to God and wellbeing to others. And whatever work God has given you to do is a trust. He has given you resources and asked you to cultivate them for his glory and the wellbeing of others!

Sayers:

I have urged for a thoroughgoing revolution in our whole attitude to work. The Christian understanding of work is that it should be looked upon, not as a necessary drudgery to be undergone for the purpose of making money, but as a way of life - as a creative activity undertaken for the love of the work itself; and that man, made in God’s image, should make things, as God makes them, for the sake of doing well a thing that is well worth doing.

The Church’s approach to an intelligent carpenter is usually confined to exhorting them not to be drunk and disorderly in their leisure hours, and to come to church on Sundays. What the Church should be telling them is this: that the very first demand that their religion makes upon them is that they should make good tables. What use is it if at the very center of their life and occupation, they’re insulting God with bad carpentry?!

No crooked table legs or ill-fitting drawers ever, I dare swear, came out of the carpenter’s shop at Nazareth. Nor, if they did, could anyone believe that they were made by the same hands that made Heaven and earth!

Let the Church remember this: that every maker and worker is called to serve God in their profession or trade – not outside it.

**Using resources: Harbor Freight plunger & van rental for Hume!!

As Jim shared last week, because we’re made in the image of God we have unique worth and purpose! And, we also have a responsibility to act in ways that reflect God’s character!

God presents a Model of work for us in Genesis! Gardening - making order out of chaos, rearranging resources for the good of everyone!

3. A Mistake

This point will be quick!

There are at least 3 mistakes we can make in our view of work; and Scripture corrects each!

a. Glorifying work - deifying it! Making it our God, our Savior!

Being a workaholic! Putting work before relationships, before God!

Glorifying our work results from not properly understanding the doctrine of God!

b. Being cynical about work. Work is horrible, bad, to be avoided at all costs! A cynical view of work comes from misunderstanding the doctrine of creation! That everything that God created was good!

c. Romanticizing work! Epitomized by people who say things like, “I don’t care about money, I just want to serve others!” This sounds great on the surface, but we have to make a living, pay our bills, support our family! A healthy view of work acknowledges that it’s hard, discouraging, it involves challenges, setbacks, difficult relationships and personalities!

A romantic view of work results from a misunderstanding of the doctrine of the fall! (which we’ll talk more about when we get to Genesis 3!)

Work is hard, discouraging, filled with challenges, conflict, setbacks...

Well, the final lens/view of work that our passage offers is...

4. A Grace

In the world, we have to work to earn our rest; but, in Scripture - it’s reversed! God graciously offers us rest in order that we might do our work properly!

As Jim shared last week - God models rest for His image-bearers

“Just as God declared a work finished in creation, so also a work was finished at the Cross; and the final work will be finished when Jesus returns to earth. Biblically, the word “finished” is a lexical link connecting to Sabbath Rest! Chaos, sin, and sorrow cease as we find rest dwelling in the presence of Christ!” Flash Theology, p. 178

Sabbath Rest Flash Theology, p. 179

“If we really believed this, and arranged our work and our standard of values accordingly, we would no longer think of work as something that we hastened to get through in order to enjoy our leisure; we should look on our leisure as the period of changed rhythm that refreshed us for the delightful purpose of getting on with our work. We should all find ourselves fighting, as now only artists and the members of certain professions fight, for precious time in which to get on with the job –instead of fighting for precious hours saved from the job.” Sayers

Genesis 2:2 (NASB95)

By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.

First day, morning and evening, 2nd day, morning and evening… 7th day doesn’t say this! The book of Hebrews tells us that this is because a promise still remains of entering God’s rest! God invites us to rest from our own work, even as He did from His!

Hebrews 4:1 (NIV)

Therefore, since the promise of entering God’s rest still stands, let us be careful that none of us be found to have fallen short of it.

Entering God’s rest doesn’t mean that we don’t have to work. It means that we can stop trying to prove ourselves in our work! Instead, we can have a deep sense of value and worth, rooted in God, rather than in our achievements. And, in many ways this causes us to work harder!

At the end of creation, God declared that it was finished! At the end of redemption, God declared “It is finished!”

Jesus lived the life we should have lived and died the death we should have died. When we finally realize this, acknowledge this, we receive the deep rest that our souls crave! The deep peace that surpasses all understanding and comprehension!

Matthew 11:28 (NLT)

Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest!”