Work: Its Nature In The Beginning

Minister:
Date: PM
Text: Genesis 2:15
Psalters: 208, 398, 88, 246
  1. By virtue of creation.
    1. At his creation God gave man the calling to work: ?have dominion over? and ?subdue? the earth (1:28).
      1. To ?subdue? is to make subservient or put into bondage.
      2. Man was to master creation.
    2. Adam?s immediate work was to ?dress? and ?keep? the garden (2:15).
      1. To ?dress? is to do work, to labor; and to ?keep? is to guard, protect, take care, preserve.
      2. They were to find labor a privilege, and the God-ordained way to bring glory to God and good to themselves.
    3. Implies that man was made to work (do productive activity as long as he is physically able).
  2. The fall into sin greatly affected man?s view of work (Gen. 3:17-19).
    1. God?s command for man to work did not change, however sin made work to be labor and sorrow.
      1. The woman?s work to replenish the earth is only done with greatly multiplied sorrow.
      2. Man?s work of subduing the earth would onlye with great weariness, frustration, and sorrow.
    2. The consequences.
      1. The difficulty of work cannot be neutralized on this earth.
      2. Today?s world wants man to be made for pleasure and entertainment.
    3. Let us exercise faith when experience of labor and sorrow in work.
      1. Faith makes us see sin and sinfulness as the cause for labor and sorrow in doing our God?given tasks.
      2. Faith sees that grace alone can make us work correctly.
      3. Faith uses the weariness and seeming uselessness of work to increase our longing for heaven.