Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it.

Genesis 2:15

                 God gave Adam a job.  In giving it to him, God gave it to all His people.  The name Adam is simply the Hebrew word meaning “man.”  The Creator of the world assigned His creature a role to play in His creation.

                That first man, Adam, got the job of a priest.  In the original language, the words used to describe his work are those used elsewhere of the work of a priest.  Tending and keeping the garden are priestly functions.

                Elsewhere, the biblical writers use the role of shepherd to provide a picture of the work of the priest.  As a shepherd tends his flock of sheep, the priest (or pastor) looks after his human flock.  In both cases, the job involves protecting and nurturing those in his charge.  This is the work God gave Adam.

                God took a part of Adam’s body and formed a woman and gave her to Adam as his helper.  Together, they were to be fruitful and multiply, and to expand the garden.  If Adam had not sinned, his flock would have grown within the garden and he would have served as its priest, the one who represents the people to God.  With Eve, he would have populated the garden and pushed back its boundaries.

                In time, the garden would have covered the entire world.  This was God’s plan (and it remains so today).  The descendants of Adam and Eve would fill the creation and everyone in it would worship the one true God, sending up an unending chorus of praise to the throne of our eternal King.

                As we know, Adam and Eve sinned.  God would still accomplish His purpose, but in a different way.  He would send His own beloved Son to atone for the sin of Adam and Eve and all their children, including you and me.

                But as we have seen, God gave Adam the work of tending and keeping the garden before he sinned.  After the fall, God cursed the ground and made man’s work much harder, but the work itself is not a curse but a blessing.  It is the very thing God allowed man to do as an expression of gratitude for his creation.  It is man’s way of giving glory to his Creator.

                Adam failed in his job.  If he had done it properly, the serpent would never have entered the garden and tempted Eve.  The work of the priest is to keep those assigned to his care safe and secure, and this Adam did not do.  He should have kept the garden free of evil, but he allowed evil to enter.  When it did, and Eve succumbed to the serpent’s temptation, Adam did not prevent or correct her but joined in her disobedience to God.

                From his day until our own, God’s curse upon Adam’s sin has turned work into a trial.  The way we approach this trial says a great deal about how we relate to God.

                If work is something we hate, or something we do for no reason other than putting food on our table and a roof over our heads, it remains a curse.  But it need not be.

                Because if we believe that God’s own dear Son removed the curse upon His cross, we are freed to return to the original purpose of work.  Our work becomes our way of giving glory to the God who made us and who now has saved us.  He calls us His priesthood of believers.  When He redeemed mankind, He redeemed our work.

                Our work may still often be hard and sometimes boring until our Lord returns to usher in His eternal kingdom in its full glory.  But God knows us and He knows our needs and He has made provision for us.  His grace abounds in all our circumstances.  He has sent His Holy Spirit into the world to dwell in His people.

                We who belong to Him have the fruits of this Spirit, and among them are joy and perseverance.  It is our joy to serve our Lord in all that we do, to persevere in the work He gives us because it is our means of giving glory to Him.  Each of us has a little garden of our own and if we do our work in that way, if we perform the priestly work of keeping evil out and protecting those entrusted to our care, if we push out the limits of our garden and make it bigger and better in the service of our God, we join as priests in the work of the second Adam.

                We know Him as Jesus who is the Christ, the One who did not sin but laid down His life as a sacrifice for your sin and for mine.  This was His work, terrible and lonely and yet still filled with joy because in persevering in it He gave glory to His Father and ours.  When we use the power of the Holy Spirit and enter into the Son’s work of giving God glory we join ourselves to our Lord Jesus and God receives our work as a sacrifice and blesses it.

                There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.

                So let us take up the arms and the tools God provides and tend and keep our gardens.  Let us do the work He allows us until that great day when our Lord returns and we join Him in His Sabbath rest and He speaks those words we ache to hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”  Amen.

• Rev. Ed Fowler, M.Div.

Ed Fowler