Man’s Purpose
And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. Genesis 2:15
Read Genesis 2:8-15
A regular subheading in a Help Wanted advertisement will be a work description outlining the duties and functions required of the applicant. Maybe you have never seen this passage that way before, but the Lord does something very similar in Paradise. The Garden of Eden was not an amusement park where man could just take his ease and enjoy life. In His job description, God told Adam that he must dress the garden and keep it (Gen. 2:15). From this information, we can draw at least two conclusions.
First, the charge given to man says something about our task in the world today. We are commanded to build, develop and expand God’s creation; we must discover its treasures. However, this must be done within certain parameters.
We may not plunder the earth; instead, we must guard it. Man is
called to look after God’s handiwork, upholding it; he may not exhaust it. How
blessed when we seek to hold God’s commands before us also in daily life.
Second, the verses of our text shed light on the future Paradise, which has been opened by the Lord Jesus’ work. There too, man must not expect to just take his ease, in the same way that he was not to just relax in the Garden of Eden. One day God’s children will be able to labour in love to God’s glory without any sighing, weariness or feelings of frustration. In seeking to practice this, they constantly raise the prayer of Paul, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” (Acts 9:6) Has that also become your daily prayer?
Question: Can every career choice be seen as a calling from God? Do you experience making such choices in the way of Ephesians 6:5-8?
Psalter 391:2, 3 (based on Psalm 143) Teach me the way that I should go; I lift my soul to Thee; For refuge from the cruel foe To Thee, O Lord, I flee. Thou art my God, to Thee I pray, Teach me Thy will to heed; And in the right and perfect way May Thy good Spirit lead.