Work
And the LORD God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed. And 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. Then the LORD God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it (Gen 2:8,9,15).
The Lord carefully and wonderfully prepared a perfect environment for man. He created man and He knew exactly what would be best for him, and what he would enjoy. He also created man to cultivate his own environment, and this required work. Some have mistakenly believed that work was a part of the curse, but man labored in the Garden before the fall. Work was not a part of the curse; “toil” was the curse. Toil is different from work. To work is to accomplish only with hard and painful labor. Toil implies the opposition of the creation instead of its cooperation.
Man was created for fellowship with God, and for cultivating the earth. Therefore, man was also created to work, and meaningful work is essential for the well-being and fulfillment of man. The key word here is “meaningful.” The Lord intended for us to receive a deep satisfaction from our labours. Without meaningful accomplishment in our
lives, there will be another void that leaves us empty and disoriented. It is also fundamental that every person find meaningful work.
There are two Hebrew words translated into the one English word “cultivate” in this chapter. They are ±bad (aw-bad\’), which means “to serve, till,” and shamar
(shaw-mar\’), which means to “hedge about, guard, protect.” These are both inherent characteristics of man. We read previously in Gen 2:5, “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.” The Lord had even left part of His planned creation for man to help bring forth.
Ask the Lord to teach your hands to war and your fingers to do battle on behalf of your family, the church, nation and continent. Ps 144:1
- Ask the Lord to equip you and His Ecclesia with skills, technology and weapons for effective warfare as he did for David. 2 Sam 5:19-25; 1 Ch 14:10-17
- Pray that the Lord will make you a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth to thresh all mountains (everything formidable, insurmountable challenge, everything that makes itself greater than the Lord, confrontations, etc.,) and beat them small. Isa 41:15-16
- Ask the Lord to make you His battle axes and weapons of war to deal with the plan and agenda of the kingdom of darkness and all battles of the enemy against the saints of God.