« Christian Business is Not All About Hard Work | Home | Don’t believe a lie - Christians can be trusted »
Christian Business Is Not about Hard Work (2)
By admin | August 8, 2008
In the last post, we examined how Adam was given the task of maintaining the Garden of Eden. Adam was expected to tend and keep the garden. The book of Genesis records how Adam disobeyed God and as a result, sin entered the world.
The consequence of sin was not only death, but also resulted in God cursing work, thereby making it more difficult.
17 Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’:
“ Cursed is the ground for your sake;
In toil you shall eat of it
All the days of your life.
18 Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you,
And you shall eat the herb of the field.
19 In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread
Till you return to the ground,
For out of it you were taken;
For dust you are,
And to dust you shall return.”
These are the conditions that the introduction of sin introduced as it related to work
· In toil you shall eat of it- Adam would have to grow his own crops. Up to this point, there is no record of Adam having to till the ground to produce food. Adam had always eaten what God produced. Adam would now have to work harder than he had been simply to get food each day.
· To toil according to the dictionary means long-strenuous fatiguing labour, laborious effort, to labour continuously, to advance or move with painful effort or difficulty, exhausting work or effort, tiring labour, struggle
· Work will now be difficult. Weeds, thistles and thorns represent difficulty. Things would now have to be a lot more difficult
· Eat the herb of the tree means that He was going to have to work the fields (crops) and would no longer have to go up a tree and eat what God had produced.
· In the sweat of your face implies working tirelessly day and night. Adam went from a place of tending and keeping the garden to one of tilling the ground. There is a difference between tending and tilling the land. Tending and keeping the garden conveys the idea of God having done all the work and man and Adam just having to manage it. This is supported by the Genesis story. Tilling the land shows sin moved Adam to a position where he was now applying physical hard work to work the land.
The garden and its beauty is described for us in Genesis 2:8-14. It is not difficult to imagine the depth to which man has fallen.
It is important to note that work was not the curse, it is the toil that is the curse. By sinning, Adam and Eve gave up a great job, a wonderful environment with perfect working conditions and great benefits. Adam and Eve had to strive and do physical labour outside the garden as a result of God’s punishment (Genesis 3:22-24). Inside the garden, everything had been provided for them.
Before the fall. Adam was busy tending God’s business; setting up processes and structures to govern the world. Whatever name he called the animals was the name approved by God. Thus we can summise that before the fall, the origins of modern day business were under the dominion of God with man as His helper.
However sin distorted the picture and man lost his dominion over the earth. He was stripped of his honour and glory with which God had clothed him. As a result of sin, man now fell short of the glory of God. Sin also affected the business realm. As a result of sin, Satan became the ruler of this world and usurped the powers that man was to have exercised. He expanded his hold over the world by deploying principalities and powers to spread spiritual wickedness in this world. He started to influence the world and its systems. People were deceived into worshipping idols and other gods, thus strengthening his hold over families, communities, businesses, cities and nations.
“Work is a blessing from God but hard, grinding, toiling work is the result of the fall. It is sweat, anxiety and pressure constantly upon us to create the endless rat race of life” www.rsystedman.org.power
Until you appear again on my page, stay blessed
Ola Aroyehun
Topics: Uncategorized |
May 28th, 2009 at 2:41 pm
Great post! Just wanted to let you know you have a new subscriber- me!
June 12th, 2009 at 7:44 pm
I really like your post. Does it copyright protected?
April 22nd, 2010 at 1:22 pm
I was trying to add your RSS feed to my reader, but it didn’t work. =/ Any ideas on other ways to subscribe to your site?