Could A Job Be The Oldest Institution?

Bible passage:  Genesis 2:7-9,15 and Genesis 3:17-19

Next week we are going to be talking about marriage and how God uses it to teach us to lovingly serve.  Marriage has been noted as an institution that is so old that God is the one who started it in the Garden of Eden.  Well there is another institution that God started in the garden and, in fact, he started it before he started marriage:  a job.  Yes that's right.  You heard me correctly.  God gave Adam a job before he gave him a wife.

The reason I want to start here is because it is important for us to understand that these things are not just the ideas of men.  It has come from the mind of God. 

Man Was Created to Work.  It is not Bad or Evil.

God didn't just plop Adam in the "wild" (Survivor-style), but rather, he made one place into a garden.  We are not told how large this place was.  But it was already ordered and fixed up by God himself.  After describing this garden and the rivers that watered it, Genesis 2:15 tells us this:

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

These words are very clear that God intended Adam to work and labor in this garden.  Even before the fall, the earth needed to be worked in order for it to give greater and more regular produce.  It also makes clear that Adam needed to take care of the garden and nurture it.  I don't know if God discussed the finer points of pruning with Adam, but the idea of care is clear.  Thus Adam was put in an area that could clearly sustain himself and his future family.  God already had in mind that Adam would "be fruitful and multiply," and fill the earth.  The garden would serve as the base of operations for this endeavor.  Also this job would clearly be for his own benefit and the benefit of his family.  As humans they would need to eat and taking care of the garden would ensure a plentious supply of food.

Thus the first job was given by God to a man before The Fall.  The first job involved work.  So if you have this idea that when we go to heaven we will not have to work anymore you are probably wrong.  Though work itself is not a result of the curse, our work was affected by the curse.  In Genesis 3:17-19 we see that God does not directly curse Adam.  In other words, he didn't make his muscles smaller or his intellect dumber.  Rather he indirectly curses Adam by putting a curse on the earth.  The ground that he has been working will no longer work with him as it was designed to do.  Rather, it will resist along with the other aspects of nature.  We do not know scientifically what God did to change the world, but clearly all of creation was affected.  Because of The Fall, work now would be difficult and filled with grief and sorrow.  This is why we labor with this sense that things are fighting against us.  We might inwardly think, "God, what do you have against me?"  But, this is only partially right.  Yes, God did put the curse on the earth.  But before we blame him we must ask why he did so.  It was our action that caused the curse to be given.  We have no one to blame but ourself and to stubbornly persist in blaming God is itself wrong.  Even people who seem to have no problem at work and everything goes well are fighting a resistance.  They may be overcoming that resistance better than us.  But, still, they deal with it.  We all have to deal with a world that is not cooperating with us to the fullest degree.  We talk of "Murphy's Law" because we recognize this principle to be true.

Many large corporations will develop complex systems and procedures to minimize the affects of the curse.  But as you develop these systems and procedures you realize that the resistance comes from somewhere else and generally is of a greater nature.  You cannot get rid of it.

Now here is the good news.  The Bible tells us in Romans 8:18-23 that God had a purpose in making our work more difficult.  Vs. 20 tells us that God subjected  the creation to futility in the hope of a coming deliverance.  The curse would continually remind us of where "our way" has taken us.  It will continually lift our eyes to heaven in prayer for a day that the curse would be lifted.  In fact God has promised such a day for us.  Any parent who punishes a child for misbehavior does not do so forever.  There is a certain learning that must happen and then the punishment can be lifted.  Mankind has done much labor over these millennia that we have had.  During that labor God is trying to teach us something about ourselves, our thinking, our need of Him, and His promise to us.  Just as the First Adam was created a living being so Jesus, the Second Adam, came forth as a life-giving spirit.  When we embrace Jesus as God's "solution" or answer to our condition, we become a son of God.  The revelation of these "sons of God" will happen at a time when the curse is removed.  In fact, Paul said in verse 18:

"I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us."

Yes, God knows that presently work is difficult, life is difficult.  In the midst of much we could call good, we are surrounded by that which makes things sorrowful and grievous.  In fact, we ourselves are often the source of such grief.  But a day is coming when a glory will be revealed in those who belong to God.  In that day we will look back at the time of our suffering as a light thing which is easy to take, in light of the joy and glory we will have then.  Now this might not make you FEEL better today.  But it does give us a hope.  A hope that is based upon God himself.

Some Lessons of Work

 So if work is supposed to be teaching me things about myself and God then perhaps I should pay more attention to what it is saying.  There is no way that we can exhaust this subject, but I believe it would be helpful to walk through some of those "teachings" that work and jobs try to teach us.

Let's first look at the area of "Working for Yourself."  The ultimate of life to be self-empoyed and not have to answer to any boss.  However, if you have ever "worked for yourself" you know that it is a bit of a misnomer because somehow others are always involved in our work.  If you are providing a service or product to a customer, you learn pretty quickly that, even though you don't have a "boss," the customer, their wants and desires, take on a much more vague and harder to read "boss-like" influence in your life.  The statement that the customer is always right, is of course untrue.  But it demonstrates the pickle in which self-employed people find themselves.  The difficulties of a job are teaching us something about life and sin and people.  Even if we put a person out in the wilderness with a farm only working for themselves, we still will find that work teaches us something.  It will teach you that you can't do everything.  Many who are gifted in one area have huge gaps of skill in other areas.  At some point you will see that if you tailor your work to fit with the work of others, then you can help each other.  In all of this work teaches us to serve each other, and to serve together.

When you work for a boss you better learn your own duty to God.  And, when you work to serve a customer, you come to understand God's care for us better.  In no way is this teaching process perfect.  People labor long not learning these things.  So I encourage you to pay attention and give greater focus to what life is saying to you through your work.

Another area to look at is how Jesus and the disciples used jobs in their teachings.  The parables of Jesus are full of good and bad examples of workers.  They are intended to warn us about how we live and work in this life.  He used these work scenarios as a picture of us spiritually being held accountable to our heavenly boss, God the Almighty Father.  

In 2 Thessalonians 3:10-12, Paul warns them, "If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat."  Early Christians were very strong in loving each other and caring for each others needs.  It didn't take long for some to attempt to take advantage of such largesse.  Paul made it clear that though we serve people, it is no service to do for them what they ought to do for themselves.  Thus if a man works hard and yet for various reasons is not making it or, his boss rips him off etc..., believers will help each other and meet those needs.  But if a man doesn't work at all and keeps showing up at your house or church office desiring a hand out then at some point you realize, I am not truly helping this person.  For their own good I have to say no.

In 1 Timothy 5:8 Paul says that those who do not provide for their family have denied The Faith and are worse than an unbeliever.  Those are very strong words.  Now let me make sure you understand them.  The word provide here is not about success and ability.  It is a word that is about intention and desire.  It literally means "to look out for, to look ahead for."  Thus you may be working your head off and your kids don't have very nice clothes.  You may say to yourself, "I'm not a very good provider."  And, thus believe that you aren't a very good follower of God.  But throughout history Christians have been in many different situations.  In some of them Christians were very poor and couldn't provide in the sense of creating a certain quality of life.  But there are more important things then designer clothing, and latest tech fads.  A believer looks out for every aspect of their family.  It is about diligent, desire and work not the amount of paycheck you get for that.  Let me give a good example of what Paul is talking about.  If a man who has a business finds out that his senior parent has had a stroke and the believers in his community are taking care of him then he decides not to step in and shoulder that responsibility, he is denying the faith of Christ.  Another example, if a man spends all his money at the bar and casino and his family goes without then he is denying the faith.  In fact we could feed our kids the best food and give them the greatest toys, but if we do not teach them spiritually about God and life, we are denying the faith.

Now I am going to end with some rapid fire lessons from the book of Proverbs.

1. Prov. 12:11-  Put work before fantasy and play.
2. Prov. 1:30f-  Reject quick money schemes, and instead work hard and diligently.
3. Prov. 6:6f-  Don't be lazy.  Get out of bed and work.
4. Prov. 22:7-  Borrowing is not a good thing.
5. Prov. 21:17-  Don't consume all your work, save for the future.
6. Prov. 15:22-  Get good advice from multiple sources about work and life.
7. Prov. 19:2-  Work steady and careful.  Haste makes waste.

 In the end we all need to be careful and listen to what our work is teaching us.  Every time something goes wrong or bat at work or in our plans at life, we should spend some time trying to figure out what it is teaching us.  It is a mistake to say, "God must hate me, I'm no good.  I should just quit."  When we have this attitude of offense we will shortcut ourselves from learning what God wants to teach us.

Instead, as a son to a father, we need to ask, "God, what are you telling me about you and mankind's fallen condition?  And, what are you telling me about myself?  And, what are you telling me about the future hope to which you are bringing us?"  The answers are not always readily apparent.  Sometimes we see it better in the rearview mirror.  Either way we must remain focused and do the work that God has gifted us to do because it will teach us the depths of loving service.