Text: Genesis 2:1-8
This passage tells us of the cultural mandate, namely; God’s requirement of man to work. One of God’s reasons He created man was for man to care for God’s special garden. This was the beginning of man’s mandate to care for the
world. God planted the garden and provided everything that plants need to thrive. The garden would also supply everything that man needed for food, and it would surely be a beautiful place to dwell and thrive in. Man’s work was to
cultivate the garden. Whatever farmers do now, is what was to be done then, in the garden.
Although Jesus was not a farmer, cultivating crops for food, He was a carpenter like His human father, Joseph (Mat.13:35; Mark6:3), providing the community with houses, plows, bowls, and other necessities. You might not
be a tradesman; perhaps your work is at a desk working with computers, or accounting, or cleaning a building, etc. But all work is necessary. If you do not do it, someone else will have to. Keep in mind Apostle Paul’s words to the
Colossians, “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men” (Col.3:23, ESV). Part of God’s work of redemption is to bring us back to the place where work is a joy. While you work, keep telling the Lord you are doing
it for Him – worship.
Meditate on verse 5-8. What is God teaching you in these verses?
Father, the Lord of heaven and earth, in the name of Jesus Christ, help me preserve nature that You have put under my care. Amen.