Work Work Work

This is going to start off by backing up a bit to Genesis chapter 2.  Verse 5 says (NASB):

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 word translated as cultivate here is

I guess I should be putting the pronunciation of these words when I put them up.  This one is "avad".  The word means work.  Now, cultivate may very well be the work that is do be done so that's okay.  Later in in verse 15 it says:

Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.

The same word is used here.  I always envisioned things being like utopia in the Garden of Eden.  Apparently I'm not the only one.  Here are some pictures from some of the masters of old.

You can see Adam and Eve lounging around not doing much.   I would put the name of each painter under the painting if I could find it.  Anyway, it looks in chapter 2 of Genesis that God created us to work.  He had plans for us.  Think about this for a bit.  If you've ever lost a job and are between jobs, do you get that bit of a lost feeling?  What about those of you who may have retired.  It's a little difficult to adjust to not going to a job every day.  I believe that it's because God created us to work.

Doesn't that give you some things to think about for eternity?  We won't be sitting around playing harps but God will have jobs for us.  Personally I am glad.  Playing a harp sounds so BORING.

Have you ever considered if there were weeds in Eden?  It makes me wonder a bit since God says that Adam should work the land and preserve it.  Even though the translation above says "cultivate it and keep it", the word that was translated as "keep" is:

Pronounced "L'shamrah".  This translates to preserve.  God told Adam to preserve the land.  That means that without him, it would not be preserved.  Maybe there were weeds.


Stay tuned.  I was going to talk about when Adam and Eve discovered they were naked but alas, I got carried away.  That will be the next post.