To Tend and Guard and Keep!
Reading: Genesis 2
My Verse: "And the LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to tend and guard and keep it" (2:15)
It is so easy to forget that You, LORD God placed Adam in this Garden of Eden, this paradise to work! You did this before sin ever entered into the equation - into the world you created! You gave Adam a job to do, a mission, a purpose. This is so important for us to be mindful of, that it is not a punishment to have a work to do. It should be considered a blessing, a good thing.
We have so corrupted many things LORD God. Our minds have become so warped by sin and its consequences that we think wrongly about many things that You in fact set in place. You wanted man to have a work, a job, a purpose to his existence. We instead often look at work as punishment as something dreaded.
I love to garden. I love that this was the first job assigned to Adam. You planted this beautiful garden. "And the LORD God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He put the man whom He had formed" (2:8). You planted it for Adam to care for. It must have been so beautiful! All those trees with their beautiful blossoms and fruits! But even in this paradise the garden needed tending. It needed someone to "tend it and guard it and keep it."
You, LORD God, also speak of the resources that you provided for man to use. Verses 11 and 12 speak of these resources. "The first is named Pishon; it is the one flowing around the whold land of Havilah, where there is gold. The gold of that land is of high quality; bdellium and onyx stone are there."
I like what the ESV study notes say about Your purposes in placing Adam in this most beautiful of gardens. "The man's role is to be not only a gardener but also a guardian. As a priest, he is to maintain the sanctity of the garden as part of a temple complex." This is so beautiful and wondrous. So Adam was like a priest and the garden was like a temple. It implies that You created this earth as a very special place, a place you could come to and commune with Your creations.
We can only look forward to that day when all the mess we humans have created will be righted! Because this was Your original plan -to commune and fellowship with us here on earth -You will create a "new heavens and a new earth!"
"For behold I create a new heaven and a new earth; and men will not remember the first, nor do they come to any one's mind" (Isaiah 65:17)
"Then I saw a new sky and a new earth, for the former sky and the former earth had passed away and there no longer existed any sea" (Revelation 21:1).
And I know that You will have jobs for each of us that believe on Your name there in this new heaven and new earth. We will "tend and guard and keep" there in this new paradise!
Ditat Deus - God Enriches!
Reading: Genesis 2
My Verse: "And the LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to tend and guard and keep it" (2:15)
It is so easy to forget that You, LORD God placed Adam in this Garden of Eden, this paradise to work! You did this before sin ever entered into the equation - into the world you created! You gave Adam a job to do, a mission, a purpose. This is so important for us to be mindful of, that it is not a punishment to have a work to do. It should be considered a blessing, a good thing.
We have so corrupted many things LORD God. Our minds have become so warped by sin and its consequences that we think wrongly about many things that You in fact set in place. You wanted man to have a work, a job, a purpose to his existence. We instead often look at work as punishment as something dreaded.
I love to garden. I love that this was the first job assigned to Adam. You planted this beautiful garden. "And the LORD God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He put the man whom He had formed" (2:8). You planted it for Adam to care for. It must have been so beautiful! All those trees with their beautiful blossoms and fruits! But even in this paradise the garden needed tending. It needed someone to "tend it and guard it and keep it."
You, LORD God, also speak of the resources that you provided for man to use. Verses 11 and 12 speak of these resources. "The first is named Pishon; it is the one flowing around the whold land of Havilah, where there is gold. The gold of that land is of high quality; bdellium and onyx stone are there."
I like what the ESV study notes say about Your purposes in placing Adam in this most beautiful of gardens. "The man's role is to be not only a gardener but also a guardian. As a priest, he is to maintain the sanctity of the garden as part of a temple complex." This is so beautiful and wondrous. So Adam was like a priest and the garden was like a temple. It implies that You created this earth as a very special place, a place you could come to and commune with Your creations.
We can only look forward to that day when all the mess we humans have created will be righted! Because this was Your original plan -to commune and fellowship with us here on earth -You will create a "new heavens and a new earth!"
"For behold I create a new heaven and a new earth; and men will not remember the first, nor do they come to any one's mind" (Isaiah 65:17)
"Then I saw a new sky and a new earth, for the former sky and the former earth had passed away and there no longer existed any sea" (Revelation 21:1).
And I know that You will have jobs for each of us that believe on Your name there in this new heaven and new earth. We will "tend and guard and keep" there in this new paradise!
Ditat Deus - God Enriches!
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