Work as Cultivation (God's Plan for Work)

"And God blessed them. And God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.'" - Genesis 1:28

God tells us to "fill the earth and subdue it." This goes beyond just procreating. God doesn't just want us to add more people into the world, He wants us to build a society and build a culture that glorifies Him. The last couple months we've talked about how God designed us to work. Our work can be used to serve God through our creativity and creation of culture.

A little bit later in Genesis God expands on the command in chapter 2:

15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” 19 Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. 20 The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. 21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. 22 And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.

God could have very easily done things like name the animals. When he was creating the earth, He named certain things like day, night, land, etc. Why didn't he also name the animals? Why didn't he create the earth to not need continued work and building? God designed us to be creative. He invites us to continue his work of developing creation and building a civilization that glorifies Him. This goes into the "subdue" part of the command. He wants us to take ownership and responsibility of the earth and His creation. Isn't it incredible that God has given us this role to take care of His incredible creation?

In chapter 3 of the book, I liked the imagery Tim Keller used to describe our role. He says we're not to be like park rangers whose job is to preserve things as they are. Instead, we are to be like gardeners who take an active stance towards change. Gardeners take the land and work it in a way to make it fruitful. We are to do the same with the earth. God wants us to be active in taking what the earth has right now to produce more through our work.

We've already established that God designed us for work and it isn't a punishment. Taking this a step further, a biblical understanding of work is taking the resources provided to us and using them to create value. God designed us with this creativity. Some basic examples of this are:

Farming – taking the physical material like soil and turning it into food.
Taking fabric and making it into clothing
Even basic things like taking a broom and cleaning a room.

While not everyone will be an entrepreneur who is creating amazing new inventions, the biblical understanding of work gives vision and meaning to not only large, ambitious endeavors, but also the regular day-to-day ones as well. So regardless of what your work is, if you are using the gifts and resources God has provided to you to make things around you better, you are doing good work.