City Life Starter

I. The Word: Genesis 2:8-9, 15

8 The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed. 9 And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil… 15 Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it.

II. Study Questions

1. What comes to mind when you think of work?

2. What comes to mind when you think of rest?

3. Can you live and work from a place of rest, and not just rest from your work?

When Adam was formed and then immediately made to tend to garden, we see that even in paradise man had to work. So, wait, when we get to heaven does this mean we’re not going to just frolic around and do nothing?

Let’s look closely at verse 15. Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it.

Adam was to fulfill a God-given purpose in full relationship with and in the joy of the Lord. This was vastly different from the trouble and the restlessness of the weary toil into which his fall sank him in to. God put him into the garden. The original word is “caused him to rest”, or dwell in the garden as a living place of peace and recreation. Adam was to dress and keep the garden, lest the garden become wild and degenerate. So, was Adam to work from a place of rest?

Adam had a part to play in caring for what God had set up. Did God really need the help of man to do this? Certainly not. But why did God have Adam to tend His garden? Because God knew that it was best for man, for man’s benefit to be in relationship with Him by tending to the garden and the soil, to be in a place of rest, peace, and in full enjoyment of God’s creation and work. One can only imagine what the work for Adam must have been like. It was likely the work of guarding the garden being trampled on by wild beasts, ensuring the vines didn’t choke out the sun, enriching the soil, pruning, etc. What does this mean for you today? How will you tend to what God has called you to? What has God called you to? There, I feel, you will find great pleasure and in full joy God in whatever that may be. And in that, could there be a rest for you?

Furthermore, this garden of the Lord was like a temple. Think of where you go to worship God and places you feel most at peace, where you feel a sense of rest for your soul. This was one in the same for Adam, or at least was supposed to be. The garden was a temple in which Adam was able to worship God and was employed daily.

Whatever your gifting or your skill, it’s no mere accident that you have that. There is true pleasure in the business God calls us to, and employs us in. Resting does not merely or solely mean sitting idly on your couch, relaxing from a hard day’s work, though that is what resting may look like. For each person, your rest may look vastly different.

Operating in what God calls each of us to as we look at the first place of work and rest for man, we are to be enriching the soil where we’ve been put, where we dwell. Continue to think on this, pray on this, and seek God’s rest for your life and what that looks like for you.

I’ll leave you with this quote from Matthew Henry. “The sons and heirs of heaven, while in this world, have something to do about this earth, which must have its share of their time and thoughts; and if they do it with an eye to God, they as truly serve him in it, as when they are upon their knees.”