Genesis 2:15. The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.
Put.
I know what you’re thinking – we just did this on Day 13. Put. Sum. Appoint. To put something in its proper place.
Well, the word “put” in Genesis 2:15 is a completely different Hebrew word – yanah. It means to rest. To settle. To remain. To be quiet. We could read Genesis 2:15 as saying “God rested the man in the garden of Eden.” Or, “God quieted the man…”
There’s a paradox in verse 15. God rested the man in the garden to work it. Work from rest? You may recall that this is a point we made back on Day 9 – God works from rest. Since day seven of creation, God’s Sabbath rest is his eternal state. Every work he has done since then has been done from a position of having rested from all his labors. And now, in the garden, man will image God in this same way – first rested, then working.
In Genesis 2:8, man was put in the garden with a purpose.
In Genesis 2:15, man is put in the garden with a position – rested, settled, quieted.
This is a foreign concept to most of us. We work so that we can rest. I know I do. Everybody’s working for the weekend, Loverboy reminded us. We work hard so that we can eventually rest hard, if we rest at all.
Rest feels like it’s supposed to be the reward for hard work. Imagine taking a new job and being given an immediate vacation before you begin your work. That’s unheard of. Workers earn vacation time. And that makes sense to us. Even things like the 40-hour work week and paid holidays were not humanity’s original inclination. Those things had to be fought for. Our inclination is to enslave ourselves to our work and to enslave others as our workers. Isn’t that the clear message of Exodus? God didn’t create us to be slaves chained to an unending work load. He created us for rest. And so God rescued the Hebrews from slavery and rested them in the Promised Land, the new Eden.
Rest isn’t supposed to be a reward. It’s a requirement and a right. Beyond this, rest is resistance. By first resting man in the garden, God was telling him that he DIDN’T have to earn his keep. Adam did not need to prove himself, nor did he need to accomplish anything for God. God’s work was finished and it was good. There was literally nothing in the universe that could be added to it. To rest is to resist the lie that we are not enough, that we must accomplish more, that our productivity is who we are. It’s not. And it never has been. Remember, the Genesis day begins with rest (there was evening and there was morning); we start our day by sleeping first, then awaking to what God is already doing.
Christian, wherever you are, God has rested you there. Especially since where we are is in Christ. We rest in Jesus. Resting in Jesus means starting out by trusting that everything you could never do for yourself, God has done for you in Christ – forgiven and free! And to live is Christ means resting in the truth that there is nothing you can or need to do for God. He’s got this.
So take a nap. Sleep soundly. Take a day off. Most importantly, trust God that wherever he has placed you and whatever work he has given you to do is a gift, not a means of compensation, and definitely not a punishment. Whatever you do, do it from rest, knowing that you have entered Christ’s eternal rest.
Questions: Do you work from rest or work to rest? How might your position in Christ’s rest change your perspective on your work?
To Live is Christ 