Garden of Eden - Vocation

Before the Garden of Eden was planted, the Book of Genesis describes the world as barren and uncultivated: “neither wild plants nor grains were growing on the earth. For the LORD God had not yet sent rain to water the earth, and there were no people to cultivate the soil. Instead, springs came up from the ground and watered all the land." Genesis 2:5-6 NLT

Great potential was going to waste. Parts of the earth were dry from lack of rain and other parts were drenched by the inundation of streams, but neither had yet been cultivated because there was no one to harness the waters and apply them to any useful agriculture.

The world was obviously in need of some good farmers, so “the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground” (v.7 TLB). In response to the need of the earth (adamah), Yahweh fashioned Adam – an earthling. “Then the LORD God planted a garden in Eden in the east, (v.8 TLB). and then placed the earthling in the Garden “to tend and watch over it” (v.15 TLB).

This story beautifully illustrates our vocation in the world. Made from the earth, our first task is to care for the earth, the whole earth, tilling, irrigating, dredging, pruning. Our bodies are 70% water just as 70% of Earth’s surface is water. The water is our domain as well as the earth and the earliest civilizations grew out of mastery of both, using both water and earth for both agriculture and animal husbandry.

The way the story unfolds three vital elements of our calling emerge. Our care for the earth is first a form of partnership with God; second it is a form of priestly worship and third, it involves protection of the environment entrusted to us.

Over the next three posts we’ll look at each of these.

Image Sources:
Flood-plain - Ecology Action Center 
Indonesian Farmer - Jan-Pieter Nap - Wikipedia Commons