TWO KEY FACTS ABOUT THE BIBLICAL ORIGINS OF WORK

This is the first in a series of posts on work and why it is essential to our physical, mental and spiritual wellbeing.


In the New International Version the opening verse in the Bible reads “In the Beginning God created the Heavens and Earth”. At the same time it also says God Created Work. For those of you who may not recall that particular verse let me explain why you missed it…it’s not written “exactly” like that.

The entire first chapter of the Biblical book of Genesis details God’s creation of the Heavens and Earth. It tells the story of how God separated night from day; set the stars in the sky; and made the animals. Webster’s Dictionary defines work as [to] “Be engaged in physical or mental activity in order to achieve a purpose or result…” God’s acts of separating, setting and making are all verbs that imply physical and/or mental activity that took place to achieve the result of creating the Heavens and Earth and the things contained in them. By our modern day Webster’s definition God Created Work in the very beginning of time. Therefore work was created by God and has existed since the beginning of time.

If you’re over the shock of the fact that God Created Work let me provide you with one more fact. God Created Man to Work. Man was not created only to work, but was certainly created to work as an essential activity in life.  In the second Chapter of Genesis the story is told of how God created the Garden of Eden right after he created this little creature known as “man”. And in Genesis Chapter 2, verse 15 scripture says “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” Did you get that? God created man, took the man and put him in the Garden to work. God Created Man to Work. From the beginning of time it was God’s design and intention that man work.

So there you have it. God created work and God created man to work. And as we travel through the next few posts in this series we’ll see just how much emphasis God places on work and why working is essential to our spiritual wellbeing. So the next time someone asks you “who the heck came up with the idea of work and who should be doing it anyway” you’ll be armed with the TWO KEY FACTS ABOUT THE BIBLICAL ORIGINS OF WORK which are that God Created Work and God Created Man to Work.