Worship & Obey

Have you ever looked at Google Maps and started with the satellite view of the United States, then kept zooming in until you got to your house? Its really fascinating; as you zoom in closer and closer, you see more and more detail. For some houses, you can even look at the street view and see a detailed picture of your home. You should try it out sometime. In Genesis 2, the author does the same thing Google Maps does. He zooms in on the Garden of Eden to give you a detailed picture not only of the garden, but God’s interaction with man. Where chapter 1 was the zoomed out satellite big picture, Genesis 2 is the zoomed in and in high definition.

Read Genesis 2:3-17

The author of Genesis describes in extreme detail what God was doing when he planted the Garden at Eden . Every tree that was good for food and pleasing to the eye was there. At its center there was a river which meant this was a fertile planting ground. This was the perfect place to live. God provided for all of Adam’s physical needs in the Garden. God really only gives Adam one command, which is to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of Good & Evil (We’ll look at this in just a few days)

What I want to draw our attention to is Genesis 2:15. It says, “the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.” God gave Adam a job, a role in the place where He had put Adam. Pretty simple, to take care of the land. For each of us, God gives us a role in the places He puts us. For example, in your school you were given the task of studying. In your homes, you were given the role of submitting to your parents. Garden, school, work, home, seemingly different places and different roles. But what’s interesting is that in the Hebrew, the words “work it” and “keep it” were not exclusively used in reference to gardening or farming. Instead, those two words were used most often in reference to the Levitical duties of the priests in the tabernacle. “Work” referred to the service in the tabernacle worship. “Keep” similarly referred to being faithful to all the duties God had given to the priests. Numbers 3:7 says, “They shall keep guard over him and over the whole congregation before the tent of meeting, as they minister [work] at the tabernacle.

So really what Adam’s task boiled down to was God placed him in the garden not only to work it and keep it, but to worship and obey. So that’s the question for us today. In the places God has placed us (our schools, our homes, wherever), God has given us a role, not only to be a student or a son/daughter, but to worship and obey Him. Are we living that out in our daily lives? Do we seek to worship and obey God at every moment in every place?