1The heavens, the earth, and all their vast array were finished. 2On the seventh day God finished his work which he had done; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done. 3God blessed the seventh day, and made it holy, because he rested in it from all his work of creation which he had done.
4This is the history of the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that Yahweh God made the earth and the heavens. 5No plant of the field was yet in the earth, and no herb of the field had yet sprung up; for Yahweh God had not caused it to rain on the earth. There was not a man to till the ground, 6but a mist went up from the earth, and watered the whole surface of the ground. 7Yahweh God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. 8Yahweh God planted a garden eastward, in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9Out of the ground Yahweh God made every tree to grow that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food, including the tree of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 10A river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it was parted, and became the source of four rivers. 11The name of the first is Pishon: it flows through the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; 12and the gold of that land is good. Bdellium and onyx stone are also there. 13The name of the second river is Gihon. It is the same river that flows through the whole land of Cush. 14The name of the third river is Hiddekel. This is the one which flows in front of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates. 15Yahweh God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate and keep it. 16Yahweh God commanded the man, saying, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; 17but you shall not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; for in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die.”
18Yahweh God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make him a helper comparable to him.” 19Out of the ground Yahweh God formed every animal of the field, and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. Whatever the man called every living creature became its name. 20The man gave names to all livestock, and to the birds of the sky, and to every animal of the field; but for man there was not found a helper comparable to him. 21Yahweh God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. As the man slept, he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. 22Yahweh God made a woman from the rib which he had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. 23The man said, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. She will be called ‘woman,’ because she was taken out of Man.” 24Therefore a man will leave his father and his mother, and will join with his wife, and they will be one flesh. 25The man and his wife were both naked, and they were not ashamed.
The Misuse of Time
Laborers Working in the Garden
I believe my father’s favorite verse in the Bible was this one. I can still hear him saying, “If you don’t work, you don’t eat.” An entitlement attitude is not Biblical. God created work, and the rules of sowing and reaping are threaded through the entirety of scripture. We should all remember that work is not a curse; it is a blessing. Scripture tells us that “15 Yahweh God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate and keep it.” (Genesis 2:15 WEB) The reader should note that Adam was put into the Garden of Eden to work it BEFORE sin entered the world. God intended for Adam to have a task to do, and the fruit of that was that he might have something to eat. It is not beneficial for humans to receive something without effort. It is emotionally, spiritually, and materially injurious on many levels. Paul tells Timothy to watch out for such people who are not industrious. In fact, the less involved they are in managing their own affairs, the more likely they’ll be intrusive in the affairs of others. That’s a nice way of saying that they are busybodies.
Paul says concerning those who are unwilling to work, we should command and exhort them to earn their bread in quietness. That means that thrift and a good work ethic are something that should be taught. They are godly attributes. They are noble qualities. If we find someone who is deficient in this area, we should come alongside them, educate them, and challenge them. Instead of each of us looking for that tendency in others, we should look to ourselves and ask ourselves a few questions. Some of those might include: “Am I a good volunteer when help is needed in the church body, or am I quick to ask for help from others, but I am scarce when I am called upon?” “Am I careful with my time and do I use my time in a way that is honoring to God, or do I waste endless hours doing things that are of no profit to myself or others?” In this day and age, there are so many things that try to take away our scarce and valuable time. Maybe it’s time to pray that the Lord would make your time more useful to yourself and to others. As a child, I attended a daily chapel service at an Orthodox Christian school in the Anglican tradition. Almost every day during morning prayer, the headmaster would read this prayer collectively for all the students. This prayer does not appear in the 1928 Episcopal Prayer Book. It is very possible that our wonderful headmaster, Mr. Walters, wrote it. I can still hear him up at the front of the sanctuary in his bold and clear voice, saying this prayer for the whole chapel to hear,
Defend us, O Lord, against idleness and the misuse of time which can never come back; lest our lives be unprofitable to thee, mischievous to others, and without honor or joy to ourselves; for the sake of our Lord and master Jesus Christ. Amen (Headmaster Henry L. Walters Jr. - St. Thomas' Episcopal School)
What a glorious prayer! What a biblical prayer! May we all pray this prayer and incorporate it into our daily lives. We will all be better for it!