The Curse upon Man, Part Two
A Devotional Series from Genesis
Online Bible Audio/Readings Links (ESV)
4/4 Reading Portions: Leviticus 7; Psalm 7-8; Proverbs 22; 1 Thessalonians 1
Genesis 3:19
“By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
SWEAT
When YHVH God placed that man He created into the garden He had planted to tend that garden and keep it (Gen 2:15), it was a joyful undertaking—honorable work that was a blessing to the man and to the world in general. The purpose of this work was to give man the opportunity to reciprocate his love for God because of God’s love toward him (1 Jn 4:19). God created the heavens and the earth (Gen 1:1) and created man from the dust of the earth and gave him life (Gen 2:7), then planted a beautiful garden paradise and placed the man in it (Gen 2:8). Working the garden and keeping it was a way for the man to show his love to the One who loved him and gave him all things. Because God made it all and owned it all, stewardship through personal responsibility was a collateral blessing from God’s loving purpose. But since man sinned, that work became laborious, resulting in sweat on the face in sustaining his life—yet that work would not sustain man unto eternal life, because we are dust, and to dust [we] shall return. Every labor of fallen man to attain salvation and eternal life is dusty, desperate futility. This is why the Lord Jesus said,
“Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you Rest.” Matthew 11:28
Jesus, having fulfilled the Law of God both actively and passively by His perfect, sinless life, and by His substitutionary atoning death upon the cross, has done the work. Jesus is our Sabbath. Jesus is that Rest. We need only believe upon Him whom God the Father has sent (John 6:29). Hallelujah! What a Savior! Once we have believed, then our labor is to keep in Christ, as it is written:
Let us therefore strive to enter that Rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. Hebrews 4:11
And every good work we accomplish since we’ve been saved, is accomplished in the strength and might of Christ (Eph 6:10) and the power of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8) so that we may only boast in the Lord Jesus and not in the works of our flesh (1 Cor 1:31; Gal 6:14; Phil 3:3).