In the Bible, the very first chapter of the first book, Genesis, tells the story of God creating and uses a framework of six workdays to describe its development. Then in Chapter 2, verses 1 and 2, we see work, work, work.
[2:1] Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. [2] And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done.
The story of creation from the Jewish scriptures, believed by Christians, is that creation was the product of
God gets right to work from the beginning of time. That’s unique. Many other creation stories in other cultures start with conflict between gods. They say we and our world are products of destruction. But the Christian story says we are products of construction.
When it’s all done, God is satisfied, and can rest. He’s said over and over as he created, it’s good. When he created humans he said it was very good. And then he rested, satisfied he’d done good work.
For the rest of the summer, we’ll be looking at work and rest, and how important they are for followers of Jesus.
And it starts here, with the simple fact that God works, and is still working to provide, care, heal and sustain life for us on earth.
God and Jesus work: in John 5:17 he responded to those who objected to him healing people on Saturday, what should have been a day of rest. He said, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”
God didn’t stop working forever, he is still at work, including in and through his son Jesus.
Later in John 5:36 it’s clear God the Father has given him work to do…like an assignment.
Finally, work is in paradise. If the Garden of Eden, in creation, we get a picture of heaven on earth, and we see work is meant to be there, not just added in after humans rebelled against god – it was there before the rebellion. The nature of work changed, but it was meant to be there already.
Today we’ve seen, work is meant to be a good thing…something God embraces. Not an evil virus infecting life.
Question: Why is the goodness of work not more apparent in human life? What makes this so hard to believe?
Acknowledgements: Tim Keller, Every Good Endeavour and Work & Rest
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Jesus said this about our needs in life, and God’s care for those needs:
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him! (Matthew 7:7-11 ESV)
It’s a very poetic part of Jesus’ sermon on the mount, both in its beauty, but also in its depth of meaning.
Yet it’s easily misused or misunderstood. It sounds like a foolproof formula for prayer that he repeats several times. It’s easy to come away thinking God is like a vending machine – put in a prayer, make your selection, and God has to give it to you.
But simple logic says it can’t mean that. We don’t all get what we want all the time.
But Jesus was not saying God was a vending machine, he said God was like a Father. He may not be like your Father, or any other on earth, rather the Father's love is like the ideal parent, the one that all human parents are measured against.
Only a sick parent would delight in harming their child. When a child needs food – we should try to get them food. Of course, parents don’t give their child every unhealthy threat they request – good parents give healthy food and treats in moderation.
God has not promised to fulfill our wildest dreams of Porsches and Prada. He speaks about our needs…necessities. And not necessarily the modern definition of a need!
Question: How have you personally treated prayer like a formula or vending machine, or seen others do the same?
