One thing that I heard from a great speaker, Tim Keller, was that this account spits in the face of what other gods were like. He compares the Genesis creation account to the enuma elish, a Babylonian account of creation, as well as pandora's box. Both accounts show that god, or the gods, created work as a bad thing. In the enuma elish, man is created to do the things that the gods don't want to do - one of which is work. In pandora's box, all of the bad stuff is let out of the box, which includes work. We haven't even come to the fall yet, and already we are seeing that God is creating a pattern - a perfect order - that includes not only man working, but God getting his hands dirty by forming man out of the dust of the earth. So, work is supposed to be good (for a great sermon on 'work', and for those references, listen to Tim Keller's sermon entitled, Made for Stewardship).
Many, many things can be applied to our thinking and our lives from this passage. At this point in my life, these things are what I believe God is telling me from this passage:
- I am to take care (1:28 - subdue) of the earth and the things that are in it - that was the original plan. I am a steward of everything that is around me.
- Work is a good thing, not an evil thing.
- Because we are made in the image of God (we aren't God, but we're made like Him), I am called to create order out of chaos (I can't create something out of nothing - I can only create order out of non-order). This can be done in many ways - fixing a leaking sink, mending a relationship with a loved one, playing music, etc.
