Effects of the Fall...WORK!?

[Nicholas_II]

Gen 3 [17] And to Adam he said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife,
and have eaten of the tree
of which I commanded you,
`You shall not eat of it,’
cursed is the ground because of you;
in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life;

I always understood our having to work as an effect of the Fall. I hear some Protestants describe it (work) as a “creation ordinance” whatever that is. I always understood the verse above as pointing to the belief that our daily toil and our having to work was a result of the Fall.

Anyone got any comments?

regards
Nicholas

 

[Della]

Well, I don’t think God had intended humanity to just lay around the Garden of Eden eating grapes all day. I think the key word in the verse you cited is “toil.” There is a big difference between working for love and working just to earn a living. We probably wouldn’t had to have “toiled” for our daily bread if we had not fallen, but we certainly would have had things to do, such as husbanding the earth and perhaps exploring the whole of the universe in all it’s splendors, if God had so desired us to. We wouldn’t have just sat on our hands with nothing to do and no way to fulfill our potential as persons made in the creative image of God.

 

[Wildgraywolf]

I’d have to agre with Della… I think God always intended us to work. The main difference being what “toil” was like before and after the fall.

It seems that before the fall work was easy and after the fall work became hard…

Gen 3:17 …The ground is cursed for your sake. In pain shall you eat of it all the days of your life. Gen 3:18 It shall also bring forth thorns and thistles to you, and you shall eat the herb of the field. Gen 3:19 In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken. For dust you are, and to dust you shall return.

 

[anawim]

Adam was instructed to till the garden as well as guard it. Tilling is work the last time I checked.

 

[porthos11]

Not work per se but work by the sweat of our brow. In other words, we are cursed to work hard or die of starvation.

Prior to that man was called to work but it was most likely for a priestly service, doing God’s tasks, such as caring for the garden. It would have been a cause for joy, probably like a perpetual working vacation. Man would have loved doing it, not looking forward to weekends. But nature would have provided willingly for all of man’s needs and not resist as it does now.

 

[Mijoy2]

I think we have an inherent need to work. Although I cannot site the quote, I believeAquanis said something regarding our inabillity to have fun if not preceded by work (probably a horrible paraphase but when I heard it it hit home with me).
I know that following a hard and successful day on the job, I appreciate leisure much more then leisure for the sake of leisure.

I think the old adage TGIF would not hold the same weight if it were not preceded by M-Th. My guess is something along these lines will be true in Heaven. Although I sure hope it’s not in a cubicle.