by Josiah Langworthy
(Genesis 2:16-17 ESV, 3, 4:1-16)
In our current society, we have reached a point of decadence. We no longer have the urgent concern for our most basic needs to be met; instead, we have the liberty to pursue personal pleasures and our own immediate gratification. With the liberty of choice, we have moved beyond simply what we need to the broad question of, “What do I prefer?” We have moved from the question of what helps preserve our lives to what helps enrich our lives. In our freedom to pursue a host of available possibilities, we are asking what it means to live our “best lives”. This pursuit is ultimately only possible in accordance with God’s will. The pursuit of our best life is not unique to our generation. It dates back as far as Genesis 3, immediately following creation. At the time, everything was created good and was stated to be good by God Himself. Humanity was given dominion over the Earth and lived in fellowship with God. Sin and death didn’t yet exist. Adam and Eve were given the freedom to pursue anything they desired. God gave them one single rule. They were not to eat the fruit from one particular tree. Despite the fact that they only had one rule to follow, they inevitably failed.
Initially, their actions may not make any sense to us. They were literally given the world and had none of the afflictions that now hinder us. With authority over a world unpolluted by the curse of sin and God’s permission and even encouragement to develop and create, they had the freedom of an incredible scope of possibilities that they could pursue. How could they possibly disobey their only simple instruction? Upon further evaluation, it is the same trend as man’s current relationship with God. Adam and Eve were content with their role in creation until God’s command was phrased differently. The serpent promised them that eating from the tree would grant them special information that would greatly enrich their lives. Furthermore, this was information that God was hiding from them. He told them that if they ate, they would become like God. The act of defiance that they thought would effectively liberate humanity is what enslaved us. Ultimately, by acting outside God’s will, they incurred all the hardship that we now experience in the world.
After the fall of Man, the pattern of rebellion against God to our own detriment continued without missing a generation. In the first passage in Genesis following Adam and Eve’s exile from Eden, the narrative shifts to their sons. As they grow up, they both offer sacrifices to the Lord. Abel brings a costly gift to God while Cain does not. Their respective heart attitudes are reflected both in their offerings and in God’s response. Cain did not respond well to God’s regard for his brother’s offering over his own. At this point, God speaks to Cain directly. He warns Cain about his anger and tells him that he can be accepted the same way his brother was. Cain ignored God’s instruction and killed his brother in the very next verse. After murdering Abel, Cain showed no remorse for his crime, only self-pity for the punishment he received. Even though God knew the extent of the evil in Cain’s heart and the sin he was capable of, He told him that there is still hope and charged him to improve. Cain’s fate was entirely avoidable. He had the same opportunities as his brother and God went as far as to reach out to Cain directly to give him a verbal warning when Cain was at risk of making a major mistake. Cain disregarded God’s warning and chose to pursue his own desires thinking that he knew better. Like Cain and Abel, we are born into the inheritance of a sinful nature and a life in a broken world. We have the same disdain for God’s law and a suspicion of His intentions toward us. We often consider His commands to be restrictive of our freedoms and limiting our true potential. We question the intent behind God’s law and conclude that His instructions are either arbitrary or else directly harmful to us.
To truly realize our “best lives”, we need to take the created order into account. God created material existence with a certain natural order. The Genesis 1 account of Creation describes the development of various forms of life and specifies that each was made “according to its kind”. God created all varieties of life forms with distinct characteristics. While a broad spectrum of variety exists within the world we know, there is an observable natural phenomenon of design. God’s vision for Mankind in Genesis 1:28 reflects this sense of order in His directive: “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” We are told that we live in a world of order and that we are given authority over it.
The thought of a position of authority and a charge to manage the earth can certainly be a daunting one. Fortunately, we are not left in the dark. God’s instructions provide us with a guide for how to best interact with His creation. His Sabbath commands, for example, allow us to optimally interact with creation. A day of rest gives both our bodies and spirits a necessary respite which prepares us for the cycle to begin again. This rhythm of life was modeled by God in creation, by Jesus in His life, and should be followed by us today. Though it may seem like ceasing productive activity would prevent us from reaching our potential, rest actually allows us to be more productive, more connected with our brothers and sisters, and more prepared for what the new week will bring. Jesus makes this point in Mark 2:27. In the context of the passage, a group of Pharisees was criticizing His disciples for eating bits of grain off the plants as they were walking through a field on a Sabbath. In their elaboration on Mosaic law, the Pharisees had dramatically expanded the restrictions that the Sabbath conveyed on work to include many minuscule tasks such as picking bits of grain while passing by. Jesus reminded them of the intent of the original command when He said, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” Jesus pointed out to them that the purpose of the Sabbath command was for Man’s benefit.
In the same manner as our predecessors, we are inclined to be skeptical of the idea of taking instruction from God. We either doubt His intentions or the reliability of His ideas. We suspect that they are antagonistic toward us or else simply outdated. Our history, however, suggests otherwise. Through repeated trial and error, we have found His commands to be beneficial. Furthermore, an eternal and omniscient being would have a comprehensive understanding of how best to interact with His own creation. In order to truly live our best lives, we need to reconcile with the directives of the One who created the natural order.