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The Creator Planned for Our Happiness, February 4
And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the
man whom he had formed.
Genesis 2:8
.
Notwithstanding all that has been said and written regarding the dignity of
manual labor, the feeling prevails that it is degrading. Popular opinion has, in many
minds, changed the order of things, and men have come to think that it is not fitting
for a man who works with his hands to take his place among gentlemen. Men work
hard to obtain money; and having gained wealth, they suppose that their money will
make their sons gentlemen. But many such fail to train their sons as they themselves
were trained, to hard, useful labor. Their sons spend the money earned by the labor
of others, without understanding its value. Thus they misuse a talent that the Lord
designed should accomplish much good.
The Lord’s purposes are not the purposes of men. He did not design that men
should live in idleness. In the beginning He created man a gentleman; but though
rich in all that the Owner of the universe could supply, Adam was not to be idle. No
sooner was he created than his work was given him. He was to find employment and
happiness in tending the things that God had created, and in response to his labor
his wants were to be abundantly supplied from the fruits of the Garden of Eden.
While our first parents obeyed God, their labor in the garden was a pleasure,
and the earth yielded of its abundance for their wants. But when man departed from
obedience, he was doomed to wrestle with the seeds of Satan’s sowing and to earn
his bread by the sweat of his brow. Henceforth he must battle in toil and hardship
against the power to which he had yielded his will.
It was God’s purpose to alleviate by toil the evil brought into the world by man’s
disobedience. By toil the temptations of Satan might be made ineffectual and the
tide of evil stayed. And though attended with anxiety, weariness, and pain, labor
is still a source of happiness and development, and a safeguard against temptation.
Its discipline places a check on self-indulgence and promotes industry, purity, and
firmness. Thus it becomes a part of God’s great plan for our recovery from the Fall
(
Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students, 273, 274
).
The Creator of man has arranged the living machinery of our bodies.... Every
law governing the human machinery is to be considered just as truly divine in origin,
in character, and in importance as the Word of God. Every careless, inattentive
action, any abuse put upon the Lord’s wonderful mechanism by disregarding His
specified laws in the human habitation, is a violation of God’s law. We may behold
and admire the work of God in the natural world, but the human habitation is the
most wonderful (
Medical Ministry, 221
).
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