Do not mortals have hard service on earth? Are not their days like those of hired laborers? – Job 7:1

Today's Scripture Reading (August 18, 2024): Job 7

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And when it came time to make the first humans, he placed them in a beautiful garden. This Garden was well-watered and filled with fruit trees. The Garden was able to fulfill the daily needs of God's creation. And there, our first ancestors grew and lived. God had given them the responsibility to care for the Garden; in return, the Garden would take care of them.

God placed the first couple in the Garden, but he didn't childproof the Garden. God had created this couple in his image, and one of the things that meant was that they could understand the concepts of right and wrong. God understood that he couldn't let them know the difference between right and wrong and not place something prohibited in the Garden. So, God placed a tree in the center of the Garden, the fruit of which his creation was forbidden to eat.

Now, the Garden was vast, and it had a river that meandered through it. I said once that if I were in the Garden, I would have followed the river away from that tree in the middle of the Garden so I wouldn't be tempted to eat the fruit. But that isn't what Adam and Eve did. Instead, they stayed close to the forbidden tree, and eventually, they gave into temptation and ate fruit from the tree that had been forbidden to them.

As a result of Adam and Eve's actions, the human situation changed. One significant change was that the human race had to leave the Garden. No longer would we be able to live the life to which we had grown accustomed. The author of Genesis includes this description of life after Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit.

To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat from it,'

"Cursed is the ground because of you;
    through painful toil you will e at food from it
    all the days of your life.
It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
    and you will eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your brow
    you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
    since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
    and to dust you will return" (Genesis 3:17-19).

Job seems to echo the truth of the world after the fall. The human race was destined to live by the sweat on our brow. Once we were treasured guests of the Creator, existing on the bounty God had given us. But now, we were the hired hands working the field. And we only have ourselves to blame for the change.  

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Job 8