Designed for Work, Destined for War

God designed Adam and Eve for dominion. That was His stated purpose before He created them.

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. (Gen 1:26)

The Lord's instruction to them begins,

Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion . . . . (Gen 1:28)

Since our first parents had to subdue the earth, you may infer that it needed subduing. Except for one relatively small part, the world was wilderness. It was good, as God had pronounced it, but it was also wild and untamed.

The Creator did not set them about their assignment without a plan of execution. He gave them a template for their task: a garden.

The Garden of Eden was, no doubt more than a flower bed or a vegetable garden. From what Scripture relates, we can conclude it was part orchard, part park, part botanical garden and part zoological garden.

God designed Adam and Eve for work. He put them together in such a way that fitted them physically and intellectually to tame the wilderness and turn it into garden through productive thought and labor.

The command, "Subdue the earth," sums up the intended work of man, but within it dwelt a foreboding.

Continued in "Designed for Work, Destined for War, 2"