Ground Work and Sheep Keeping
God gave men two jobs: 1) work Eden, and 2) keep Eden.
Genesis 2:15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.
Is there a difference between working and keeping? If so, how would we know what that difference is without making up an interesting sounding, but unfounded answer? I found a clue this morning in Genesis 4. I’ve read Genesis 4 probably hundreds of times, but I’ve never seen this before.
Genesis 4:2b Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground.
This is the first example of delegation in the Scripture. For everything bad Adam did, like introducing sin into the human race and plunging us into thousands of years of unspeakable terrors, horrors, and death, he did something sort of right. God said he needed to work and keep Eden, so Adam said, “Ok, I’ll make two children to do that for me.” Adam was great at delegating everything. He delegated sin to his wife, and work to his kids. What did Adam even do since all he did was pass on God’s commands to other people? Well, we know he was fond of “knowing” his wife, that we know for sure. That is the only thing we know he did at least three times, which is more than I can say for myself. That’s just because I don’t have a wife though. But in case you’re worried, as President D.J. Trump would say, “I guarantee you there is no problem.”
Anyway, I digress. What do sheep keepers do? They do a few things.
They make sure sheep stay in bounds
They keep wolves away
They help the sheep give birth (I assume)
They are responsible for the flock growing
They keep the sheep from doing stupid things that sheep are well known to do
What do ground workers do? They freaking work. If it wasn’t for Meme, may she rest in peace, I wouldn’t even know the little I do know about ground working.
Ground workers do some of the following:
Dig holes
Pull weeds
Fight animal intruders
Water the plants
Spray pesticides, among some other things
I would never spray pesticides because my natural doctor says that I need to only eat organic so I wouldn’t do that. I think she’s a little quacky to be honest, but she has been helpful.
I can see why Cain could have gotten upset. Working looks harder than keeping. You can’t just show up and sit there and watch the sheep, write poems, and flirt with your sister who also might be helping another sheep keepers. Ground working is hard, hard work. He might have thought that Abel was already pretty lazy. Then on top of all that, God approves of the meaty sacrifice and disapproves of the corny sacrifice.
Being in sales now and owning a sales company, I can see that there are workers and there are keepers. You can’t have a business without people of both strengths. This is the brilliance of God. He knows that if all you have are ground workers, everyone would be super intense. These people are not good at the patient, nurturing, keeping work that is 100% necessary for a flock to grow and give you the various nice meats that you like. Without the workers, the flock wouldn’t have food, and the sheep keeper would be out of a job.
I observe that men (and to an extent, women) are born with a tendency toward one or the other. By God’s grace, we need to grow as both to become who He made us to be.
As men, we should be doing the ground work in our lives, and the sheep keeping in our lives however the Lord has put those responsibilities in our lives. I know that I’m more of a ground worker type, and struggle with sheep keeping. I also struggle seeing the benefits of those who are faithful sheep keepers.
THE LESSON FOR ME
I can grow in my skill and faithfulness to keep the sheep in my life. Not everything is ground that needs to be worked. I can’t ignore either of these responsibilities.
