Imagine:
* summer gardening in South Carolina without shirt-drenching sweat.
* cultivating, planting, and reaping a crop without exhaustion or a sense of toil.
Of course, I’m thinking of those two words in Genesis 3:17-19: toil and sweat. Sin’s consequence is not work, but the toilsomeness of it—that immense degree of effort required to extract a crop. And toil’s companions are bone-wearying exhaustion and sweat! What would it have been like to cultivate a garden without toil and sweat? Apparently it was not like this before sin.
But now that it is this way, what is the purpose of toil and sweat? Someone commented that the sufferings and hardships of this fallen life are messengers of God by which He “partly invites us to repentance, partly instructs us in humility, and partly renders us more cautious and more attentive in guarding against the allurements of sin for the future.”* What a thought—that even our toil and sweat can be beneficial!
Coming at sweat and toil from another angle, I found myself thinking of One whose love caused Him to enter our world and learn first-hand of sweat and toil in the hot and dusty carpenter’s shop. Yet He went beyond this tosweat great drops of blood as He labored—yea toiled—in prayer on the eve of the cross. “Is there no other way, Father? None? Not my will, then, but Yours.”
Every grace to you, friend, as you look for the immense love of our Savior and the good purposes of God in our sweat and toil.
Blessings,
* Genesis, John Calvin
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