Stewardship

The First Job Description

The deep relationship among God, humans, and the Earth is embedded in the Bible from the start, framing our understanding of who we are as people of God.

The two Creation stories of Genesis reveal a clear job description for humans: grow families and communities, care for the Earth as a just ruler would care for his kingdom, and till and keep the land (Gen 1:27-31; 2:15).

This first job description framed the ancient Israelites’ understanding of therelationship between the land, their God, and themselves. The land belongs to God and God alone. For the Israelites, the land represented the promise of God’s favor, something that could be used, but not owned. As a people with experiences of both possession and dispossession of land, the understood that land should be managedas a gift from God, rather than as human-owned property. God tells the Israelites: “No land may be permanently bought or sold. It all belongsto me—it isn’t your land, and you only live there for a little while” (Lev 25:23). Unlike kings in surrounding regions, the king of Israel was expected to “manage the land as a gift entrusted to him but never possessed by him.” 2 Humility and justice were to characterize human dominion, and the land was to be held and worked for the good of the community and the Creation. They could secure abundance and peace by following God’s rules for Creation: “Faithfully obey my laws, and I will send rain to make your crops grow… your harvest of grain and grapes will be so abundant that you won’t know what to do with it all. You will eat and be satisfied, and you will live in safety” (Lev 26:3-5).

GUIDED BY THE GOSPEL: GATHERING • GROWING • GIVING