Stewardship
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—Chapter 3—
FOR YOUR EYES ONLY:
Things Meant Only To Be Seen
“And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil….
But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”—Genesis 2:9, 17.
If you always want to possess every good thing you see, you may not see any good thing you already have.
Don’t Even Think About It!
Sometimes while visiting, I usually see fruits artistically arranged on the table, giving the impression that they are more for decoration than they are for eating. Sometimes I get tempted to pick one and eat but overcome the temptation with a wish: If only they wrote ‘for your eyes only’ it could make it easy to know that they are not meant for eating.
I once entered our local church cafeteria where nicely decorated cakes were on display on a table. There was nobody in the cafeteria to watch over the cakes but there was a note conspicuously displayed next to the cake with the following words: “Don’t Even Think About It!” Whoever placed the note there knew that somebody might be tempted to have a bite of the cakes. Being a church, whoever put the note there knew that it would be respected. Religious people are known to respect instructions—or aren’t they?
We saw in chapter 2 that God made food provision for man. Just as God pointed out what the first couple would eat, He also instructed them on what not to eat.
“And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.” —Genesis 2:8-9.
In His profound wisdom and discretion, God planted a garden with every tree that is pleasant to behold. The fruits of one tree were not meant to be eaten, but only to be seen. In other words, there are things that are within our physical reach but not permissible reach. If we utilise them for the mere fact that we can reach them, it will constitute an abuse of freedom.
The kind of stewardship we have over things for the eyes only is to take good care of them. To tend and protect them: “And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it” (Gen. 2:15).
The fact that the man was taking care of the garden didn’t mean that he was going to utilise everything in the garden the way he wanted. The garden belonged to God and Adam was to take good care of it, he would give an account to God at the end of the day. He was given instructions.
“And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” —Genesis 2:16-17.
It is a dangerous thing to ignore instruction in favour of seduction. Accounting is only difficult if we defy the instructions and do things according to our whims. Most of the times, the master will call us to account only when he realises that things are not right in one way or the other. There is a way to tell that things aren’t going on well. Good stewards are confident in the presence of the Master. Bad stewards are nervous; raucous; impetuous and rebellious before the master. Guilt takes away their confidence.
“And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?” —Genesis 3:9-11. “
And he said also unto his disciples, There was a certain rich man, which had a steward; and the same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods. And he called him, and said unto him, How is it that I hear this of thee? give an account of thy stewardship; for thou mayest be no longer steward.”—Luke 16:1-2.
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