'You will work hard for your food...' Genesis 3:19 first part

One of the hardest jobs in the world is being a chef in a restaurant. Not only do you have to buy and prepare the food, but you also have to work in high temperatures because of all of the cookers and ovens that industrial kitchens have. The best food to prepare and eat is fresh food. I would hardly call a chip shop a restaurant but I know that fresh potatoes make better chips! All food, in the Western world at least, has a sell by date; tins, packet foods and fresh fruit and veg. There is nothing worst than reaching for say an apple or a bag of crisps, selecting one then realising that it is stale, limp and tasteless. Now, I don’t have to be a scientist to tell you why this happens or even know about packaging and the ability to seal contents so that air cannot seep into it, simply put, it is down to timing. Even with a sell by date, if you have brought it yourself, you know when it is supposed to be consumed by right? Granted, packaged goods are a little trickier but usually a bag of peanuts or crisps won’t last until the sell by date because apparently they disappear from cupboards up and down the country all by themselves! Fruit and veg, on the other hand, tell you by there appearance when they are going or have gone off. I am no chef, but even I know when an apple or orange is not fit for consumption. There is a natural sheen that isn’t there anymore, the skin wrinkles and dark patches become evident.

This is the way it has always been as we read in Genesis 3:19

You will work hard for your food,
    until your face is covered with sweat.
You will work hard until the day you die,
    and then you will become dust again.
I used dust to make you,
    and when you die, you will become dust again.

The reason food goes off is because of sin. The fancy dates on the packets are just to let us think that we has control over something. This verse clearly tells us that work wasn’t meant to be easy but you still have to do it, not just to be a responsible citizen, but because God commands it. But when all is said and done, I would rather be at work for God knowing that he is going to reward me justly. Food for thought.

Bryn has chosen the song 'You are my King' by Rachel Robinson. Click on the picture to listen.