Genesis 2
9. 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.
10. And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.
11. The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;
12. And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.
KJV
Four things God shows us of being good and of value here. Water, food, gold and stone.
We get these priorities mixed up sometimes. But when there is a lack we quickly adjust back to necessities first. I came across this article today on Yahoo!. Because of a drought, Russia has put a ban on all exports of wheat for four and a half months. Russia is the third largest exporter of wheat in the world. If you have nothing to eat, oil becomes less important. If you have nothing to drink, diamonds become worthless.
We see in the bible with the story of Joseph who revealed a dream to Pharaoh about the seven good years and seven bad years. Joseph was put second in command over the entire land because of his plan to provide for the years of lack that would come. During the seven good years the other nations would have no need in parting with any of their riches and treasures. But during the seven bad years, they told Egypt take everything we have, even our land and we will be your slaves just give us food. See, when you’re perishing, gold becomes of no value.
Sometimes we put value in electronics, cars, houses, or as the nations get so involved with sometimes, oil. But God showed us in the garden of Eden the things of value and their order of priority. We have to keep our priorities in order and balance out necessities with wants. You can’t spend your paycheck on shoes when you don’t have food in the house and then come to God wanting a miracle. Sometimes we think miracles are to make-up for what we don’t have because of our waste or mismanagement of resources.
Look at this in closing. In the gospels we read about Jesus telling His disciples to feed the 5000 rather than to send them away. The disciples said all we have is 5 loaves and 2 fish. Jesus took the baskets and raised them up and thanked God for them. They fed every person that was present. Now if He can do this miracle, why worry about keeping account for what was left? I mean why not just carry around 1 loaf and 1 fish and just multiply it when everyone is hungry? But they didn’t, they had to collect all of the baskets of food and had 12 baskets left. We see this in the scriptures. It was showing accountability for their resources. Jesus was teaching us the importance of maximizing the minimum, of giving account for resources. Just because He could turn a few into thousands didn’t mean it was OK to waste- they still had to collect the baskets.
We have to give account for what resources God has given to us. When we’ve done all we can and managed responsibly, then God brings increase into our life. Praise God for the King and His awesome Kingdom!
