I was reading Genesis 2 recently and the call to “serve and keep” in verse 2:15 stood out to me.
In Genesis 2:15, the human (הָֽאָדָ֑ם, ha’adam), that is formed from the ground (הָֽאֲדָמָ֗ה, adamah), is placed in the garden “to work it and to keep it.” The Hebrew verb עָבַד (avad) is the key to a right understanding. While it can mean “to labour,” its primary range of meaning includes to serve, to cultivate, to be a servant of—the same word used for Israel’s worship of God. Here, the human’s primary vocation is framed as service and attentive care. The human is installed as a resident steward, charged with nurturing and preserving the fertile order God has established.
The potent concepts of dominion (רָדָה, radah—to rule, often with authority) and the call to subdue (כָּבַשׁ, kavash—to bring into subjection, to tread down) in Genesis 1:26-28, should thus be read in light of the call to serve and keep in Genesis 2:15. Genesis 2:5 and 15 provides the essential grounding (pun intended), that defines the spirit in which that authority must be exercised.
When we read Genesis 1 and 2 together, a coherent but demanding ethic emerges: the strong, sovereign language of dominion and subjugation from the Genesis 1 creation account is placed within the framework of a “very good” creation and immediately qualified by the command to “serve and keep.” Dominion is, therefore, not a license for autonomous control, but a charge to exercise God-like, responsible rulership—the kind that protects, fosters life, and orders chaos for the benefit of the whole creation community. The mandate to “subdue” should be understood as the purposeful work of a careful gardener or shepherd, drawing out creation’s potential for flourishing, not as the conquest of an enemy.
Further reflections also recall some insights from 4 books I’ve read in 2025:
1. Bearing God’s Name: A Covenant of Representation
Carmen Joy Imes, in Bearing God’s Name: Why Sinai Still Matters, provides a transformative lens for understanding human authority. Her central thesis—that Israel’s call was not just to obey laws but to carry God’s identity into the world, also informs our understanding of Genesis 2:15.
Imes’s focus on the profound responsibility and peril of “bearing the name” (Exodus 20:7) applies directly to Genesis.
If humanity is created in God’s image (Genesis 1:27), then our dominion is inherently derivative and representative. We are acting on behalf of the King. We are not sovereigns in our own right; we are representatives or agents of the King.
When we subdue and rule, we do so as God’s representatives. Genesis 2:15’s call to “serve and keep” becomes the job description for how God’s image-bearers are to exercise that representation: through attentive, loving care. Understood this way, ecological abuse is a blasphemous distortion of God’s character as a careful Creator and sustainer.
2. The Serviceberry and the Moss: An Economy of Gifts and Reciprocity
Robin Wall Kimmerer, a botanist and member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, offers a biocultural vision that resonates deeply with the ethos of avad (עבד) [to serve]. Her essays in “The Serviceberry: An Economy of Abundance” and the lessons of “Gathering Moss” provide a living commentary on Genesis 2.
Kimmerer invites us to see the economy of gifts that are present in plants. Her chosen example? The serviceberry (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amelanchier). In contrast to the dominant practice where humans are the extractor of resources from the ground, Kimmerer proposes that we consider the relationship of reciprocal obligation. In Kimmerer’s economy of gifts, humans are participants in the cycle of giving and receiving. Our service is our reciprocal gift—our service of tending, pruning, and protecting that ensures the continued flourishing of the whole community.
In Gathering Moss, Kimmerer shares on how mosses, which “ask for so little and offer so much,” teach the virtues of humility, patience, and noticing—the very antithesis of the arrogant and dominating “subjugation” posture of modern agriculture.
Kimmerer’s scientific and indigenous approach to moss—knowing each species’ story, its needs, its gifts—embodies the Hebrew שמר (shamar), to keep, guard, observe. This is not passive preservation but active, knowledgeable partnership. It is the practice of the servant who knows the master’s creation intimately.
3. The Arrogant Ape: The Myth of Human Exceptionalism
Christine Webb’s “The Arrogant Ape: The Myth of Human Exceptionalism” provides the critical philosophical and evolutionary critique that informs our reading of the biblical creation account. She systematically dismantles the idea that humans are radically separate from and superior to the rest of creation.
The misinterpreted “dominion” mandate has been the primary theological engine for this myth of radical exceptionalism. Webb’s work shows its destructive empirical consequences.
Considering Webb’s work, I now read Genesis 1-2 with a fresh insight: differentiated kinship. Humanity is formed from the same dust of the ground (Heb. adamah) as other creatures (Genesis 2:7, 19). Webb’s call to humility is echoed in Genesis: we are placed within the garden, not above it. As God’s image bearers, we are called to responsibly care for our kin. This is our service. Our responsibility.
Conclusion: Rediscovering our Vocation to serve and keep.
- We are Name-Bearers in a Gift Economy.
Our primary identity is to represent God’s character of generous, sustaining love within a creation that operates on principles of reciprocity and gift. Our work/service (avad) is our grateful response to the gift of life, contributing our labour to sustain the communal web.
- Stewardship of Kinship.
To “subdue” is to guide creation toward its *shalom*, its intended flourishing—much like a gardener subdues chaos into harmonious, fruitful order.
- The Fall is the Corruption of this Vocation.
Sin manifests as abandoning our role as servants to exploit our kin and hoard gifts, distorting the call to keep (Heb. shamar) into possessive control and service (Heb. avad) into oppressive labour (Genesis 3:17-19; 4:10-12).
- Redemption is the Restoration of Right Relationship.
Christ, the perfect Image-Bearer and Servant (Philippians 2:6-7), redeems our vocation. He reconciles “all things” (Colossians 1:20), healing the broken kinship. Our calling is now to participate in this reconciliation—to be a people who, bearing God’s name, serve and keep our wounded garden, practicing an economy of grace and mutual flourishing until the day of its complete renewal.
The cry of the land today is a call to return to Genesis 2:15. It is a call to lay down the myth of exceptional domination and take up the humble tools of the servant-gardener. It is to learn, with Kimmerer, the language of the land; to undertake, with Imes, the solemn joy of representing a generous God; and to abandon, with Webb, the arrogance that severs us from our kin. Our true vocation is not to be conquerors of nature, but to be its servants and keepers, participating gratefully in the boundless economy of gifts entrusted to our care.
Works referenced:
1. Bearing God’s name. Why Sinai Still matters. by Carmen Joy Imes.
2. The Serviceberry. An Economy of Gifts and Abundance. by Robin Wall Kimmerer.
3. Gathering Moss: A natural and cultural history of Mosses. by Robin Wall Kimmerer.
4. The Arrogant Ape: The myth of human exceptionalism and why it matters. by Christine Webb.
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