In the beginning, God created…gardening? While not the first thing God made, it was on His mind from the start. The famous Bible account of Creation reveals that He planted a garden eastward in Eden and placed the first two humans, Adam and then Eve, into it (Gen. 2:8). This was quite the garden. It contained “every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food” (vs. 9). God’s instructions to Adam were “to dress it and to keep it” (vs. 15).

Put simply, God intended the first two human beings to be gardeners.

Yet their charge to care for Eden did not last long. Instead, they chose to reject God’s guidance in their lives—including how to garden and grow food as God intended. They were then banished from the garden and cut off from the tree of life (3:6, 23-24). God sent them to work to grow food (vs. 19) and to till land outside the garden (vs. 23).

Since that time, humankind has learned to produce food its own way for millennia, with little to no thought about God’s first instructions. The results over the centuries since have been mixed. Too often, families, tribes and nations have struggled with periods of food scarcity and disease.

Today, modern advancements in agriculture allow relatively few farmers to efficiently produce food for billions, who often live in cities far removed from the farms and gardens that produce their food. Yet this ever-increasing productivity has come at a cost.

Even as farming has reached a larger scale, as well as become more intensive and efficient, the nutritional quality of the food it produces has deteriorated through soil depletion. This steady decline of nutrition has been monitored and recorded since the 1930s. In the years between 1975 and 1997, “average calcium levels in 12 fresh vegetables dropped 27 percent; iron levels 37 percent; vitamin A levels 21 percent, and vitamin C levels 30 percent” (Scientific American).

Vegetables simply no longer contain the same level of healthful vitamins and minerals they once did. The delicious, nutritious and flavorful food that our more recent forefathers may have experienced is now too often a memory of the past. The taste and quality of the typical fruits and veggies from grocery stores today can be hit or miss.

“The main culprit in this disturbing nutritional trend is soil depletion: Modern intensive agricultural methods have stripped increasing amounts of nutrients from the soil in which the food we eat grows,” Scientific American stated. Also to blame is modern agriculture’s focus on “practices designed to improve traits (size, growth rate, pest resistance) other than nutrition.”

It is easy to simply blame farmers for our poor nutrition. However, growers struggle with tight profit margins, trying to make ends meet with high production costs and low prices for their commodities. Sheer economic necessity dictates that farmers must produce high yields for the lowest cost possible. This means using chemical fertilizers that contain just a few major nutrients that drive plants to grow as fast as possible while ignoring all the other nutrients needed for healthy, balanced nutrition and good flavor. Soil is too often pushed beyond its reasonable limits to grow more and more without being rested—causing other nutrients and vital humus, the dark, decomposed organic material that feeds soil life, to be worn out.

Does the God who created soil, food and gardening care? Clearly, the answer is yes.

The Bible shows that God deeply cares about His Creation—much more than we may think. He cares about how our food is produced, the natural environment He created and even the plants and animals that provide our sustenance. Most importantly, God cares about the people who eat it, and He cares just as much for the people who grow it.

The Bible’s little-known laws regarding food production prove God’s concern over these matters. In them, He goes far beyond His instructions to Adam and Eve about dressing and keeping. He outlines a series of agriculture principles that, if applied, would solve all the food-related problems seen today.

What God Intended

The first humans’ role as gardeners was much greater than simply sitting in the cool shade of trees and eating fruit. In the original Hebrew, to “dress” means to work or to serve. This suggests a bond of service to the environment. To “keep” means to guard, hedge about and protect. This implies protecting the garden by using it in a way that would preserve the environment.

But Adam and Eve’s responsibilities did not end there. Genesis 1 reveals that God intended humans to do much more than simply manage the garden. “And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth…” (vs. 28).

God wanted them to have children who would help them in their role, which involved replenishing the entire Earth. This garden in Eden was an example of what human families could do with the rest of the planet.

The instructions continue in verse 28: “…and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth” (vs. 28). Their responsibilities were to extend over the entire globe and included sea life, birds and all other living creatures. Verse 29 shows even more: “And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.”

Understand. This means responsibility for all the plant life on Earth. With all types of animals and plants included, the first humans were to look after not just a simple garden, but entire ecosystems.

God intended for Adam and Eve’s sphere of influence to gradually extend beyond Eden, yet the principle of dressing and keeping would still apply. Their job would always be to serve and protect the environment of Earth.

What should dressing and keeping look like today? Careful stewardship of whatever part of the planet we find ourselves in, whether it is a huge ranch, a backyard or even a flower box on our front porch.

Caring for the Land?

Adam and Eve’s rejection of God’s instruction set a precedent for thousands of years of ignorance in food production. While farmers do want to ensure their land continues producing, and some have learned basic principles of building healthy soil, the overall pattern has been of growing food in a way that takes from the Earth rather than cares for it.

Continuous cropping without balanced fertilizers has robbed the soil of vital nutrients for our food. Excessive tilling has depleted vital soil humus, which holds nutrients, houses soil life and helps hold soil structurally together. Without humus, soil becomes unstable, breaks down and can be blown away in dust storms or washed away in heavy rains.

During the last 160 years, 57.6 billion tons of topsoil have been lost by wind and water erosion from the once rich, fertile plains of the American Midwest. The Smithsonian magazine reported that “the erosion rate is estimated to be double what the U.S. Department of Agriculture says is sustainable. Future crop production could be severely limited if it continues.” Through abuse and neglect, much of the once legendary fertility of the American prairies has been literally blown and washed away. On average, farmed fields are 1.2 feet below the surrounding prairie, where growing plants protect the soil. To regenerate that lost topsoil would take around 1,000 years for every inch that has been lost!

All the washed-away topsoil pollutes rivers and the ocean. Excess nutrients from fertilizers that wash down the Mississippi River have created a dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, which this year is roughly six thousand square miles in size.

But there is no need for ignorance. Through the Bible, God provided laws that teach the same essential principles He intended for Adam and Eve. If these were followed today, it would be possible to produce delicious-tasting and healthful food, care for the environment and protect family farms from economic hardship—all at the same time. These laws were given to ancient Israel for their national benefit but are just as relevant today.

You are likely familiar with the concept of a Sabbath rest, ceasing from work one day per week. Yet very few know God gave a sabbath command for the land as well, not just people. In Exodus 23, He told ancient Israel, “And six years you shall sow your land, and shall gather in the fruits thereof: but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie still; that the poor of your people may eat: and what they leave the beasts of the field shall eat. In like manner you shall deal with your vineyard, and with your oliveyard” (vs. 10-11).

The land sabbath, coming once every seven years, ensures that people grow food while protecting the environment as God intended. Applying it would ensure that nothing like the destruction of the American Midwest would happen again.

During the land sabbath, land is rested by not working the soil—no plowing or tilling. Instead, the land is allowed to “rest and lie still.” This allows plants to grow vigorously and unhindered, covering the ground to protect it from erosion and adding plant material that will eventually decompose to build soil humus and encourage soil life (Lev. 25:5). Soil life then works on a microscopic level with particles making more nutrients available for future crops.

While the land rests, regrowth from the previous year’s grain harvest or grapes from the vine are not to be harvested for sale: “That which grows of its own accord of your harvest you shall not reap, neither gather the grapes of your vine undressed [your unpruned vine]: for it is a year of rest unto the land” (Lev. 25:5).

Instead, farm livestock and wildlife are to be allowed to eat the extra plant growth: “And for your cattle, and for the beast that are in your land, shall all the increase thereof be meat [food]” (vs. 7).

Practical Application

The Restored Church of God, publisher of The Real Truth, has its World Headquarters Campus encompassing over 100 acres in Northeastern Ohio. I help coordinate a community garden program there for local members. We have the unique opportunity to apply God’s principles of environmental stewardship, following a pattern established in the Worldwide Church of God.

Last year, an area used to grow a community vegetable garden for six years rested for a land sabbath. A mixture of grasses and herbs was planted among our final vegetable crop in the sixth year and quickly sprang up among the still-growing vegetables. It was fascinating to watch this area during that seventh year. Creatures of all kinds were attracted to the area to feed. Insects like bees and butterflies gathered pollen and nectar from flowers, birds and small animals feasted on seeds, and deer grazed on plants. Small animals in turn became food for carnivores like foxes and hawks.

The land sabbath is a practical application of God’s instruction to dress and keep Creation. It teaches lessons in encouraging plant growth, building humus and soil life, soil and water conservation and the importance of providing habitat for wildlife.

At the same time, God is careful to ensure there is still plenty of food for humans during land sabbaths while crops are not being grown for food. He does that through a promise: “And if you shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? Behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase: then I will command My blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years” (Lev. 25:20-21). Farmers and growers do not struggle to survive during the seventh year—far from it. Their yields in the sixth year will be blessed by God to more than make up for what they lack. To ensure that happens, however, they must faithfully apply God’s commands.

Everyone Can Grow Food

An Eden-like picture of society benefiting from closeness to the land was once part of the American dream. According to ushistory.org, “Thomas Jefferson had once idealized America as a land of small, independent farmers who became educated enough to participate in a republic.” Today, Jefferson’s dream of the family farm as a basis for society has seemingly become just that—a dream. Now, only the most business-savvy survive.

In 1860, a full one-sixth of the American population were farmers, the same source stated. But by 2023, in a nation of 339 million people, just over 2 million farms were left, usafacts.org said.

Many give up their lives on the land for city life. There is a growing need for farmers to “get big or get out” as they find it harder and harder to provide for their families from the acreage they have. The alternative is to borrow money to buy more land, but then get financially squeezed even more by debt and higher overheads.

With so many people today living in cities, growing food is something the average person hardly thinks about. Many who have been farmers until recently have had to sell their land, been driven off because of hard times, or chosen a more stable life elsewhere. Many more are born into circumstances where they could never afford to own land. Yet God’s intention was always for everyone to get the opportunity to be involved in farmland ownership through the jubilee law.

Leviticus 25:10 says, “And you shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you; and you shall return every man unto his possession, and you shall return every man unto his family.”

The jubilee law ensures that every family owns land, and that ownership is retained within each family forever. Unfortunate circumstances could never drive a family permanently off their land.

Verse 23 says, “The land shall not be sold forever,” but it can be leased out for the remainder of a 50-year period until the next jubilee year, with the price of the land determined by the remainder of the time left available for the lease (vs. 14-16). Leasing the land to a farmer is allowed, but long-term ownership remains in each family.

God even included an option for another family member to “redeem” the lease by paying back the lease money to the person renting the land (vs. 24-27). Otherwise, the land remains under the management of the person leasing it until the next jubilee (vs. 28), when it returns to the family that owns it.

In ancient Israel, the jubilee law gave families a choice. Nobody was forced to be a farmer. A family could choose to lease land out and follow other career paths. But they could never sell out the land from future generations of their family members. Instead, every generation had the same choice to grow food and practice environmental stewardship on their land as their forefathers, and the same opportunity Adam and Eve had.

Under God’s system, everything a family did to improve their land was for the benefit of their children, grandchildren and generations into the future.

Of course, implementing a jubilee law cannot work in our modern circumstances. But it does show what God desires for humankind and the environment.

Think of the benefits of the jubilee: Focusing on dressing and keeping familial land promotes forward thinking. Each family would want to do all they could to care for the land and improve the environment for the future generations of their families. In addition, retention of land ownership promotes long-term food security. Every family can always go back to their own land to grow food. The problem of intergenerational poverty would be solved since no family can be driven off the land permanently by financial woes.

These are just two of the biblical principles that apply to agriculture. There are many more. To learn the true extent of the problems facing modern food production and God’s solution for them, read the book Mounting Worldwide Crisis in Agriculture.

Only Possible with God

Just a few farmers today are making real efforts to improve the environment over which they have been given stewardship. To be fair, God’s agriculture laws cannot be implemented now on a grand scale to solve the many problems of modern food production.

No technological advance can dig out the 58 billion tons of topsoil lying at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico and ship it back to the Midwest. No government can divide up the 2 million remaining farms in the U.S. and distribute them among 339 million citizens to reduce poverty. Such a move would be disastrous. Few would know how to farm it, and that would lead to mass starvation and economic collapse.

However, the world will soon learn of God’s Way. Once the Kingdom of God is on Earth (Mark 1:14), the land sabbath and jubilee laws will be kept, and people will again learn how to grow food in a way that cares for the land.

Micah 4 paints a picture of that coming Kingdom: “And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem” (vs. 2). This law will include instructions on how to grow food.

Verse 3 continues, “And they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks,” choosing to grow food rather than fight in war. “But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken it” (vs. 4).

God’s Kingdom will change everything, establishing an entire society and economic system on His laws, complete with an education system to teach them. Humankind will eventually learn to apply the principles of environmental stewardship through the laws of the land sabbath and the jubilee year.

The economic impacts will be wonderful, but the benefits to nature will be even more spectacular! With balanced soil, the land will again produce abundant harvests of healthy, delicious food: “Behold, the days come, says the Lord, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that sows seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt” (Amos 9:13). This verse paints a picture of the hills flowing with the goodness of wine and oil.

Surrounding nature will also thrive: “The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose” (Isa. 35:1).

With the world keeping God’s agricultural laws, humanity will finally learn how to care for the Earth’s environment by dressing and keeping it, just as He intended in Eden. Everyone will do their part to serve and protect their land and its nature.

God will respond with abundant blessings: Rich, fertile earth and healthy, delicious food for people and all of Creation to enjoy!