The Bible on Leadership: 3 Principles about Time from Genesis 2

A clock has been built in a West Texas mountain; its pendulum will swing for 10,000 years. Alexander Rose, the clock’s inventor, says the clock’s purpose is to “is to help humans think about time well beyond our own lives.” Elizabeth Dias of The New York Times reports the time keeping device is called “The Clock of the Long Now.” 

The New York Times article asks good questions and notes interesting comments from physicists. “How do we measure our lives?” is the opening query, one that should enliven any Christian leader’s contemplation. “Time is a mystery” is a declaration that deserves a Scriptural response. “All of life’s cycles, in and around us, together define time” causes the biblical thinker to counter, “How can time, define ‘time’?” Further, time is said to be “complicated” and “relative.” A leader reading God’s Word knows the created thing will simply do what it is made to do and is indeed “relative” in comparison to being created. The article ends by saying, “There’s no way to describe time before the origin of our world,” to which the Bible responds, “God is from everlasting to everlasting.”

How we think about time matters. If you’re a leader, another New Year’s celebration is a good occasion to ask yourself, “How do I view time as a leader?” “Should my calendar be reordered in some way to better think biblically about how I do my work?” The concept of time – something we totally take for granted – is an essential discussion point for leaders. Contrary to the idea in the article title above, we do not “make sense of time,” time is rather a gift given to us. Hebraic-Christian leaders do not view time as “mysterious.” Instead, believing leaders view our time as something to be carefully stewarded. Time is not “complicated” or “relative.” Rather, we should view our times as an opportunity to participate in God’s eternal purposes, since He is eternal. 

Perhaps the most valuable question to ask is, “Does the Bible give direction about a sense of time in leadership?” Scripture is full of principles for leaders to consider when it comes to time. Here are several from Genesis 2:1-3.

1. Christian Leaders Should View Time as Sacred. God made time “holy,” sanctifying time, filling it with meaning. Genesis 2:1-3 records the all-important passage about sabbath rest. The first instance of the word holy in Scripture stipulates that God wants His people to be different by making time holy. God pronounced a state of holiness within time that once begun would continue. Notice in creation God calls other things good while time is sanctified. The climax of creation is to construct one day out of seven as unique. Holiday—a day set apart—should mark our calendars rather than “vacation,” coming from the Latin meaning to evacuate or leave empty.  When time is sanctified, our days are given meaning.

Using phrases such as “I’m just killing time” or “I’m just passing the time” give an air of nonchalance to our hours in the day. The Hebrew language says that God pronounced a state of holiness, existing within time when time was created. 

In leadership our definition of “time” should be reordered to consider that everything I do is “time sensitive” because it is God-sensitive. Our every breath is an act of holiness, witness to Jesus’ prayer “Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” Every moment is Heaven-filled and Heaven-sent accomplishing God’s will in His world. 

Five applications of seeing time as sacred include:

1. Prayer should hover over every thought. 
2. Meditation should wrap every decision. 
3. Wisdom should remind us to “be” and temper our compulsion to “do.” 
4. Eternity should counter “right now” with “until then.” 
5. Creation of sabbath should compel us to make personal retreat a priority.

2. Christian Leaders Must Resist the Temptation to Work All the Time Another prominent principle of Genesis 2:1-3 is that God established a timed pattern of work – rest. God’s accomplishment of creation is a statement about our creative work. The word “work” indicates skilled workmanship relating to one’s business, habits, or skills. The Bible uses the same idea when God gives direction for a sabbath day, a day away from our normal work (Ex 20:9-10). The work we have been given to do is from God, work that can be accomplished with God’s intention for us in mind (Ex 31:3; 39:43). In fact, special times of remembrance can be set aside to consider God’s work in our lives (Lev 16:29). 

Once God completed His task, there is a repetition-escalation in the text: it looks like this in Hebrew: 

“God finished

the work He had done

from all the work He had done

from all the creation work He had done” (Genesis 2:2-3)

These phrases, building on each other, explain what “God finished” means. First, there is no longer a physical creation going on. Second, rest is the end of creation, an anticipation of something yet to come.  Third, there is a marker of the world to come, namely, eternity is the goal; people are made for eternity.  Notice that the normal end phrase to the first six days is not repeated here; “the evening and morning” formula is absent. If eternity is the goal, evening and morning are unnecessary. Hebrews 4:9-10 summarizes: Rest is God’s original intention. Rest is the eternal anticipation of His people. 

Here are 5 questions for you to consider as you think about your rhythms of work and rest:

1. How do we intentionally anticipate eternity in our temporal lives?
2. What specific actions do we undertake to make intention, reality?
3. Why is a focus on eternal completion something for leaders to ponder?
4. Who is impacted by my discussion about future “rest”?
5. How can I as a leader incorporate the concept of “rest” into my business plan?

3. Christian Leaders Must Find Rest in Something Other than Their Normal Work. Well-meaning Christian folk may suggest that doing yard work on Sunday goes against God’s design not to work on our day of rest. The idea comes from statements in Exodus 20 or Leviticus 23 that precludes agricultural work. But there are two important ideas to remember. One, the First Testament Israelites lived in an agricultural culture. For God’s people then, working in the fields was their normal work. Two, the word for “work” in Genesis 2:2-3 carries the concept of what a person usually does; we would call this kind of work our “vocation” or our “calling.” Whatever we do in our daily work should be stopped for a time. For the leader, if we are reading, thinking, studying, researching, visioning, writing, teaching, or leading, that activity should be set aside for the pattern, “God rested from all His work He had done in creation.” Some leaders may rest by doing yardwork, shooting skeet, painting, attending concerts, going to museums, and, yes, spending extra time with their children or grandchildren! 

Christian leaders sometimes think that they must fill every moment with activity. We should reconsider such an approach to our days, to our work. We must intentionally decide distinctive ways that we will honor God’s sanctification of time. We should be wary not to let others fill our time for us. Yes, Providential interruptions happen. But thinking that the response to those interruptions is immediately our responsibility should be carefully considered. Celebrations with family or community should be built into our calendar. Feasting, for instance, is part of God’s celebratory purposes. Special times of giving to others is a personal, practical way of exercising the holy-day God has given.

Here are five questions leaders could be asking themselves about resting from their normal work:

1. What does my leadership position usually demand of my time?
2. Do I deliberately stop myself from doing my usual leadership tasks on my day of rest?
3. How do I actively plan my day of rest stepping away from my normal responsibilities?
4. Have I intentionally developed my sabbath activities?
5. Am I accountable to others for my time by demonstrating my application of rest?

In my next leadership article I will continue to develop biblical principles on time. But in the meantime, consider more insights from the Bible on leadership I have written. Keep reading with my articles from MarkEckel.com

The Bible on Leadership: 7 Verses about the Work and Requirements of Leadership

How I Order My Life as a Leader, Writing Out My 5 Gifts

Leadership as Shepherding

You can order my book I Just Need Time to Think and read the section entitled “Retreat” for an in-depth analysis of some of the ideas found here on work, rest, and sabbath.