A steward is a trusted person that is given responsibility for someone else’s possessions which may include care for livestock, immediate family members, or servants. A steward’s duty was to manage on behalf of the master with the purpose to increase the master’s resources or influence. Finally, it implied some form of judgment or reckoning to reward the steward if they were faithful in the management of the entrusted resources. “Often, stewardship is thought of only in terms of finances, but the Bible teaches that stewardship is a far greater concept, involving how we respond with all of our life to Him who is the giver and sustainer of life?” For the purposes of this dissertation acknowledgement of more than finances is true, but will focus predominantly on financial stewardship. If it did, then it would be too long and too broad of a scope to yield valuable …show more content…
Surprisingly enough, the first four chapters of Genesis provide these building blocks. It starts with “in the beginning God created.” Nothing falls outside of his creative genius, and “in Him all things hold together,” both then and now. Second, God has entrusted both humans collectively and individually to have dominion and responsibility to multiply. Although God officially owns all things , with dominion comes a unique responsibility to care, cultivate, and multiply its resources. Third, it is a natural response to give God a portion as an act of worship reflecting gratitude. Cain gave, Abel gave, Abraham gave, and Jacob gave. Those are only the examples from first book of the Bible. Not to mention many others throughout scripture. The final building block is that God is pleased to receive according to what he has entrusted back to him. Abel gave as a herdsman; Cain gave as an agriculturalist. It is hard to imagine the simplicity compared to current society. In Genesis chapter four, there was two trades, today there are more than 20,000 occupations listed with the US Department of Labor. Today only 5% have a vocation similar to Cain’s. In an agrarian culture, a gift from their vocation would be more closely related to them. There were constant reminders of their prosperity and responsibility. A short list of these including the sweat on their brow and shirt, audible and visual affirmation of how God