Monday, December 3, 2012

If God Were King # 6... We Would Treat Creation His Way


           I want to preface what I am about to say by telling you that my father was a political conservative. He was the son of an East Texas sharecropper. He came up the hard way, anI think he assumed that if he could do it, anybody could.
            Back in 1964, my dad voted for Barry Goldwater. In fact, of one my earliest memories is of my dad helping to establish the headquarters for Barry Goldwater in my hometown. That year Lyndon Johnson, a Texan, won the presidential election in a landslide, so my dad was in the political minority.
            All of that to say, when my dad and I would go fishing at White Oak Creek, (in Northeast Texas), he would always lament the fact that there were not as many fish as when he was growing up.
            My dad was a small businessman. He did not believe in government regulation of the economy. He was against the excessive taxing of the 1970s against the major oil companies. As a result, he grabbed my attention one day when he told me, “I cannot prove this, but I think oil companies are either pouring or spilling chemicals up the creek… and that is why there are fewer fish.”
            I have thought about that through the years as we have seen places where indeed, companies were discovered spilling or dumping chemicals in places containing natural water.
            Now, fast forward to the early 1990s. My mother still owned our property on White Oak Creek. She had been leasing the land to some friends, but she wanted me to visit and see if I thought we should sell it.
            We had approximately 53 acres of property on and around the creek. Our property and the surrounding area contained many trees. However, on that visit, I was stunned to see that all of the land surrounding our property had most of the trees cut down. It looked like a fire had swept through the area.
            What happened was the surrounding owners had contracted with individual companies to have the trees cleared out and hauled out for various purposes including, ultimately, converting the wood into lumber.
            I am a believer in the free enterprise system. Not only does it hold people accountable, but also it is the only economic system I have ever seen that actually channels the inherent selfish desire within fallen man–i.e. greed–and actually converts that into products beneficial to society.
            Certain people gained economically from that decision to cut down those trees; jobs were created. However, I also know what it is to have once owned property surrounded by beautiful trees and wildlife to see it diminished to a barren land. Most of the animals left because there was no place to hide—or live. There was no need, no reason, continue to hold our land.
            For these reasons I have read with interest some of the things the Bible has to say about creation. Deuteronomy says this about the land, 19 When you lay siege to a city for a long time, fighting against it to capture it, do not destroy its trees by putting an ax to them, because you can eat their fruit. Do not cut them down. Are the trees of the field people, that you should besiege them? 20 However, you may cut down trees that you know are not fruit trees and use them to build siege works until the city at war with you falls (Deut. 20:19-20.)
            To watch out for trees after destroying the city seems comical. However, God provided the Israelites trees for sustenance and trees for conquest. This tells us that we should take deal with our natural resources with careful reflection. Defeating the enemy was important for Israel, but so was preserving and conserving natural resources.
            Mark Biddle has written that a common tactic used by invading armies in the ancient Middle East was to cut off and destroy the enemy sources of supply: crops, cisterns, wells… and vineyards and orchards.
            Think of General Sherman’s march to the sea in the Civil War. His scorched earth policy spelled disaster for the South. It had a long-term impact on the regional economy for years into the future. Orchard and vineyards require years to mature to the point of yielding. What this passage in Deuteronomy did was prohibit such scorched earth tactics. Scorched earth policies promised to continue to harm life, even to kill by starvation, for years to come. God showed a concern for preserving ecological balance.
            In this context, there was a fourfold objection to cutting down trees that showed God’s concern for people, the trees, the land, and the future. (I am sure these are not original with me.)
            1. The trees were innocent. They should not have suffered because men were at war. He made trees and wanted to preserve them.
            2. The Lord is Lord of the universe; he maintained concern for the land. Land typically needed trees. To cut them down indiscriminately was to rob the countryside of necessary resources.
            3. The Lord was concerned for the people of the nations. Both the Israel’s army and the citizens who survived needed trees so people could eat the fruit.
            4. Finally, the Lord was concerned for the future. The children and grandchildren of those who lived in the city would need the fruit, which trees provided. We likewise should always think about the future as well as the present.
            As far as I know, the men who cut down the trees at White Oak Creek never planted the more trees in their place. We need trees. They beautify the landscape, they provide fruit, they shelter birds and animals, and they help secure the stability of the soil.
            When trees are indiscriminately cut down on a large national scale, it incurs calamity. In the last half of the 20th century, the soil erosion in China increased a disastrous 32%. This was because they cut down to many trees.
            Our revolutionary fathers founded this nation on the concept of liberty. This is good. Yet, in our desire for liberty, we must take care lest hurt ourselves. The environment is one of the areas where true discernment is needed.
            Let’s go back to the Garden of Eden for a moment: 24 And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. 25 God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. 
 26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
 28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” 
 29 Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so. 
 31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day (Gen. 1:24-31.)
            Ellen Burstein wrote that God made a covenant with his people. He made a contract. He gave discrete boundaries for behavior. One scorecard for the people was the land. God rewarded and punished the Israelites by controlling the rain, in essential component of an agriculturally based society. “If you follow my commandments, you will receive rain in its season” (Deuteronomy 11:13–14.)
            Whenever Israel engaged in murder, sexual misconduct, and idolatry, the land was defiled. When the pollution reached a certain point, God considered it spiritual pollution. The people were vomited out to the land: 26 But you must keep my decrees and my laws. The native-born and the aliens living among you must not do any of these detestable things, 27 for all these things were done by the people who lived in the land before you, and the land became defiled. 28 And if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations that were before you (Lev. 18:26–28.)
            This first happened in Genesis 3. God sent Adam and Eve out of the garden. Here and in numerous other examples, the land collects pollution. The land is a victim of Israel's bad behavior. The land told Israel how Israel was doing.
            So what Genesis chapter one, Lev. 18:26ff, and other passages tell us is that God acts in reaction to people. Since people are free moral agents, they have a powerful force to add to creation. God has not abandoned creation. He lives and moves within it, and the land reflects all. Like marriage shows the world our relationship with Jesus, so too does the way we treat creation. It is a reflection of where we are and how we stand with Almighty.

Animals and Creation
      A fascinating verse is found in Deuteronomy chapter 22:6 If you come across a bird’s nest beside the road, either in a tree or on the ground, and the mother is sitting on the young or on the eggs, do not take the mother with the young. 7 You may take the young, but be sure to let the mother go, so that it may go well with you and you may have a long life (Deut. 22:6-7.)
            One has written that the principle here is very practical. To prevent the depletion of the bird population one must not take mother and young at the same time. To take the mother only before the young reach maturity would doom the young and be the same as taking both together. The young may be taken in, leaving the mother to bring other offspring into the world in the future. This was a very practical principle of wildlife management.
            Certainly, in scripture, animals are not the equivalents of human beings. However, we do read that there is a respect for the balance of life in God's creation, which insures humanity a long life that all is well with the land.
            Commenting on Deuteronomy 22:6–7, one Rabbi wrote that the intention was to encourage creation to exist as fully as possible and to not have untimely destruction. The mother bird continued God's creation. That is what it meant to fare well have a good life. This commitment was not for the animal world but for the human world. When creation continues so that one in the future will be able to participate in it, then the future has been blessed. Moreover, we have demonstrated a willingness to rely upon God rather than our own means.
            What you think when I say these words–Chernobyl? Or the Exxon Valdez? If you are of my generation or older, you think of environmental disasters, death, and destruction to creation.
Of all people, former Secretary of the Interior in the Reagan administration, James Watt, while testifying before congress, told them that there is a “delicate balance the Secretary of the Interior must have, to be a steward for the natural resources for this generation as well as future generations. I do not know how many future generations we can count on before the Lord returns, whatever it is we have to manage with a skill to leave the resources needed for future generations.”
Consumption and Creation
            16 The king, moreover, must not acquire great numbers of horses for himself or make the people return to Egypt to get more of them, for the LORD has told you, “You are not to go back that way again.” 17 He must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray. He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold.
 (Deut. 17:16-17.)
            Leaders were to model restraint. They were not to be guilty excessive consumption. That could have led to moral corruption, greed, and  financial burdens on the people.
            God warned against utilitarianism, which meant viewing things as to what they could provide a person. Moses is telling the people, “Do not become so greedy that you fail to appreciate the nature purpose of prosperity.” Consider   Deuteronomy 8:16–18: 16 He gave you manna to eat in the desert, something your fathers had never known, to humble and to test you so that in the end it might go well with you. 17 You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” 18 But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today.

Sewage
            12 Designate a place outside the camp where you can go to relieve yourself. 13 As part of your equipment have something to dig with, and when you relieve yourself, dig a hole and cover up your excrement. 14 For the LORD your God moves about in your camp to protect you and to deliver your enemies to you. Your camp must be holy, so that he will not see among you anything indecent and turn away from you (Deut. 23:12-14.)
            With God, you see a concern for environmental ethics, sensibilities, and, for lack of better word, laws, and structures. Even in the great urgency of war, the small details of maintaining the proper environment remained crucial. Why? Is this good for the land? I suppose so. But it is good for people.
            What is the lack of fecal control called? Pollution.
            What comes out of this pollution? Diseases… such as cholera. Do you want to live in a city that is not well planned environmentally? Victor Hugo wrote in Les Miserables, “The history of man is reflected in the history of sewers…. The sewer is the conscience of the city.”
            In Jewish tradition, you had an ethic of working for the good of the whole. That may not be a bad thing to remember today. Remember the golden rule.
            I've seen some who have written that creation is a promise to keep.
            A covenant with God concerning creation a promise and a threat. The promise of God's kingdom is a promise of good news, but it carries some importance for the present.
            One analogy that I heard was a young man gives a young woman engagement ring, which is the pledge of promise. It is not the wedding band. It is the promise of one. God's fullness in his kingdom is promised. And what we have now, the environment, is God's gift to us. It's not all that will be, but it is still very valuable, like an engagement ring. The girl who receives an engagement ring is not about to say, “Well forget that! What I want is a wedding ring.” No, she will treasure the engagement ring. Likewise, we treasure the creation as we await the wedding feast in heaven.
           

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