Stewardship
and the Environment
By
Stephen Terry
Commentary
for the March 9, 2013 Sabbath School Lesson
“We
give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, the One who is and who was, because you have
taken your great power and have begun to reign. The nations were angry, and
your wrath has come. The time has come for judging the dead, and for rewarding
your servants the prophets and your people who revere your name, both great and
small—and for destroying those who destroy the earth.” Revelation 11:17-18, NIV
Much has been said about the word “dominion” (KJV) in
the creation story of Genesis, chapter 1.[1] Translated “rule” in more
modern versions of the Bible, the word is in intended to portray the creation
of man as vicegerent of this Earth as a suzerainty of God. It is an appeal to
this concept that is often presented as an argument in favor of man’s need to
responsibly steward the environment and the various resources and creatures of
the planet. However, this is a pre-fall concept. According to the account of
Genesis, chapter 3, mankind abrogated his vicegerency in favor of another
suzerain. Perhaps for this reason, it became a test for Christ thousands of
years later. Mankind fell on this point, but Christ stood resolute and
uncompromised. He was offered the entire world as his dominion if He would only
switch allegiance and serve the same master that mankind had accepted.[2] Christ declined the offer,
much to our benefit, as He paved the way for our restoration.
In the Garden of Paradise,[3] man chose to pledge his
allegiance to the Fallen One, instead of his Creator. That fallen being, known
as Satan or the Devil, promised the man and the woman that they would become
gods by throwing off the rule of God. However, the only godlike quality that
seems to have been understood by Satan was a self-centeredness untempered by
the qualities of compassion, beneficence, kindness, and love contained in the character
of true Divinity. Without all these aspects of God, one ends up with a negative
of the actual thing, like the portrayal of the fallen world related in C. S.
Lewis’s “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” where it was always winter, but
never Christmas. Fallen man is sometimes tempted to pose as godlike without these
positive attributes of divinity. Such posers can end up being little more than
selfish abusers of whatever power they are able to garner.
In spite of the brevity of the dramatic confrontation
between Satan and Eve portrayed in the Genesis account, the fall of mankind may
have been a more protracted affair. The later account of Jesus regarding the
nature of sin[4]
reveals that when such confrontations between good and evil take place, the
contest may have been decided some time before the actual fall takes place.
God’s counsel regarding the matter had probably already been questioned and
perhaps even doubted in her heart. Possibly both Adam and Eve may have been
already looking for a way to disregard what God had said. Perhaps Eve was
wondering what the fruit tasted like compared with those she had already
tasted. Was it sweeter? What was its texture? The Serpent may have only offered
“permission” for what was already in her heart. Then she may have felt she had
justification to do what she had already envisioned doing in her mind, perhaps
many times. How often have we succumbed today with the simple question arising
in our minds, “Why are you denying yourself this thing?” This is the very
question that Satan sought to raise with Eve.
Seeing the Serpent slithering among the branches of the
forbidden tree, she may even have asked herself “If we have dominion here, why
is this lower being allowed to be in this forbidden tree, and I must stay away
from it? Are we not the rulers here?” Of course the Bible says little about
what she was thinking apart from her willingness to accept the Serpent’s words
as fact, God’s caveats notwithstanding. But her willingness to believe Satan
may be demonstration of an ongoing process of distancing herself from a
relationship with God, a process that is all too common, today.
Perhaps when we envision the fall, we see the first pair
making their decisions against God and for self against a soundtrack of music
in a minor key and darkening clouds gathering overhead as God storms into the
garden demanding justice. Instead, God, who knew exactly where they were and
what they had done (after all, He’s God), comes walking in the garden in the
cool evening and not finding them calls out, “Where are you?” One can almost
sense the sadness and heartache in that question. The Bible does not say how
long Adam, Eve, and God enjoyed their daily fellowship in the garden, but this
was obviously an occasion where God expected their companionship and not
finding it, cried out. Once they revealed themselves and what they had done, He
had no choice but to tell them the results of their decision. Then,
acknowledging their violation of trust, He did as any landlord with untrustworthy
tenants would do, He evicted them. Forced to use their new “godlikeness” to
deal with the world around them, they discovered that it takes more than
disobedience to be a god.
The poverty of this new situation was eventually
evidenced when murder came into the world as one of their sons slew the other.[5] The downward spiral into
depravity was rapid and nearly universal.[6] The biblical account tells
us that it became so bad that God felt it necessary to intervene directly to stop
the torrent of evil. After many generations, only eight individuals were found
that had enough of a relationship with God to survive the coming cataclysm.
Noah and his wife with his three sons and their wives were those people.[7] Nonetheless, in spite of
that record, we are told by Jesus, that the same downward trend would repeat
itself, and God will intervene again.[8] As we look around us, what
we see speaks for itself.
Mankind has grown in his depraved ability from the first
brother to murder brother to where we now sweep millions violently into the
grave and excuse it by calling it war. Paradoxically, every nation feels that
they are waging a righteous battle and therefore have a moral justification to
take life on a massive scale. The only thing that matters is winning, because in
the end, who is righteous and who is not is declared by the victor. This is the
result of harkening to the Serpent’s call to become godlike.
We have a world where a few wealthy and powerful
countries and individuals harvest the vast majority of the world’s resources,
while accumulating most of the world’s wealth. In return they give to those who
have lost these things polluted air to breathe and fouled water to drink.
Promoting policies that deny them food, clothing, shelter and healthcare, their
methods are no less effective at slaying their brothers than Cain’s club was
that crushed the skull of Abel. Attending church weekly as homage to a messiah
they cannot understand, their actions speak the homily of Ebenezer Scrooge in Charles
Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.” Scrooge had suggested putting the poor in prison
to some gentlemen who were soliciting funds to help those poor. When the
gentlemen said that most would rather die than go to prison, he responded
“…they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.”
Too often when considering the needs of the rest of the
planet, whether we are speaking of impoverished humanity, threatened wildlife
species, or simply climatic response to our depredations, we find it difficult
to appreciate anything that cannot be monetized. If a Spotted Owl is endangered
in its habitat, we place the slight weight of the feathered creatures into the
scale against the solid mass of gold with which we hope to line our pockets and
the owls come up wanting. After all, a cow can be bred for herds of steaks on
the hoof or milked for dairy products to sell, but what can you do with a
Spotted Owl? So the cows survive as a species. Will the owls?
Perhaps this is the significance of the story of Noah
and the Ark. Is it coincidental that the family worth saving was the family
willing to do what it took to save the animals? Is this story an allegory that
those who destroy the Earth will in turn be destroyed, and those who show
compassion and understanding for creation will in turn find compassion and
salvation for themselves? All of creation is waiting to find out it seems. “For
the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.
For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by
the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be
liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of
the children of God.”[9] Perhaps when Jesus said it
will be like it was in Noah’s day, He was not only referring to the evil, but
also to the attitude of the children of God toward creation and the world God
has blessed them with. After all, in order to be like Noah’s day, one cannot
have only the wicked there, some Noahs must be there as well.
