Stephen
Terry, Director
God
Created...
Commentary
for the July 6, 2019 Sabbath School Lesson
Then the Lord said to
Cain, "Where is your brother Abel?"
"I don't know," he replied. "Am I my brother's keeper?"
The Lord said, "What have you done? Listen! Your brother's
blood cries out to me from the ground."
Genesis 4:9-10, NIV
I have chosen not to illustrate this commentary with an
image of the father and daughter, drowned in a river at the southern border of
the United States while trying to flee a threatening situation in their home country.
While the image, spread all over the media this past week is alarming, I fear
it has the potential to desensitize us to the plight of others and can create a
new, even more depraved, standard of what we are willing to accept in government
sanctioned terror against the un-enfranchised. Since the days of the outrage
over the killings at My Lai during the Vietnam War, we have gradually become inured
to the suffering we inflict on others through direct military action or foreign
policies that indirectly cause similar results, as long as they happen
thousands of miles from our shores. As I learned during the Vietnam era, even
the deaths of our own soldiers can sometimes be less impactful than if they
were dying on the streets of our cities. However, the death so often visited
upon those in far flung places and climes is now finding its way to expire on
our very doorstep and offend the sensibilities of those who prefer to pass by on
the other side, away from the unpleasantness.[i] While some are now
questioning why this has to be, others are even still choosing to pass by,
blaming the victim for their victimhood, just as Cain, the very first murderer,
likely blamed Abel, his brother, for bringing about his own death by living a
life of faithfulness.
But this commentary is not about politics, although
politics, as everything else mankind is engaged in has become permeated with
the real problem, self-centered greed. Many have decided that it is not enough
to enjoy the blessings God has granted them, but they must also possess the
blessings granted to everyone else, if they have the power to seize them. Some may
fault powerful countries like the United States for taking from others to feed
a lifestyle way above that of most of the world, but they are not alone. Other
powers like Russia and China would do the same if unchecked. Even the former
British Empire once owned so much real estate around the world that it was
quipped that the sun never set on that empire. The dark-skinned Zulus and the
white skinned Boers learned to their detriment what that meant in terms of
suffering, bloodshed and death. India also suffered long under the military
boots of imperialism. If we point fingers, there are plenty to go around for
almost every country either exploited foreign conquests or their own indigenous
populations. This has been going on for thousands of years which might raise
the question, hasn't it always been this way?
Some would have us believe that this is a Darwinian
struggle for survival of the fittest and has always been the essence of our
being. But apart from being a depraved indifference to the suffering of others
who have little or nothing to contribute to our own well-being, based on
observable results, it seems to be driving us not toward survival but toward
extinction. Our oceans are now increasingly choked with undegradable pollutants
ranging from micro plastics all the way to larger flotsam and jetsam, as well
as myriad chemical threats. As I write the commentary, the CBS evening news is
featuring a story on the loss of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil at the
startling rate of the size of a football field every 60 seconds. When asked
about it, the official position given by the Brazilian government is that since
every other country has been allowed to deforest their lands, Brazilians should
have that right also. In other words, it is not about what is best for the
world, but about what will put more money in the pockets of Brazilians. They
have succumbed to the same greed that has been the foundation of every drive to
imperialism that has ever taken place. But once again, this is not about
politics. It is about the human condition, a condition that Darwinism seems to
find acceptable simply because the condition can be shown to exist now and
through millennia in the past. Unfortunately, the despair that this generates
in the hearts and minds of those who may not be "the fittest" destined for
survival is a danger to us all, whether "fit" or not.
The Bible in the opening chapters
of Genesis tells us that this world was created good and perfect.[ii] How long it may have
existed in that state we are not told. Several things stand out about that
account. First of all, one cannot help but be impressed by the diversity of
Creation. Every environment is populated with myriad life forms, and no matter
the manifestation of that life, it all is networked with man, the epitome of
God's creative work on the earth. And mankind, in an exemplification of servant
leadership was to spend their days tending and caring for the world around them.[iii] God placed man in a position
of dominion over the earth.[iv] But that rule was to be
one of nurture, bringing forth from Creation its greatest potential that would
benefit not only mankind, but the rest of Creation as well. Instead mankind's
rule became a burden that not only deprived nature of its highest possible
potential but also diminished his fellow man as well, as he sought to take from
the weak not according to need but according to greed. For instance, no man or
woman was created a slave; it was mankind that invented slavery. The only real
purpose of slavery is to enrich the indolent and fill their need to have more
than their efforts would justify. Eventually the thoughts of all, even slaves
turned toward the goal of how they could have more by taking what they could
not rightfully receive. They learned well from their depraved masters how
fallen humanity was to behave. Men and women gave themselves so completely to
such dissipation that the Bible tells us that there were not even a dozen
people still living in the antediluvian world that still modeled the servant
leadership God intended. Only that handful passed through that frightening
baptism to emerge from the ark on the other side. But even they continued to be
influenced by the evil as one of Noah's sons failed to treat his father with
respect when he was in greatest need of that respect.
In many ways, some of us
have become like a man seeking a home who finds a beautiful one with farmland,
pastures and orchards. He revels in the wonderful fruits his new home will
provide and the peaceful vistas, but upon signing the contract and taking
possession, he spends the first year enjoying the harvest of produce, riding
horses in the pastures, and sitting on the patio in the evening with a nice beverage,
enjoying the sunset. But he does not care for the orchard even to the extent of
watering it. He decides the horses are too much of an expense and chooses less expensive
food in smaller quantities while rarely having the veterinarian check them
over. Even the patio he enjoys, he does not seal against the elements. Eventually
the fruit trees die, and he loses his emaciated horses to the winter cold, and
the patio cracks and crumbles from the weather. But rather than accept responsibility
for the sorry state of the place, he blames the former owner for deceiving him
about the property. The only thing he learns is that he must obtain another
estate to replace the one so destroyed by his neglect. If unchecked, he will
continue to do this until there are no more estates or funds to buy them, in
the process sowing the seeds of his own demise. Had he the desire, he could
have learned what would benefit nature and strove to that end, while
benefiting not only himself but others who would enjoy the results as well.
Some might cite the very
obvious personification of nature "red in tooth and claw" as a refutation of
all of this. But such a portrayal carries with it the concept of Darwinian natural
selection by definition. It is ironic that such a barbarous development might
also have been the result of nature adapting itself to the world man was
shaping, however wrongly. The co-evolution of species has long been theorized.
The real question might be whether the impetus for evolutionary change would be
normally driven by the more intellectually advanced species or the one less
gifted. We may find one day that we are responsible for a lot more of the
problem than we are willing to acknowledge. We might do well to search out a higher
purpose for ourselves than greedy consumption and hoarding and thereby discover
a higher purpose for all of Creation as well.
