Tuesday: Stewards of the Earth
According to the Bible’s record, the Garden of Eden and the newly created earth were places of abundance, created for life to flourish and particularly for human beings to enjoy.
But God also gave the first man and woman—and the rest of us who would come after them—a role to play in His creation. It quickly becomes obvious—and not just from His method of creation—that Adam and Eve were to have a special status in this new world.
Image © Review & Herald Publishing from GoodSalt.com
Adam was first given the job of naming the animals and birds (see Gen. 2:19). Then he was given another role, presented as a blessing from God Himself: “God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground’” (Gen. 1:28, NIV).
Read and compare Genesis 1:28 and Genesis 2:15. How would you characterize the human job description in a sentence or two?
Too often in Christian history, Genesis 1:28 has been used by some as a license to exploit, even to the point of destroying the natural world. Yes, the world obviously was created for human life, benefit, and enjoyment. But the human responsibility is to “work it and take care of it” – in the words of Genesis 2:15 (NIV).
When we talk about stewardship, our first thought is often about money, but the first command for stewardship in the Bible is to care for the earth that God has created and entrusted to us. The command to Adam and Eve also foresaw that the earth would be shared with their children and with future generations. In the original plan for the world, the created world would continue to be a source of life, goodness, and beauty for all human beings, and Adam and Eve would have a big role in taking care of it.
The earth is still the Lord’s (see Ps. 24:1), and we are still called to be stewards of all that God has given us. Perhaps we could conclude, as well, that in a fallen world our responsibility as stewards is even greater.
| What does it mean to you to be a steward of the earth today, in a fallen world? How should the realization of this responsibility affect how you live on a day-to-day basis? |
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There is a genuine need for us to go beyond the notion of nature as something that is cute and beautiful to the idea that nature and man are intimately bound together and need one another to survive. The lesson is quite right when it points out that the expressions of "subdue" and "rule over" in Genesis, carry with them the notion of responsibility, rather than exploitation.
We often pay lip service to nature, saying how wonderful God's creation is, but stop short of being involved or genuinely trying to understand the issues that face us in the management of the environment in the modern world. It has been an educative experience for me to become involved in bird and nature photography. I originally started with the notion of photographing beautiful birds simply because they were nice to look at. As I became more interested ("obsessed" sometimes, according to Carmel) I began to realize the enormous ignorance our community has about the environment we live in. Part of my work as a bird photographer is to educate our local community about the biodiversity we have in our area and impart a sense of value. In the spiritual sense it is not about shoving a creator God up the noses of non-believers, but showing that Christians care for the environment. That involvement is more effective in the long run than any argument about evolution/creation.
We are going to be seriously misunderstood if we are preaching a message about the Second Coming of Jesus but ignore the management of our environment right now. We cannot afford to be so heavenly minded that we forget our earthly responsibilities.
As people that are conscious of our role, we should live as responsible agents of the environment, as a proof of our faith. Unfortunately, mankind is based on selfish purposes, which leads to irresponsible (meaning unsustainable) ways of "development".
Hopefully, we may seize this moment to spread the Good News of Love that God has left us...
God is the owner of all things by creation.
God has given us the responsibility of managing His creation.
It's all God's property and we don't own anything in this world.
It does not matter what we accumulate on this earth, we must leave everything behind on this earth to be managed by someone else on this earth.
God holds us accountable for the things which have been trusted in our care.
Time + Talent (skill) = money
Time and talent is given by God; therefore, the resources He has provided for us also belongs unto God.
what does He require of us? Only tenth of what He has given unto us.
Stewardship is managing God's blessings God's ways for Gods' glory.
A little thought will tell anyone who is listening the limitations of money. It does not produce food, it does not make things, it does not keep its value over time. It is nothing more than an agreed upon convention for storing “wealth.” As soon as there is no agreement on it value, it is worthless.
Contrast this with the value of the land. It produces food and materials for making things, and if cared for, its utility and value increases over time. A similar case can be made for water and the atmosphere. Money is man’s invention; but the earth, the seas and the sky are God’s creation and his gifts to mankind, who are charged to be stewards of his largess. God’s gifts to man are where true worth lie.
Just a thought.
It is not only a responsibility, but also a privilege to care for what God declares to be, "very good", his handy-work. He entrusts us to treat his creation, including ourselves and our neighbors, with the same love and care He shows.
God want us to love and appreciate what He has given us for our good, He created this beautiful world because of His love for us. we show our appreciation by subduing, caring and giving Him the praise and honor for this wonderful blessed gift. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof the world and they that dwell Therein. We serve an Awesome creator.
What is quite interesting is that even after sin, God did not relieve us of our duty as stewards of the creation. We cannot afford to ignore that role now, we will have to do our duty and perform our responsibilities as earlier designed. Importantly, all the creation looks to us and partly shares in our lost identity as sinners. Nevertheless, its our duty to do that which is right to preserve our environment.
I agree with most of the comments about our Earth/ environment and our responsibility to care for God’s creation. I would like to get some feedback from those that use this site as to your opinion on “Global Warming” or as they say today since the planet has not warmed in 17, maybe 20 years, “Climate Change”. Do you, should we believe that God would allow us (humankind) to destroy His creation prior to His coming? I personally do not think so and I have taken the time to read both sides of the arguments. Here are two quick facts that do not fit the popular narrative that 95% of scientists agree we are headed for global climate disaster. First, there is a petition in circulation signed by more than 42,000 scientists that states the climate IS changing, as it has over the last 2000 studied years, but not at an alarming rate and nor are the flawed models used to predict the future even close to accurate. Here is the second more important fact, the driver of all this alarm, $$$$$. The potential market for a carbon credit exchange, what would amount to a new addition to the global commodity market, would be a 2 Trillion $ market. $2,000,000,000,000,000,000. As usual, follow the money! I think it is our responsibility to promote responsible use and to not just believe the popular movement but educate ourselves and those around us. God’s creation is designed tougher than atheism would lead popular opinion to believe and the secrete is in the water.
As with most modern arguments, it is difficult to separate truth from assertion. And when politics and money enter the argument the water becomes even muddier.
There are a couple of undeniable facts.
1) The world is getting warmer. What is disputed is whether the effect is man-made. We have enough information to know that over history there have been several temperature shifts (eg the ice-ages) and these occurred long before man could have affected the shifts.
2) There has been a significant rise in carbon dioxide and other pollutants in the last century. There are very observable consequences of these pollutants eg acid erosion, ozone depletion, plastic particulate contamination. Rather than concentrating on the climate change issue, we need to consider the total effect of our interaction with our environment.
4) There are plenty of opportunities for us as Christians to exercise a moral responsibility towards the environment, irrespective of the assertions made by those who have a self or pecuniary interest in either side of the so-called environmental debate.
3) I think that it is possible to make such a mess of our environment that we could make the earth inhospitable to life. Hopefully, the Lord will come to save us before that happens. One thought that I entertain from time to time is that the seven last plagues we so often talk about in our escatology, are in fact, man-made.
Hi Brethren,
Regardless of whether you belive in Global Warming or not, God has still entrusted to us to "tend and keep" His creation, this earth.
We can do our part locally to help the environment, without spending a lot of money or making money become an issue:
1) Volunteer to pick up trash on busy streets and highways. (early Sunday mornings are a good time to do this).
2) Volunteer a couple of days a month to help at a local Humane society. They are always overcrowded with rescued animals, and are always in need of help.
3) Discontinue using plastic bags when you bag your groceries, use paper or reuse cloth grocery bags. Plastic take a very long to degrade, and when it does finally degrade, it turns into harmful chemicals that is bad for the soil and the air (I don't know the exact chemicals, I'm not a scientist, I just read it in an article once or twice).
4) Send letter to your local and state Representative to have them lead out in a study to investigate the beliefs involved with Global Warming. It is nothing wrong with studying on the cause and effect of Global Warming. If we never conduct any studies, how then are we suppose to learn if it is bad for us or not? Just like when we were in school, we learn by studying.
5) And lastly pray to God about Global Warming; He will give you all the information you want to know (or probably don't want to know about it). God is ready to answer us, the problem is that we are not ready to ASK God, fearing what He will tell us.
6) Yep, I remember one more time, whenever I volunteer to help clean up my local environment, I always meet new people; some of these people I have become friends with. We will see in later Sabbath School lessons, that meeting new people is part of helping "the Least of These". But you have to be the type of person that LOVES to meet new people, or make new friends. I LOVES meeting new people, and make new friends, and here's why; with each new person I meet, I have discovered that I learn something new, new information to add to my computer brain. Some of the new information I keep close to my heart, and some of it I store in way in the back of my mind (we don't have to use every little bit of information we receive).
7. God doesn't want us to make this a political issue, or an issue over if He will save us and the Earth from man's neglect (no one knows the time of Jesus' second coming). The real issue is "how serious are you about what you are willing to do, as a Steward of God, to care for God's creation. If you are not serious about it at all, then don't worry about it, and don't make it a political issue. God will work it all out in His due time.
Be blessed everyone, Happy Sabbath, and have a great weekend!
Before about 1980, Adventists never interpreted Genesis in terms of care for creation or environmental ethics. You can look in vain over 150 years of articles on creation, creationism, Genesis, the age of the earth, etc and there's not a moment of concern about human responsibility for the earth.
What happened? In the 1960s, Rachel Carson published a book called Silent Spring. This book shook the whole industrialized world. Since then Christian world has awoken to its responsibility for the world as God's creation. Adventists were very slow to embrace this new environmentalist perspective, but it seems has been won over.
There are many lessons here. One is that truth can come from anywhere. Another is that our doctrines change--sometimes for the better!