Climate change and our responsibility for this earth

Out of the 21.6 sextillion* arid planets in the universe, God created an amazing blue and green-coloured jewel called Earth, which He entrusted to mankind to steward and enjoy. Today, many of the world’s plants and animal species are dying off or threatened with extinction. Why is our planet’s environment and climate in such dire conditions today?

(See Chinese versions: 简体中文 > 我们对这地球气候变化的责任 | 繁體中文 > 我們對這地球氣候變化的責任)

Genesis 2:15 ESV  The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.

It doesn’t take much to see how the devastation of nature described in Joel 1 applies to many places of the world today.

Joel 1:16-20 NLT  Our food disappears before our very eyes. No joyful celebrations are held in the house of our God. The seeds die in the parched ground, and the grain crops fail. The barns stand empty, and granaries are abandoned. How the animals moan with hunger! The herds of cattle wander about confused, because they have no pasture. The flocks of sheep and goats bleat in misery.  Lord, help us! The fire has consumed the wilderness pastures, and flames have burned up all the trees. Even the wild animals cry out to you because the streams have dried up, and fire has consumed the wilderness pastures.

* 21.6 sextillion is equivalent to 10 million times 2 quadrillion or 21,600,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 planets.

The curse on this earth through man’s disobedience

When God created the earth, He filled it with good things. In the Garden of Eden for example, every tree God made was worth admiring for both its beauty and its bountiful food. After Adam and Eve sinned, however, the ground became cursed.

Genesis 2:9 ESV  And out of the ground the LORD God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Genesis 3:17 ESV And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;

It is amazing to wonder how God’s original design was like, given the incredible beauty of nature as we know it today. Sadly, the earth has only become more and more degraded over time as mankind continues to sin.

The prophet Isaiah foretold a time when “the earth suffers for the sins of its people” and will mourn and dry up. Instead of the lush bountiful planet that God created, the land will waste away and wither. God’s Word points out that this is because people have “twisted God’s instructions, violated His laws, and broken his everlasting covenant.”

Isaiah 24:4-6 NLT  The earth mourns and dries up, and the land wastes away and withers. Even the greatest people on earth waste away. The earth suffers for the sins of its people, for they have twisted God’s instructions, violated his laws, and broken his everlasting covenant. Therefore, a curse consumes the earth. Its people must pay the price for their sin. They are destroyed by fire, and only a few are left alive.

We don’t often connect environmental degradation or climate change with sinning against God’s laws. Yet when we examine God’s Word, we see that He gave specific instructions for how we are to cultivate the land and care for this earth.

• Thank God for first fruits at harvest | Deuteronomy 26:11-12 ESV And behold, now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground, which you, O Lord, have given me.’ And you shall set it down before the Lord your God and worship before the Lord your God. And you shall rejoice in all the good that the Lord your God has given to you and to your house, you, and the Levite, and the sojourner who is among you.
• Let the land have a complete rest every seven years in honour of God’s Sabbath | Leviticus 25:3-6 NLT For six years you may plant your fields and prune your vineyards and harvest your crops, but during the seventh year the land must have a Sabbath year of complete rest. It is the Lord’s Sabbath. Do not plant your fields or prune your vineyards during that year. And don’t store away the crops that grow on their own or gather the grapes from your unpruned vines. The land must have a year of complete rest. But you may eat whatever the land produces on its own during its Sabbath.
• Leave uncultivated land for the poor and wild animals to eat from | Exodus 23:10-13 NLT “Plant and harvest your crops for six years, but let the land be renewed and lie uncultivated during the seventh year. Then let the poor among you harvest whatever grows on its own. Leave the rest for wild animals to eat. The same applies to your vineyards and olive groves.
• Trust God to provide enough for three years before the seventh year of rest | Leviticus 25:20-24 ESV And if you say, ‘What shall we eat in the seventh year, if we may not sow or gather in our crop?’ I will command my blessing on you in the sixth year, so that it will produce a crop sufficient for three years. When you sow in the eighth year, you will be eating some of the old crop; you shall eat the old until the ninth year, when its crop arrives
• Do not cultivate the land in the fiftieth year, just eat what it produces | Leviticus 25:11-12 NLT This fiftieth year will be a jubilee for you. During that year you must not plant your fields or store away any of the crops that grow on their own, and don’t gather the grapes from your unpruned vines. It will be a jubilee year for you, and you must keep it holy. But you may eat whatever the land produces on its own.
• Do not pollute the land with bloodshed | Numbers 35:33 ESV You shall not pollute the land in which you live, for blood pollutes the land, and no atonement can be made for the land for the blood that is shed in it, except by the blood of the one who shed it.
• Do not pollute the land with idol worship | Ezekiel 36:17-18 NLT “Son of man, when the people of Israel were living in their own land, they defiled it by the evil way they lived. To me their conduct was as unclean as a woman’s menstrual cloth. They polluted the land with murder and the worship of idols, so I poured out my fury on them.
• Don’t harvest 100 percent for oneself, always leave something for the poor, refugee, or traveller | Leviticus 19:9-10 ESV “When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the Lord your God.
• No one should hold on to land for perpetuity | Leviticus 25:23 ESV “The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine. For you are strangers and sojourners with me.

From the list above, we see that modern agricultural practices ignore God’s commandments. Not only that, we have polluted God’s land with bloodshed and idol worship. It is not hard to see why much of this earth is under the curse that Isaiah prophesied about.

God’s Word has called mankind to repent and shows that the forgiveness of the sins of a people in an area will bring healing to the land they live on. But sadly, we have not turned to God and sought Him first.

2 Chronicles 7:13-14 ESV  When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

This earth points to God

The beauty, wonder, and abundance of this earth is a testament of God’s divine nature and faithfulness. Everything He created works together in perfect harmony. He is the source of all life on this planet, and gives us the food we need in each season.

Acts 14:17 ESV  Yet he did not leave himself without witness, for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.”

Job 12:7-10 ESV  “But ask the beasts, and they will teach you; the birds of the heavens, and they will tell you; or the bushes of the earth, and they will teach you; and the fish of the sea will declare to you. Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind.

Psalm 145:15-17 ESV  The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season. You open your hand; you satisfy the desire of every living thing. The Lord is righteous in all his ways and kind in all his works.

God Himself has promised that the earth will yield large crops and provide enough for us to eat if we follow His decrees and obey His regulations.

Leviticus 25:18-19 NLT  “If you want to live securely in the land, follow my decrees and obey my regulations. Then the land will yield large crops, and you will eat your fill and live securely in it.

We are to recognise that this earth belongs to God. Every human being is only here for a fleeting amount of time in light of eternity and we are to care for the earth while we are here.

Psalm 24:1 ESV  The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein,

Yet the majority of mankind has ignored God’s laws and refused to even acknowledge or worship the Creator. Instead, the world prefers to credit an idol called “mother earth” for earth’s beauty. In Romans 1, the apostle Paul pointed out that people prefer to worship God’s creation, rather than God Himself.

Romans 1:20-23 NLT  For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God. Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

All this does not escape God’s notice. The book of Revelation warns of a time when God’s wrath will come down on those who destroy the earth.

Revelation 11:18 ESV  The nations raged, but your wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged, and … for destroying the destroyers of the earth.”

The new earth

It is easy to despair at the exploitation of nature and the meaningless destruction of so many species of fish, bird, reptiles and mammals. Yet as believers, we can hold on the promise that Jesus will come back and bring out about a new earth that He will personally govern.

Revelation 21:1 NLT  Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone.

In the meantime, there is something believers can still do before Jesus returns, and that is to humble ourselves, seek God, fast and pray, and turn from our wicked ways. Perhaps God will heal the land that we live on.

2 Chronicles 7:13-14 ESV When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

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