One of the fundamental Scripture passages related to mankind’s role on the earth is Psalm 8. Take a moment to read this short psalm—this time comparing its viewpoint to the viewpoint of the average man on the street:
O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger. When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with
glory and honor. You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet: all flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas. O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! (ESV) [Wikipedia Sea World photo]
The power of the truth revealed in this psalm is capable of influencing the entire human race by setting its worldview straight: We are not God, but in many ways we have godlike authority and control. The expression “You have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings” could rightly be translated “a little lower than God.” We are so powerful and influential that practically all the living things of the earth fall under our governorship. So of all the living creatures on ea
rth, man alone has dominion. The average man of the street no doubt recognizes that.
But does the average man also understand that being governor of creation means being responsible to God? Mankind is the responsible species. This wonderful passage sets for us this worldview: God is the Creator of all that is and as such we give Him the glory (in the beginning and in the end—as demonstrated by the identical wording of first and last verses of the psalm). God has honored us with and entrusted to us the care and keeping of His precious handiwork. Hence those of us who believe in God and honor Him as Lord clearly ought to demonstrate that understanding in our dominion over His works.
[Dog photo by Schockwellenreiter]
So when we discover that mankind is driving some of God’s other creatures to extinction, extracting or using “our natural resources” in a manner that threatens the foundations of life on earth (water, air, and soil), fishing out the seas, hoarding the fruit of the earth to keep it from others, and factory-farming our “flocks and herds” like less than soul-less vegetation, what should be the response of those of us who know our God-given responsibility? For sure it
is not aligning ourselves with the irresponsible, nor is it by carelessness about or cruelty toward the other creatures of the earth whose life-sustaining work was given them by the Creator of us and them.
The animals and plants do their work by God’s design and by the instincts He gave them. We do our work by choice motivated by the understanding of our God-given rulership responsibilities. The suffering of the creation is not the fault of the non-human creatures; it is our fault—first in our initial sin and then in our continuing self-centered behavior. So the suffering creation is looking for the day when God’s children will be revealed—and revealed as the responsible caretakers of creation that God intended. That is indeed the thrust of Paul’s statement in his letter to the Roman Christians:
The creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies (Romans 8:19-23 ESV).
Whether we like it or not, people function as creation’s governor. Certainly those of us who hold a biblical worldview ought to be demonstrating how that is done in an effective, protective, and compassionate manner.
See you outdoors!
Dean
October 15th, 2009 at 9:47 am
Your title reminded me of British movies such as Disney’s Mary Poppins, and others where a gentleman often is addressed as gov’ner: Good day, Gov’ner! (in the classic brogue I love to hear). But maybe our friends from England have it right with their address: we are governors, but I had not thought of us that way before.
When thinking of our roles as caretakers of the natural world, I feel towards us as Jesus said “the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few” (Mt. 9:37) Do you suppose we should pray that the Lord of the harvest (also the Lord of creation) should be petitioned by we few laborers that He would send out more workers to help care for creation? Wouldn’t it be grand for more churches to catch the vision that our responsibility to the natural world is important too, along with the saving of the souls of men or the other wonderful things churches are doing?
I am so glad RBC has this blog in their arsenal of non-carnal weapons for fighting the good fight. It is making a difference.
Bob
October 15th, 2009 at 10:17 am
Your suggestion about petitioning the Lord to move more churches in the direction of creation care might strike some as irreligious and trivial. But what many don’t understand is that when responsibilities remain so low on our priority list that they are never attended to, our lack of responsibility pushes the lower items toward the top. Consider our houses: termites may be in the timbers and the foundation may be crumbling, but because we are not paying attention to the signs and are so busy cleaning, painting, remodeling, and filling our houses with stuff, the entire edifice could come crashing down. Pulling ourselves from the rubble, we stand amazed and ask, “Now how in the world did that happen?” It happened because we were not paying attention to the signs and because we were preoccupied by what we believed were higher priorities.
Today we are all paying attention to the economy—and cheering the recovery of our 401k accounts as the Dow rebounds to 10,000. But an economy is built on a healthy environment. Yet conservative talkshow hosts continue to scoff at concern for the environment and instead tell us how the economy needs to be controlled—actually uncontrolled, so people can use “their natural resources” as they see fit. “Forget the environmental torpedoes; full speed ahead!”