Friday, February 20, 2015

Friday, February 20, 2015

Deuteronomy 7:12-16

A few months ago I bought an edition of the Bible called “The Green Bible.” Printed on recycled paper with eco-friendly inks, this edition highlights in green any passages that might relate to the environment. Verses 12 and 13 in particular highlight God’s blessings; the generosity of God comes in the promised abundance of nature. This is particularly poignant since the Hebrews were still wandering through the desert, relying on simple food and scant water to stay alive. The promised blessings must have seemed both a great reward and a horrible mirage while they withered in the harshness of the desert. 

But faith is not faith unless there is extreme doubt. The covenant with God requires struggle; in the narrative, the Hebrews struggle against the same forces of nature that promise to give them abundance. The focus, for us, is the struggle, and how it resonates with our own environmental struggles. Against the increasing violence of nature (brought on by own our disobedience to the earth), the faith required to hope for something good seems all but impossible. 

Our task, as echoed in Deuteronomy, is to understand the earth as God, not only as Creator but also as Renewer of the abundance. God promises such to the Hebrews, and that same promise remains alive to us today. But just as the Hebrews had to take the first action, so too must we take action and work to renew the earth. 

- Joshua Zentner-Barrett