July 8 – Today’s Readings – Isaiah 25-27 and Psalms 8
I would like to make a short comment concerning the difficult sections in Isaiah that we have been reading. There is plenty of evidence in these passages confirming the fact that God is going to indeed judge the world – that God is at work redeeming a group of people to Himself – that God is sovereign over all the earth and Earth, as we know it, will certainly be destroyed! Many Christians have therefore adopted an “I don’t care” stance when it comes to protecting and caring for the present world that God has entrusted to us. “It’s all going to be destroyed anyway, so why should I care?” – “We are meant for eternal matters, so why focus on the temporal?”
Let’s look in on Psalms 8:3-6 for the answer to this issue; “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:”
The God-given responsibility and order of our present world is clearly outlined here – God has set US over His creation. We have a job to do concerning the world we live in. We should be “rulers” or “stewards” of creation. Surely this should include the care of created things as well as the responsible use of natural resources. Without getting too political about all this, there is a Biblical case to be made for Christians “managing” God’s creation. Does this mean that we should get on the “bandwagon” and declare ourselves to be “hard-core environmentalists”? Hardly. Many of these movements are designed to be purely political or moneymaking enterprises cloaked in political correctness. Let it never be said of Christians, however that we are abusers of the earth or the environment. I’m thinking of the simple things of life – not polluting whenever possible – recycling when feasible – not throwing our garbage all over the place and being careful about the kinds of garbage we create – considering long-term impact before making decisions – etc. These are not complicated things; just common sense issues and we have an obligation as God’s ambassadors to look after His world the best we can until the end of time as we know it.
Let’s never forget that we are the “good guys” and whenever possible, we do the right thing – We align ourselves with all “morally right” decisions. Does this mean that we will always have easy choices to make concerning these complicated matters? No – of course not. But, when the choices are simple, lets chose for good stewardship and good citizenship.
Questions:
1. If you were put in charge of looking after the earth, what would you do to be a good manager of the people – the lands – the waters – the resources – the economy?
2. What small things can you do to make this world a better place?