What Does the Bible Say About Environmental Care?
The Bible discusses many kinds of “Care.” Here are a few examples:
Deuteronomy 14:28-29: “At the end of every three years you shall bring forth all the tithe of your produce in the same year and lay it up within your towns; and the Levite, because he has no portion or inheritance with you, and the sojourner, the fatherless and the widow, who are within your towns, shall come and eat and be filled; that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands that you do.”
Jeremiah 22:3: “Thus says the LORD: Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place.”
Proverbs 31:8-9: “Open your mouth for the dumb, for the rights of all who are left desolate. Open your mouth, judge righteously; maintain the rights of the poor and needy.”
The Bible offers a common thread related to caring for marginalized individuals in human society. However, there is another essential area of care mentioned in the Bible that goes beyond the relationships among human beings. Here, I focus on what the Bible says about “Environmental Care.”
Lynn White (1967, “The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis” Science, 155), severely criticized Christianity saying, “we shall continue to have a worsening ecologic crisis until we reject the Christian axiom that nature has no reason for existence save to serve humankind.” He articulates that the Judeo-Christian point of view about the environment is fundamentally exploitative. According to White, the core message of the Bible is nothing more than the axiom that human beings should rule over nature and further, the axiom has brought anthropocentrism into being in a firm and on-going way. However, is it actually true that the Bible asserts human beings’ priority over the environment and consolidates a tendency of anthropocentrism? In my view, the Bible has much more to say about environmental care than anthropocentrism and human exploitation of nature. Regarding Biblical “Environmental Care,” we can divide that into three relevant types: 1) Divine care for nature, including human beings; 2) human care for nature; 3) nature’s care for human beings.
First, according to the Bible, all of the environmental community including human beings are creatures of God and therefore, valued as “good.” Genesis Chapter 1 declares: “God saw that it was good.” This quality of good does not derive from utility or benefit but rather results from divine care and love for the universe. The Bible clearly articulates that God has exclusive ownership of all creation. In many biblical texts, the authors assert this divine ownership over the natural world.
Isaiah 66:1-2: “Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool; what is the house which you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest? All these things my hand has made, and so all these things are mine,” says the LORD.
Psalms 50:9-15: “I will accept no bull from your house, nor he-goat from your folds. For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the air, and all that moves in the field is mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell you; for the world and all that is in it is mine. Do I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats? Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and pay your vows to the Most High; and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.”
Divine ownership is closely associated with the rich metaphors for God as the trustworthy caregiver for the environmental community as found in Psalm 104.
Psalm 104:1-13: “Bless the LORD, O my soul! O LORD my God, thou art very great! Thou art clothed with honor and majesty, who coverest thyself with light as with a garment, who hast stretched out the heavens like a tent, who hast laid the beams of thy chambers on the waters, who makest the clouds thy chariot, who ridest on the wings of the wind, who makest the winds thy messengers, fire and flame thy ministers. Thou didst set the earth on its foundations, so that it should never be shaken. Thou didst cover it with the deep as with a garment; the waters stood above the mountains. At thy rebuke they fled; at the sound of thy thunder they took to flight. The mountains rose, the valleys sank down to the place which thou didst appoint for them. Thou didst set a bound which they should not pass, so that they might not again cover the earth. Thou makest springs gush forth in the valleys; they flow between the hills, they give drink to every beast of the field; the wild asses quench their thirst. By them the birds of the air have their habitation; they sing among the branches. From thy lofty abode thou waterest the mountains; the earth is satisfied with the fruit of thy work.”
In Isaiah 49, God is described as being a mother caring for and nursing a baby. Isaiah 49:14-16: “But Zion said, ‘The LORD has forsaken me, my Lord has forgotten me.’ Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have graven you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.” In Isaiah 40:9; 41:27; 52: “Zion” has been used as the parallel word for “Jerusalem.” (Jan L. Koole,1998, Isaiah, vol. 2, Isaiah 49-55, Leuven: Peeters, 52). Scholars have discussed whether the term indicates the people of Israel or the city of Jerusalem. (Ibid.) However, Zion originally meant a southeastern hill of Jerusalem which is a part of the ecological community. Therefore, the word in this context can be interpreted as a symbolic term for the entire ecological community. Following this interpretation, God should be understood as One being more compassionate than a caring mother toward all ecological beings.
In biblical Hebrew, the divine care for nature, including human beings, is often expressed with a verb which means “to love” or “to have mercy.” This verb as well as the noun (mercy, compassion) and the adjective (merciful, compassionate) are all based on a noun that means womb. Among the above-mentioned Hebrew words, an adjective is used in the Bible exclusively in order to describe the divine attribute. It is found thirteen times in the Old Testament and is an essential quality of God towards nature, including human beings. (Ex 34:6; Deut 4:31; Ps 78:38; 86:15; 103:8; 111:4; 112:4; 145:8 among others). Horacio Simian-Yofre says: “Because compassion is inherent to Yahweh’s nature, its disappearance is conceivable only if the order of human nature and the universe could be overthrown.” in Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament, vol. 13, ed. Johannes Botterweck et al., trans. David E. Green (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 441).
The Gospel of Matthew also draws God in the image of a father who cares for the needs of all living beings including birds.
Matthew 6:25-29: “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor about your body, what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them… And which of you by being anxious can add one cubit to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.”
There is another equally compelling reference regarding environmental care in the Bible, namely the human care for nature. Genesis 1:26 says “Then God said, ‘Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.’” The notion of humans having dominion over all living beings of the sea and of the earth was frequently blamed as the spiritual source and cause of environmental crisis. (White Jr., ibid: 1203-1207). However, we need to examine more carefully what the “dominion” in Genesis 1:26 really means. The original connotation of the dominion bestowed to human beings over all living beings on earth and in the sea does not contain any nuance of exploitation.
Claus Westermann says: “‘Dominion’ is not meant here in the sense of arbitrary employment of power. That would be a fateful misunderstanding of this commission for dominion. It is meant rather in the sense of the other classic form of dominion, that of kingship. It means the full responsibility of the ruler for the welfare of the people and country entrusted to him. Whenever the king is not capable of bringing about and guaranteeing the welfare of those entrusted to him, then he has forfeited his dominion. There is thus no textual basis when, in the contemporary discussion about ‘dominium terrae,’ an unscrupulous exploitation of our earth’s resources refers itself to the granting dominion in the creation story. Every form of exploitation of the earth is contempt for God’s commission.” (Claus Westermann, 1982, Elements of Old Testament Theology, trans. Douglas W. Stott, Atlanta: John Knox Press, 98-99).
Those Hebrew words that translate as “to rule” or “to subdue” do not mean an authorization to exploit or to abuse environment. Instead, they represent a divine commandment for care. The text points out God’s consignment to human beings the responsibility to properly care for the environmental community. The command does not validate the exploitation of the natural resources or the misuse of other living beings because it does not give ownership to humans, but only consigns human beings to maintaining and caring for the environmental community. The remarks and references to the divine image and dominion were frequently utilized in the history of Christianity as a foundation for protecting human rights against social evils, but not for environmental exploitation. (Udo Krolzik,1979, Umweltkrise – Folge des Christentums? Berlin: Kreuz Verlag, 70-84); (Brennan R. Hill, Christian Faith and the Environment: Making Vital Connections, 1998, Eugene: Wipf and Stock, 42).
According to the Bible, human beings are Imago Dei which means that human beings are supposed to imitate the divine role toward nature. Human beings are created and called upon to play a caring role of stewardship toward nature. In this sense, it is significant that there are many regulations regarding nature in the Bible.
Exodus 23:4-5: “If you meet your enemy’s ox or his ass going astray, you shall bring it back to him. If you see the ass of one who hates you lying under its burden, you shall refrain from leaving him with it, you shall help him to lift it up.”
Leviticus 25:1-7: “The LORD said to Moses on Mount Sinai, ‘Say to the people of Israel, when you come into the land which I give you, the land shall keep a Sabbath to the LORD. Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather in its fruits; but in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to the LORD; you shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. What grows of itself in your harvest you shall not reap, and the grapes of your undressed vine you shall not gather; it shall be a year of solemn rest for the land. The Sabbath of the land shall provide food for you, for yourself and for your male and female slaves and for your hired servant and the sojourner who lives with you; for your cattle also and for the beasts that are in your land all its yield shall be for food.”
Deuteronomy 22:6-7: “If you chance to come upon a bird’s nest, in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs and the mother sitting upon the young or upon the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young; you shall let the mother go, but the young you may take to yourself; that it may go well with you, and that you may live long.”
Brennan R. Hill, (Ibid.)notes that there is not only divine or human care for nature in the Bible. Nature is also charged with care for human beings and the human community. Above all, nature can teach human beings about God. Psalm 65 articulates that human beings can learn about God’s blessings from nature.
Psalm 65:9-13: “Thou visitest the earth and waterest it, thou greatly enrichest it; the river of God is full of water; thou providest their grain, for so thou hast prepared it. Thou waterest its furrows abundantly, settling its ridges, softening it with showers, and blessing its growth. Thou crownest the year with thy bounty; the tracks of thy chariot drip with fatness. The pastures of the wilderness drip, the hills gird themselves with joy, the meadows clothe themselves with flocks, the valleys deck themselves with grain, they shout and sing together for joy.”
The whole ecological community gives us lessons for the love and care of God. The ancient Israelites thought that God revealed the divine self through nature. Hill (Ibid. 53-54) writes: “In Job, God comes in the whirlwind, and through the story of nature reveals the mystery and the power of the Creator…We can learn from the animals about the ironies of life and the nature of genuine authority and leadership….” The sage observes that even the tiny ant can show us the way to wisdom (Proverb 6:6). In the Bible, the environment is a caring teacher helping human beings grasp the divine nature and value of human life.
However, the caring role of nature for human beings goes far beyond a pedagogical function. It is scientific fact that the entire ecosystem makes decisive contributions to human survival, protecting against natural disasters including floods, tornados, and typhoons, and facilitating purification and filtration of water, pollination of cultivated produce, etc. Human beings cannot survive without the help and care of the ecosystem.
Today, the ecological situation is rapidly getting worse. More water, air, and soil is being polluted; the hole in the ozone layer is getting bigger; forests are being destroyed, species exterminated, natural resources ravished. These environmental problems are no longer issues for only the experts, since we all have the potential to be a source of crisis and destruction. However, we can function also as the media of care and cure. Desmond Tutu wrote in the Foreword to The Earth Story in Genesis, (2007, Norman C. Habel, ed, Sheffield: Sheffield Academic,7), “We all need to come to terms with the forces that have created this crisis and the resources within our traditions that can motivate us to resolve the crisis. One of those traditions is our biblical heritage.” With the help of our biblical heritage, we need to learn how to realize and emulate the divine care for nature and to receive the care of nature ourselves.
The biblical messages about environmental care can provide us with new perspectives regarding ecology. We can realize that nature is not only important for human life, but also for its own inherent value. There are widths and depths in biblical messages regarding environmental care that rise above human life. We have to convey these precious lessons of the Bible about environmental care to future generations. Much destruction against the environment has occurred because of ignorance. Teaching and learning Christian traditions is, therefore, essential to properly deal with serious environmental issues. Particularly, paying careful attention to the Bible can provide us with inspiration that makes it possible to coexist harmoniously with the environment. We must grasp how God cares for nature. Then, we have to replicate that divine care as much as we can. Finally, it is necessary for us to learn how to receive nature’s care with thankfulness and humility. I hope that the richness of environmental care that the Bible offers gives us some clue as to why and how to get involved in finding solutions to ecological crises and problems.
