Part Two
Previously we saw that
the biblical instruction for the human race to “subdue” the earth and to have
“dominion” over other living things does not give mankind a license to abuse
and exploit nature. Christians who think otherwise are out of sync with
Scripture. Rather, dominion means stewardship. There are several ways to demonstrate
this, but the most obvious is to look at nature through God’s perspective. If
God loves, finds joy in, and carefully provides for the survival and welfare of
non-human life—independent of His
even great love, joy in, and provision for humans—it seems self-evident to me that
the human race ought to willingly be God’s caretakers over the creation He
values. Here are the Scriptures that back
this up.
First, God “owns” nature, not people: “For every animal of the forest
is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird in the
mountains, and the creatures of the field are mine” (Ps. 50:10-11; also see Ps.
24:1).
Second, God designed the world to support animal life as well as
people: “O LORD, you preserve both man and beast” (Ps. 36:6); “The wild animals
honor me, the jackals and the owls, because I provide water in the desert and
streams in the wasteland” (Isa. 43:20). Moreover, God provides specific food
and habitats for specific wildlife: The wild donkey was given “the wasteland as
a home, the salt flats as his habitat” (Job 39:6). The eagle builds “his nest on high” and “dwells
on the
cliff . . . a rocky crag is his stronghold” (27-28). God “makes spring
pour water into the ravines” to give “water to the beast of the field” (Ps.
104: 10-11). He planted cedars in Lebanon so that birds could make their nest
and “the stork has its home in the pine trees. [In addition] the high mountains belong to the
wild goats; the crags are a refuge for the coneys” (vs. 16-17). At night “the
lions roar for their prey and seek their food from God” (v. 21). Jesus told His
disciples that not a single sparrow “is forgotten by God” (Luke 12:6) and pointed out that God provides animals their food (Matt. 6:26; Luke 12:24).
Third, the vast majority of the
animals God created play no role in human welfare, and much of what happens in
nature only God observes: God causes rain to “water a land where no man lives,
a desert with no one in it” (Job 38:26). He asked Job, “Do you know when the
mountain goat gives birth? Do you watch when the doe bears her fawn? Do you
count the months till they bear? Do you know the time when they give birth?”
(39:1-2). The self-evident answer to these, and the other rhetorical questions
that God asked Job, is that only God
observes these events and is present when they occur. On the other hand, humans
are told to care for the animals under their charge (Exod. 23:12; Prov. 12:10 ).
Fourth, God’s covenant with Noah after the Great Flood includes not only
people but all animal life
(Gen.9:8-11). Moreover, the prophet Hosea spoke of another covenant that would
occur in the distant, eschatological future when God will make a covenant “with
the beasts of the field and the birds of the air and the creatures that move
along the ground . . . so that all may lie down in safety (2:18).
This is just a small sample
of the many passages throughout the Bible that reveal God’s perspective on
animal life. If God loves and cares for
the earth and its wild inhabitants, certainly people ought to honor God by willingly
being His stewards over what He values and cares for. If you would enjoy a full
study of our stewardship responsibilities in creation, as revealed in the Bible
(and other related issues), get my book Should
Christians Be Environmentalists? (Kregel Publications, 2012).
Dan Story
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