Religion and Ecology

Jo Ann M. Davidson

We acknowledge that God is Creator and that He announced His approval of the world He just created with a resounding “Very good!” But we have not granted the created world the exalted status that God’s exuberant announcement suggests. We have not been sensitive to the explicit creational interests found in every book of the Bible, or mindful of our responsibilities toward the earth, and the water, and the air, and the animals.

A Love of the Land

The consistent warnings of many scientists tell us that our planet—with all of its creatures and its many ecosystems—is not healthy. Mounting evidence points to the fact that God’s created world is groaning. Let’s face it: in a land of plenty it’s not easy to be motivated about being frugal with the Lord’s abundant treasures. But it’s interesting that when God brought the children of Israel to the Promised Land—a great land that He describes as rich with milk and honey—He carefully instructed His people on good ecology.

Moses describes to the Israelites the glory of the land and God’s warm affection for it: “The land which you cross over to possess,” Moses says, “is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water from the rain of heaven, a land for which the Lord your God cares” (Deut. 11:11, 12, NKJV).*

The Mosaic laws included a distinctive protection of nature, even outlawing the destruction of fruit trees to aid a military campaign (Deut. 20:19, 20).

Animals were to be treated humanely. For example, the Lord said that if you find a donkey that is staggering under a heavy load and has fallen, you must help it up—even if that donkey belongs to your enemy (Ex. 23:5). Large work animals were not to be muzzled to prevent them from eating while assisting with the heavy work of agriculture (Deut. 25:4). They should be able to enjoy the fruits of the land that they are helping to reap. The Hebrew people had a distinctive obligation to be kind to creation.

Animals and the land are included within the stipulations for the Sabbath and the sabbatical years. Listen to what Moses says: “You shall sow your land for six years and gather in its yield, but on the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, so that the needy of your people may eat; and whatever they leave the beast of the field may eat. . . . Six days you are to do your work, but on the seventh day you shall cease from labor so that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your female slave, as well as your stranger, may refresh themselves” (Ex. 23:10-12, NASB).†

A Connecting Bond

A close bond between human and animal life can be observed all through Scripture. In Genesis 1 and 2 we find that both humans and animals were created by God’s own hands from the dust of the earth and given the breath of life. After He had finished creating this world and everything in it, God said, “This is very good.” He didn’t say that just about human beings; He said that about all He created.

Later, after violent wickedness emerges, Noah is told to build an ark and take his family and the animals into the ark with him during a global catastrophe, and he did this. The turning point in the Flood narrative, say scholars who study Genesis 6 through 9, is Genesis 8:1. It says there: “God remembered Noah . . . and all the animals that were with him in the ark” (NKJV).

The floodwaters subsided and the ark could be exited, and the animals again are explicitly included in the covenant God makes: “God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying, ‘Now behold, I Myself do establish My covenant with you, and with your descendants after you; and with every living creature that is with you.’ . . . ‘This is the sign of the covenant which I am making between Me and you and every living creature . . . for all successive generations’” (Gen. 9:8-12, NASB).

In the oldest book of the Bible when God speaks to Job out of the whirlwind, it takes four chapters to record his account of the wonders of the created world. This is God’s longest speech in the Bible. And God makes very plain how He feels about the animal kingdom. It’s a magnificent address, starting in chapter 38. Notice carefully all the creatures He describes—several wild animals including a lioness, a hawk, an eagle, and a stallion leaping high, ready to run. And this is merely the introduction to Job’s zoology class.

Respect for the Animal Kingdom

In the book of Numbers, Balaam’s donkey, after being beaten, pleads for respect and kind treatment. I like the phrase in Numbers 22:28: “Then the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey” (NKJV). That implies that the donkey had intelligence; she just needed her tongue loosed to speak human language.

Even the divine being whom Balaam does not see at first criticizes Balaam’s harshness toward his donkey. “Why have you struck your donkey these three times?” he asks (verse 32).

Nature Reveals the Glory of God

God’s care for animals has also inspired many of the psalms. Psalm 36: “Your lovingkindness, O Lord, extends to the heavens, Your faithfulness reaches to the skies. . . . You preserve man and beast. How precious is Your lovingkindness” (verses 5-7, NASB). And Psalm 104: “There is the sea, great and broad, in which are swarms without number, animals both small and great” (verse 25, NASB). “They all wait for You to give them their food in due season. You give to them, they gather it up; You open Your hand, they are satisfied” (verses 27, 28, NASB).

The psalmist emphasizes how nature reveals the glory of God and how all of creation is within His care. Although we might talk about how we care for the environment, the psalmist reminds us that it’s the other way around. If God did not continuously sustain this environment, we wouldn’t be able to live.

Isaiah instructs us that if we break God’s covenant and forget our responsibilities of stewardship, the pollution of the earth will result. He writes: “The earth is also polluted by its inhabitants, for they transgressed laws, violated statutes, broke the everlasting covenant. Therefore, a curse devours the earth, and those who live in it are held guilty” (Isa. 24:5, 6, NASB). It sounds like it could have been written last week, doesn’t it?

Jonah and the Animals

The last two verses of the book of Jonah are also instructive. In a dialogue with Jonah that takes up all of chapter 4, God patiently enumerates the reasons for His mercy toward the great city of Nineveh, even though it was wicked. God says to Jonah: “Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?” (verse 11, NASB). And the book ends. It ends with God’s profound declaration of mercy not only for the wicked Ninevites but also the animals.

God’s statement to Jonah shouldn’t be surprising, but we humans get so wrapped up in our busy lives that we forget how important the natural world is to God. The book of Jonah is the only book in Scripture that ends in a question. Perhaps God speaks this way to pointedly remind us that the animal kingdom is included in His tender regard. By having mercy on Nineveh even the animals were spared.

Christians might be slow in linking their ecology with their theology, but in God’s mind there is a clear connection. Oh, we treasure the doctrine of salvation, but we often need a more comprehensive theology of life.

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Jo Ann M. Davidson, Ph.D., is a professor in the Theology and Christian Philosophy Department at the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary on the campus of Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan.