Monday, September 16, 2013

3.  Fruitfulness Principle:  (Part three of a piece from Calvin B. DeWitt)
WE SHOULD ENJOY, BUT MUST NOT DESTROY, CREATION'S FRUITFULNESS.

The fish of the sea and the birds of the air, as well as people, are given God's blessing of fruitfulness.  In Genesis 1:20 and 22 God declares, "Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky."  And then God blesses these creatures with fruitfulness;"Be fruitful and incraese in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth."  God's Creation reflects God's fruitful work--God's fruitful work of giving to land and life what satisfies.  As it is written in Psalm 104, "He makes springs pour water into the ravines; it flows between the mountains.  They give water to all the beasts of the field; the wild donkeys quench their thirst.  The birds of the air nest by the waters; they sing among its branches.  He waters the mountains from his upper chambers; the earth is satisfied by the fruit of his work."  And Psalm 23 describes how our providing God "...makes me lie down in green pastures,...leads me beside still waters,...restores my soul."

As God's fruitful work brings fruit to Creation, so too should ours. As God provides for the creatures, so should we people who were created to reflect God whose image we bear.  Imaging God, we too should provide for the creatures.  And, as Noah spared no time, expense, or reputation when God's creatures were threatened with extinction, neither should we.  Deluges--in Noah's time of water, and in our time of floods of people--sprawl over the land, displacing God's creatures, limiting THEIR potential to obey God's command,"be fruitful and increase in number."  To those who would allow a human flood across the land at the expense of all other creatures, the prophet Isaiah warns: "Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field till no space is left and you live alone in the land." (Isaiah 5:8)

Thus, while expected to enjoy Creation, while expected to partake of Creation's fruit, we may not destroy the fruitfulness upon which Creation's fullness depends.  We must, with Noah, save the species whose interactions with each other, and with land and water, form the fabric of the biosphere.  We should let the profound admonition of Ezekiel 34:18 reverberate and echo in our minds:


"Is it not enough for you to feed on the green pastures?
Must you also trample them with your feet?
"Is it not enough for you to drink the pure water?
Must you also muddy it with your feet?"
 
Copyright Au Sable Institute of Environmental Studies.



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