Romans 8:19-22 “Balance?”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹⁹For the eager expectation of the creation is waiting for the revealing of the sons of God, ²⁰for the creation was subjected to futility (not willing[ly] but because of the one subjecting) upon hope ²¹that the creation itself will also be liberated from the bondage of decay into the freedom of the glory of the children of God, ²²for we know that the entire creation is groaning together and in agony together until the present.

I would like to record one more thought arising from this passage, and I’m not even sure where I’m going with it. Perhaps if I just start typing it will take shape. As related in the last post, it is shameful to realize just how true it is that we human beings are destroyers, that our presence in this world brings misery to the rest of creation. For me, it is grievous just to think about it. However, as we would try to honestly acknowledge that truth, I think there is some balance we should insert into the discussion.

This is where my thinking starts vacillating. Here I am, a person who loves the outdoors. On the whole I am extremely thankful that long ago we set apart state and national parks, that we have huge land areas where we’ve preserved nature in its beauty. I love to hunt and fish, but I’m glad we have laws to prevent people from driving any creature into extinction. Once again, my whole career has been about cleaning up the horrific pollution we’d caused in this world and I’m glad there was a Clean Water Act.

While all of that is true, I am thinking there needs to be a balance. For one thing, based on the Bible, and even this passage before us, we know that the entire creation, as we know it today, is completely temporary. No matter how much us humans mess it up, “the Day of the Lord will come” (II Pet. 3:10). As that passage in II Peter goes on to say, “That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the fervent heat; but in keeping with His promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness” (3:12,13)

Somehow, even as we’re lamenting what destroyers we are, there also needs to be the realization that the entire rest of creation is, in a sense, temporary, and I’ll even be so reckless as to call it “disposable.” I said before, it is sad how, if us humans thought there was gold under a mountain, we wouldn’t hesitate to level the whole thing just to get it. That is a horrible thought to me, that where there was once a beautiful mountain, suddenly we could turn it into a plain and it would be gone forever. What I’m hesitant to say is, maybe it isn’t as big a deal as my heart makes it? Whether we do or we don’t level the beautiful mountain, the day is coming when the Lord will rebuild it – once again perfect just as it was originally created.

It is interesting to note there in II Peter, having stated that there is a new heaven and new earth coming, Peter’s application of that truth is to say, “So then, my dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with Him” (v.14). He doesn’t say anything about our attitude toward nature. This transitory quality of the created universe moves us to consider our relationship with God, not our attitudes toward conservation. From an eternal perspective, we should not be surprised to find the truly important issue to be our relationship with God, not nature

Even as I’m typing, I wonder if the reason “conservation” and “Save the Earth!” and PETA and all the other modern preoccupations with nature is not, in fact, the result of our lack of concern for the things of God? Paul said we believers “… fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (II Cor. 4:17). Somehow, the big concern ought to be first of all that which is eternal, and only then to consider all that around us which is not. In all of Jesus’ teaching recorded in the Gospels, there is little, if any mention of people’s relationship with nature. I believe it would be accurate to observe that Jesus’ emphasis clearly was to call us to consider first of all our relationship with God.

At the same time, if we do keep before us the priority of that which is eternal, it shouldn’t excuse our destructive presence. In other words, I want to assert it isn’t godly to be cruel. Prov. 12:10 says, “The righteous care for the needs of their animals…” When Balaam unjustly beat his donkey, the Lord finally gave her speech to call him down for it. In Hab. 2:17, the Lord says to Babylon, “The violence you have done to Lebanon will overwhelm you, and your destruction of animals will terrify you … you have destroyed lands and cities and everyone in them.” Notice the Lord accosts them for their “destruction of animals.” I’ve also always liked how the Lord said to Jonah, “… Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle. Should I not be concerned about that great city?” (4:11). Notice the “many cattle.” The Lord cares about cattle. So should we.

So these thoughts of mine can’t lead to wantonly excusing our destructive presence. On the other hand, we clearly need to keep our focus on that which is eternal. Somehow, if we could keep our focus properly balanced, I wonder if we couldn’t do an admirable job of conservation without going hog wild over snowy owls and darter snails. I wonder if real godliness wouldn’t give us the wisdom to know how to take care of people while at the same time be good stewards of this world we’ve been given as a home.

Even as I sit here, I’m not sure I know what to do with any of this, but at least I wrote it down. Sometimes, having acknowledged things like this, I find that later on, as I (hopefully) grow in my knowledge of God, it might all fall together into a much clearer understanding. Guess I’ll just shoot up a prayer and see where He takes me!