B.E.S. (II)

So, the last post I defined "environmental stewardship" and "Biblical environmental stewardship" as well. I cited Gen. 1:26-31 and Gen. 2:15 as two foundational verses for the case of BES. Further, I listed 5 principles gathered from the two passages...

1. All men are made in God's image
2. Man received, from God, the authority to "subdue" and rule" on earth
3. A command to be fruitful
4. Placement of man in the garden
5. A call for man to cultivate and keep Eden's garden

Importance of Principles:

1) All men are made in God's image - God is ultimate. The Creator is the only one to be worshiped, for He alone is glorious, He is all that is righteous and He is all righteousness. To be righteous means to be all that is pure and good, it is the highest standard of what is notable and morally upright. To be all righteousness is to be the epitome of purity, goodness and ... rightness! As such, God is ultimate, in His own heart and in His creation, especially the epitome of His creation, Man. To be in God's image means, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that man - each individual man, woman, boy & girl - carries significant intrinsic value. Each woman sold into the slave trade, each orphan wrangled into rebels' armies, each prostitute, each drug addict, each Kindergartner, each widow, each middle-aged man in the middle of a mid-life crisis, each diseased, handicapped, and mentally handicapped person carries eternal value that cannot be measured or taken away, because that individual has been intimately created and woven in the likeness of the God of all. So, God is ultimate, and man is valuable. In light of God's worth & man's value, measures of many nature need be taken to provide for the poor, down trodden, and neglected peoples of the world. This does include BES. This point will be made further later.

2) Man received, from God, the authority to "subdue" and "rule" on earth - As the epitome of God's creation (see Ps 8:4-8 & Heb 2:6-8), He has seen fit to place the responsibility of subduing and ruling the earth under man's control. The Hebrew for "subdue" is כבש be (kabash), which means to subject; while "rule" is רדה (radah), meaning to subdue or rule over ... basically, it would appear to me that subdue and rule are to reinforce a central idea, God has given man dominion over animals and plants. We are to utilize - wisely - all resources given to us from God. 


3) Commanded to fruitfulness - This means we are to have sex! Of course within - & only within - the context and covenant of marriage ... but it means sex nonetheless. The "fruitful" command, literally means "to bear young" (פרה; parah). This is a gift of the Lord to man (and all for that matter as reproduction is necessary for ongoing life), but it is a special gift to man, for we love; after all we are made in the image of the Great Lover! But - and I may be taking some liberties - I think this means we must care and love for one another, that may not be explicit in the text provided, but it is explicitly stated elsewhere.


4 & 5) Placement of man in the garden and a call for man to cultivate and keep Eden's garden- Imagine it! Creation is not even a week old, and all the sudden life is! Once you were not, and now you are ... and what you see, smell, feel, taste, and hear is perfection. Creation is perfect, and at the very center of it, is you, man! Calvin sums everything up perfectly ...

"Moses adds, that the custody of the garden was given in charge to Adam, to show that we possess the things which God has committed to our hands, on the condition, that being content with a frugal and moderate use of them, we should take care of what shall remain. Let him who possesses a field, so partake of its yearly fruits, that he may not suffer the ground to be injured by his negligence; but let him endeavor to hand it down to posterity as he received it, or even better cultivated. Let him so feed on its fruits that he neither dissipates it by luxury, nor permits to be marred or ruined by neglect. Moreover, that this economy, and this diligence, with respect to those good things which God has given us to enjoy, may flourish among us; let every one regard himself as the steward of God in all things which he possesses. Then he will neither conduct himself dissolutely, nor corrupt by abuse those things which God requires to be preserved."

What Calvin is getting at, and what BES is all about is that subduing, cultivating and ruling must be read and understood as a mandate of stewardship, not one of power, might, and free reign. We cannot desecrate and decimate our planet without insulting the Almighty!


And thats a wrap for now.