Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from his youth. ( Genesis 8: 21)
Many people think that the curse on the ground in Genesis ( Genesis 3:17) is still in place and that we are waiting for that curse to be lifted at the end of time. However, we learn form Genesis 8 that the curse on the ground is lifted by God’s grace. Though we are sinful, God in His mercy has blessed the ground. The earth is under his blessing and we are not waiting for this world to pass away for the blessings of God to be restored.
This is an important principal to grasp when we consider our stewardship of the earth, we are not stewarding a earth that is under God’s curse, but we treat it as if it were, when we fail to protect its water resources, when we pollute our rivers and oceans, when we destroy wetlands and through selfishness diminish bio-diversity.
We are not stewards of an earth that is broken or fallen short of its design, we live in a God blessed ecosystem that in God’s words, “is good.”
We need to deepen our understanding of how ecology works and that is our lack of understanding and our attitude towards the earth that causes the earths problems.
We need to understand that the Earth is the Lord’s and all that dwell therein, we need to understand that we live under God’s blessing of grace and mercy and that the earth is precious.
We need to get a clearer understating of what God requires of us, as we journey through this life.
Justice, mercy and humility.
We live under God’s blessing and we this is what gives us the ability to endure, persevere and come out victorious.
But as Moses said, today I put before you a Blessing and a Curse, the blessing is to believe in God and receive the gift of life the curse is to not believe in God and deny yourself the gift of life.
Let us pray.
Lord open our eyes to see that we have misused the life that you have given us. We have misunderstood your word and acted foolishly.
Forgive us and set us free to serve you afresh, to accept your blessing and live in it.
For yours is the kingdom the power and the glory, forever and ever.
Amen.
