Today's Scripture Reading (September 27, 2026): Ezekiel 29
In the Russell Crowe film Noah (2014), the
creators present an interesting view of the battle between good and evil. In a
world dominated by the evil descendants of Cain and the fallen angels known as
the Watchers (a variant on the biblically based Nephilim), the earth is filled
with darkness and death. The earth's riches are being used up, and Cain's
descendants are forced to explore more and more of it, draining the world of
its precious resources. But Noah, a descendant of Seth, refuses to let his
family take anything from the earth they cannot use. Even the flowers in the
field are sacred and must not be picked. When Noah meets his grandfather,
Methuselah, he is given a seed. Noah plants his grandfather's seed, and the
dark, lifeless environment quickly becomes a lush, green forest. Death is
defeated in favor of life; evil is subdued in favor of what is good. This plot clearly
nods to our generation's environmental concerns, rather than the beliefs and
fears of biblical Noah.
Noah's environmental concerns are meant to
prompt the audience to reconsider their own environmental footprint. I am
coming to the conviction that what seems to be the traditional Christian
response to environmentalism might be wrong. It is like we miss the first
chapter of the Bible. In the opening words of the Bible, God pronounces
everything that he creates as good, and then the combined product of creation
as very good. Have we somehow missed that? One prevalent argument among some
Christians is that God has given us the resources of this planet to extract and
use. The earth is essentially a holder for these gifts from God, and when we
have used up the resources of the world that God has given us, then the earth,
which we seem to believe has been made disposable or designed to be thrown away
eventually. But more and more Christians are asking: if the world was created
as a disposable cup to hold a finite number of resources, why did God pronounce
that creation was very good? While we definitely do not believe we are
disposable, other than the statement that we are created in the image of God,
the Bible does not seem to differentiate between us and the rest of creation;
we are all pronounced as good.
Beyond that, God seems to react differently to
what he has made. As Ezekiel begins to prophesy against Egypt, part of the
complaint is that the Pharaoh seems to believe that the rivers that flow
through his territory belong to him, but God disagrees; the rivers, and really
all the resources of the planet, God has made for himself. All of this is part
of what God has considered good.
So maybe it is not surprising that the movie "Noah"
features a strong environmental theme. Noah, the protector of the planet, like
Adam before him, is an environmentalist. He is a protector of the resources of
the earth, resources that have never belonged to him, but instead belong to the
one who created both the resources and the protector of the resources in the
first place. We need this reminder as we continue to use our planet's resources.
Tomorrow's
Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 30
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