The Land Mourns (Hosea 4:3)

 


Thursday, August 1, 2024


Psalm 74

Hosea 4:1-9

Romans 5:12-21


Observance: Holy men and women of the Old Testament


The Land Mourns (Hosea 4:3)


When God made the first human being, he told Adam several things. These things God told Adam were the responsibilities and rights that Adam had been given. One of these things was that Adam was responsible for the material universe; to name all the animals, and to subdue the earth.


It is fortuitous that we have gotten to the bit of Romans that talks about Adam, and how his responsibilities and rights were given to every other human being as well. We are all made in God’s image, like Adam, and we all have the same duties. As well as this, however, we also suffer the same problem of sin. This sin stains the spiritual realm; but it also transfers out into the material realm.


And so this is why that, in Hosea, we hear from God that the fact that there is “no knowledge of God in the land” has resulted in the land “mourning” and “languishing”. There is a relationship between the spiritual and material that goes beyond anything the materialistic atheists would have us believe; our responsibility as God’s image-bearers means that our spiritual health is directly responsible for the health of the natural world.


With our sword and our trowel in hand, we need to get on with sorting ourselves out, as well as the environment. But even if we listened to the cloud-watching doom-sayers, replaced our energy supply with solar and wind, and all drove electric cars, the land would still die if we ourselves weren’t spiritually healthy. The directives God made to Adam in the Garden still hold, and our spiritual connection with Adam is still there.


If by faith we hold to Jesus, however, we are connected to him in an even greater way. Jesus is the better Adam: he followed God’s ways perfectly, and if by faith we hold to Jesus, then we are connected to him in an even deeper way than we ever were to Adam. And how then might the land rejoice!


How much of your attitude towards the environment is influenced by people who do not know God? How might that attitude grow deeper if you were to get closer to Jesus?


God of free grace, give me the wisdom to care for your creation in a way that glorifies your name.

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