Earth | Musings of a Gentile

When we live in according to the teachings God gave to us we live in harmony with the earth and how to treat her and the living things around us (Genesis 1:28).

Genesis 1:28 “And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.”(KJV)

The words “subdue” and “dominion” in this verse tend to have a negative connotation. Maybe they invoke visions of man-made wastelands and dying foliage. Strong’s concordance translates these words as the following:

Subdue: kabas(H3533)- Subject, to keep under

Dominion: rada(H7287) – To rule, to dominate

We as humans, due to our fallen nature, tend to do these things from a sinful standpoint. Enacting this position through greed, jealousy, insecurities. The position he has given us is one of authority, but just authority. Since the commands He gave us in Genesis, it was always God’s will for man to be good stewards of Earth. To take care of her and the beasts, none of which involved abuse.

Genesis 1:26 “²⁶ Then God said, “Let us make man^[a] in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”(ESV)

I believe that the manner of how this is translated, subduing and dominion involved hunting. In later verses in the book of Genesis, it differentiates between cattle and beasts (Genesis 1:26, Genesis 2:20)

Creator even says this in about the abuse of beasts:
“Whoever is righteous has regard for the life of his beast, but the mercy of the wicked is cruel.” (Proverbs 12:10, ESV)

It was always the Creator’s will for us to tend to the Earth (Genesis 2:15, 1:26). Before the fall, “tending the ground” wasn’t laborious and did not produce suffering. It wasn’t until the Lord said to Adam (Genesis 3:17-19), that in pain he shall eat of it all the days of his life.

Sin and Mother Earth’s emotions

From the womb of Earth, according to the will of God, mankind was born. Like a mother to her child, she reacts to our actions. When a child commits an act of disobedience, it can affect their mother and how she reacts. For a mother it can cause grief and or rage. When sin was committed by Adam and Eve, it welcomed death to us. This inevitably affected Mother Earth and brought the curse of death and decay on her as well. In fact, all of creation and its interconnectedness was affected by the consequences of sin.

Genesis 5:29 ” He named him Noah^[a] and said, “He will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the Lord has cursed.””(NIV)

Romans 8:20-21 “For the creation was subjected to frustration and futility, not willingly [because of some intentional fault on its part], but by the will of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will also be freed from its bondage to decay [and gain entrance] into the glorious freedom of the children of God.”(AMP)

Throughout scriptures we can see sin brought so much anguish to creation and mother earth, that it caused instances where rain was withheld, disasters, earthquakes, and even Mother Earth herself, “swallowing” whole people as a result at the command of Creator(Numbers 16:28-34).

Isaiah 24:5-The earth suffers for the sins of its people, for they have twisted God’s instructions, violated his laws, and broken his everlasting covenant.(NLT)

John 10:10- “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.” (NIV)

The Current Ruler of this World

In addition to relinquishing their sacred connection to God, Adam and Eve also handed over their perfect authority to Satan. Giving him a greater sense of power over us by believing his lies. Without Christ, we were under the same judgement as Him and all the other fallen angels.

Instead of the autonomy, freedom, immortality, we had through God, we became slaves to sin. This gave Satan leadership over the fallen world after this (Ephesians 2:2). He is the ruler over the sinful powers that were brought into the world. This was demonstrated when he tempted Jesus during his fast in the wilderness (Matthew 4:8-9).

It is also mentioned in Luke 4:6 that the enemy tried to tempt Jesus by saying he would give all of the kingdoms and their glory to him. These kingdoms were headed by Him. It’s not to say that these leaders were declaring Satan as their god, but that they are all orchestrated by him and the false gods of this world. Jesus mentions their organization when addressing the Pharisees in Matthew 12:24-30 and in Mark 3:24-26.

Mark 3:24-26 “If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. ²⁵ And if a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. ²⁶ And if Satan has risen up against himself, and is divided, he cannot stand, but has an end.”(NKJV)

With knowing these things, and how the disruption came to be, it can seem bleak. But we can rejoice in knowing that the Lord will ultimately bring back the sacred thread we had connected to him in fullness and without the existence of evil in the future. We have hope in that. Within the next posts, I will be discussing what this looked like for us, and for Mother Earth.

Musings of a Gentile

Tag Archives: Earth

The Sanctification Process and Tonantzin Tlalli(Mother Earth) – Part 2: Harmony and the effects of Sin

Sin and Mother Earth’s emotions

The Current Ruler of this World

On the intersection of Decolonizing Christianity and Culture