The “Moral” Land
As I read the neglected book of Leviticus recently, I was struck by the fact that Levitical laws on the Sabbath also applied to the land—as much for the land’s sake, it appears, as the people’s. What turned out to be good agriculture is in fact presented as an act of worship: “The land itself must observe a sabbath to the Lord” (Lev. 25:1–7).
Astonishingly, numerous passages in Leviticus portray the land as having almost a “personal relationship” with God. It is even sometimes personified with its own moral nature. For example, God explained to Moses that the Canaanites had defiled the land so greatly that he had to punish it for its sin! The land responded by vomiting out its inhabitants (18:25; 20:22). “And if you defile the land,” God warned, “it will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations that were before you” (18:28). (Interestingly, the prophet Hosea also describes a travailing land: “There is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgment of God in the land … because of this the land mourns” [Hos. 4:1–3].)
In contrast, if the Israelites did not defile it, the land would respond with fecundity, and overflow with milk and honey (20:24). In his final summing up, as God swore that he would remember the Abrahamic covenant, he added,” and I will remember the land” (26:42). The remembrance would continue even after the children of Israel had been expelled from the Promised Land: “For the land will be deserted by them and will enjoy its sabbaths while it lies desolate without them” (26:43).
Checks And Balances
God gave Moses an extraordinary reason why he wouldn’t let the Israelites conquer the inhabitants of Canaan all at once. It would take some time, he said, because otherwise “the land would become desolate and the wild animals too numerous for you” (Exod. 23:29). In other words, he didn’t want to disrupt the ecological balance of the land.
Handling With Care
Some of the laws in Deuteronomy express a gentle respect for nature. For example, a person who happened upon a bird’s nest with a nesting mother could take the young bird but not the mother “so that it may go well with you and you may have a long life” (Deut. 22:6). Also, contemplate the phrasing in this regulation to an army laying siege to a city: “Do not cut them [trees] down. Are the trees of the field men, that you should besiege them?” (Deut. 20:19).
Creation Laughter
Unfortunately, the creation/evolution debate, with its emphasis on scientific detail and theory, has tended to obscure one of the most basic facts about Creation: it was a time of great joy in the heavens. Nowhere is this better expressed than in God’s magnificent speech in Job, chapters 38–41. There, God reveals Creation as a time when “the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy” (38:7).
One by one, God calls forward examples of his wildest creations: the lioness, the mountain goat, the wild donkey, the wild ox, the ostrich, the horse, the hawk. He seems to take greatest pride in their very untameability. The wild donkey, for example, “laughs at the commotion in the town” (39:7). As for the wild ox, will he be “content to serve you? Will he stay by your manger at night?” (39:9). And of the mysterious leviathan, God says, “Can you make a pet of him like a bird or put him on a leash for your girls?” (41:5).
We would do well to consider these words, and what they reveal about our Creator, as we risk the extinction of “useless” species.
