Healing For The Land: Solutions For The Environmental Crisis

and yet, there is hope!

In the previous article, I shared what we can learn from the history of the Israelite nation about today’s agricultural and social issues. We explored how, surprisingly, the state of the land and the state of our hearts often correlate. If you haven’t already, do read parts one and two of this series!

No quick fix for the environmental crisis

In this article, we’re looking at the solution for the troubled state our planet is in.

At a cure for the diseased land and hearts.

But this is far from a quick fix. In fact, there is no superficial solution for such a deep problem! Or, could you expect somebody to get rid of grief and heartache by treating them with heart surgery?

Those who do not recognize any spiritual reality in this world might find what I write fairly unusual. But do consider the implications for a moment. It could help stop our environmental problems, even if everything else failed. The ecological crisis has been showing its shadows for a long time already. I have read about the problem of nitrogen leaching in a book written over 20 years ago. (1) The book could have been written this very day, since matters have only deteriorated if anything! Phenomena such as massive bird extinction have already been described 100 years ago – and, sadly, not much has been done since.

Sir Ghillean Prance, Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, says:

“Science alone will not be able to resolve the situation because it is a moral, spiritual and ethical one requiring major changes in our behaviour.”

Ancient stories of degradation…

Even though there has never been an environmental crisis with consequences as far-reaching as those we are currently witnessing, there have been ecological disasters in long gone days. When the Bible talks about “the earth becoming sick” (2), it surely talks about the land’s degradation and desertification.

Even the Romans witnessed their soil degrading due to their unsustainable cultivation methods. They over-exploited not only the land but innumerable slaves, too. The fertility of soils in parts of the Roman Empire decreased so much that many people had to emigrate. They re-settled in North Africa, just to continue over-exploiting the land.

Justus von Liebig, one of the most prominent German chemists who dedicated his life to scientific research in the service of agriculture, wrote in his book (3):

“Every country and region of this Earth, in which man did not take care of maintaining the soil’s ability to produce harvests, from the moment of its densest population onwards, we see deteriorating to infertility and desolation.”

… and stories of restoration

This shows that environmental crises are not a new phenomenon. Even the Bible’s Old Testament talks about it a lot (see previous article on that). I believe that the Bible’s visions were not only relevant to the Israelite nation, but also to us today. If environmental and social phenomena that were happening in ancient Jewish times are repeating themselves now – and if that God of several thousand years ago is the same today – the Bible could have a very important message for us in store. 

The story of the Israelites, or humanity overall, goes as follows. God created a perfect, beautiful, abundant Earth, enabling people to establish thriving relationships with Himself, with others, and with nature. But people then messed it up: morally, socially, spiritually and environmentally. Nevertheless, the Creator did not give up on His beautiful, but sick world. 

Humbling ourselves

The first step for us to take is to recognize our guilt. To acknowledge that greed and sin corrupted not only the human heart but, consequently, the whole natural world. 

The Creator gives this hopeful promise in the Bible:

“If my people who belong to me will humbly pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.” (4)

Then, as the prophet Hosea puts it, “they will again live beneath God’s shadow, they will flourish like a garden…” (5)

We surely will not have that perfect paradise on our Earth at once, but we can start sowing its seeds today. Jesus himself prayed in his famous prayer “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is on heaven”. 

The greatest story of all!

According to the biblical faith, part of the Old Testament’s promises were fulfilled in one person – in the promised saviour of humanity, Jesus Christ. Through Him, the Creator wanted to reconcile us to Himself again. He wanted to “restore the sickness of the land and the heart”. 

There is a beautiful poem about this in the Bible’s New Testament. It talks about the restoration and healing through Jesus, who paid with his own life for every guilt and every degradation on earth:

“…all things were created by Christ: both in the heavens and on the earth… He existed before all things, and all things are held together in him …all the fullness of God was pleased to live in him, and he reconciled all things to himself through him— whether things on earth or in the heavens. He brought peace through the blood of his cross.” (6)

This simply means that people can be forgiven their sins and be changed to be and act more god-like if they accept Jesus’ offer of healing. For the environment, it means that humans don’t have to over-exploit the land anymore, because they want to treat it with respect for its Creator and other people. Peace from Christ is not only for the individuals, but for the whole earth. It enables us to let the peace in our hearts overflow to all our co-creatures. 

Now, of course, people who have been transformed by this faith will not necessarily act right all the time. We still live in a broken world. But acknowledging God as the Creator puts things in the right place again. Life then isn’t all about us anymore but, rather, about the Creator and his good principles.

Real change is possible

For centuries, believers of the Bible tacitly accepted slavery. Until one day, when British member of Parliament William Wilberforce realized how slavery contradicted the principles of the Bible. It took 18 years of campaigning against it, but slowly a shift of consciousness took place. In 1807, slavery was abolished in the United Kingdom.

In the same way, the truth of the Bible can unfold its transformative power today regarding the environmental crisis, if we start taking it literally.

The Creator established ingenious conditions for rich and abundant harvests on earth! It is up to us people if we take responsibility for it or not.

We can bring healing to the land (see this stunning example!) or we can do harm – whether we are farmers or not. (We all have to eat and buy food. With our purchases, we support one or the other system of cultivation – affecting even how people on the other end of the planet live.)

The river of life

There is a beautiful vision in the Bible, in which the prophet Ezekiel sees a river flowing from the temple in Jerusalem through the desert. This arid area is transformed by the river into lush, fertile land. (7) It symbolized the people of faith becoming a source of healing and goodness to the people and land around them. Because they have been transformed by a loving God, they can now transform their economically, socially and ecologically sick, conflict-torn and degraded environment into a plentiful land. 

Then, this will be heaven on earth, in the truest of senses! 

---

If you are wondering what this could mean for your everyday life, I will share a couple of tips on how to eat & shop for food responsibly, how to live zero waste. Those are just some ways to live out the message of peace & healing for the world.

What do you think, how can we practically spread God’s love and peace for the environment and for humanity?

Thank you so much for reading!

Sources:

(1) S. Normann-Schmidt: Auf der Suche nach der umweltgerechten Landwirtschaft; Oldenbourg 1995; (2) The Bible: Hosea 4, 3; (3) J. von Liebig: Es ist ja dies die Spitze meines Lebens; (4) The Bible: 2 Chronicles 7, 14; (5) The Bible: Hosea 14, 7; (6) The Bible: Colossians 1, 16-20; (7) The Bible: Ezechiel 47, 1-12