God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
Genesis 1:28 (NIV)

Shame on me. I’m really not an ecofreak. In fact for most of my life I’ve been rather dismissive of “tree-huggers”. Two things have brought my attitude into sharp focus recently though, and I’m beginning to wonder of mankind’s bizarre interpretation (or complete ignorance of) the so-called “Cultural Commission” may not be God’s biggest controversy with us, come Judgment Day.

(OK, by now I should have shaken off a good number of readers…)

The text tells us that God said to Adam, “You’re in charge of this earth.” It’s the words “subdue” and “rule” that seem to have got us into trouble.

The word “subdue”, in fact, is the Hebrew “kâbash”, usually translated as something like “conquer”, or “subjugate”. It is never translated as “despoil”, “pollute” or “make toxic”.

The word “rule” is the Hebrew “mâlak”: to reign (as king). Not “exterminate”!

The first “event” to bring this into focus for me was the Gulf oil spill. No doubt we have the right to use the resources the earth provides. But it seems to me that we’ve gone too far in the way we do it … and it’s nothing new. 800 years ago, the South of England was covered in forests … all gone now. And we are still chopping down rainforests. I’m not going to exercise the arguments … just confess that they are more real to me now than they were 6 months ago. I’m going to try to be more thoughtful in my use of resources.

The second “event” was a visit this week to San Diego zoo. It’s a great zoo, as zoos go. I was worried that some habitats seemed small, and some animals not entirely happy, but what really shook me was the indicator, for each species, about its risk for extinction. Remember Noah’s ark? God was OK with wiping out most of humanity … but protected the animals, birds and bugs! How have we interpreted “rule over” to mean “wipe out”?

I’m hoping that God will let Adam stand for all of us when he asks the question on Judgment Day, “So Adam, We made you in Our image. What made you think when we told you to subdue the earth and rule the livestock we meant destroy and deplete? There are plenty of other things to talk about, but this one has us really ticked off!”

Shame on me. I’m not going to go nuts about it, but I am going to try to do a little better …