One Step Behind
Bill, down at the Texaco, filled his gas can.
The little guy said he was going to take it
home for his lawnmower. Bill didn’t pay it much mind. I guess if
he had, he would have thought it kinda strange. Grass didn’t need
trimming, not when it had been in the 90’s for over a month. Everyone’s
yard was just like mine — brown as paper and dry as popcorn.
Wasn’t till 4:00 when the wind shifted that
we all started smelling the smoke. A few of us headed out a couple
minutes later to see what it was. The whole ridge was in flame and
the spruce were going up like firecrackers. Men and women from five
counties came to help, but we couldn’t save much. It finally smoldered
out a week later and towards the end, someone found the gas can. But
no one ever saw hide nor hair of that crazy little guy ever again.
Our present day environmental crisis is a lot
like this story of a madman starting forest
fires. Constantly at work on this planet, the madman has left a trail
of death and destruction. Nuclear wastes, hazardous chemical wastes,
acid rain, the destruction of the rain forest, the tundra, the salt
marshes, James Bay, the depletion of the ozone, the greenhouse effect,
oil spills and the contamination of the seas, the effects of Chernobyl,
Three Mile Island, landfills, Styrofoam, fluorocarbons, endangered
species — all these are just some of the madman’s forest fires. As
soon as he starts one, we run over to where it is and put it out. We
spend millions, even billions of dollars in an effort to put an end
to some particular facet of his destruction. But it seems like we are
always one step behind him. Somewhere else another fire is starting
just as soon as we're getting the first one licked.
So who is the madman causing all the problems?
Is it us? Or the greedy rich? Or the giant
corporations? Or the politicians? No. Man is certainly a guilty accomplice
in all these acts of destruction, but man isn’t the madman himself.
It’s really not that simple. The madman in the story is really a spiritual
being, the evil angel that most people call the devil or Satan. More
than just a force or a mythical creature with horns, a goaty beard,
and a long tail, the evil one is a potent ruler, in fact, he is the
mastermind behind the spiritual system that controls much of what goes
on in the world. This madman has long been bent on the destruction
of the earth.
One of his earliest attempts created the conditions
we read about in the beginning of the Bible.
Most people are familiar with Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning, God created
the heavens and the earth.” Verse two, however, may be a bit baffling:
“And the earth became formless and empty, and darkness was over the
surface of the deep...”
Something strange had happened in the period
between verse one and verse two. What made
it “formless and empty” and brought a veil of darkness over the surface
of the deep was the work of the evil one. It’s not like God to make
something that is a ruin and a mess.
Had the evil one gone unchecked for long, the
earth would certainly have become uninhabitable.
This is what prompted the earth’s Creator to engage in the work of
restoring it — bringing back the light, the sky, the dry land, and
the plants and creating new animal life to replace what had been lost.
The culmination of that week of work was of course, man, who was placed
in a restored portion of the earth called the Garden. His task was
to spread out from the Garden with his children and restore all the
other parts of the planet, wresting the control of it out of the hands
of the evil one and back into the hands of his Creator.
This hasn’t been done yet.
But don’t give up hope. One day the whole earth
will be restored to what the Garden was like.
One day the madman’s forest fires will come
to an end. One day, a people will capture him
by their unity and see him chained in the abyss
and ultimately judged.
Who do you think will do it? Who do you think
will have the unity, the peace, and the love
in their lives to finally bring this about? The people I think who
will do it are described in the scriptures. They will be people who
belong to a new twelve-tribed Israel who are living a tribal life in
communities in twelve different tribal areas on the earth.
What kind of life will that be? It will be
a life unlike any other. It won’t be found in any of the other nations
on the earth. These people will live in a way
that will not destroy the earth. Their homes, their farms, and their
industries will be environments full of order and care. Men, women,
and children will be able to work in small cottage industries where
people really matter and greed is not the determining factor. Instead
of creating gigantic corporations or building huge factories as so
many businesses do in the world, these industries will remain small.
Whenever one of them increases and needs to expand, we will be able
to divide the work with another household within the community or start
another clan in a nearby village that can share the work. Nothing matters
more to us than remaining personal and keeping work on a human scale.
The lives of people in this new Israel are
integrated and all the parts of their daily life fit into one organic
whole. Work isn’t separate from enjoyment, nor is it at odds with what
is really important to our souls. One’s relationship with God and his
fellow man are a normal part of everyday life. Even man himself is
being restored from his fractured, divided state. Everything fits in
to the pattern of the life of this new Israel, and our lives become
meaningful when we see our gifts develop into something that serves
the whole community. Our willingness to sacrifice our own personal
dreams, ambitions, and visions for the sake of something greater will
bring about the reality of that nation that God has always longed to
have as His very own possession on earth.
At great cost the madman can be stopped. There
are people who are willing to pay it. Even
if it means giving up all things — father, mother, brother, sister,
wife, child, possessions, and property — to see it come about, they
are willing. If saving the earth means something to you, come and see.
Revelation 20:3
Revelation 20:10
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