The northern lights over St. Joseph, Michigan in October 2024. [Photo by Katie Fellows]
The Bible opens with God creating matter and all life! It is notable that the Christian Canon opens with a comprehensive “theology of life.” Considering that the book of Genesis covers some 2,500 years in 50 chapters, it is remarkable that the first two chapters “slow down” this vast sweep of time, highlighting only seven days to describe the miraculous emergence of everything — including all life plus the structuring of seasons and time itself.
The first two chapters of Genesis are indeed an epic environmental treatise, exhibiting the:
A perfect and harmonious great “web of life” is presented. 1
This fundamental perspective on origins then undergirds the entire biblical canon.
Many of the things worshiped by the cultures that surrounded ancient Israel (such as the sun, moon and various animals) were created effortlessly by God’s “word of mouth.” He invited all life and matter into existence with His “command performance” of “let there be” — and then He marveled with great exuberance at what He had created! God doesn’t only rejoice over Adam and Eve. His joyful comments each of the first six days suggest that the whole world is praiseworthy. His exuberant appreciation expressed with “And God saw that is was good” [in English] translates the Hebrew word tov as “good.” Notably the word tov also includes the broader meaning of “beautiful” — as is seen when describing the beauty of the Genesis matriarchs! 2
In other words, God sees all creation — seas, lands, vegetation, swimmers, birds, plus heavenly lights as beautiful. Learning to appreciate creation’s beauty can help us value the created world. Creation’s scents and flavors, exotic colors and sounds can stimulate our senses, triggering a higher admiration of this world. Yes, much has been damaged by sin, yet this world still manifests many glories!
Day seven of that first week God completes His creating activity, and it becomes the final day of the first weekly cycle that God deliberately set in place. The first six days are pronounced “good” and “very good,” with the seventh day declared “holy” — and established with four verbs (Genesis 2:1–3)! Notably, Sabbath blessings are not only for human beings. Animals and the land are also included (Exodus 20:8–11). 3
Humans and all creatures along with their Creator are invited to rest, suggesting a deep correspondence and connectedness.
Sabbath was never intended to be a legalistic ritual. Adam and Eve certainly weren’t keeping the Sabbath to be saved for they hadn’t sinned yet when they began celebrating the Sabbath. And if they had never sinned, we would still have the Sabbath — an amazing gift of rest and restoration. Its special hours give all life “time off” for fellowship with the Creator — and to join with the myriad different voices of praise in the created world (see Psalm 148, discussed below).
The Sabbath day is truly remarkable. It is not a legalistic requirement but a beautiful gift. Jewish philosopher Abraham Heschel calls it a “palace in time.” 4
The divinely instituted weekly rhythm, not grounded in any celestial movements (as are day, month and year measurements) reveals the Creator’s sovereignty even over time itself. Nothing was outside of His directives, and nothing had been overlooked.
In just seven days, the earth was formed and filled, with the different ecosystems necessary for life to flourish lovingly put into place the first three days — and the subsequent three days filling the new habitats with life! The Sabbath day marks the climax. Creation is complete and can rest. 5
Divine activity created an amazingly intricate network of blessed domains manifesting an interwoven complexity that we are slowly beginning to appreciate.
Later psalmists were not insensitive to this and often praise the glorious origin of life — suggesting that we too should be awestruck when contemplating the gift of life in all its forms. Note the praising choirs of Psalm 104, 148 and 150, where the many different voices in nature are giving praise! The “Psalm for the Sabbath,” Psalm 92, is also a cheering chant for the glories of creation!
It is good to give thanks to the Lord, And to sing praises to Your name, O Most High;
To declare Your loving kindness in the morning,
And Your faithfulness every night,
On an instrument of ten strings,
On the lute,
And on the harp,
With harmonious sound.
For You, Lord, have made me glad through Your work;
I will triumph in the works of Your hands.
This same perspective is found again in the book of Revelation: Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice:
“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain To receive power and riches and wisdom,
And strength and honor and glory and blessing!”
And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the
earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying:
“Blessing and honor and glory and power Be to Him who sits on the throne,
And to the Lamb, forever and ever!”
Then the four living creatures said, “Amen!”
God’s longest speech in Scripture (Job 38–41) reminds us of the same. There, God Himself again rejoices in the many animals He created and the amazing complexity and elegance in the animal kingdom that we have been slow to comprehend. Paul Santmire is correct: the Jobean vision can be read not only in terms of God’s purposes with the wilderness areas of this planet — the fecund mountain ranges, the majestic oceans and their fragile coral reefs, the great whales and grand polar caps, the Siberian tigers, wildebeests, hummingbirds, and snail darters. It can also be read in terms of God’s purposes with the “great things” of the whole cosmos, purposes that we can only barely begin to imagine — purposes with the billions and billions of galaxies, the supernovas, the black holes, and the nearly infinite reaches of dark matter. Even more, it can be read in terms of the final fulfillment of all things .... its final cosmic fullness and rest. 6
No wonder the prophets quote God lamenting over the human ruining of His “real estate” (Jeremiah 9:7–10)
Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts:
Behold, I will refine them and try them;
For how shall I deal with the daughter of My people?
Their tongue is an arrow shot out;
It speaks deceit;
One speaks peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth,
But in his heart he lies in wait.
Shall I not punish them for these things?” says the Lord.
“Shall I not avenge Myself on such a nation as this?”
I will take up a weeping and wailing for the mountains,
And for the dwelling places of the wilderness a lamentation,
Because they are burned up,
So that no one can pass through;
Nor can men hear the voice of the cattle.
Both the birds of the heavens and the beasts have fled;
They are gone.
According to the Protestant Belgic Confession, creation is before us “a most elegant book.” 8
And though now fallen, it is still the theater of God’s glory, John Calvin insists: Wherever you cast your eyes, there is no spot in the universe wherein you cannot discern at least some sparks of his glory. You cannot in one glance survey this most vast and beautiful system of the universe, in its wide expanse, without being completely overwhelmed by the boundless force of its brightness.” 9
Though appreciation of the beauties of nature has often been non-existent in Seventh-day Adventist official statements of faith, this insensitivity to the glories of God’s created world needs to be changed. Some have even suggested that the beauty and goodness of creation is God’s first gift of grace. 10
Such glories of beauty embedded in all of creation can become a window into God’s heart and presence. Since God is the jubilant source of the beauty and goodness of creation, and since we are created in His image, we should surely grow in appreciation of the wonders of creation. In fact, Ellen White wrote that the Sabbath is a special day to do this — and if we do, we will feel God’s presence there too: Christ’s purpose in parable teaching was in direct line with the purpose of the Sabbath. God gave to men the memorial of His creative power, that they might discern Him in the works of His hand. The Sabbath bids us behold in His created works the glory of the Creator. And it was because He desired us to do this that Jesus bound up His precious lessons with the beauty of natural things. On the holy rest day, above all other days, we should study the messages that God has written for us in nature. We should study the Saviour’s parables where He spoke them, in the fields and groves, under the open sky, among the grass and flowers. As we come close to the heart of nature, Christ makes His presence real to us, and speaks to our hearts of His peace and love. 11
Perhaps we need a more “worldly” attitude! The expansive oceans, majestic mountain ranges, great whales and dolphins, tigers, hummingbirds, spiders and small earth worms are all part of God’s grand design of life for this planet we call “home” — and which we share with all living creatures. Remember, too: this planet is merely one tiny speck amid the billions and billions of galaxies, the supernovas, the black holes, and the seemingly immeasurable reaches of dark matter. 12
When the Divine Creator assumed the human flesh He had created and then walked on the soil and the water He had made, Jesus gave ample evidence that He still treasured this world, often referring to it.
Jesus drew attention to the natural world in His “Sermon on the Mount,” again stressing the divine concern for earth’s smaller creatures which are often underappreciated: “Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them” (Matthew 6:26).
And the Architect of two lavish Old Testament sanctuaries (Exodus 25:10–30:10; 1 Chronicles 28:1–19), marveled at the astonishing beauty of the flowers His own hands had designed and made: “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these” (Matthew 6:28–29).
Jesus displayed fondness for the grand things of nature, including flowers and birds in which can be found a beauty and perfection that no human artist can produce. The Master Artist also bids us notice and appreciate His designs — and learn of Him through the things He created: Christ might have opened to men the deepest truths of science. He might have unlocked mysteries which have required many centuries of toil and study to penetrate. He might have made suggestions in scientific lines that would have afforded food for thought and stimulus for invention to the close of time. But He did not do this .... In all His teaching, Christ brought the mind of man in contact with the Infinite Mind. He did not direct the people to study men’s theories about God, His word or His works. He taught them to behold Him, as manifested in His works, in His word, and by His providences. Christ did not deal in abstract theories, but in that which ... will enlarge man’s capacity for knowing God .... 13
With only a very brief review of the created world in Scripture, it is obvious that this now-sin-damaged planet is still treasured by God and much of the natural world is still beautiful to behold.
Although we sometimes discuss how we should “care for the environment,” the Bible writers instruct us that it is the other way around! What we call the “environment” is God’s bountiful creation into which He put us! He instructed Adam and Eve to “tend and care for the garden” — and He has never cancelled that mandate! And if He did not continuously sustain and renew earth’s processes no life could exist — as the heavenly chorus chants:
Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying: “You are worthy, O Lord, To receive glory and honor and power; For You created all things, And by Your will they exist and were created” (Revelation 4:9–11, emphasis added).
The Creator is no distant landlord — and our earthly home is part of the vast universe of His constant providence and care. 14
Everywhere in Scripture all life, human and nonhuman, is treasured. And when the divinely promised salvation is finally bestowed, the whole world will be included — and the Creator’s dreams for this place will finally come true. Such a perspective should bring praise to our lips — as it did for one hymn writer who wrote:
This is my Father's world,
And to my listening ears
All nature sings, and round me rings
The music of the spheres.
This is my Father's world:
I rest me in the thought
Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas —
His hand the wonders wrought.
This is my Father's world:
The birds their carols raise,
The morning light, the lily white,
Declare their Maker's praise.
This is my Father's world:
He shines in all that's fair;
In the rustling grass I hear Him pass,
He speaks to me everywhere.
Amen!
1 Adapted from Ellen Bernstein, “The Splendor of Creation: A Biblical Ecology” (Cleveland: The Pilgrim Press, 2005), xiii.
2 For example, Exodus 24:16 and 26:7 when speaking of Rebekah.
3 See William C. French, “Beast-Machines and the Technocratic Reduction of Life: A Creation-Centered perspective,” in Good News for Animals? Christian Approaches to Animal Well-Being, Charles Pinches and Jay B. McDaniel, eds. (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1993). In contrast to modern values placed on animals (expendable and ruthlessly slaughtered with no regard for their well-being), the fourth commandment of the Decalogue includes concern for animal life. In fact, the very structure of this commandment highlights those included in the Sabbath’s rest:
A — Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy
B — six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God, in it you shall do no work.
C — you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female
servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates
B1 — in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in
them, and rested the seventh day
A1 — Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
4 Abraham Heschel, “The Sabbath” (New York: Farrar, Straus, and Girous, 1983), 10.
5 “The word Shabbat actually means ‘to sit,’ and this day is about learning to do just that, Sit and listen. Sit and don’t miss your life passing by. Sit and hear it. Create a time when all you have to do is look at God’s creation. If you look long enough, it begins to speak to you. But it can’t speak unless you give it the time and the setting. It can’t speak unless you listen. Sit.” Yehoshua Rubin, “Spiritual Awakenings: Illuminations of Shabbat and the Holiday” (New York: Urim Publications, 2003), 18.
6 H. Paul Santmire, “Partnership with Nature According to the Scriptures: Beyond the Theology of Stewardship,” Christian Scholar’s Review, Vol. 32, No. 4, 2003, p. 411.
7 Jeremiah is not alone. See also: “Hear the word of the Lord, You children of Israel, For the Lord brings a charge against the inhabitants of the land:
“There is no truth or mercy
Or knowledge of God in the land.
By swearing and lying,
Killing and stealing and committing adultery,
They break all restraint,
With bloodshed upon bloodshed.
Therefore the land will mourn;
And everyone who dwells there will waste away
With the beasts of the field
And the birds of the air;
Even the fish of the sea will be taken away. Hosea 4:1–3
Various other prophets repeat this type of sorrowful litany.
8 Belgic Confession, Article 2: “The Means by Which We Know God: We know him by two means: First, by the creation, preservation, and government of the universe, since that universe is before our eyes like a beautiful book in which all creatures, great and small, are as letters to make us ponder the invisible things of God: his eternal power and his divinity, as the apostle Paul says in Romans 1:20. ...”
9 John Calvin, Calvin: Institutes of the Christian Religion, trans. Ford Lewis Battles, The Library of Christian classics, XX (Philadelphia, PA: Westminster Press) 1.5.1.
10 Gregg A. Mast, “An Elegant Book” in Reformed Review, Vol. 52, No. 3 (Spring, 1999), pp. 280–288.
11 “Christ’s Object Lessons,” pp. 25–26.
12 H. Paul Santmire, “Partnership with Nature According to the Scriptures: Beyond the Theology of Stewardship, Christian Scholar’s Review,” Vol. 32, No. 4, 2003, p. 411.
13 Ellen G. White, “Christ’s Object Lessons” (Washington, D.C.: Review & Herald Publishing, 1941), 22–23). The apostle Paul also instructed the Roman Christians that they could become acquainted with God through study of the created world: “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse” (Romans 1:20).
14 Terence Fretheim elaborates: Even life outside the garden is “good” (verse 12) so that when Adam and Eve move out into that world, they will not move from a world of blessing to one devoid of blessing. God’s good creation will be there to continue to support life .... The earth belongs to God, not us: “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof: the world, and they that dwell therein.” (Psalm 24:1) — and this fundamental perspective never varies in Scripture. And since we are created in God’s image, our appreciation for the beauty of this world should be apparent.
JoAnn Davidson is senior research professor of systematic theology at the Seventh-day Theological Seminary at Andrews University.
