From the very beginning, man has had a tendency to ignore the instructions of his Creator and try things his own way. Has that worked out? By the sixth chapter of the Bible we have read about the forbidden fruit, Cain’s murderous jealousy, Lamech’s bigamy, and are assured the whole of humanity was so corrupt as to warrant destruction. Because of the exceeding and continual wickedness of man, God flooded the earth with water. How’s that for man-made climate change?
God has never left man ignorant of His will. Generations may choose to ignore it, perceived necessity or tradition may run contrary to it, but it will endure to the end of this age and beyond. Unlike many of our predecessors, we even have a written record to refer to. The Bible is a book of life, for life, and about life.
We live in a world brimming with the modern technological advancements of man, and to be sure they are a great blessing. Constant progress through research, science, and technology give the impression that we have done this entirely on our own. Evolution would lead one to believe that man is the highest form of intelligence to have ever existed. Is it not easy to slip into the attitude of, “I have done this,” whenever we are met with success?
All too easily man forgets that what he builds on and from is not his own. The Bible will not teach you engineering, anatomy, or algebra. That’s not its purpose. It is a foundational document, teaching us the most basic requirements for interacting with each other, the Creator, and His creation. Is there something man has achieved that doesn’t involve one of those? Consequently, whatever we build or do must rest firmly on this foundation for enduring success. How many big businesses, innovators, or politicians stop to consider that?
The controlling interests of this world, be they private or public, always seem absorbed with “solving problems.” Disease, crime, and hunger remain serious issues despite their best efforts. Is it possible that mankind has overlooked something crucial? We are going to look at a few areas where man is trying to do things his own way.
Obviously, farming is critical to humanity’s survival. Mechanical innovations around the turn of the 20th century revolutionized the way food was grown. Tractors and other heavy equipment allowed an explosion of industrial food production, eclipsing the traditional family farm almost entirely. Profit hungry entrepreneurs turned to what is called monoculture, intensively farming the same crop on the same ground, year after year.
To this day, the majority of food available in stores is produced in this manner. While it has the many benefits that uniformity and constancy bring to the economic side of things, there are serious downsides to this practice. Leviticus 25:3-4 reads, “Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather the fruit thereof; But in the seventh year shall be a Sabbath of rest unto the land, a Sabbath for the LORD: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard.”
The same statute is found in Exodus 23:11. Allowing land to rest is essential to prevent the depletion of nutrients. It can also prevent pests and plant diseases from getting out of hand. The common practice, however, is to compensate for nutrient loss with high doses of fertilizer and insect outbreaks with pesticide. Plants are now designed to tolerate higher doses of these substances (GMO’s) but the repercussions of this are not fully known. Like many innovations, there can be unintended consequences. Two of the herbicides these crops are designed to resist, glyphosate and paraquat, are the subject of massive lawsuits regarding cancer and Parkinson’s disease. There are many strong opinions on both sides of these arguments but no dispute would be necessary if we simply followed the protocols God put in place for our protection and benefit!Another notable and largely accepted deviation from God’s prescribed method is found in our criminal justice system. Incarceration is not a punishment you will find listed in God’s law. When prison is mentioned in scripture it is generally under the authority of a nation like Egypt or Rome. Our own country relies upon it heavily, with over 2 million individuals estimated to be in custody at this time. To what end?
The thinking that led to this contends that imprisonment is a type of treatment where a person can be released once “cured” as much as it recommends it as pure punishment. The change that it seeks to effect is the type that can only come from within, out of true sorrow and repentance. God’s law gives place for this, but focuses more heavily on restitution, on making up for the crime to those who were injured by it. It also calls for the death penalty in more cases than we apply it today.
Some recoil at this and many nations have abolished capital punishment altogether. Is God not just? Is there not a chance for repentance, even for the condemned, like the thief that died next to Jesus? The problem is that for those who don’t believe in God, this life is all there is. To take it away is the ultimate crime for the faithless. They imagine their compassion exceeds that of the Almighty. God knows better. His concern is for the victim and society as a whole first. All will stand before the judgment with some measure of guilt and His mercy is the only hope for any of us. His laws were designed to protect and preserve the innocent in peace and harmony.
One of God’s cleanliness laws obviously got overlooked in the last couple of years. Leviticus 11:26-27 tells us, “The carcases of every beast which divideth the hoof, and is not clovenfooted, nor cheweth the cud, are unclean to you: everyone that toucheth them shall be unclean. And whatsoever goeth upon his paws, among all manner of beasts that go on all four, those are unclean unto you: whoso toucheth their carcase shall be unclean until the even.” Now, every once in awhile you have to bury your favorite dog; that happens. Often things die from illness that is potentially harmful, and to mitigate the risk of catching or spreading it you should wash thoroughly and keep your distance for awhile.
Maybe they think those rules don’t apply in Wuhan but the world would be a better place if they did. This is not the only area where medical science has gone off the rails so to speak. A long standing criticism, particularly of western medicine, has been the propensity to treat symptoms rather than address the root causes of disease. Proper diet and a healthy lifestyle are the best preventative.
God’s word deals with much of that, like which meats should and shouldn’t be eaten. Even the command to rest is prefaced with “six days thou shalt labor.” Man was designed to be productive, not to sit around all the time, and there is no denying the benefits of being active. Pharmaceutical companies specialize in “managing” these problems rather than solving them. Kickbacks for physicians have rendered many of them complicit.
The profit motive, when devoid of principle, becomes greed. The tenth commandment, “Thou shalt not covet,” is routinely overlooked. Advertising allures you with images of people like you (i.e. your neighbor) enjoying products you just can’t live without. They’ll sell them to you, whether or not you can afford them, at exorbitant rates of interest. The good book refers to this as usury, another big no-no.
Time and again the problem is that man relies exclusively on his own knowledge and reasoning. The fault lies not with advancement or success, but in the manner in which it is achieved and the foundation it relies upon. God’s knowledge has not decreased because man’s has increased, we are merely discovering more about the astonishing system He put in place! Our triumphs are His triumphs when they are pure and righteous.
David wrote, “I will praise Thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are Thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.” (Psalm 139:14) He made us in His image. Think of the enormous implications of that! Before God separated the nations at Babel He said, “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them.” (Genesis 11:6)
What man can attain, with the best and the brightest from all over the world working on the same problems, building on the efforts of their predecessors generation after generation, remains to be seen. The progress of the last hundred years already borders on the miraculous. For the future, we can only pray that the unchangeable precepts of God are observed and honored along the way. Otherwise, no good thing will come of it.
