December 9, 2022

Passage Read: Leviticus 15-18
Meditation Verses: 18:26-27

Thought

Neither native nor alien living among the Israelites are to perform any of these perverse deeds. Because of these sins, the land was defiled. Our sins affect our environment. The land is made unclean and sickened by our evil deeds. Should we be surprised then that the American environment seems to be suffering? We can clean up all the external pollutants, but if we don't clean up our lives, things will continue to worsen. If we're really concerned about the environment, we need to repent and conform our lives to God's righteous standards. Then we'll stop defiling the land.

Application

God's creation is more sensitive to the evil of sin than we are. And God has given it as one more barometer of a nation's sin. The more a people sins, the worse the land gets. We can use scientific advances to mitigate some of these negative changes, but ultimately we need to change. Unbelievers are asking us to make major changes in how we live, giving up cars and changing diets and giving up consistent power and much more. But no one is calling for repentance in order to restore the land. No one wants to give up sinful ways, just conveniences. Take us back to "primitive" ways of living, but all those so-called primitives live pretty sinful lives. That's probably evidence that this line of thinking had already been done! Repentance from sin in a national level would probably do more to help the environment than all the other ideas combined.