Nature

The Enjoyment of Nature

A much-read part of Proverbs is the second half of Chapter 8, which speaks of the existence of wisdom before the world’s creation. Not only was God the source of this wisdom, but by wisdom he created the universe. “The Lord by wisdom laid the earth’s foundations, and by understanding he established the heavens.”

Like the wisdom teachers, the songwriters of Israel also had an appreciation of the wisdom of God in creation. Many psalms describe the splendour of the physical world, the most detailed and perhaps the most moving being the lengthy Psalm 104. There the psalmist, like the wisdom teacher, sees every element in the physical creation as a product of God’s wisdom. Worshipfully he exclaims, “In wisdom you made them all“.

When people do not acknowledge God as the sovereign Creator, they tend to drift into one of two extremes. Many exalt nature beyond what it deserves, sometimes to the point where environmental values outweigh human values. They may even see no distinction between nature and God. Nature becomes sovereign and they become pantheists.

By contrast, other people see nature chiefly as something they can exploit for selfish gain. They are not concerned for the needs of either the physical environment or other human beings. This was a problem in ancient Israel just as it is today. “The poor man’s field may produce much food, but it is swept through injustice.”

The lengthy statement of Proverbs 8 referred to above concludes by showing how God rejoices in the inhabited world and delights in the human race. Whatever pleasure people find in nature is but a faint reflection of the joy experienced by God himself; but even this cannot compare with the love God has for those created in his image. And that is the way it should be with us.

A Tree of Life
When Solomon, early in Proverbs, said that wisdom brings a long life of peace, contentment and prosperity, he no doubt had much in his experience to support the assertion. He was wise and he seemed to lack nothing. To him, wisdom was a ‘tree of life’, a source of all that was desirable for an enjoyable and fulfilling life.

In the collection of Solomon’s proverbs that follows, the picture of the tree of life reappears. The fruit of righteousness is a tree of life, because of the enriching influence it has on others. A desire fulfilled is a tree of life, because it uplifts those who might otherwise be crushed in spirit. A gentle tongue is a tree of life, because its kind words heal the broken-hearted.

The picture of the tree of life very likely comes from the Garden of Eden, where a long life of peace, contentment and prosperity was available, but only if people were submissive to God and obedient. They were not to eat of the other tree in the middle of the garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, because God alone was the one who determined what was right and what was wrong. But human beings, from the beginning, have not been content with submission to God. They want to ‘be like God’, have their ‘eyes opened’, have ‘the knowledge of good and evil’ and, by any means available, gain whatever is ‘desirable to make one wise’.

Solomon, in spite of the wisdom he taught, fell into the same sin as Adam and Eve. He wanted to be independent of God and determine what was right and what was wrong. In the end his life was not the noble example it would have been had he submitted to God. He taught the wisdom God gave him, but then failed to practise what he taught. Wisdom is a tree of life, but it begins with reverence for God, and that requires obedience.

Nature Green Links
Peaceful Garden
Peace Start With A Smile
Plants
Flowers
Garden
Gardening

What We Put Into Life
Many Christians see the church as a sort of club — something that exists for the benefit of the members. And like club members in general, they are mostly in the club for what they can get out of it, not what they can give to it.

Experience shows that when people’s actions are determined chiefly by what is of benefit to them, they are rarely happy. The truly happy people are those who are so concerned with giving service to others that they have no time to sit around thinking about how to bring themselves contentment. Happiness is something that comes as a by-product of something else. We get it when we don’t seek it. If we do seek it, we soon find that it has a way of cheating us.

By giving to others, we enrich ourselves; by keeping for personal indulgence we impoverish ourselves. As the proverb says,”Some people give freely, yet grow all the richer; others withhold what they should give, and only suffer want. Contrasting examples are then given. Some hold back food in a time of scarcity in the hope of forcing up the price, but others gladly sell at a price that helps the needy., The former are cursed, the latter blessed.

Often the church’s work suffers(and not just the church’s work, but community service in general), because people are motivated by what suits them, not by what suits others. Workers are hard to find if the work is unpaid and done in one’s own time, but not if it pays good wages and is limited to set working hours.

When personal interest is people’s main consideration, the church cannot function as God intended. Soon people are complaining that they ‘get nothing from the church’, and start looking for another. But the church is like most other things in life in that we only get out of it what we put into it.

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