Ruled Rulers

Can we kill oysters to redeem their pearls? Can we slay mountains to grab the gold? Should we milk cows because we can? Should we open up all the secrets creation hides?

Maybe it’s like this. Not everything that’s beautiful is meant to be grabbed by us. Maybe some things are just meant to be gazed at. I think the l’art pour l’art movement was quite right: beauty is there for the sake of beauty. Not for your sake. Subjecting the earth does not have to mean using the earth for our sakes only. Some things are just not to be touched, since otherwise we’d do damage to nature. But we are allowed to marvel at their beauty; to reach out but not hold these holy things. We can look at a glimmering fish swimming in the brook; but we know we shouldn’t hold it, for we would only damage its tender scales.

We have become like little children who want to touch and hold and eat everything that glimmers or looks edible. We dig holes wherever we think we can find something we can use; we devour whatever can be eaten; we adorn ourselves with everything that might make us look prettier (and the earth more devastated).

I’m guessing this is not what God meant when he made us “a little lower than the heavenly beings” (Psalm 8:5). He crowned us “with glory and honour”, but we thought we’d add a little to that. We want to dress up, to be God’s apes. But this is not what God intended for us. This “grab ‘n go” attitude is plainly the phenotype of original sin. Egoism. I want to play God. I want to rule the world my way. We don’t merely subject it – we suppress it.

We Are So Ungrateful. “In putting everything under him [man], God left nothing that is not subject to him” (Hebrews 2:8b, italics added). Man, he made us kings straight away! Yet we thought a revolt would be more exciting. (It was, in a bad sense.) Which is why “at present we do not see everything subject to him” (2:8c). What an understatement. Paul is being all too kind to us here. God made us “ruler over the works of [his] hands” (Psalm 8:6), but instead we are being ruled.

Fortunately, we then get “Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels” as well (Hebrews:2:9a). Fortunately, he’s been doing quite well as a ruler: he is “now crowned with glory and honour” (2:9b). Unfortunately, he had to suffer death for that. So that, fortunately, “by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone,” (2:9c) and bring “many sons to glory” (2:10a). Do I need to add we don’t quite deserve such a royal treatment? Crowns for free. 

A Bucket of Dust

Let's follow convention; I'll try and explain the title of this blog. Honestly, I just picked one of my favourite phrases and it turned out most had been claimed as titles already. And googling for "bucket of dust" told me that I hadn't been the only one to invent this phrase. But well. I'll give my explanation for choosing it. 

There is this verse in Isaiah 40 where the prophet compares the nations to a drop in a bucket and as dust on the scales: 

Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket; they are regarded as dust on the scales; he weighs the islands as though they were fine dust.

I am just one speck of dust on God's scales, in my turn filling a little bucket with dust. I'm glad God left so much dust for me to gather. 

Can I wear pearls?

I’m alright with taking Genesis 1 seriously. Literally, I mean – as an historic account of how God created the world and the universe in six days. But when I get to verse 28 I get into trouble. God is speaking to Adam and Eve here:

“God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.’” 

Now I have no problems with God’s blessing them, or with the challenge to increase in number and fill the earth. But then we get to the subduing and ruling part. We seem to have had some difficulties interpreting these words. Ruling over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air must mean that we clip chicken’s wings so they can’t run away from our rule, and to scrape the ocean floor to make sure no fish escapes. We have interpreted “subduing the earth” as “how to make it as profitable to us as possible”.

I am typing this blog on a laptop that probably cost quite some natural resources. I just ate three sandwiches with fried eggs. The bread came from a paper bag; I fried the eggs in a Teflon frying pan. They make me doubt what God meant the subduing of the earth to be like. The way we use natural resources and treat animals is quite beastly; but how did God want us to cultivate the earth? Didn’t God want us to discover gold is beautiful, oil is useful, cocoa beans are great provided we make them go through the right process? But mining is harmful to nature; same for winning oil.

So should I become a vegetarian? I don’t feel like it, and after all God killed the first animal (which is not a joke, it shows how big the curse on creation is). Should I throw away my laptop, which is made of plastic and other not particularly environmentally friendly materials? I’d lose half my life. Should I stop drinking wine (it comes in glass bottles)? Even less joy left.

I’m at a loss. Did God want us to wear gold necklaces? To kill oysters for the pearls? To use laptops and plastic bags? To wear glasses? To build ships? Well, at least we can be sure about the last one. After all, it wasn’t Noah’s idea to build the ark.