A Theology of the Land
Introduction
As Christians in the West we have become disconnected from the land and as a result, have very little theology in this area. Christianity, as we see it, has little if anything to do with ‘geography’ as such, unless of course we get a call to China, Africa or somewhere else. The Bible, however, has a great deal to say about geography and land and without some understanding in this area, our efforts at evangelism could prove less than effective.
Sin affects the land
Sin not only directly affects people, it affects the whole of creation. And in this article we’ll explore its effect on the land, regions and geography, including its impact on a region’s openness to the Gospel. Missionaries and evangelists will talk about one area (street, part of town, region or even nation) being unresponsive to the Gospel whilst another is open.
Community transformation and ‘Sowing Seeds for Revival’
Community transformation is a concept that has come to us in recent years through what have become known as ‘The Transformations Videos’ produced by George Otis Jnr and The Sentinel Group. They touch on the issue of specific regions becoming fruitful to the Gospel through repentance, relational unity and prayer – even the crops grew bigger in one region when the land was healed!
This concept has been explored by Martin Scott, who in 1998 said:
I saw increasingly that the Lord was calling for new relationships – relationships for territory’s sake. That we were not simply to relate together through a common identity, but that we were moving into a strategic time in the UK with relationships needed to be formed for the sake of gaining territory for the Kingdom of God.
Scott said he saw three necessary and essential ingredients were required if communities were to be transformed:
i Unity among leaders (the gatekeepers)
ii Persistent and strategic prayer (the intercession on the walls)
iii A commitment to the territory (the land must be healed and become spiritually fertile)
In this way he believed ‘a sound could be made that would attract heaven’ - a sound that needed to be heard in the towns, cities and villages of the UK. His ministry: ‘Sowing Seeds for Revival’ was born out of this vision.
Creation meant to reveal God
So let’s look at what the Bible tells us about the land. The land was created good and speaks to us of God, revealing his character:
For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities - his eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse (Rom 1:20).
Man’s stewardship
Mankind was given a special relationship with the earth, known as the ‘creation mandate’. We were called to steward the land.
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’ (Gen 1:28).
When we fulfil this mandate the land will yield fruits of righteousness and reveal the true character of God. God had placed Adam in a garden he had planted in Eden. Eden was idyllic - the land yielded its fruit in season, with no weeds, thorns or thistles. A steward is responsible for someone else’s property - the earth belongs to the Lord (Ps 24:1). The people of Israel did not believe a person could own land. Lev 25:23 says:
'The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine and you are but aliens and my tenants.'
Stewardship involves more than tilling and caring for the physical land. Stewardship is about our walk with God and our relationship to all of his creation.
Adam and Eve’s sin
Through Adam and Eve’s original sin, the land first became cursed and polluted:
To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,' "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return" (Gen 3:17-19).
And,as we know, Adam and Eve were turned out of the Garden of Eden. A slight detour and some fun questions: Is Eden still out there somewhere? Or did it exist in ‘another dimension’ where heaven touched earth, where the unseen and seen realms connected fully? Does the tree of life still exist somewhere? Presumably Adam and Eve would have been able to see the angels guarding the entrance to Eden. Any answers on a postcard!
Alistair Petrie in his book ‘Releasing Heaven on Earth’ says:
There are 1,717 references to the word ‘land’ in the Bible. According to what is declared in the Torah, land has always been intended by God as the meeting place between himself and mankind. What takes place upon the land either brings honour to the Lord, or brings him displeasure. When the people of the Lord are fulfilling his purposes upon the land, then the land produces good fruit and harvest. When we bring him displeasure, the land reveals the implications of sin and disobedience.
As we know, it didn't get any better after Adam left the garden – things went from bad to worse and the whole earth has become defiled and polluted (some parts more than others) throughout the generations of man. Sin gains a foothold through the action of sin, whether past or present, whether individual or corporate.
Four major categories of sin that pollute the land
According to the Bible there are four major categories of sin that take place upon the land/region causing corruption, pollution and defilement of different kinds. Whilst the following specifically refers to Israel, we believe the principle holds good for any nation and land, and incidentally is the reason why ‘first nation people’ have a unique authority to cleanse the/their land:
i Idolatry: idolatry involves worship and honouring another god rather than the living God (Exodus 20:3-4).
This defiles the land (Jer 3:6-10 and 16:18). We become idolatrous when we put faith, trust and confidence in anyone other than God and when we worship the created rather than the Creator. When Israel entered the Promised Land they were told to cleanse it from previous idolatry (Exodus 34:12-16); similarly, when they returned from exile (Ezra 9:11-12). Would the Middle East be different today if Israel had cleansed the land in 1948? Does the mosque on the Temple Mount remains an insult to God? Martin Scott in his book ‘Sowing Seeds for Revival says: ‘Where the land has been wedded to false gods that land will become resistant to the Gospel and will seek to spew out those who bring the Gospel.’
ii Immorality and fornication: Lev 18:1-27 tells of different kinds of unlawful sexual relations which defile the land, as does Ezek 16:25-27.
iii Bloodshed: this would include murder, sacrifice, war and abortion. Demonic powers gain access and power wherever there has been bloodshed and will ‘draw more death’ to that same area. We should also be mindful that when we retain criticism, anger, bitterness and rage towards others, we are in danger of committing this sin in our hearts. Num 35:33-34 says:
Do not pollute the land where you are. Bloodshed pollutes the land, and atonement cannot be made for the land on which blood has been shed, except by the blood of the one who shed it. Do not defile the land where you live and where I dwell, for I, the Lord, dwell among the Israelites.
2 Sam 21:1 says:
During the reign of David, there was a famine for three successive years; so David sought the face of the Lord. The Lord said, ‘It is on account of Saul and his blood-stained house; it is because he put the Gibeonites to death.
This passage shows us that the effects of sin are trans-generational.
iv Broken covenants: when we make promises and commitments and break them, we break covenant. Promises can be made at a personal, family, church, community, town, village, city or national level. Broken marriages, divorce and fractured relationships lead to pollution. Isaiah 24:5-6 (part) says:
The earth is defiled by its people; they have disobeyed the laws, violated the statutes and broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore curse consumes the earth; its people must bear their guilt.
Jer 23:10 (part) says:
The land is full of adulterers; because of the curse the land lies parched and the pastures in the desert are withered.
There are other things that can also lead to pollution such as subjecting people to slavery, injustice towards the poor and marginalised, unkindness to the alien, rejection of the prophetic word and failure to give the land its Sabbath rest (Ex 23:10).
God’s four major judgements on the land
Any ungodliness practised by man on the land brings a breach in their relationship with the living God. God’s way of getting man’s attention, to help him see that he’d broken the covenant and failed in his stewardship, is to release judgement. There are four principal judgements of God on the land and notice please that these are, in some sense at least, geographical and territorial in nature:
i Different kinds of famine: physical famine (Ezek 14:13 and Ps 105:16); famine of the word of God (Amos 8:11); famine of his presence (Deut 31:18) and famine of spiritual harvest/unfruitfulness to the Gospel.
ii Ecological devastation: Amos 4:7-10 and Hag 1:9-11
iii War: includes aspects of jealousy, anger, resentment, competitiveness, aloofness and divisiveness between individuals, communities or nations - the opposite of John 17 and Psalm 133 which reveal God’s heart. Ezek 14:17 says:
Or if I bring a sword against that country and say, 'Let the sword pass throughout the land, and I kill its men and their animals. . .
iv Disease: disease of every kind - anxiety, sorrow (Ps 103) and all forms of illness - physical, spiritual, emotional and mental. When a community, city or nation is ravaged by disease, we can be sure that a door has been opened that gave the enemy legal access. Sin gives a legal foothold to the enemy. He feeds on that sin, thereby gaining right of access to that area where the holiness of God is not being sought/honoured. Ezek 14:19-20 says:
Or if I send a plague into that land and pour out my wrath upon it through bloodshed, killing its men and their animals, as surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, even if Noah, Daniel and Job were in it, they could save neither son nor daughter. They would save only themselves by their righteousness.
There are other consequences of sin and defilement: Lev 18:1-27 tells us that the land will ‘vomit out its inhabitants’. Defiling the land can result in exclusion from it – think of Adam and Eve, the scattering at Babel or the exile of Israel from the Promised Land. Lev 19:29 tells us that if we give our daughters over to prostitution the land will turn to prostitution and be filled with wickedness. Ezek 16:25-27 tells us that God will reduce our territory (influence/ownership) if we defile the land. Every great empire eventually falls through sin! Experience would suggest that a sin committed in one place will attract more of the same sin to that area. A person or community is vulnerable to demonic activity and accusation, while the sin is permitted to remain. If the effect of sin is not addressed, it becomes fodder for bondages and strongholds to develop.
Specific areas can become unfruitful to the Gospel whilst an adjacent area can be open. Where there is clear evidence of pollution, we will generally discover a mixture of ancient pollution, some current activities that have reinforced that pollution and finally that the church has succumbed to the same sins to some degree.
People need forgiveness so the land can be cleansed
The people need forgiveness and deliverance from sin, but the land also needs to be cleansed and healed. 2 Chron 7:13-14 says it so well:
When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
Standing in the gap on behalf of the land
In the Hebrew way of thinking, standing before the Lord on behalf of the land was fulfilling the role of legal representative, in order that God would not have to destroy the land due to the effects of sin still resident in it. Ezek 22:30-31 says:
I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so that I would not have to destroy it, but I found none. So I will pour out my wrath on them and consume them with my fiery anger, bringing down on their own heads all they have done, declares the Sovereign Lord.
Creation will be freed from decay
in another article we'll address a theology of the city - in the meantime we should remind ourselves that a day is coming when the whole of creation will be freed from sin, pollution and decay:
The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies (Rom 8:19-23).
What a day - come Lord Jesus, come!
When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.