Numbers 35:34."You must not defile the land where you live, for I live there myself. I am the Lord, who lives among the people of Israel."
An important reminder to care for our environment, because it's God's home too. I can't think why, but I've never really thought of it like that before. I guess God does live here, with us. So that would make it his home.
And going by this passage, it's not just about reducing our carbon footprint, or planting trees, etc. In this passage, God says that "murder pollutes the land" (v33).
What we do and how we live is polluting the land. It's no wonder our natural world has issues. We can't just reform our exploitation of natural resources (although we do need to do that), or just reform our spirituality (although we do need to do that). We must also reform the way we live - our relationships with others - because somehow this is affecting the environment. I can't explain how it affects the land, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's true, because our natural world is getting worse.
And there's no point saying, "I've never murdered anyone - I'm all good," because Jesus pointed out that hate towards a person is as bad as murder.
Our broken relationships are polluting our land.
We've got to start living better, with all our connections right.
With the environment,
With God,
and with the other people in our world - our friends, family, workmates, as well as all the people we don't know, but who our decisions still affect: like the poor cocoa farmer in Ghana, and the sweating factory worker in India.
God lives here too.
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