Creation

Revelation 4:6-8
Around the throne, and on each side of the throne are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind :the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an Ox, the third living creature with a face like human face, and the fourth living creature like a flying eagle. The four living creatures, each of them with six wings are full of eyes all around and inside. day and night without ceasing they sing, 'Holy,Holy, Holy, the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come.'

If you find yourself a little bored, try drawing the creatures described in the passage above.... it's nearly impossible! The reason for this, is that they are symbols, meant to be seen through the written word. If anyone knows anything about Hebrew, it is a very pictorial language which is why this would have been understood by the readers of that time. traditionally the four creatures were seen as the four evangelists, Mathew, mark, Luke and John who were so central to the new testament, but this is quite unlikely.The more compelling explanation is that they represent all of creation, animals and people of all nations. Through all of Creation GOD is present, aware of what is going on(the eyes) receiving praise that he alone is worthy of.

The Bible is full of the picture of creation praising GOD, and it's a picture we lose to our own downfall. The Human attitude and especially the western modern one, is that creation exists for our own use, abuse and pleasure, other than meeting our needs has very little place in our thoughts in general. The current climate change has made it all very fashionable to think in terms of energy saving, lowering fuel usage and many other types of actions which show we are a caring people regarding our planet. Yet we must go further in our thinking, as the world is primarily God's creation made for his pleasure and Sovereign use. What does this mean then? it means we should respect the World we inhabit, not only because it is useful for resources, or because we endanger ourselves by abusing it, but because God made this World valuable in of it's own right as the work of the Creators hand in which we can give thanks and praise to his name.

It worth considering that John sees the creature with a human face as part of creation, not separate. Which i think is part of the problem, thinking we are something other, outside of God's created order. In fact we are in fact all part of the creation, which should spur us into not only thinking about our relationship with God, but our relationship with God and the planet he created.


Question?

Other than having wonderfully clever answers to the issue of climate change, what affective things can Christians do to help the world, living conscientiously and live using a Biblical view of the use and freedom of this World?

I have been ever more challenged by this, the above is not all my own thoughts, but this made me think about the world through the context of it being Gods Creation made for his pleasure. I have lived in this world thinking only about what i need from it to get, go or do what i wanted. the reality is that it is very difficult to live in the western world without using some sort of energy, or a car for instance,. the issue here is i think living with full faculty, truly thinking about what we use, why we use it and the affect it has....very challenging indeed!