Isaiah Roman

The Creation Covenant is Breaking

Over the last few months there has been a topic of thought dominant in my mind that was a mystery until just today. Over the next few weeks I will continue to refine the thoughts in my head on this subject as I compare them to what I know about scripture. As these thoughts become more lucid, I will write more on this topic.

It all began, however, when I was listening to a radio broadcast and I heard the words “creation covenant.” The idea is that God has a covenant with His creation, but I began to wonder what the form of that covenant was. Every other covenant is spelled out explicitly by God to the parties of the covenant. We have a record of this type of covenant making throughout the Bible. So, where in the Bible is the creation covenant spelled out?

As I was reading the Law (Leviticus) I came across a strange passage that suddenly clicked in my head; –

“ ‘Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled. Even the land was defiled; so I punished it for its sin, and the land vomited out its inhabitants. But you must keep my decrees and my laws. The native-born and the foreigners residing among you must not do any of these detestable things, for all these things were done by the people who lived in the land before you, and the land became defiled. And if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations that were before you.
“ ‘Everyone who does any of these detest- able things—such persons must be cut off from their people. Keep my requirements and do not follow any of the detestable customs that were practiced before you came and do not defile your- selves with them. I am the LORD your God.’ ” (Leviticus 18:24-30 – TNIV, emphasis added)

Normally when people look at Leviticus 18 they see the litany of sexual behaviors forbidden by God. Verses 22 and 23 are often quoted in the arguments against homosexuality. It has always been my policy to not simply look at what is said, but why it is said. I guess I’m just one of those stubborn people who can’t leave well enough alone. I just have to ask why.

For instance, why are sexual sins the only sins the Bible says we must flee? Why do the scriptures tell us that “All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body?1”

At first I thought that the personal, psychological nature of the associated factors of a sexual relationship, along with the physical ramifications and possible repercussions of sexual intercourse were the warning. Now, I’m not so sure.

As I was reading the passage in Leviticus I was reminded of two other passages in the Bible; –

“God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.’ ” (Genesis 1:28 – TNIV, emphasis added)

“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the children 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 freedom and glory 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 firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption, the redemption of our bodies.” (Romans 8:18-23 – TNIV, emphasis added)

These two passages are used for many different purposes, but when you apply the understanding that Paul certainly had, you see something a little different. Paul was one of the greatest students of the Law ever. In fact, he says of himself that he was a son of a Pharisee and blameless in the Law as the Pharisees understood it2. Why then the reference to the creation3 as a thing unto itself? Because if Paul knew anything, he knew the Law and the Law says; “And if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations that were before you.4”

God established a covenant with His creation: –

1) Be fruitful, and multiply
2) and replenish the earth
3) and subdue it:
4) and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
(Genesis 1:28b – KJV)

Over the next few days we will be showing how the human inhabitants of this earth have been systematically working to break this covenant, most without even knowing what they were doing. Why is this important?

“And if you defile the land, it will vomit you out…”

1. I Corinthians 6:18
2. Acts 23:6, Philippians 3:6
3. In Romans 8 the KJV has “creature” not “creation,” however, in the language of King James creature refers specifically to “that which is created” and not specifically the sentient human creature. This difference of wording is exhibited in the YLT, LITV, and NKJV translations which all translate κτίσεως (ktiseōs) as “creation” and not beast, being, or any other reference to animated creatures.
4. Leviticus 18:28