Thoughts On Land Redemption

Everyday we hear the words:

Community Revitalization, Elimination of Blight, Neighborhood Reinvestment, Heal the Land, Etc...

Usually when we hear these words, we assume that the responsibility to rebuild our communities belongs to someone else, may be city, county, state, or federal government, maybe it’s the big church on the other side of town, maybe it’s the guy next door…

That may have been ok for the past, BUT We’ve come to a place where we, as individuals and as a corporate body, have to be willing to keep the garden, the community. We must be willing to bear the responsibility as good stewards of our communities. We must begin to take seriously our God-given responsibility to have dominion in our neighborhoods and communities.

Psalm 24:1 declares: “The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it, the world and all who live in it” (Psalm 24.1)

The earth belongs to the Lord, but he’s given it over to us exercise dominion over it, to keep it, to govern it until the Lord Jesus returns.

3 Foundational Thoughts...

1. Righteousness Exalts and Lifts Up A People (Proverbs 14:34)
2. Sin Separates People from God (Isaiah 59:1-3)
3. The Love of God Should Cause Us to Keep His Commandments, and to keep the community! (John 14:15)

As we bear in mind these 3 facts from scripture, they give us some clues to the successful revitalization of community.

Genesis 2:15 shows us Adam's first assignment after being placed in the Garden of Eden:

¹⁵And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

To dress = abad (aw-bad) = to work it, to serve it, to till it, to dress it

To keep = shamar = to guard, to protect, to watch, to hedge about as with thorns

The effect of individual sin on the land can first be seen in Genesis 3 as Adam and Eve eat of the forbidden fruit. Just after the serpent deceived Eve and convinces her that she won’t “surely die”:

Genesis 3:17

¹⁷ And to the man he said, “Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree
whose fruit I commanded you not to eat, the ground is cursed because of you.
All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it.
¹⁸ It will grow thorns and thistles for you, though you will eat of its grains.
¹⁹ By the sweat of your brow will you have food to eat until you return to the ground
from which you were made. For you were made from dust, and to dust you will return.”

Here, we find negative consequences of Adam and Eve having listened to the serpent and partaking of the forbidden fruit:

Woman: I'll multiply your pains in childbirth; you'll give birth to your babies in pain.
Woman: You'll want to please your husband, but he'll lord it over you.

Man: (v. 17) The very ground is cursed because of you; getting food from the ground will be as painful as having babies is for your wife; you'll be working in pain all your life long.

Man: (v. 18) The ground will sprout thorns and weeds, you'll get your food the hard way,
Planting and tilling and harvesting, sweating in the fields from dawn to dusk,

Here we see a direct relationship to sin and its affect on the land, notice, not only were Adam and Eve affected by their disobedience, but the land itself grew thorns and weeds! And we’re still dealing with the consequences today!

Let's make a choice to bless the communities in which we live by living holy lifestyles and keeping the commandments of God. Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin brings a reproach to men! Choose the righteous path today! If you need help redeeming your neighborhood, check back on this blog often. I'll be providing Biblical solutions to healing the land and restoring communities back to their former glory.

God Bless You!

Ken