Israel’s agrarian setting is reflected throughout the Book of the Twelve, which refers often to divine and human interaction with Land. Israel’s relationship with God is articulated in terms of kinship relations in an agrarian setting, reflecting Israel’s dependence on Land and Yhwh. The Twelve asserts that Israel’s Land belongs ultimately to Yhwh, who demands that Land and all her inhabitants (including nonhumans) be treated with respect and justice. Environmental degradation is linked with the elites’ exploitation of agrarian households’ sustainable subsistence practices. These elite extracted the farmers’ necessary surpluses for their conspicuous consumption and exchange for luxury goods, resulting in the abuse of Land for an unsustainable maximum yield. Land and her inhabitants suffered, and Land (or Earth) addresses Yhwh in mourning. Under the monarchy, Land’s fertility is conceptualized as being dependent on Yhwh’s blessing, but conveyed through the king and God’s temple in Jerusalem. While the Twelve acknowledges this tradition, it asserts that Yhwh is the true king of all Earth, and the primary source of fertility. The Twelve also moves beyond an agrarian setting to indicate the intrinsic value of all creation.
It is widely held that Romans 8:22 contains a hendiadys portraying creation as "groaning in travail." This paper argues that the two terms connote diverse ideas and therefore should be translated as "groaning and in travail." The thesis of this paper is that the groaning of creation is creation's mourning due to ongoing human sin and a concomitant divine judgment — as attested nine times in the Hebrew prophets, but most fully expressed in Joel 1-2. This view challenges the prevailing interpretation that creation's plight is due to her distress originating from the curse of the Fall (Gen 3:17). Furthermore, Israelite mourning customs require that the entire community join the mourner in order to restore the mourner to the proper place in the social order. This practice elucidates Paul's references to believers joining with the groaning creation in Romans 8, where creation is presented as an object of God's redemption.
Earth is the major participant in the events depicted in Joel 1-2 [Eng. 1:1-2:27], calling for a geocentric interpretation of this material. A locust plague (and drought) is wreaking havoc on the Earth. God and Earth are mourning the affliction of the soil, animals, and plants brought on by human sin and a concomitant divine judgment. As members of the Earth Community, humans are expected to join with, comfort, and mourn with the rest of Creation. While the nonhuman members of Earth Community are quick to mourn the crisis, the human members are the last to respond. This is troublesome, since human sin and God's judgment have brought about the demise of creation, and human repentance is expected to effect a restoration. Once humans begin to respond to the calls to mourn with creation, however, God repents of the divine judgment and intervenes to restore Earth Community.
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