SEEDS, PLANTS and SOULS

21 TIMBER!!!

Natural regeneration of plants
is a vital process in natural ecosystems.
Its importance is often appreciated
only when it is too late,
after forests have been misused
to the point when they cannot regenerate.

That is why so many people
want to stop harvesting timber from tropical forests:
they feel we do not know enough about
whether the forest
can regenerate adequately or not after cutting.

Destruction of the world's forests has continued
ever since the fall of man,
so it is nothing new.
Adam started in all off
by having to find an area to grow food
for Eve and himself!

Clearing for agricultural land has remained
one of the main reasons for deforestation
 ever since,
along with the need
for wood as fuel and building material.
Wood has, in fact,
fuelled and furnished our civilisations,
and without it
we would never have passed
from the bronze age, the iron,
to our present space age.
So it is no wonder that trees and forests have disappeared
in the face of "progress".

Noah's need for cypress wood to build the ark
must have caused local devastation,
but nothing like the Flood that followed!
It is intriguing to consider
how much plant life did regenerate
after being submerged,
and how much got converted to coal.
Of course,
we do know that an olive tree managed to sprout.

After the Flood,
in an era when God promised
he would never devastate the earth again
 - even if man became as degenerate as before,
trees were again indispensable as the population grew,
providing construction material and energy
to make metals,
and enabling peoples to explore,
wage war and defend themselves.

There are many records of the Jews using timber.
In the book of Deuteronomy,
which covers a whole series of laws
that the Jews were to follow,
there are special instructions about attacking enemy cities:

When you lay siege to a city for a long time,
fighting against it to capture it,
do not destroy its trees by putting an axe to them,
because you can eat their fruit.
Do not cut them down.
Are the trees of the field people,
that you should besiege them?
However,
you may cut down trees that you know are not fruit trees
and use them to build siege works
until the city at war with you falls
(Deuteronomy 20: 19-20)
 

Here we are not talking about parables,
but the use of real trees against real enemies
- enemies whose threat was, however,
not material, but spiritual.
Had they won, these cities
would have soon got God's chosen people
 worshipping false Gods - idols.

Note that the law set limits
to what trees could be cut down,
and for how long.
It also asked the rhetorical question - are the trees people?
On the one hand,
trees were to be respected, and not wasted.
On the other hand,
when there was good reason to need timber,
they should be cut,
but discriminately and only as needed.
The trees were for the people,
not the people for the trees.

The Jews' King Solomon was
(as we should remember)
 a very wise man,
who would have understood and applied that principle.
The first book of Kings
describes him as a bit of a botanist:

He described plant life,
from the Cedar of Lebanon
to the hyssop that grows out of the walls.
He also taught about
animals and birds, reptiles and fish.
Men of all nations
came to listen to King Solomon's wisdom,
sent by all the Kings of the world
who had heard of his wisdom.
(1 Kings 4:33-34)

In environmental circles,
there is talk now-a-days
about the "wise" use of forests,
instead of the word "sustainable".
I am pretty certain no definition of "wise"
would include a reference to God
- but true wisdom, as Solomon had,
begins with respect for God.

The motto of Aberdeen University
where I studied forestry is
"Initium sapientae timor domine"
- The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom -
which is from the Psalms.
I have always liked that phrase - the fear of the Lord.
Not a frightened fear,
but an awesome respect.

When he urged his disciples not to worry,
Jesus recalled Solomon's wisdom
and the plant and animal life the king taught about:

"Therefore I tell you,
do not worry about your life,
what you will eat; or about your body,
what you will wear.
Life is more than food,
and the body more than clothes.
Consider the ravens:
They do not sow or reap,
they have no storeroom or barn;
yet God feeds them.
And how much more valuable are you than birds!
Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
Since you cannot do this very little thing,
why do you worry about the rest?"

"Consider how the lilies grow.
They do not labour or spin.
Yet I tell you,
not even Solomon in all his splendour
was dressed like one of these.
If that is how God clothes the grass of the field,
which is here today,
and tomorrow is thrown on the fire,
how much more will he clothe you,
O you of little faith!
And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink;
do not worry about it.
For the pagan world runs after all such things,
and your Father knows that you need them.
But seek his kingdom,
and these things will be given to you as well".
(Luke 12:22-31)

We make iron float in more conventional ways
(like boats)  these days
- but even if we can't understand what Elisha did,
we can appreciate the axeman's concern
about something borrowed!

It seems that loose axeheads
had been a problem for some time,
and it was just as well the axeman
did not kill one of his fellowmen,
otherwise he might have suffered rough justice.

The book of Deuteronomy uses such a case
to show the need for the so-called cites of refuge
in case of accidental killing:

For instance,
a man may go into the forest with his neighbour
to cut wood,
and as he swings his axe to fell a tree,
the head may fly off and hit his neighbour and kill him.
That man may flee to one of these cities and save his life.
(Deuteronomy 19:5)

Unfortunately,
as time went on,
the Jews became less concerned about God,
and as a result
their promised land was eventually conquered,
and they were exiled, many to Babylon.
Solomon's temple was destroyed and burnt
and Jerusalem plundered.

After seventy years,
when those who survived the exile were able to return,
they had a hard time.
One Jew, Nehemiah,
who had become cup-bearer
to King Artaxerxes of Babylon
was very despondent about his people's plight
and the ruin of Jerusalem.
He wanted to return too,
to help rebuild the city.

The king understood Nehemiah's sadness and concern,
though Nehemiah was not meant to show his feelings
in front of the king.
However,
the King not only let Nehemiah go,
but also acceded to his bold requests,
one of which was for timber.
Nehemiah wrote about these:

I also told him,
"If it pleases the king,
may I have a letter to the governors of Trans-Euphrates,
so they will provide me safe-conduct
until I arrive in Judah?
And may I have a letter to Asaph,
keeper of the king's forest,
so he will give me timber
to make beams for the gates of the citadel by the temple
and for the city wall
and for the residence I will occupy.
(Nehemiah 2:8)

And so man has continued to build and repair with timber.
Georgetown, the capital of Guyana,
is still a magnificent example of wooden architecture.
In fact,
the biggest existing wooden building is found there,
the Anglican cathedral,
made from Guyanese timbers
including greenheart and purpleheart.
Temples like Solomon's, in their own way,
continue to made for God's glory out of wood.

An encouraging fact is that
Guyana still retains most of its natural forests intact
- and intends to manage them wisely.
We in the West
have not managed to keep much of our forest
- to our loss -
but hopefully countries such as Guyana
can learn from our mistakes.
 

Well - in this look at trees and timber,
we have focussed less on parables and allegories
and more on the real thing.
However,
the whole issue of deforestation
and degradation of the environment
is simply a reflection
of our own spiritual impoverishment.
Just as our trees are now in short supply,
so our world is becoming short
of those who believe in God.
But thankfully,
regeneration
- both physical and spiritual -
is possible!

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