Conserving creation allows us to love the generations yet to come.

“If you come across a bird’s nest in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs and the mother sitting on the young or the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young. You shall let the mother go, but the young you may take for yourself, that it may go well with you, and that you may live long.” Deuteronomy 22.6, 7

God’s Covenant is so designed as to ensure that His blessings reach to “all the families of the earth” (Gen. 12.1-3). This includes the families not yet born. God’s covenant people must practice the requirements of an economics of justice in such a way as to demonstrate love for the generations to come, that they also might be able to enjoy the blessings of God and thus glorify Him.

We do this in part by properly instructing children in the Word and works of God (Deut. 6; Ps. 78.1-8; etc.). But we also do this by honoring the creation around us in ways that conserve its fruitfulness for the generations to come.

Environmental science has learned much about eco-systems and how they may be conserved. It is consonant with an economics of justice, as our text suggests, to apply the best principles of conservation to the resources of the environment in ways that keep the land and its creatures healthy and productive unto the next generation.

The same could also be said of the creations of culture which bring the blessings of God to men and the praise of men to God. The Christian heritage abounds with articles of culture which it is our duty as God’s covenant people to understand, appreciate, and conserve. Would we enjoy the wondrous work of Johann Sebastian Bach as lavishly as many of us do today were it not for the efforts of Felix Mendelssohn to make his works more widely known in his day? Would Christian children today have the benefits of home schooling and Christian classical schools without parents and educators who have worked hard to bring forward these benefits from our rich cultural heritage to our own generation?

An economy based on consumption is not as likely to be thoughtful about the future as one based on justice. The divine economy seeks to conserve the benefits of creation and culture for all generations and points the way for us, as stewards of God’s trust, to take steps to accomplish that result.

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