Job the Patriarch Had a Climate Plan
Climate Bible Study: February 2021
"Job and his Friends" (1869) Ilya Repin
He did! You can read about it in chapter 28 of the Book of Job. Job’s climate plan can inform our intercessory prayers today. Of course, Job the Old Testament patriarch knew nothing about “anthropogenic global warming,” nothing about the greenhouse effect, mitigation, NDCs, or the Paris Agreement. Nonetheless, he did know three very amazing things.
1. He knew a lot about the natural resources that are stored underground. Verses 1&2: “People know where to mine silver and how to refine gold. They know where to dig iron from the earth and how to smelt copper from rock.” He later mentions lapis lazuli, onyx, coral, peridot, jewels, and other precious stones. The truth is that when God created the world and her natural processes, he placed a lot of wealth underground, as well as what we might call “wealth producers,” considering what oil, coal, and natural gas have fueled for the development of humanity over the last 150 years. Job also knew the wonders of human ingenuity, another creation of God’s. Most scholars place Job as pre-patriarchal, that is before the time of Abraham. What this means is that by this early date, humanity had already learned to “sink a mine shaft into the earth” (4), and “to shine light in the darkness and explore the farthest regions of the earth” (3). They had already learned to smelt the ore they discovered (2). You know, before BP’s Deepwater Horizon had its famous explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, it had first set a record for drilling a mile below the surface of the ocean. (Don’t worry: the Deepwater Horizon will figure into Part 3 of the Job 28 Climate Plan, but for now, let’s marvel at this accomplishment of human ingenuity in the pursuit of accessing the underground wealth that God has given us.)
2. Job knew a lot about wonder and gratitude. It was a theme of his life that extended out beyond Chapter 28, but in these verses, Job is overwhelmed by the richness of natural resources and human ingenuity. “These are treasures no bird of prey can see, no falcon’s eye observe. No wild animal has walked upon these treasures; no lion has ever set his paw there” (7-8)—but by God’s generosity, we’ve been there! An honest appraisal about coal, for example, might result in us wondering: if this new source of fuel had not been found around Newcastle or Pittsburgh, would there be a single tree left standing in the British Isles or the State of Pennsylvania? For all the plastic that is in the ocean, there’s an awful lot of plastic in heart pacemakers, hip replacements, and in the syringes used for COVID vaccinations. Gratitude can be a part of how we approach the topic of “Just Transition” for those of our family and friends who have made their living in the coal mines or oil fields. We can thank God for providing them paychecks that fed their families over these many years, and we can thank them for what they have provided for us. In the Job 28 Climate Plan, this is gratitude for what was real and good THEN, as a way to transition our hearts and our attention to what God’s blessing will be NOW.
3. The key component of the Job 28 Climate Plan is found in the line break between verse 11 and verse 12. Job concludes verse 11 by celebrating our ability to “bring to light the hidden treasures,” he then takes a deep breath (line break), and then launches into verse 12 with a “But.” “But do people know where to find wisdom? Where can they find understanding?” Wisdom, he will go on to tell us, is worth “more than all the gold of Ophir, greater than precious onyx or lapis lazuli.” The “Keep it in the Ground” campaign of organizations like 350.org are, in my estimation, wisdom campaigns. Arguably Keep It In the Ground began in 2012, the year that Bill McKibben published his “Do the Math” article in Rolling Stone magazine. McKibben calculated the value of the known reserves of fossil fuels, i.e., those deposits of oil, coal, and natural gas that have already been discovered but have not yet been drilled. In order to meet the target of preventing no more than a 2.0°C warming, we can only afford to burn 20 percent of those known resources. The 80 percent that is left in the ground would have to become “stranded assets” which were valued in 2012 at US$20 trillion. In very practical terms, McKibben is mimicking Job in arguing that the wisdom of preventing the worst impacts of climate change is worth more than 20 trillion dollars. Wisdom often involves recognizing, accepting, and then speeding a necessary transition, which in our case is the transition to a clean energy future. And wisdom is relentless in her calculations. To be able to drill a mile below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico might be a remarkable achievement, but is it wise to do? If you ever have to choose between wisdom and wealth, choose wisdom.
The Job 28 Climate Plan might be summarized as employing both gratitude and wisdom in order to transition from one source or type of richness (then) to a better source of richness (now). Where this intersects with climate intercession is that gratitude is almost always associated with prayer to God, but we often forget about it when we rush on to our intercessory petitions. That’s why a verse like Philippians 4:6 very pro-actively interrupts our anxious supplication with a specific clause, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God” (emphasis added). What would it look like to add a “thanksgiving” section to your climate intercession?
The other way that the Job 28 Climate Plan intersects with prayer is that wisdom is one thing that Scripture explicitly encourages us to not only ask for, but to expect great answers about. “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you” (James 1:5). So, Lord, please give great wisdom to national leaders, to UNFCCC officials, to corporation heads, to research scientists, to families and individuals who are making decisions. Give all the citizens of this planet wisdom to vote “yes” for the transition to renewable energies. Give us wisdom to analyze the false claims that powerful terminology like “stranded assets” or “maximum utility” throw back at us as we contemplate “keeping it in the ground.”
Admittedly, these reflections about wisdom and climate intercessions were sparked by last month’s prayer meetings when we discussed the COVID pandemic. There are so many parallels between the pandemic and our response to it, and the climate crisis and climate action. The pandemic could be an incredible teacher for us as we move forward into climate action, but only if by God’s grace we are good learners. Imagine, going forward, a world that honors science more fully. A world which recognizes that nature pays no heed to our political allegiances. A world that acknowledges that my simple or unexamined actions (like failure to wear a mask, or book unnecessary air travel) can harm those I love, or even spread out in concentric circles to the ends of the earth. A world that understands that individual behavioral changes and massive government intervention must work together, in whatever balance wisdom reveals, in order to provide a solution. May it be so.
You are very dear to God,
Lowell Bliss
On behalf of the Climate Intercessors leadership team