When we read the description of the planet immediately after it was created and compare it with the current condition of the Earth, a question arises: “What went wrong?” The Bible itself answers. Our first parents were put to the test. They could eat from all the fruit of the trees in the garden they called home, but there was one fruit they could not even touch, much less eat. One day, they decided to eat the forbidden fruit, in clear disobedience to God’s command. That tree was a test of faithfulness, and they failed. As a result, not only was the relationship between God and humanity affected, but so was nature. When He called Adam to explain himself, God sentenced: “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, You must not eat from it,’ ‘Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful. toil you will eat food from it all th days of your life’” (Genesis 3:17).

Two truths become very clear in this condemnatory sentence: (1) humanity’s transgression also affected nature, and (2) getting sustenance from the land would no longer be as easy as it was in Eden. The Old Testament makes it very clear that the way humanity lives affects creation. The prophet Hosea wrote:

“Hear the word of the Lord, you Israelites, because the Lord has a charge to bring against you who live in the land: There is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgment of God in the land. There is only cursing, lying and murder, stealing and adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed. Because of this the land mourns, and all who live in it waste away; the animals of the wild, the birds in the sky and the fish in the sea are perishing’” (Hosea 4:1-3).

The book of Deuteronomy (chapter 28) teaches that the people’s obedience to God’s will would be rewarded with prosperity, while disobedience would result in drought, famine, and suffering. Humanity’s moral actions affect creation because we are part of it. Regarding this relationship, Dr. Christopher Wright wrote:

“Whatever we do on Earth, whether good or bad, will have an ecological impact due to the integration between human life and all other lives on Earth.

We know the consequences of our actions. A greedy humanity will lead to a suffering Earth, and a suffering Earth will lead to a suffering humanity. This is the way God organized it.”