Contemporary Significance in the Voices of the Old Testament Prophets

A Prophetic Imagination

Many biblical scholars have brought contemporary significance to ancient biblical text through their various discourses. Ellen Davis is among such scholars, and her insight into the fundamental connection between the messages of the Old Testament prophets and the state of modern industrialized agriculture in the United States is engaging and eye-opening. Messages of proper land use and care come from the prophets, and Davis uses these messages as a lens to criticize the view of land held by the modern American society. Overall, she is successful in bringing about important contemporary relevance to the words of the Old Testament prophets, which is used to help her audience imagine a new and alternative way of thinking about and working with land.

In her first chapter, Davis cites two main prophets whose texts—as Walter Brueggemann would state in his book The Prophetic Imagination—energize the imagination of the prophets' audience. These prophets are Jeremiah and Isaiah. For Jeremiah, Davis cites Jeremiah 4:23-26 as text that allows the reader to see "the present moment of history in divine perspective." Specifically, Jeremiah is describing the undoing of Creation as a consequence of the Israelites' transgressions. Jeremiah is detailing tohu wabohu—waste and wilderness, land unfit for use; "I looked, and lo, the fruitful land was a desert, and all its cities were laid in ruins before the Lord, before his fierce anger" (Jeremiah 4:26, NRSV). As Davis points out, this passage in Jeremiah parallels the creation story found in Genesis 1:1-2:4. Just as God creates the light, the mountains, the birds, and so on, God destroys those creations in anger at the sins of the Israelites. By doing this, Jeremiah is instilling a new imagination in his audience, an imagination of tohu wabohu.

Davis' use of Isaiah offers a similar message. In Isaiah 24:1-13, Isaiah describes a universal wasteland as an effect of human transgressions. Humans have broken an everlasting covenant—the berit olam, as Davis states. The sins of humanity break the berit olam, thereby bringing about tohu wabohu. As stated in verse 5, humans are the cause of their land's destruction, not God: "The earth lies polluted under its inhabitants; for they have transgressed laws, violated the statues, broken the everlasting covenant [berit olam]" (Isaiah 24:5). Additionally, another connection to Genesis can be made here. In Genesis 9:8-17, God establishes a covenant between Herself and all the created creatures: "When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth" (Genesis 9:16). This is the earliest mention of a berit olam in the Old Testament. Therefore, when Isaiah is saying that humans have broken their end of the covenant, Isaiah is asserting that the most fundamental agreement between man and God that dates back to nearly the beginning of the universe has been broken.

Davis clearly understands the original historical context that the prophets lived and prophesied in. Both Jeremiah and 1 Isaiah are written during a time in which Israel was threatened by a foreign nation. Isaiah's time period faced the Assyrian threat, while Jeremiah warned of the Babylonian threat. The prophets make it clear that Yahweh is using them as a means to punish Israel. Isaiah uses metaphors of diluted wine and impure silver to show that Israel is corrupted, and needs to be purged or purified in order to regain its former honor: "Your silver has become dross, your wine is mixed with water...I will smelt away your dross as with lye and remove all your alloy" (Isaiah 1:22, 25). The Israelites have brought this punishment upon themselves due to their disobedient nature of the berit olam. As Davis concludes, "A discerning reading of the Bible—of the Genesis tradition as it is reinterpreted through Isaiah—leads us to apply to ourselves the prophet's telling diagnosis: 'They have violated an everlasting covenant.'"

Davis is connecting the negative changes in earth's climate in modern times to the foretelling of tohu wabohu by the prophets. People take for granted the stability and consistency of earth's climate, but this stability is easily broken by human sin. When cared for with proper attention, the land will be fertile and prosperous, yielding fruits to those who labor. This is the covenant between the earth and the farmer. However, when human sin disrupts the land and breaks the covenant, there can be destructive consequences. Much like the destructive effects of the Babylonians' siege on Jerusalem, the destructive effects of climate change will severely damage the natural order of the earth.