The “Green Revolution” of the mid 1940s through the 1960s has long been touted as an “agricultural miracle.” It was then that researchers began genetically altering various grains such as corn, wheat, and rice. Additionally, the seed’s yield was maximized by using chemical fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides. The dramatic increase in production enabled importer nations to soon become exporters. This agricultural miracle would presumably save humanity from famine as its population exploded.
Human Miracle
There was a downside, however, to this humanly devised miracle. The plants that had been hybridized produced a lesser quality grain –not picking up all the trace minerals in the soil that are necessary in our diets to bolster our immune systems. Also, once pure drinking water in our farmlands has become largely undrinkable after decades of chemical, herbicide, pesticide and fertilizer usage. So, our health has been compromised by our own “miraculous” abilities. We have plenty to eat but on the whole, we suffer with increasingly compromised health.
Is there something wrong with this picture – something really wrong? Let’s visualize a different scenario that results in a true miracle. But because this one is from God, there is no downside. We, meaning mankind, had three basic choices. We could do nothing and continue as we were with the potential for famine with its spawning potential for disease and war. Or we could do something such as was done through the green revolution – genetically modifying and chemically enhancing what God had previously made to be a blessing. It (apart from trusting God) seemed right in the circumstances, but ultimately proved to be a curse.
Ask for a Miracle
Or we could have chosen to humble ourselves before God, asking for His miraculous intervention to this looming disaster. God could have blessed mankind with the give attitude. He could have given rain in due season and abundant yields from plants He had designed without chemical pollutants. He could have spread people out over the land – reducing cities – so that people could get their hands in the soil and grow their own food as a family. His miracles would have had no downside — no curses, just blessings.
This third scenario wasn’t chosen. Why? The apostle Paul very simply said, “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting.” (Romans 1:28). The things that are not fitting are the things that we choose to do in our own “unique” circumstance based on what seems right to us apart from trusting God.
The green revolution is just a simple example. But the principles behind it will apply to any circumstance we face any day of our lives. The moral of the story is that without faith –completely trusting God – we get rotten miracles. And with faith we get the true miracles from God without self-inflicted curses. In Proverbs 3:5-6, Solomon sums up the way of those who are blessed. “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.”
Marshall Stiver