Taking only what is needed

Deut. 20:19,20  

 19 If you besiege a town for a long time, making war against it in order to take it, you must not destroy its trees by wielding an ax against them. Although you may take food from them, you must not cut them down. Are trees in the field human beings that they should come under siege from you? 20 You may destroy only the trees that you know do not produce food; you may cut them down for use in building siegeworks against the town that makes war with you, until it falls.

In the ancient world, often the only way to capture an enemy city was to find a way to knock down the wall around the city (think battering ram) – or to throw things over the wall (think catapult). Such weaponry was most frequently built by the invading army with what they had at their disposal – the trees in the orchards and forests around the city.

The instructions from God are two-fold. First, the common sense instruction is to not chop down trees from which food might come – fruit trees, trees which gave nuts or other kinds of edible harvest. Second, vs. 20 places a limit on how many other trees could be cut down, only as many as were needed to build the siege works. There was to be no wholesale destruction of forests. Military leaders in the ancient world frequently adopted burnt earth strategies, destroying everything on the land of the enemy. So when God instructs Israel to not follow that pattern, God is asking Israel to function differently than the surrounding nations. Only to chop down what is needed, what is enough. The trees are to be treated with respect, for they are innocent bystanders in the war. 

While we may not be at war, the instruction to only cut down what we need for the present purposes challenges the ways in which we live on the land, the ways in which we so frequently take more than we need. There is a call here to live with enough, not excess; to live with respect towards the creation, not destroying it. 

PRAYER:

Lord God, teach us to be content with enough, to accept what is sufficient rather than hankering to live in excess. Shape as people who live respecting your creation, rather than taking advantage of it. In Jesus’ name. Amen.