Nigerian oil spill.

“Nigerian authorities were putting emergency measures in place on Thursday [22 December] to prevent an oil spill from a Royal Dutch Shell facility, the biggest leak in Nigeria for more than 13 years, washing up on its densely populated coast.”  The oil company used airplanes to drop dispersants on the slick before it reached the Nigerian shoreline.  “A U.N. report in August criticised Shell and the Nigerian government for contributing to 50 years of pollution in a region of the Niger Delta which it says needs the world’s largest ever oil clean-up, costing an initial $1 billion and taking up to 30 years” (Reuters, December 22, 2011).

God gave man the incredible ingenuity to discover vast resources useful for power and other benefits.  Yet, man’s ways are not God’s way.  Ezekiel 34 notes that many leaders are self-absorbed and are disinterested in the people they lead (vv.1-8).  The Apostle Paul lamented that the “whole creation groans” and eagerly waits for delivery from “the bondage of corruption” of today’s leaders (Romans 8:19-22; see also Revelation 5:10).

In the years just ahead, the self-serving leaders of today will be replaced by Christ’s perfect, righteous government.  This will usher in a society that will be taught to be faithful stewards of God’s creation!  For more information, read our booklet The World Ahead: What Will It Be Like?