COMMENTARY: And God saw the gulf, and saw that it was very bad

(RNS)And God created a gulf filled with swarms of living creatures and winged birds of every kind that fly above the earth. And God saw the fish, the birds, and all the living things in the gulf and on the shore, and God said it was good. And some people said, “The world desperately needs […]

(RNS)And God created a gulf filled with swarms of living creatures and winged birds of every kind that fly above the earth.

And God saw the fish, the birds, and all the living things in the gulf and on the shore, and God said it was good.

And some people said, “The world desperately needs the precious black liquid that lies below the gulf. Come, let us build a steel platform atop the gulf, and let us place workers upon it and they shall labor mightily and we will gain the gulf’s treasure and we shall become very rich.”


And the people added, “Come let us build a towering drill and aim it far below the waters of the gulf, and we will make a name for ourselves.” And they drilled deeper and deeper and deeper and, lo, the precious black liquid spurted upward like dark milk and sticky honey. And the people who had done all this were exceedingly pleased with themselves.

In time, the huge drill and the steel platform on the gulf became more precious than human life itself. Whenever the drill slipped or whenever a piece of the platform fell, the people wept, but when a person fell and died, no one paid much attention.

The leaders of the drill and platform became arrogant, believing their achievements were comparable to God’s. They worshipped their technology and drilled ever deeper into the floor beneath the gulf. And the people said it was good.

They saw it as a sign of their brilliance, evidence of their magnificent conquest of nature. And many, covered with riches the black liquid had brought them, reveled in self-love, corruption, and hubris — falsely believing it was they, not God, who were the true “Masters of the Universe.”

But it came to pass on the 20th day in the fourth month of the year that a great fire and terrible explosion erupted on the steel platform. And many people rushed from the shore to quench the fire, but they were too late, for they saw smoke rising from the platform like the smoke of a kiln.

And 11 men died amidst the flames as the once-sturdy platform fell into the gulf and sank beneath the waves. But the weeping was mostly for the loss of their idol, the towering drill that had dug deep beneath the gulf; their tears were not for the humans who had perished.


And the angry gulf belched forth the black liquid in great measure with no end in sight. Fish, turtles, and birds became covered with slime, and many died. And the fishermen who had once gone out on the gulf were forbidden to sail their boats and cast their nets in the filthy water.

And even after 50 days, the people still lied about the dangerous flow of black poison that reached once pristine shores; poison they could not contain. And the people said to one another: “What have we done? We built a towering drill that made us haughty and proud, but we never built a way to stop the flow from under the gulf.”

And millions of angry people expressed savage fury against those who had brazenly dug so deep and cared only about the black liquid. And people sought the cause of the destruction that had come upon them.

They asked: Is it the deceptive and supercilious people who built the steel platform and the towering drill alone who are guilty? Or is it the leaders of the states and nation who, overconfident in their belief that any fire or destruction could be stopped, permitted the drill to be built?

Or is it ourselves, who looked the other way when the drill was being built? Is it we who only wanted the black liquid and falsely believed we had triumphed over God and nature?

And seeing the destruction, God said: “My children have done far worse than my ancient flood when Noah was alive. That was only forty days of water. But this — this is bad. Very bad.”


(Rabbi Rudin, the American Jewish Committee’s senior interreligious adviser, is the author of the forthcoming “Christians & Jews, Faith to Faith: Tragic History, Promising Present, Fragile Future.”)

Donate to Support Independent Journalism!

Donate Now!