Mother Earth: Reflections on Life, Death, and Redemption
By: Deji Yesufu
I am an indigene of Ilesha – Osun State, Nigeria. My great, great, grandfather, Yesufu, was a Muslim cleric that migrated from Ilorin and came to live in Ilesha. He would become a leading cleric in that town. My father, Disu Adeyemi Yesufu, tells me that my passion for religious reforms very likely came from that direction. The only difference is that my great, great grandfather was a Muslim, while I took to the Christian faith. Recently my father has had to visit Ilesha and he found that his father’s home needed repairs. Incidentally, his father’s house and grandfather’s house are in the same compound. There are also a few people buried there. These two men had many wives and children in their days, but it happens that there is only one distant blood relation of us living in that compound now. The rest are strangers. When my father arrived, he gave quit notices to everyone – “I want to fix my father’s house”. They all left. Except one particular person who had lived in the house for quite a while. Eventually, this person also left without any threat of police or legal action.
I asked my dad why she left without a fuss. He replied that the house had become hot for her. In Ilesha, and I think other places in Nigeria also, no matter how long children leave the home – the day they return, the house returns to them. It might be the reason why the dead are buried in people’s houses – a pointer to the historical fact that that house was built by someone’s blood, and only those connected to them by blood can live there. In 2017, I went to Ilesha for a book launch. During a short break in the program, I took a bike to my grandfather’s house. I met the only surviving woman who had known my dad as a child. She looked at me and said “Who are you?” I said “Disu’s son”. She just embraced me. She did not ask for a birth certificate or make a phone call. Blood called unto blood. In this essay, I want to write about Mother Earth. I want to explain how we can honour the earth better, and live our lives to the full. I hope to end with the biblical story of redemption.
The Bible tells us many stories about the earth. The earth was created by God. Then God used the earth to create the first man. Now, when we die, our bodies return to the earth, while our souls go back to the Father of spirits. What that means is that there are two who make contributions to the making of a man who walks on the earth today: God gives the spirit, and Mother Earth gives the body. There is a scripture in Jeremiah where someone calls on the earth to ensure that a king remains barren all of his days (Jeremiah 22:29-30). Numerous scriptures show that the earth is a living being – it is a creation of God and thus has eyes to see and ears to hear. Because the earth was created by God, the earth works in harmony with God. In a similar vein, the earth will work in harmony with everyone who works in harmony with God. When God confronted Cain after that evil person had killed his brother, Abel, Cain denied it, but God told him that he heard the blood of Abel calling out to him. The earth gave voice to the blood of a man.
There have been instances in the Bible where the earth has opened up its mouth and swallowed people whole. So, it is safe to say the Earth has ears, eyes, and a mouth. God told the children of Israel that the land they were possessing spat out its former inhabitants because of sin. All of these were brought quite vividly to me a few days ago when I read Joshua 24, where Joshua, as he prepared to die, called the children of Israel and warned them about keeping the laws of God. He told them that there was a rock close by that was hearing everything that was being said. Joshua said that that rock would stand to testify against Israel if and when they broke the covenant of God (Joshua 24:27). Many years later, when Israel sinned against God, that land spat them out. When I shared these thoughts with my children last Sunday, during devotion, my thirteen-year-old daughter observed that that rock is still there today – we just would not be able to hear it. The earth listens to our words. The earth hears our covenant. The earth will keep the covenant that generations upon generations make, as long as you and I choose to obey God’s commandments and honour the use of Mother Earth.
I have written all these as an introduction to a more pressing subject I wish to write about. It is the problem of hunger in Nigeria. Why are we hungry in this country? I will explain with a story. As I go around the University of Ibadan, sharing the gospel with people, I often find people hungry – they have not eaten that day, or may not know where the next meal will come from. These are students. I would often have to give them N500, which could secure a meal ticket. It is then they would give me a listening ear. Recently, a congo of beans rose to as much as N5,000. I was concerned. How and why are we hungry in Nigeria despite arable lands all around us? So, I visited the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) based here in Ibadan, and I told the person I met there that I wanted to go into agriculture so I could help feed Nigerians. The man is the person in charge of the institute’s Cassava program. He was so excited. He took me around the institute in his car and explained to me how we could get the best cassava output.
Then I got a piece of land, and have since started to cultivate the land. The aim, again, is so that we can feed ourselves in this country. Now, unfortunately, with Nigerians because many people are devoid of wisdom, people often jump on the bandwagon of a working idea. For agriculture, however, this is a win-win. If a lot more young people cultivate the groundwork on Mother Earth – we will have food to eat in the country, and we will have enough to export. The country’s productivity will heighten and the naira will gain strength. It occurred to me that we are hungry in Nigeria because somebody somewhere gave us the stupid idea that agriculture is a menial job, meant for old and tired men. We were told that every one of us should head to the city and acquire white-collar jobs.
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Now, a few of us have gotten these jobs and we earn this money, but because very few people are cultivating the ground, very many resources are pursuing small goods – a recipe for inflation. I realized that our people are fleeing this country, Japa, because we do not work the land. And when we do not work the ground, we will leave the land and go to places where they work their ground, and where they have food to eat. The man at IITA told me that a man left Germany; came and acquired land in Nassarawa. The man grows cassava. Then turns this cassava into chips, makes them of various flavours, and exports them to Europe and America. While our people flee Nigeria, a German has come to reap from our land, without using a gun. If we do not work on Mother Earth, we will go hungry, and we will flee the land that God has given to us.
I also thought of writing about the concept of death. My concern here is with murder – the spilling of another person’s blood. The biblical command is simply this: “Thou shall not kill”. At no time should any of us take our hands and spill the blood of another. If we do this, Mother Earth will ensure that our blood is also spilt – this is in line with both divine and natural justice. The only time blood can be spilt legally is if, in a case of jurisprudence, a matter is adjudged correctly, and a judge determines that a man has taken the life of another, therefore his own life must be taken. Even in such extreme cases, the judge must be dimmed to be fair – or else, God and Mother Earth will demand the blood of that innocent man from the hand of the judge. Mother Earth listens to our conversation; she hears our debates; and she meddles in our controversy.
Sometimes in the early part of the 20th century, a monarch and his wife were shot dead by a dissident in a little-known land in Europe – Austria. All the European nations took different sides on the matter. It was not resolved until Europe converged in the First World War, which consumed no less than thirty million people. That conflict was still not resolved, and the world witnessed a second world war that consumed another 75 million people. An approximate 100 million people died because a conflict was not properly resolved in a little-known city in Europe. Similarly, Nigeria paid the price with three million people because everyone sat idly back as Western Nigeria was consumed in 1962. Mother Earth judges our conflicts, and she stands with the man on the right. She obeys the laws of God, and she will bless the man who obeys God’s laws. Mother Earth is grieved by the sins we commit in the land, and one day, like God, she will request from us the body she borrowed from us to walk upon the land of our birth. We cannot spill the blood of another man. Because when we do so, Mother Earth receives that blood, and ensures that justice is done. If you kill a man unjustly, your blood will be spilt also. It brings me to the subject of redemption.
Why did Jesus die? God, the creator of heaven and earth, could simply have decreed redemption to all of God’s elect without the Son of God dying. In keeping with our reflection on Mother Earth, I think that our redemption will not be complete until God himself has taken up flesh. You and I are made from the dust of the ground: we are both body and spirit. Our bodies and blood are given to us by Mother Earth, while God breathes his spirit into us. Redemption must come in two ways: we must receive a renewing of our spirit by the Spirit of God, giving our spirit new life. But it cannot end there. Our bodies must be redeemed also. Therefore, Jesus was born of a woman – he took up flesh. He was possessed of body and blood. He was born of Mother Earth. At his death, Jesus’ blood had to be shed. With the piercing of his side, and the blood streaming from the thorn of his head, our Lord’s blood hit the ground and brought sanctification to Mother Earth.
Therefore, any man, made from the ground, who will find redemption, justification and sanctification from sin, must believe in Jesus Christ. As you do this, Mother Earth ensures that your body is freed from the grip of sin. The blood of Jesus that was shed on earth still speaks redemption to every man made from this earth. The same way the sin of Adam brought a curse on every man born of Adam, is the same way the righteousness of Christ brings redemption to every man born of Jesus. We cannot finish a reflection on Mother Earth without looking closely at how Christ’s death redeemed man. It should also be noted that although Christ took on flesh, his body could not be held down by Mother Earth. He must rise again to secure the salvation of God’s people, but even more importantly, Christ must rise again because Christ made Mother Earth. The earth could not hold him down. Amen.
My father tells me that when he was ten years old, his grandfather used to take him to a land to farm. It is a land situated somewhere in Ilesha. This land is in hundreds of hectares. The land is still being farmed by the man my great-grandfather left to till the place – and his children. I am hoping to visit that land soon and claim what belongs to me, my siblings and my cousins. We all sit here in the city, living like paupers – managing monthly salaries, for those who have jobs. While a land stands to be cultivated, and if we do it well at least the immediate Yesufu family will have food to eat. Every Nigerian reading this article has such a land somewhere. Our fathers bought those lands and kept them for us so that the moment we get hungry, we will return to those lands and work them – and then eat. If not, we will continue this nonsense called Japa. I hope you found this article inspiring – and I will be updating you here with regards to my venture into agriculture. Remain blessed.
Deji Yesufu is the pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church Ibadan. He is the author of HUMANITY and VICTOR BANJO. He can be reached via [email protected].