Nehemiah 2:8 - "and a letter to Asaph, the keeper of the king’s forest, that he may give me timber to make beams. for the gates of the fortress of the temple, and for the wall of the city, and for the house which I shall occupy."

I suppose that when we are reminded of forest rangers, or foresters, almost automatically, our thoughts turn to Smoky the Bear. And, if they had known about him in biblical times, I imagine they would have adopted him as a symbol in the same way that we have. Because the duties of the biblical forester were mainly custodial and for fire prevention, just as today.

The Holy Land, as it stands today, is a far cry from the heavily-forested land that the Hebrews knew. There has been devastation through many centuries, and, even then, there were periods of wood shortages, but there was little that could be done to alleviate the situation.

We are familiar with royal preserves in many countries through the reading of history books, and, as our text would seem to indicate, some forests at least seem to have been under royal protection. So - today’s forest ranger is very similar to his ancient counter-part. He also protects and helps us to preserve the beauty of our woods and forests.