Genesis 1:26-28 (NKJV) 26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
In our last post, we answered the question, “What did God get out of his covenant with Abraham?” The answer was that God obtained legal access to the earth through the willing obedience of a human being. Many will say that God did not need legal access since he is the sovereign God. It is true that he is sovereign, but that means he is also absolute. When he gave man dominion over the earth, that was a statement made out of his sovereignty. Once made he could not change it without going against his nature and that very sovereignty.
Man’s fall in the Garden of Eden was the result of another statement God made to him. He told Adam that in the day he ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil “in dying he would surely die.” This first death which would lead to the second death, physical death, was the separation of man from God at the spiritual level. In His sovereignty, God did not say that eating of the fruit of this tree would result in his annihilation nor the destruction of the earth. It said he would be separated from God and no longer able to fulfill the purpose of his creation, to be God’s representative to the earth. That is exactly what happened.
God created the physical earth and everything pertaining to it. He set a system in place whereby his children, Adam and Eve to begin with, were the rulers of what God had created. We might shy away from thinking in terms of man as the ruler because we might feel this also goes against God’s sovereignty. However, it does not. It is because he is sovereign that he has the right to put man in this position. In his sovereignty he spoke the words we read in Genesis 1:26-28.
Remember, these are statements from God’s sovereign Word representing his sovereign will. He gave man dominion. The Hebrew means to tread down, therefore, subjugate. (All definitions are from Strong’s Talking Greek & Hebrew Dictionary.) He also says that man is to “subdue” the earth. This means bring into bondage, force, keep under, subdue, bring into subjection. We would tend to see the word bondage as a bad thing, but God is talking about bringing it under the control of God’s nature. In Genesis 2, where God focuses on the creation of man, we see another statement that comes from God’s sovereignty giving more clarity to how man is to do this.
Genesis 2:15 (NKJV) Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it.
The two words tend and keep have very significant meaning. When understood in the light of Genesis 1 26
-28, we get a picture of how man was to dominate or have dominion over God’s creation. Tend, or the King James Version dress, basically means to work the Garden. If a farmer works his land, he is causing it to be productive. God intended man to cause the earth to produce what it was designed to produce in the natural. It also means that man was to cause it to produce the will of God through his connection with God in the spirit.
By extension this Hebrew word means to serve, till, (causative) enslave the earth God created and subsequently gave to them. This is such interesting language. God says man is to serve the earth, to till the earth and to enslave the earth. Once again, we see the language of dominion but included in it is the idea of servanthood. Man is to cause the earth to produce through a servant dominion. That almost seems contradictory until we find out that that is exactly what God in Christ was doing in the New Testament.
The second word here is “keep.” Adam was to “keep” the garden as well as “dress” it. This word means guard; generally, to protect or attend to God’s creation. Putting these words together man’s role as the one in dominion over God’s creation is as the channel for productivity and the will of God. He would do this by protecting the garden and watching over it. What was he to protect it from. May I submit that God gave him dominion over the earth to protect it from the serpent that God also allowed to be there.
He failed in his assignment, but God never rescinded his commission to man. Even after the fall, God’ sovereign word was still in affect. Man had dominion over God’s creation. That is the system that the sovereign God put into place to keep the creation on the track he intended it to have. When man submitted his will to sin and therefore the devil, the devil began to operate in man’s authority as the ruler of creation. However, man was only in dominion of the system ruling the creation. The creation was still God’s. It is still God’s today.
Romans 8:20-21 (NKJV) 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; 21 because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
In his wonderful insight, the Apostle Paul writes of the result of the fall in crystal clarity. The creation was subjected in hope. God dealt with man and the devil according to the plan he had before he even created (Revelation 13:8.) He built the ability into the original model that would enable him to save his family and restore the system and the order he still recognized over the physical creation. Man had caused the creation to be subjugated by the devil’s world system. That was not what he wanted but it was his sovereign will. Doing so enabled him to save his family without compromising his sovereignty.
Man was the rightful holder of dominion over the earth. Man had committed the sin which was a violation of the covenant promise of dominion God gave him. For this violation of the original covenant between God and man, he must die. The moment he sinned he lost his inner connection with God, but not his dominion. God had given that by a sovereign statement. He came under God’s enemy Satan, and Satan began to use and abuse man’s dominion.
Every man would pay for his sin, but that payment was physical death and eternal separation from God. However, if a man could be born into the world without the sin of Adam, that man would carry the original dominion expressed in God’s Word in Genesis chapter one. He then, being fully human, could bear the consequences of man’s fall for all people. Since he had the right of dominion, he would be able to grant the same freedom to anyone who would receive his sacrifice.
God had the vehicle for the plan of redemption in place from the beginning. He needed someone who would agree with him willingly, through whom he could bring a seed which would be human, born of a fully human woman, but not carry the seed of Adam’s rebellion. If he were born of a virgin who became pregnant by the Holy Spirit via the seed of the word of God, that person would be fully human, yet without sin. Since he would be born of the Word of God, which John tells us was God, he would also be fully God. How could he create a situation where this all could happen?
In Genesis 17:7, God said to Abraham, “I will establish my covenant between me and you and your seed.” In that act, God gained a willing partner in a fallen human who chose to believe him. God accounted that faith to him as righteousness. God now had legal access to redeem man without in any way violating his own sovereignty.
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