To Have Dominion

 Today's passage is from Genesis 1:28-31 and reads as follows from the ESV

28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. 31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

God blessed Adam and Eve when he first created them.  For some reason I read those words and I wonder.... did they recognize the importance... or perhaps the wonder of being blessed by God?   

I know that my life is fairly good.  God has richly blessed me in many ways. And you know what?   I often fail to recognize it.  I just take my life for granted in WAY too many ways.   I don't stop to seriously consider what if my fellow died?  What if something horrible happened to my lad?  What if our house burned down?   I just blithely go along not seeing God's richest blessings upon my life.   I need to stop doing that. 

But what else does God say in this passage?

The first people are to be fruitful and multiply.  There's a huge world to populate!  Within that command there is also the addendums of "subdue it, have dominion over it". 

He is also very clear.   All plants... tree, green plants, any plant with seed...it's ours to eat.  All the animals could eat them too! 

So why then do we eat meat?   This is not a vegetarian/vegan/meat-eaters debate.  It's a solid question of why?  The short answer is sin.  Sin changed everything, more profoundly I think that we can even imagine.  Plants don't do enough anymore for us, and for many many animals that walk upon the earth.. plants simply aren't enough.  Look at the obligate carnivores like cats!  I wonder sometimes what cats were like before the fall of mankind.  Because I can't imagine my Lizzy being a plant-eater.... Benji maybe cause he literally eats whatever I put in front of him.  :)   But Lizzy is a bit more discerning.... she likes meat!  And her body (as is Benji's) is designed to eat meat.  So it just shows how sin affects on the cellular level doesn't it? 

All that is as it is.  My mind just can't conceive of a pre-sin world and what it would have looked like.  I do know that one day God says, the lion will lie down with the lamb, in peace.  Rather cool eh?

In the meantime... we're to fill the earth and subdue it.   We are to have dominion over it.  Dominion is like to rule you know?  Which means you are higher in authority, in a position to subdue. 

There are lots of ways to subdue you know?

You can beat something into submission or one manipulate and coerce into obedience/submission.  A person can show the benefits in a relationship to make a mutually beneficial status.

For instance lately on my facebook video feed these videos of people working with horses pop up.  People who take the time to listen to their horse (some of them rather scary dangerous) and by doing so, they are able to transform that horse into a gentled animal.  A horse that has been subdued without force.  Its very amazing to see the change in that animals' demeanor.   It doesn't change the fact that the horse is owned by a person, or at the very least under the control (or dominion) of someone. But the relationship is not one of fear, but of cooperation. 

Is that how we are to have dominion?   Do we take a forceful determined approach?  This is what I want and I'll get it however I want?  Or does one take the time to seriously look at the world around us and say, okay, to get to point A, I'll need to do a number of things to get to where I want.  It might take longer, but will be better in the long run for not only the earth but the people using it?  

I think too often we'd rather cut a path straight through a mountain instead of working with the landscape around us, instead of trying to accommodate the animals who share our space.   

Or I think about me and my bunnies.  Did you know there are as many different ways to raise rabbits as there are people raising them?  There are commonalities of course, but in the end, each person makes their rabbit herd work for them.   Some like a colony style, others like individual habitats for each rabbit, and yet others do a combination.  Various feeding styles, watering systems, and out-buildings (or lack thereof) make for some interesting discussions on rabbit boards.   Yet we all have one purpose right?  To make our rabbits comfortable so they want to provide an end product that suits our needs.  This I think is part of the "to have dominion" that God talks about.  

These are just some of my thought processes today.  They've meandered around a bit, but I think I have a deeper understanding of this passage now eh? 

How about you?  What strikes you in this passage?   How do you see the directive to "“Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion"?