♫He Put The Whole World In Our Hands♫

This is one of those weeks that it is hard to decide what to preach on because there are several options.  Today is Trinity Sunday, so I could preach on the Trinity.  Guess what, I’m not touching that.  I do however, have a video that should clear everything up.

There is the Great Commission in the Gospel reading, and while that is important definitely something we try to live into as a church, something else caught my attention this week – partially because of things that have been in the news lately.  This is hopefully as close as I come to “political” in one of my sermons, but I’m going to try not to step on any toes (too hard).

Genesis 1:28: “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 air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth‘”

I want to talk a little about this.  Not the first part – Be fruitful and multiply.  We all know what that means, a good diet and arithmetic skills are important in life.  It’s the next part I want to talk about.

First the word “subdue”. In Hebrew this is kabash.  You can’t get around it; it does mean “force” or “enslave”, and “to bring into bondage”.  But here’s the catch:  it only means this when the party being subdued is already hostile.   it is used 14 times in scripture, and about half of those times its used in reference to subduing the land. A handful of times it is used in reference to capturing, enslaving or worse to people.

To not subdue an attacking army would lead to death.  Now, we can look at this both ways - we subdue the earth because without it the harshness of nature would yield death for us rather than life. If you don't mow your front yard and trim your trees, it can become a jungle.  Likewise, you can't just throw seeds in the ground and expect them to grow into food without a little and sometimes a LOT of work.

There is one more usage of the word - In Micah 7:

Who is a God like you,

    who pardons sin and forgives the transgression
of the remnant of his inheritance?
You do not stay angry forever
but delight to show mercy.

You will again have compassion on us;

    you will subdue our sins

    and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.

As God subdues that in us that which leads to death rather than life – sin – so are we to subdue in nature that which leads to death, turning it around so that it yields life.

John 15 provides a beautiful example of the way  God subdues sin, using as an analogy the way a farmer subdues nature.  “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful."  I would argue that these life-giving uses of nature are the proper fulfillment of the command to “subdue” creation.

Which brings us to "dominion".  What does it mean to have dominion over something?

Psalm 72, a prayer of guidance and support for a king, specifically Solomon in this case, says this in v8 and 12-14

May he have dominion from sea to sea,

    and from the River to the ends of the earth.

For he delivers the needy when they call,
the poor and those who have no helper.
He has pity on the weak and the needy,
and saves the lives of the needy.
From oppression and violence he redeems their life;

    and precious is their blood in his sight.

A king, in God's eyes, is there to protect - to take care of the weak and the poor.  What kind of king does he despise? Ezekiel tells us - Those who "have not strengthened the weak,  have not healed the sick, have not bound up the injured, have not brought back the strayed, have not sought the lost, but with force and harshness  have ruled them."

We aren't to dominate the earth, but to have dominion over it.  To protect it from those things that would harm it.

He put the whole world in our hands 

There are those who think we can do whatever we want to the earth, that it doesn't really matter because someday Jesus is going to come back and make all things new.  I kind of picture this as a kid who thinks he doesn't have to clean up his room, because eventually mom is going to come in and "make all things new".  Yeah, she might - but things are going to go much easier for you at that point if you've taken care of things yourself.

And anyway, this isn't the way we see things working in the Bible.  God has a plan, God uses people to make that plan happen.  The plan is for all things - ALL THINGS, not just people, or the chosen frozen or whatever... all things under his dominion.  And he uses us to make that happen.  When the time comes, lets not give him a mess.

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

(Full disclosure - I borrowed heavily from this excellent blog post about subdue and dominion)