Work: What's the Point?
“We are told twice, once as intention and once as instruction, that humans’ likeness to God will equip them to ‘have dominion’ over animals in sky, sea, and land. We shouldn’t pass over this three-part taxonomy too quickly. The author clearly intends us to grasp the extent of human beings’ responsibility—they are made to rule not just a few easily domesticated animals like cattle, chickens, and goldfish, but the whole panoply of the animal kingdom. . . . [H]uman beings will be responsible for the creation in its totality, not just for their immediate neighborhood.”
- Service Date: September 2, 2018
- Worship Guide
Genesis 1:26-31
26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and 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 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.