Genesis, Message 5: Dominion—Subduing the Enemy, Recovering the Earth, and Exercising God’s Authority over the Earth

My Great Delight in God's Word

Crystallization-Study of Genesis, Message 5

Dominion—Subduing the Enemy, Recovering the Earth,
and Exercising God’s Authority over the Earth

In the last message, we learned about the first half of God's purpose in creating man. God created man in His image, according to His likeness, so that he would have capability to receive His life and express Him in all His attributes. That is not all. According to Genesis 1:26, God also created man to be his representative who exercised His dominion over all the creation. And we are going to explore the latter in this message.

Man is created to exercise His dominion.

Genesis 1:1 informs us that our perfect God created the heavens and the earth, which originally had a perfect condition.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1 NKJV)

Due to the divine judgment on the rebellion of Satan, Genesis 1:2 tells us that the earth became formless, void, dark and deep. While the heavens remained perfect, the earth became a ruin and a residence of Satan and his fallen angels.

The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. (Genesis 1:2 NKJV)

During the re-creation, God decided to create someone through whom He could express Himself to all the creation and exercised His dominion over all the earth. And He eventually created man and gave him authority over all things on earth, including Satan, which represented by the creeping thing.

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." (Genesis 1:26 NKJV)
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." (Genesis 1:28 NKJV)

Having been given the dominion over all the creation, man was ordained to do a threefold job: to subdue Satan, God's enemy; to recover the earth, by taking it back from the hand of Satan; and to bring in God's kingdom, so that God's will would be done on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10).
Actually God can accomplish all these things within a millisecond, but He did not do them in that way. God required man, His representative, to do these tasks for Him. He wanted man to be the one who subdued God's enemy with His power. He wanted man to regain the earth, which had been usurped by Satan, for Him. And He wanted man to bring the kingdom of heavens to the earth, so that His glory, which had been set above the heavens (Psalm 8:1), would be manifested on the earth forever.

God's purpose on man remains the same even after the Fall.

However, the Fall of man resulted in loss of his dominion over all the earth. According to the curses on the serpent, it was going to eat the dust of the ground, out of which man was created. Instead of being transcendent over the creation, man became under the authority of Satan. Satan's ruler regrettably became Satan's food!

So the LORD God said to the serpent: " Because you have done this, You are cursed more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you shall go, And you shall eat dust all the days of your life. (Genesis 3:14 NKJV)

Even though man failed to do what God created him to do, God never gave up on him. His purpose on man remained the same even after the Fall. God always wants man to be the ruler. It is evidenced by what the psalmist wrote in Psalm 8.

⁴ What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him?
⁵ For You have made him a little lower than the angels, And You have crowned him with glory and honor.
⁶ You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet, (Psalm 8:4-6 NKJV)

This psalm was written after man failed to exercise God's dominion. It clearly indicates that man have been created to have dominion over the works of God's hand. It was what man was created for. It still is and will always be the purpose of man's life.
But how could we have that dominion again when we have already lost it ? Hebrews 2 has the answer for us.

9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone.
10 For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.
11 For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren (Hebrews 2:9-11)

Throughout history, no any man has ever accomplished the purpose of life, save the Lord Jesus Christ. Even though Jesus was God,  He humbly became a Man, who was a little lower than the angels, His servants. And He was the only Man who perfectly fulfilled all the purposes man was created for. He fully expressed God, and fully exercised His dominion over all the creation. He came to defeat Satan, recover the earth and bring in God's kingdom. He did these things perfectly.
Furthermore, by God's grace, He tasted death for us. He did this so that through His resurrection, the only begotten Son would not be the only Son anymore. He became the firstborn among many brethrens, who, by believing into Christ and receiving Him as their Lord, have become the children (sons) of God. Instead of giving up on us because of our failure to exercise His authority on earth, He is bringing us, God's many sons, to glory again.
Verse 11 is so precious. We, who are being sanctified, and Christ, who sanctifies, will be one. Christ and we are now begotten of the same Father and have the same life. Becoming one with Him is the means whereby we regain our dominion over all the creation, and obtain the capability to deal with Satan, to restore the earth, and to bring in the kingdom of heavens.

God can rest when man rules.

In Genesis 1, we see that God created many things from the first day to the sixth day, and rested on the seventh day. Why did He rest? Because He had finished all the creation, and He was really satisfied with everything He made. He had already accomplished the desires of His heart. Everything that He made was very good!

Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day. (Genesis 1:31 NKJV)

What was the desire of His heart in His creation? It was man! Man was the last thing He created within the 6 days. Only after the creation of man could God rest from His work. This implies that man was the one that satisfied and pleased Him. All the things created before man were just what God prepared for man. But God's purpose and expectation were fulfilled when He gained man. When He had man who would rule, He could stop and rest.
Brothers and sisters, may the Sabbath reminds us about God's desire and demand that need to be fulfilled by us. He needs a group of people who care about the desire of His heart and rule over the earth for Him. He wants His many sons to subdue Satan, recover the earth, and bring in His kingdom. Would you like to exercise His dominion over all the earth and accomplish these tasks for Him?
Let's pray the Lord's prayer together.

¹¹ Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.
¹⁰ Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven.
¹¹ Give us this day our daily bread.
¹² And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors.
¹³ And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. (Matthew 6:11-13)

Further reading

• The Holy Word for Morning Revival: Crystallization-Study of Genesis, week 5.

• Collected Works of Watchman Nee, The (Set 2) Vol. 34: The Glorious Church, chapter 1 (God's Plan and God's Rest).
  (Available online: http://www.ministrybooks.org/books.cfm?id=2F2D99)

Thirayost Nimmanon (Tony)