Read Genesis 1:26 as the announcement or decree, verse 27 as the accomplishment of the decree, and verse 28 as the blessing of and instructions for all mankind.
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.”
Genesis 1:26–28 (ESV)
Us And Them
When we read verse 26, we are actually reading a kind of purpose statement. The words “us” and “them” are contrasted. “Them” refers to mankind as opposed to God or any other member of his heavenly host. God intends to create mankind in his image and likeness but he also wants humans to play a unique role in the new world – he wants them to have dominion. God expresses his intentions in this verse but the dominion concept is repeated after man is created.
God Said To Them
After God created mankind, he gave them instructions. Actually, they are commands. Some people refer to this as the dominion or creation mandate.
- Be fruitful
- Multiply
- Fill the earth
- Subdue it
- Exercise dominion (over all that is in the water, in the air, and on the land)
Implicit in the command is the ability to do it. To subdue the earth means to bring it under subjection. To have dominion over all the animals means to rule over them. God created a vast domain from the dark, formless void (Gen. 1:2) and filled it with plant and animal life that needed to be cultivated and managed and he gave mankind the ability to do it.
These terms (subdue, dominion) indicate active power or rule involving physical force or effort. Humanity is instructed to keep creation under control – to keep the chaotic conditions that God subdued at bay. This is what Adam was supposed to do when God created him and put him in the garden (Gen. 2:15).
So God created his imagers, his human representatives, and gave them dominion over all creation. God had a new family in a new realm, a new domain. Verse 31 says God looked at everything he had made, and it was very good. But something went wrong. Someone was not so happy about the new imagers and the dominion they were granted.
Questions
- What does it mean that God “let them have dominion”?
- What do these verses actually say mankind was given dominion over?
- If God is sovereign, how does he share dominion?
- Once God has decreed or shared dominion, do you think he would change his mind and withdraw dominion?
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