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#13.
Man's Dominion, and the Way of Cain.
pp. 51 - 58
In our last paper we dealt briefly with the nature of man and the world in which he
finds himself, and we learnt that man in his present condition is frail, and that his present
world is fleeting. There is, of course, a sphere in which man will attain to immortality
and in which his world will "remain", but this belongs to the future resurrection glory, the
period of the "glorious liberty of the children of God".
We have already found Psalm 8: to be a valuable passage in connection with the
nature of man and the world in which he lives, and we must now turn to this Psalm again
to learn something of his dominion.
"Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of Thy hands; thou hast put all
things under his feet: all sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; the fowl of
the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the sea"
(Psa. 8: 6-8).
The works of God's hands include "things in heaven" as well as "things in earth", and
the Psalmist certainly recognizes this, for we read: "The heavens are the work of Thy
hands" (Psa. 102: 25). It is quite evident that man has no dominion over the sun, moon
and stars, but apart from this obvious exception, we might be tempted to believe that
dominion over every terrestrial work of God's hands is implied in the words of Gen. 1:
or Psalm 8: Such, however, is not the case.
We have already quoted Psalm 8: Let us now refer to Gen. 1::
"And 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 fowl of the air, and over the cattle,
and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth"
(Gen. 1: 26).
These words describe the counsel of the Lord before the creation of man. After man
was created, the dominion is further defined as follows:
"And God blessed them and God said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply and
replenish the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over
the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth" (Gen. 1: 28).
It is evident, therefore, that the words "over all the earth" in Gen. 1: 26 refer simply to
all living things on the earth, and not to all its inorganic elements and forces.
One of the earliest recorded acts of man (in Gen. 2:) is that which sets forth his
authority over the lower creation: