Kingdom Bible Study 2
Included
within the dominion mandate was the injunction on Adam to keep or guard the
good things that God had already given. In Genesis 2:15 we read that “God took
the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it.” (The Hebrew
word ‘keep’ here is the same as the word translated ‘guard’ in 3:24.) It was
Adam’s responsibility to guard both the garden sanctuary and the woman God had
given him. In this vocation Adam function as a priest since he was a guard of
God’s holy things. He also had the vocation of a king since he was the head of
the human race.
But
this is not what happened. You all know the story of how there were two trees in
the middle of Eden, one tree from which Adam and Eve were allowed to eat and
one which they were commanded to leave alone. It is a familiar story, how Adam
and Eve were tempted and eventually ate the forbidden fruit. What is typically
given less attention is the way Adam directly failed in his vocation as guard
of God’s creation. As soon as Eve was tempted to disobey God, Adam should have
driven the serpent out of the garden.
You
Shall Surely Die
Had
Adam acted responsibly in his vocation as guard of the garden and the woman,
the history of the human race would have been different. For one thing, Adam
and Eve and their descendents would never have died. As it was, Adam lived for
quite a long time by today’s standards. In fact he lived to the ripe old age of
nine hundred and thirty. We may, therefore, wonder about the Lord’s words “in
the day that you eat it you shall surely die” since they obviously did
not die that very day. This is best understood by realizing that from the very
moment that Adam and Eve sinned they started to die. The same applies to all of
us: as soon as we are born (even before we are born) full physical death is
always a possibility, and eventually becomes an actuality when our spirit
becomes detached from our body.
Curses
on Expansion & Dominion
In
addition to the curse of death, Genesis 3 also tells us about two other curses
that were placed upon mankind at the fall. The interesting thing is that these
curses relate directly to the two original commands God gave to mankind: numerical
expansion and geographical dominion. To the woman God says He will greatly
increase the pain of childbirth. We can still expand numerically, but it will
be through pain.
What
does God say to the man? The ground is cursed. From now on man will have only
limited dominion (control) over what the ground does. Thorns, thistles and
weeds appear for the first time. He can still have dominion but it is only
partial.
The
curse on man’s dominion is not just something that touches farmers. All men, no
matter what their occupation, struggle in some way or another to make a living,
to exert dominion over their part of the world. Even those who are fortunate
enough not to have to struggle financially or physically, still struggle and
are usually tired rather than refreshed after a day’s work. Why do you think we
attach so much value to weekends and vacations? Because surviving in this world
is not an easy job.
The
curse on man’s dominion also meant that he lost much of his control over the
animals. No longer do the wild animals look upon man as their friend and master
but as their enemy.[1]
Another
effect of the fall is that it creates the necessity for laws governing our
dominion and expansion. The Lord must
lay down rules because of man’s tendency to abuse his dominion, as well as
guidelines related to our reproduction.
What
about us being the image of God? How does sin affect that? Remember I said in
the last Bible study that the worst crime you could commit in the ancient world
would be to deface one of the King’s images. That is what sin has done. We’re
still the image of God but we are a defaced image.
There
is a co-implication here between our greatness and our wretchedness. It is what
we are (images of God) that makes our total depravity so devastating.
Sin mocks the King by corrupting His image.
Is
God content to leave it at that? Certainly not! Even before He puts curses on
our numerical expansion and geographical dominion, the Lord gives this word of
hope.
The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because
you have done this…I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between
your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his
heel.” (Gen. 3:14-15)
Looking
back we know that the seed of Eve who bruises the serpent’s head refers to
Christ and those who are in Christ (Rom. 16:20). As we shall see, it is
ultimately through Jesus that the multiplication and dominion of the image of
God is extended to the ends of the earth as God originally intended. That’s the
simple answer. Getting to that point, however, is not as simple and involves a
long process characterized by the German word heilsgeschichte (salvation
history). In the rest of these Bible studies I want to consider how this
salvation history unfolds through the biblical narrative and eventually
culminates in the worldwide kingdom of God.
But
I’m getting ahead of myself. The main thing that is important at this point is
to realize the three facets that came into play for all humanity at the time of
Adam.
Let’s
review the three main things that were involved in God’s arrangement with Adam.
1. Responsibility. The responsibility was to glorify God
by acting as His image throughout the whole earth. Since Adam was the federal
head of the human race, the responsibility that was given to him applies to all
his descendants.
2. Depravity. The depravity came about when Adam and Eve
failed in their responsibility as God’s images. This is something which, like
the responsibility given to Adam, also affects all his descendants. As Paul was
later to write, “in Adam all have sinned.”
3. Promise of Redemption. As all men have become
depraved, so all men stand in need of God’s redemption, in order that we may
once again fulfil our function as God’s images. Just as the responsibility
given to Adam applies to all humanity, and just as the sin of Adam applies to
all humanity, so the promise of redemption was likewise addressed to all
humanity.
The sign
of God’s arrangement with Adam is the Sabbath. In Genesis 2:2 we read that “God
blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His
work which God had created and made” (Gen. 2:3). We see from this verse that
the Sabbath involves far more than merely a cessation of labour. In fact, when
the Sabbath is introduced here in Genesis 2, no mention is made about man
ceasing from His labour on this day. This may be because it was not until after
the fall that man’s dominion over nature came to be something labourious from
which he needed regular rest (Gen. 3:17-19). Whether that is true or not, it is
clear that resting from labour is a secondary function of the Sabbath; the
primary function of the Sabbath is to be a blessing. It is a blessing because
it is the sign of God’s promise to Adam. This fact is not so much in evidence
here in Genesis but emerges later as the Lord explains and elaborates the
meaning of the Sabbath. As Scripture unfolds it begins to be evident that the
Sabbath represents the promise of worldwide dominion to Adam’s descendants as
well as the hope of redemption. Though there will not be space to explore this
theme, suffice to say that God’s prophets saw the Sabbath as a type for the era
when God renews the earth and enables man to function properly as His image.
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[1] It is
interesting that though this happened de jure at the fall, it comes into
effect de facto after the flood (Gen. 9:2). Perhaps this was because the
Lord knew that Noah would need full dominion over the animals in order for the
ark project to work smoothly.