Psalm 8:7-8
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 seas.
David recognized the fact that God had given mankind dominion over every living thing on the earth. He knew that mankind was the most intelligent of beings; the only one in whom God had deposited a spirit that could be filled with the Holy Spirit of God. Therefore, all of the rest of the created beings were subject to mankind. We found in Genesis 9 where the fear and the dread of mankind should live in every other created being (Genesis 9:1-3). As a matter of fact, these living creatures are made to be food for mankind. (Never let a tree hugger convince you that it is not okay to eat meat. God made your body to need protein, and the best proteins are found in meats.) Every animal that you see is made to be subject to you!
Unfortunately, that is not the way it is. Sin came into the world, and changed everything from the way God intended. Sin causes the natural order of things to work opposite of the way God planned. We see that mankind does not have dominion over every creature. How do I know? Last year, I spent a few days in the Great Smoky Mountains, a 1500 acre tract of land in eastern Tennessee where people live in some beautiful homes, but bears roam free. People are warned not to leave food in their cars, because the bears will break into their cars looking for something to eat. Each home has a bear-proof trash receptacle outside with a padlock on it, because without the padlock, bears will rummage the garbage and make a huge mess. Visitors are warned to be careful when out walking or riding bicycles, because they may encounter a bear in the neighborhood. We actually saw a family of three bears down the street from where we were staying. They were sitting on the side of a neighborhood street, just enjoying each other's company. Do you think we had dominion over those bears? Absolutely not! We decided at that moment that we needed to be extra careful when outside of our cabin. As a matter of fact, every time we went out on the deck, we scoped the perimeter to make sure we didn't see any movement! Lol! Instead of having dominion over the bears, the bears had dominion over us!!!
Same thing at the beach. Each summer, my family spends my birthday on the beach because the beach is my favorite place. Two years ago, as we sat on the beach, we saw a man catch a stringray. It was HUGE! It had to have been about four feet long and five feet wide. It got caught on the man's hook as he was surf fishing. I was mesmerized. I watched that thing flap those huge wings trying to get loose from the hook underneath his body. The fisherman, of course, knew what he was doing and put a clamp on the end of the stingray's tail where the stinger lives. He held it tight with one hand, while he flipped the stingray over with the other hand, and pulled the hook out. He then flipped the stingray back over and pushed him out into the water, still holding the clamp on the tail with his other hand. He then took the clamp off the tail and quickly backed away. The stingray went back out into the ocean. The point of that story is that stingrays have complete dominion over anything that comes in contact with that stinger in his tail! This is another example of the effect of sin in the world.
One day, Jesus will make right all the things that sin made wrong in this world. Isaiah 11:6-10 shows us that one day, the Root of Jesse will make all things right again. Wolves and lambs will dwell together, leopards and goats, and calves and lions. One day, the dominion that we should have over the animal kingdom will be restored. One day, we will live in perfection with our LORD.
Psalm 8:7-8
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 seas.
David recognized the fact that God had given mankind dominion over every living thing on the earth. He knew that mankind was the most intelligent of beings; the only one in whom God had deposited a spirit that could be filled with the Holy Spirit of God. Therefore, all of the rest of the created beings were subject to mankind. We found in Genesis 9 where the fear and the dread of mankind should live in every other created being (Genesis 9:1-3). As a matter of fact, these living creatures are made to be food for mankind. (Never let a tree hugger convince you that it is not okay to eat meat. God made your body to need protein, and the best proteins are found in meats.) Every animal that you see is made to be subject to you!
Unfortunately, that is not the way it is. Sin came into the world, and changed everything from the way God intended. Sin causes the natural order of things to work opposite of the way God planned. We see that mankind does not have dominion over every creature. How do I know? Last year, I spent a few days in the Great Smoky Mountains, a 1500 acre tract of land in eastern Tennessee where people live in some beautiful homes, but bears roam free. People are warned not to leave food in their cars, because the bears will break into their cars looking for something to eat. Each home has a bear-proof trash receptacle outside with a padlock on it, because without the padlock, bears will rummage the garbage and make a huge mess. Visitors are warned to be careful when out walking or riding bicycles, because they may encounter a bear in the neighborhood. We actually saw a family of three bears down the street from where we were staying. They were sitting on the side of a neighborhood street, just enjoying each other's company. Do you think we had dominion over those bears? Absolutely not! We decided at that moment that we needed to be extra careful when outside of our cabin. As a matter of fact, every time we went out on the deck, we scoped the perimeter to make sure we didn't see any movement! Lol! Instead of having dominion over the bears, the bears had dominion over us!!!
Same thing at the beach. Each summer, my family spends my birthday on the beach because the beach is my favorite place. Two years ago, as we sat on the beach, we saw a man catch a stringray. It was HUGE! It had to have been about four feet long and five feet wide. It got caught on the man's hook as he was surf fishing. I was mesmerized. I watched that thing flap those huge wings trying to get loose from the hook underneath his body. The fisherman, of course, knew what he was doing and put a clamp on the end of the stingray's tail where the stinger lives. He held it tight with one hand, while he flipped the stingray over with the other hand, and pulled the hook out. He then flipped the stingray back over and pushed him out into the water, still holding the clamp on the tail with his other hand. He then took the clamp off the tail and quickly backed away. The stingray went back out into the ocean. The point of that story is that stingrays have complete dominion over anything that comes in contact with that stinger in his tail! This is another example of the effect of sin in the world.
One day, Jesus will make right all the things that sin made wrong in this world. Isaiah 11:6-10 shows us that one day, the Root of Jesse will make all things right again. Wolves and lambs will dwell together, leopards and goats, and calves and lions. One day, the dominion that we should have over the animal kingdom will be restored. One day, we will live in perfection with our LORD.
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