By Rev Ebenezer Essuman Quarbo
“And God said, let us make man in our own image and likeness, and let them rule over the fish in the sea, the birds of the air and the domestic animals all over the face of the earth, and all creatures that move over the face of the earth. So, God created man in his own image. In the Image of God, he created them, male and female he created them.” Genesis 1:26-27
Beloved, with this same text above, last week, we discussed and established God’s purpose for creating mankind from his own announcement of his idea to create man in his own image. We also understood that being in the image of God is to reflect God’s character and values. So, the first purpose of man in summary established the personality or being of the human person.
Dominion
Our focus today is on the second purpose. It is one which most people like to pride themselves on and even quote often in prayer. It is popularly labeled as ” THE DOMINION MANDATE”. This originates from Genesis 1:26-28 where God made the proclamation of his intentions and executed it with the expressed full intended dominion and capacity.
Schorlars such as R.J. Rushdoony, who is considered the founder of the Chrisian reconstruction movement, who is the first to explore ‘the dominion mandate’ in his work “the institute of biblical law, 1973”, gave us the foundational text on this topic.
As we carefully observe God’s proclamation of the human creation idea in Genesis 1:26, next after making humanity in his image and likeness comes our responsibility.
Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle and over everything that creeps upon the surface of the earth.
So, God Almighty in his mind, clearly spelt out what the human being’s role will be. However, to execute the intended dominion mandate given by God, Man compulsorily need to be in the image and likeness of God, to truly represent God and reflect his nature on the rest of creation to domineer creation.
Unfortunately, soon after God has created humans, we lost God’s image and likeness to the sin of disobedience and had to subsequently bear the punishment of it.
Dilemma
The human dilemma now is that we have lost the image and likeness of God to sin yet want to claim dominion over the rest of creation and exercise the dominion mandate. Is this possible?
Gods purpose for creating humanity was for stewardship or management. But God was so concerned and is still concerned about how we manage it and the kind of stewardship we exercise.
God wants compassionate leadership who instinctively has his image in them, who will practice responsible stewardship in his likeness for effective management of creation.
Many only want to enjoy the privileges of leadership while shunning its responsibilities. Some, hide under the cloak of being the “image and likeness of God”, to extract its rewards from those we lead, while the quality of God is never at all reflected in their lives.
It is obviously never possible to carry oneself as a steward or manager over Gods estate when you have no relationship with him.
How can a prodigal child of God be a true steward over his estate and manage it faithfully and responsibly?
Humility and obedience
Of course, except he or she recognizes the height from where s/he has fallen, resolve to climb up again and serve in humility and obedience, even if in a lower capacity.
Why in a lower capacity? Because those who remained faithful to God while you fell off have risen past you in your absence and you may have to start afresh.
May the grace of God abound unto all of us in the body of Christ to shine enough to attract those in darkness into Christ’s kingdom in Jesus’ name. Amen!
(The writer is the Minister in-charge of the Mount Olivet Methodist Society at Atwima Yabi in the Nsema Circuit of the Kumasi Diocese of the Methodist Church Ghana)
