(This is Part I of a two-part series by Stephen Rohrer. We recommend continuing with Dominion Stewardship – Part II: The Harmony of God’s Good Design)
The very first job of man was stewarding. In the beginning, God gave Adam, the first man, the task of stewarding, managing, and taking dominion over the earth. The dominion mandate as it is called is still in effect for Adam’s heirs (that means you and me). My wife likes to reference the “The Princess Diaries” when the Queen tells her assistant to transform the embassy garden. “Charlotte, make me an Eden!” It is a surprisingly profound statement (far more profound than the scriptwriter realized I’m certain). We, as Adam’s heirs, are to carry out the dominion mandate over the earth but particularly over whatever corner of the earth that we have responsibility.
It is important to remember, however, that even in the original garden of Eden, before sin and the curse made our life more difficult, Adam still had a full-time job taking dominion over the land and animals. Not only is work good, but it is part of God’s design for a perfect world.
But if Eden itself needed dominion stewardship before the curse, the Earth certainly needs it after sin has entered the world.
So what does Dominion Stewardship look like? There are 3 key components that God outlines in Scripture. Our Master wants us to bring order, beautify, and enjoy what He has given us.
To Order:
God is a God of order and peace – not disorder or chaos as Paul tells us in 1 Cor. 14:33. This means, as his image-bearers, we should put effort into making everything He gives us to steward more orderly. This was the first mission given to Man before the Fall: God commissioned us to “. . . have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth . . .” (Gen. 1:26). If we do not put effort into keeping our property, animals, and persons in good order, we are disobeying the Dominion Mandate and not reflecting the character of God. Suddenly, mowing our yards and weeding takes on a whole new significance.
It is not that everything must be perfect at all times. Not at all. But we must put time, resources, and effort towards the goal of an orderly dominion.
If this was a full-time mission for Adam before the curse, it certainly will not be less work after the curse. So, we must realize that order will constantly be breaking down into disorder (Newton’s Second Law of Thermodynamics).
Not only are things tending towards disorder, but we have many other God-given responsibilities (like providing for our families, making disciples, etc.) that we need to balance our time between. But we must remember that one of those missions is to keep bringing as much order as we can with the time given to us.
The thorns and thistles of the wilderness multiply and require removal. The good plants need fertilizing, and the animals need wise care to flourish. Our gardens and properties should be thoughtfully planned to flow in an orderly fashion.
Ordering also includes not disordering it. How might we disorder it? Littering, graffiti, and vandalism are some obvious ways. But it is important to realize that bringing more order might mean some disorder in the process.
When Solomon built the temple at God’s command, there were significant messes involved: the harvesting of the cedars from Lebanon, the mining of the marble and gold, and the building site itself, among others. This was all done by God’s command. He gives us the resources of the Earth to use, to build, and to beautify. So it is not whether we use the resources, but how and why we gather and use them.
To Beautify:
Not only should it be in order and well-kept, but it should be lovely because God is also a God of beauty. The Hebrew word used by God to describe His new creation is “tov”. It means good in all ways; both morally and pleasing to all the senses (sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch). He could have made fruit purely nutritional – a gray blob of grit. He could have made flowers mere colorless functions of plant reproduction, but instead He made them so that “even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these” (Luke 12:22-31). As we are able, we should reflect God’s nature by making what He has given us more lovely and pleasing to the senses.
How can we do this?
First, the functional necessities can also be beautiful. Where in God’s Creation or Word is He coldly utilitarian? No, the very phrase itself sounds like the antithesis of God’s nature. Look to the craftsmanship of antiques and architecture from days gone by. Not only were the master craftsman concerned with a useful piece of furniture, but they also adorned them with grace and loveliness.
Second, there are “unnecessary” things which cause us to thrive. Flowers may not be necessary nor as useful as vegetables or herbs, yet God gave them to us for a reason. Likewise, tasteful artwork which is truly beautiful does not feed our bellies, but they do, in a real sense, feed our souls. Poetry does not, as a rule, teach us how to do our jobs, but it brings a sense of wonder and beauty to our everyday joys and sorrows.
To Enjoy:
Like the people of Israel who “delighted themselves in [God’s] great goodness” (Neh. 9:25), we should also enjoy the world that God has made and things in it. However, this enjoyment must flow out of and enrich our appreciation for God. “The heavens are yours; the earth also is yours; the world and all that is in it, you have founded them.” (Ps. 89:11). The two primary dangers, of course, are that we will: 1) Come to love the blessing more than we love our Lord who has blessed us, and 2) That we will begin to think that our prosperity is due to our own efforts and not due to God’s grace on our lives.
With those dangers marked and noted, what does God-honoring enjoyment of the physical world look like?
To begin, we ought to recover a fascination for the smallest things. Things like the unceasing diligence of an ant – with a special appreciation for the strength of its tiny legs. We should relish the golden flavors in our morning eggs and delight in the richness of our coffee.
It is all too easy for me to rush through these things with my mind racing off in a million directions or locked into my phone’s screen and not notice what is right before my nose. As C.S. Lewis pointed out in Letter XIII in The Screwtape Letters, taking honest enjoyment in good things around us—like a walk in the countryside—makes false pleasures fade and grow less appealing.
In the second part of this series, we will examine how these three elements of dominion stewardship interact with each other and how God has woven them through the history of God and Man.
All Scripture quotations are from the English Standard Version (ESV) unless otherwise noted.
Image from Unsplash.com by Photographer: Ravi Pinisetti
(This article has been modified by the author from the original form on his blog at EnterpriseonPurpose.com)
