Man’s Dominion Over All the Earth

In Genesis 1:4-31 the Creation of the Earth and Mankind is described and in it God gives Man the charge of ruling over, or the dominion of, all living creatures of the Earth. This dominion or authority is something I believe needs a closer look. Man, over the time of his existence, has become negligent in his responsibility as “keeper of the domain” and is not looking out for the best interest of all living creatures, including himself. Our pursuits of human self-interests put at risk our very being on this planet. We are slowly but surely polluting our air, water and land to the point that animal species are becoming endangered and, in some cases, extinct. Can Man himself be far behind? In some cases, we have felt the effects; Love Canal in New York, Monsanto in Alabama, the PBB contamination in Michigan and more recently the Flint water fiasco to name just a few.

Take a look at our lakes and oceans and the damage plastic inflicts on marine life. According to Eco Watch, (Eco Watch is a leading online environmental news company), “there is an estimated 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic debris in the ocean, 269,000 tons of which float on the surface while four billion plastic microfibers per square kilometer litter the deep sea. Eco Watch estimates that 40% of the world’s ocean surface is covered in plastic debris.” Can you imagine, the islands of garbage floating in our oceans cover an area the size of India, Europe and Mexico combined!

Water is fundamental to life here on Earth and for something so vital to our existence, we don’t seem to be treating it with the reverence it deserves.

According to some sources in my research, plastic is now in our food chain and the effects are yet to be determined. Somehow, I don’t think they are going to be good and I don’t believe plastic was ever considered by God to be a part of our food groups! I don’t mean to be a “doomsayer”, but I do hope we wake up and smell the coffee before it’s too late. After all we are the caretakers, appointed by God, to sustain and preserve this planet He created.

We are suppose to be the intelligent species here, and I believe we are but I want to share a little more. We have sent men to the Moon and back several times, sent picture taking satellites completely out of our solar system. How amazing, right? We have a Space Station that has shown that space travel will most likely be in our future. All of this was made possible because God gave man the intelligence to do so, but like so much here on Earth, he is failing to clean up after himself. Right now, according to NASA there are 5,000 satellites orbiting Earth. 3,000 of them are no longer functioning. Also, 34,000 pieces of space junk larger than 10 centimeters (approx. 4 inches) and 128 million pieces of space junk larger than 1 millimeter (1 millimeter is the size of the end of a paper clip). Objects orbiting Earth are traveling up to 5 miles per second and can do considerable damage when they hit an object. Not only do we have a lot of man-made space junk orbiting the Earth, but also on the Moon. There are three Moon buggies from Apollo Missions 15, 16 and 17, and 54 unmanned probes that have either crashed or landed on the Moon. All this represents 418,878 Lbs. of material left by humans on the Moon.

Let us be reminded that as stewards, appointed by God, over His creation, we have a responsibility to take care of what has been entrusted to us. 

My Prayer –

Dear God, Creator of the universe and all there within, we look to You in awe. You have provided all that we need and for that we are grateful. You have given us the resources necessary to sustain Your world and beyond but we haven’t used them to their best advantage. We ask for Your forgiveness and that You give us the wisdom to take care of Your creation. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen. 

Jim Kerner