1:28 - God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.
[T - OL ]
God had already in mind what he intended that humans should do—that they should rule—but before He appoints them to the task in commanding them to "be fruitful and . . .subdue, rule over," He blesses them, repeating the pattern of divine enabling before appointment, the pattern of divine grace before human works.
Whereas the animals were blessed and appointed only to be procreative, humans are appointed with the twin mandate of procreation and dominion.
To the verb kabash, "subdue," used in v26 above is now added the verb rada, 'rule.' Rada is used some twenty-two times in the Old Testament; generally speaking, rada is limited to human domination rather than anything God might do, and implies less use of force than kabash. This appointment to lorship or stewardship should, first of all, be set against the common beliefs among ancient Israel's neighbours whose mythologies tell them that humans were created to be slaves of the gods. The teaching of this verse was, therefore, high counter-culture stuff in ancient Israel. The challenge to the church is to discover how this might be so again in our modern cultural settings; how may and should we humans execise our management of our earthly resources—ecological or commerial—in a manner that does not become abuse.
You may wish to read the following commentaries-expositions:
Low Chai Hok
©Alberith, 2016