Sabbath Meditation #1 – The Dominion of God and the Dominion of Man

by Kelly McDonald, Jr.

“27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. 28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth…. 31  And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day” (Gen. 1:27-28, 31, KJV).

“1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. 3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made” (Gen. 2:1-3, KJV).

Through Christ, all things were made (Col. 1:15-17). This includes visible things such as creatures and features that we see every day. It also includes invisible things such as the Sabbath.

When humans were created, we were given dominion over living creatures; we were asked to rule, replenish, and subdue this physical earth (Gen. 1:26-28). However, God did not give mankind dominion over time. “My times are in thy hand…” (Psalm 31:15a). Christ has dominion over all things, including time and the Sabbath. It was the only time in the week that was blessed and made holy by the sovereign act of an eternal being.

Since an eternal being endowed this day with perpetual spiritual blessing and holiness, it is something that no created being, such as a human, could create, edit, or have dominion over. What God has blessed cannot be cursed by man (Num. 22:6, 22:12, 23:11, 23:20). While no created being can affect the Sabbath, it is a day endued by God to affect created things. God intended for this day to spiritually affect humanity.

We are even required to grant rest to the animals that we have dominion over. “But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle…” (Deut. 5:14). God is literally commanding us to stop exerting dominion over the physical creation.

If someone works on the Sabbath, it extends the dominion of man into a realm that God never intended for it to be exerted. This is not God’s will. There is an eternal dominion that is greater than the earthly dominion given to humanity. Our practice of the Sabbath acknowledges and affirms this eternal fact. Let us honor that eternal dominion.

Selah.

Kelly McDonald, Jr

BSA President

www.biblesabbath.org