We live in a day and culture where all of creation is valued more than the mankind. There are protections for plant and animal life that supersede that of mankind. Don’t get me wrong, there should be protections in place for God’s creation, but never to the point that more attention is given to all of creation to the point that it supersedes the attention and care for mankind.

We often hear that the world is overpopulated and something should be done to curb the growth rate of man on the earth. This is in complete contrast to what God’s universal command to Adam was; God said to man, be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth. This command is not only for procreation, but also for the plant and animal life upon the earth.

Man is at the top of the pecking order by God’s design. Man is of greater importance than animals and plant and tree life. Man is of higher value than the lakes and streams. Man is the greatest of all of God’s creation. He gave us charge and responsibility to oversee and manage it all. The term God used is dominion. What does dominion mean? It means to have power of and over. It means to have the pleasure of giving direction to. God has ordained our power over all of creation.

This decree from God came on the completion of the sixth day of creation. In a world where babies are torn from their mothers’ wombs, and more protection is given to trees, flowers, and special species of animals and insects; we must remember, God gave man preeminence over all of creation. We are fellow image-bearers of God! As we love, conserve, and protect all of God’s creation as stewards, may we never allow the scales to be tipped toward giving all other creation preeminence over man. This is not God’s design and order, and it will never work when we do so.

Genesis 1:28—31 “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. ²⁹ And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. ³⁰ And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. 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.”