Holy Dominion: Why Has God Given Us Such Responsibility?

Since writing my post on "Farming and the Concept of Dominion," I have been pondering the questions raised in that post, as well as others.  I already have, I think, eight spin-off posts waiting to be researched and written in an attempt to tackle answers to some of those questions.  I am afraid, dear readers, you will be very tired of the topic by the end of this next year.

Although I am eager - and somewhat apprehensive - to look into those questions, I have found that I must put aside all of them until after I have explored one question that was raised only in the past few days: Believing that God has given humanity dominion over all living creatures as seen in Genesis 1: 28, to what end should we be exercising this dominion?  In short, why did God give us such a responsibility in the first place?

This question was raised and answered for me in the same instance, but it bears some rumination.  I came across the question as I was reading in a book of daily prayers.  The passage for the day was Colossians 1:15-17 and it was verse 16 which caught my attention: "For by [Jesus] all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him." 

The first point that struck me was that God created all dominions in heaven and on earth, including the dominion that humans hold over animals.  I suppose that should have been obvious, considering that God gave this dominion to humans during the account of Creation.  However, it was a good reminder to see it written in a different way.

The second point is the answer to my question of why we have been given such weighty responsibility.  Dominion over the animals was created for Christ.  But what does that mean?  If the dominion is for Christ, why do we have it?  I find Colossians 3:17 and 1 Peter 4:10-11 helpful in answering this.

From these few verses we can see that we are to use the gift of dominion over the animals to glorify God, through Christ.  That is a very heady idea, and a daunting one, too.  For the average person it might not be quite so daunting.  However, for the farmers of the world who have the responsibility to care for dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of animals at once, it is an awesome task to consider.  To think that each action I take in feeding, handling, managing, and caring for my animals should be taken as an opportunity to glorify the One who created both me and the animals is overwhelming, indeed.

I'm not sure I have ever really looked at glorifying God as my motivation for how I farm.  I'm not even sure I have ever truly looked into why I do things the way I do.  It is so easy in the midst of daily and seasonal work to just carry on with the way things have always been done.

Now that I am asking questions, how am I to glorify God through my interactions with the animals?  That is the overarching question under which all of my other questions fall.  I will work through some of those questions in future posts.

For my own sanity, so I don't have to do this totally alone, please let me know which of the following topics you would like me to tackle first:

• interacting with wildlife
• managing breeding strategies in the herd
• caring for the hired hand
• feeding the herd
• general animal husbandry
• how we affect the environment
• interacting with the larger industry and society
• the consumer's responsibility (I actually think I will leave this for last, but you might as well know it's coming)