The Call to Subdue the Earth

I've been thinking a lot about the question: "What is the call of God on our lives?" Answering this question for me is important because in another post I've defined education as the kind of instruction that develops the image of God in students to prepare them for the call of God on their lives. In my last post I shared what I've been learning about in Anthony Hoekema’s book – Created in God’s Image – about this question. So far, here's what I've got: the call of God on man is living in harmony with the will of God in relation to God, to our fellow man, and to nature. In other words, God's call on our lives is to live his way with God, our neighbor, and creation. In this post, I want to share more about our relationship to nature. I’m taking a class at Hood College this semester about technology in education, so this relationship is particularly pertinent. Taken from an excellent paragraph in his book, here is what Dr. Hoekema says about our relationship to nature:

“Two words are used in Genesis 1:28 to describe this relationship of man to nature: subdue and have dominion. The verb rendered subdue is a form of the Hebrew verb kabash, which means “to subdue” or “bring into bondage.” This verb tells us that man is to explore the resources of the earth, to cultivate its land, to mine its buried treasures. Yet we must not think simply about land, plants, and animals; we must also think about human existence itself insofar as it is an aspect of God’s good creation. Man is called by God to develop all the potentialities found in nature and in humankind as a whole. He must seek to develop not only agriculture, horticulture, and animal husbandry, but also science, technology, and art. In other words, we have here what is often called the cultural mandate: the command to develop a God-glorifying culture” (Hoekema, 79).

So, the first aspect of our relationship to nature is to subdue it and bring it into submission to develop a culture that glorifies God. Take for example plastics. Some really smart people used what they learned in chemistry class, combined different molecules from plants, and invented plastic. How many products are made today with plastics? How much money has been saved because of plastics? These scientists made nature do their bidding and made our world better. The call to subdue the earth includes exploring what God has embedded in creation and even the potential in ourselves that reflects our Creator and then using that potential for the glory of God and the good of others. What I find very interesting here is what Hoekema includes in what he calls “nature.” Not only is nature land, plants, and animals but everything else that can come from nature, what he calls the potentialities found in nature. Pretty cool! As he says, this potential includes technology.

OK, but how should we subdue the earth? In my next post, I want to talk more about this question and touch on what Christians should make of technology.