God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over… every living thing that moves upon the earth” (Genesis 1:28).
Many people recognize our responsibility to care for the earth is an intimate and sacred trust. As Christians, we recognize that trust to be between God and us. The Hebrew verb radah, translated into English as “dominion,” does not by itself give us an idea of how this dominion is to be exercised, and a thorough exegesis would require us to also look at the cultural context of radah at the time that scripture was written. We will suggest that the verb radah, taken in context with the verses that precede and follow it, conveys a watching over or a securing of the beauty and bounty God gave to humanity.
Earth Day (April 22) is a perfect day to reflect on the goodness and bounty of God’s earth, consider what we can do to keep the earth healthy, and pray for our earth’s healing.
This message is excerpted from “Caring for the Earth as God’s people” by Inez Torres Davis, a 2010 resource of the Women of the ELCA.
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