And God blessed them; and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it;

       and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth."
 

       Then God said, "Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth,

       and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you;

       and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to every thing that moves on the earth which has life,
 

       I have given every green plant for food"; and it was so.

       And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good.

       And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day (Genesis 1:28-31).
 

 

Again, the Lord blessed His creation, and told them to be fruitful, to fill the earth, subdue it, and rule over it. The blessing of the Lord is sure, and even after the disobedience of man, the blessing was still upon him to accomplish all of these things. He has been fruitful and multiplied, filling the earth, subduing it, and ruling over it. God created man for this, so it is not wrong. Some have a belief that whatever man does is not natural, but man is a part of nature too. The earth cannot be what it was created to be without man filling it, subduing it, and ruling over it, just as the Lord originally planned.

 

However, because of the perversion of man's nature by sin, and the cruelty of death that was released by sin, the way in which man has subdued the earth and ruled over it has been tragically distorted by his selfishness. As stated, the rulership that the Lord originally created was not for dominance, but for service. Man was to rule over the creation for the sake of the creation. When man is redeemed and restored, the integrity of this rulership will also be restored. When "the last Adam," Jesus, returns to set up His kingdom, it will be a restoration of the original commission to the first Adam. Here Isaiah prophesied concerning the coming of His kingdom:
 

 

       And the wolf will dwell with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the kid,

       and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little boy will lead them.

       Also the cow and the bear will graze; their young will lie down together; and the lion will eat straw like the ox.

       And the nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child will put his hand on the viper's den.

       They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain,

       for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea (Isaiah 11:6-9).

 

This is a greater hope than even the most optimistic philosophers have been able to imagine in their utopias. This is the sure hope that we have in Christ, and it is a hope that will not disappoint. As Peter declared, there will be a "restoration of all things," so let us:

 

       "Repent therefore and return, that your sins may be wiped away,

       in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord;

       and that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you,

       whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke

       by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time" (Acts 3:19-21).
 

 

The more we return to Jesus, and the closer we get to Him, the more we will become righteous in our reigning. When men are restored to reigning in righteousness, the order and harmony of the whole creation will be restored. The whole earth will become like the original Garden of Eden. There will be no more hunger, wars, child abuse, sickness, or death. The work that Jesus did on the cross was for the "restoration of all things." Through the saga of man's history all of creation will have learned not only the consequences of sin, but also the expanse of God's love and forgiveness.

 

If all of this was accomplished by Jesus on the cross, why didn't He immediately bind Satan, cast him into the lake of fire, and begin this restoration immediately upon His resurrection? Because it was also a part of His primary purpose to have a bride, a queen to reign with Him over the age to come. This queen had to prove herself worthy of such great authority before the angels and principalities and powers in the heavenly places. The bride of the first Adam lived in a perfect world, and yet chose to sin. The bride of the last Adam will live in the most wicked of times, but choose to be obedient against even the greatest opposition. Therefore, all of creation will know that she, the church, is worthy to reign with the Lamb.