TLP 151: How God Wants Your Family to Steward the Earth

How about celebrating Creation Day with your family by worshiping the Creator, instead of celebrating Earth Day by worshiping the creation?

Welcome to Truth. Love. Parents. Where we use God's Word to become intentional, premeditated parents. Here's your host, A .M. Brewster.

Creation Day, Earth Day, and the Creation Mandate

In just a couple days, many people will be celebrating Earth Day. Personally, I like to refer to it as Creation Day, and I'd encourage you to do the same. Creation Day serves many of the same purposes as Earth Day, but its name and the way we celebrate it rightly focuses on the fact that the creation must have a Creator, and He is way more important.

In episode 47, I introduced a concept I created called Sanctified Sustainability, and a few days later we published a TLP snippet number 6 called Sanctified Sustainability, Your Family, and Earth Day.

Please listen to those episodes to learn more about Sanctified Sustainability and hear some interesting ideas for celebrating Creation Day on Sunday. However, on today's show, I want to talk more about the foundation of Sanctified Sustainability, something to which theologians refer to as the Creation Mandate.

But before we jump into that, I want to thank whoever it was that just gave us another five star rating on iTunes. I really appreciate when you guys do that, thank you so much, and it would be really cool if you would leave a review too.

A lot of people know why you think TLP is a five star podcast. It's true, we're still the number one podcast for Christian parents, and we have you to thank for that. So be sure to leave a review and let other parents know why their time will be well invested when they spend it with us.

And I look forward to reading your review on the show. Alright, so what is the Creation Mandate, and how on earth does it affect your parenting? Well, normally when people discuss the Creation Mandate, they turn to Genesis 1, 28, which reads, And God blessed Adam and Eve, and God said to them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.

So the Creation Mandate can be reduced to five principles. Be fruitful, multiply, fill, subdue, and rule. But first, it's important to understand that this mandate was given to mankind before the fall.

This was not a punishment, it's not a consequence of sin. Our responsibility to the earth was part of God's perfect plan, and it's still just as important right now. It's also interesting to consider that God had this plan in mind while everything was still good.

That means that God planned for His creation to be better only when mankind got involved, and that's a very unique point. So before we continue, I have to ask, is your family fulfilling in any way God's first and greatest command to humanity?

Hopefully, your family is engaged in fulfilling the Creation Mandate, but perhaps it's not. So let's discuss God's requirements and discover if we're dropping the ball. Let's move through this mandate in reverse order.

Dominion Over Creation and the Call to Subdue It

Number one, God commands us to rule over the creation. The ESV uses the term, have dominion, but I like the way John MacArthur describes it. God wants us to be the kings of the world. Don't forget that God made man in His own image, so many of God's characteristics have been built into our DNA.

We talked about a number of these in our discussion about helping your children love what's good in episode 137, and in that show we saw that God created us to be relational, creative, passionate, and good.

In addition, as we'll see today, God has given us the ability, the desire, and the command to be in charge. The creation needs mankind. Contemporary philosophers and movie makers may imagine a world set free from man's oppression, a thriving ecosystem finally able to really thrive, but that's not the world God envisioned.

The creation needs your family to rule over it. That's how God created it, and this includes everything included in the creation account—the earth, the water, the sky, plants, animals, creeping things, and birds.

We can even have dominion over light and dark. Number two, God commands us to subdue creation. This word is incredibly strong. It has the idea of taking something into bondage. This word is used all throughout Scripture to refer to people being forced into slavery, people subjugating nations.

The truth being revealed here is not simply that mankind exists as the crown of creation, but that he is to use the creation. Nature will want to do one thing. We, who know what's best, choose to use it in another way.

The Hebrew word can have the idea of squashing from a position of strength and basically reversing a decision or a situation. In a way, we can say that it doesn't matter what creation wants. We've been called to exercise our will upon it.

This may be lived out simply in the way we tend our yards, our gardens, and in the way we train our animals. Number three, the remaining parts of the mandate deal specifically with procreation. In many ways, having children, obviously, was your participation in the creation mandate.

Still, even though they're all related, I want to look at all of the words individually and see what we can learn from them. Fill has the idea of completely filling or overflowing something. This is a unique concept, especially in light of the secular environmentalist's dire prediction that there are too many people on the planet and that we're near the tipping point.

Isn't it interesting that God commands mankind to overflow the earth? Now, I have my opinions on what God intends to do, but it's mere speculation. What we do know is that creation is a big place and God knew it would take a lot of people to rule and subdue it well.

And something tells me God created the earth to be just the right size. And so we'll look at the last two commandments together, because in Scripture they often appear together. Eleven times in the Old Testament, God refers to being fruitful and multiplying.

And every time, He's referring to the number of children and eventually the number of descendants born to someone. Fruitful means what you'd expect, bear fruit, and multiply speaks to the fact that reproduction is not about addition, it's about multiplication.

It's not as if God creates new people to be added to the current population. No, nearly every human being has the ability to procreate, and the more people who are born, the more people can be born. I find it interesting that God didn't just say, be fruitful.

He wants us to multiply. But do you see that none of us really ever truly multiply? We are all adding. And then our children add, and then their children add, and when it's all said and done, we've all participated in the process of multiplication.

So if all I can do is add, why was I commanded to multiply? Well, inherently, I play an important part in equipping my children to fulfill the creation mandate. Without my instruction and guidance, my children may have the wrong view of marriage and children and their dominion of the earth.

I participate in the multiplication by adding children, and then teaching them to add, and teach their children to add, and teach their children to add, and so on. So that's the basic mandate. God wants us to have children, and prepare those children to have children in order that there will be enough humans to rule over creation and bend it to our will.

However, there's more to it. It is abundantly said when people grab isolated verses from Scripture and use them as proof texts for their own failure philosophies. The enslavement of African peoples is an example of such egregious behavior.

It's true that Ham's descendants included Canaan in most of the African nations, and it's true that in Genesis 9, Noah said, Cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers. But that verse cannot be used to justify the slavery of every descendant of Ham by every descendant of Japheth.

In the same way, we must not foolishly proclaim that we get to force nature to our bidding in such a way that harms it. The Bible is clear that our stewardship is to be intelligent, efficient, and gentle.

God expects us to rotate crops and be wise in how we care for the earth. 1 Corinthians 14 calls us to decent orderliness in all things. Therefore, our dominion must be efficient. And Deuteronomy 25 .4, as well as the prohibition against working animals on the Sabbath and the various other passages that command us to care for our animals, teaches us that our stewardship is to be gentle.

My point is this, we must not excuse hazardous practices in the name of dominion. We must never allow cruelty because we're claiming to subdue the earth. As we exercise the image of God in us, we must exercise the complete image and not merely His sovereignty.

Practical Ways to Steward Creation in the Home

So what's the practical application for your family? How does all this affect your household? Well, number one, we must teach our children to worship God, not nature. We fulfill the creation mandate because our Creator mandates it, not because the creation mandates it.

Number two, we must teach our children to exercise God's dominion over creation and how they manage and consume their resources. We need to teach our children to redeem their resources, not waste them.

This includes their material possessions, but it also involves their time, skills, the grace God bestows on us, His truth, and our salvation. Again, I encourage you to listen to episode 47 about how we humans waste the resources God provides.

Number three, we need to teach our children to steward their health, not hurt it. Man, oh man, is this a touchy subject. But seriously, what we eat is directly tied to our mandate. We Americans and Europeans and anyone part of any nation that's embraced Western philosophies and practices are especially not careful enough with what we put into our bodies.

We're careless and the health issues pervading our countries are the steep consequences of our failing to glorify God and our creation responsibilities. Number four, we need to teach our children to use creation, not abuse it.

Yes, we must subdue the creation and teach it the better way, but we must not cruelly abuse nature and animals. And number five, we need to teach our children to be fruitful and multiply, not how to selfishly satisfy.

Some people don't want children because they believe the kids will cramp their lifestyle. Some people accidentally procreate time and again as a result of their trying to find satisfaction through sexuality.

We need to teach our children God's plan for pure sexuality and also give them a biblical view of the family. This idea of being fruitful and multiplying and filling the earth also speaks to the relational image of God in us.

We can't participate in these activities in a relational vacuum. So these are the five current tenets of sanctified sustainability. Worship God, not the creation. Redeem your resources, don't waste them.

Steward your health, don't hurt it. Use the creation, don't abuse it. And be fruitful and multiply, don't selfishly satisfy. And the beauty of participating in our stewardship of this earth is that it benefits our lives and strengthens our relationships at the same time it cares for creation.

Teaching Children to Live Under the Creation Mandate

So let's wrap up this study with a little more practical application in light of creation day this coming Sunday. Number one, explain the creation mandate and sanctified sustainability to your kids. Number two, show them how everything in their lives falls under the creation mandate.

Number three, you can even walk your children through a day and illustrate for them how getting ready in the morning, showering, cleaning their room, making their bed, eating good meals, doing their best in school, throwing away their garbage, caring for their pets, relating to their friends and teachers and siblings and parents, redeeming the time, growing their talents, and drawing closer to the Lord is all part of God's creation mandate.

Basically, there's no part of our existence that doesn't fall under the category of God's creation mandate. Number four, you can compile a list of the things your family frequently wastes. It may be money, time, talents, relationships, truth, grace, or even salvation.

Whatever it is, take a moment to apologize to God and then develop a plan to address those areas. Number five, start an evolving conversation about pure sexuality and God's plan for your family. Number six, get outside and talk about how the creation sings God's praise and how the heavens declare His glory.

Number seven, you could start a garden and task your children with care of your property. If you live in an apartment, you can get a plant and teach your child to care for it. Number eight, help your children see that their destructiveness is a direct disobedience to God.

God created us and calls on man to steward. When we carelessly ruin our possessions or take the lives of animals or unnecessarily harm the planet, we're failing our divine mandate. Number nine, you could watch the Creation Museum's Created Cosmos Planetarium show, and you can watch that at truthloveparent .com on our homepage, and I'll put the link in the description for you.

And ten, you can also read the creation account on Genesis 1 and 2 and have a family discussion about whatever seems interesting to your kids about the account. I hope today's episode gave you just a sneak peek into the importance of the creation mandate, and whether you celebrate it on Earth Day or not, I think it would be a fantastic tradition to start Creation Day in your family.

Just make sure Creation Day is spent celebrating the Creator. And please share this episode with your friends to help other families all over the globe learn about their responsibility to steward the Earth.

I have episode notes for you today on our blog, Taking Back the Family, and I'll link that for you in the description as well. And on our next episode, we're going to discuss some more issues with family talk.

Do your children have sharp tongues? Are they constantly, quote-unquote, joking with each other? Well, our next episode is called Family Jokes. Is God pleased when we make fun of each other? We'll talk about the kind of family kidding that's appropriate, the kind that's not, and what to do about it.

Thank you so much for joining us today. Truth Love Parent is a listener-supported podcast, and if you'd be interested in learning about the many ways to support TLP, please click on the Five Ways to Support TLP link in the description.

You should also find us on Facebook and Twitter, and follow us there for helpful articles on marriage, parenting, and family. There are so many issues that come up in our parenting. I know it seems almost naive to think that our responsibility to steward the Earth could be that big of a deal.

But when we read God's Word, we realize that it was all His original intent, His continuing desire and part of our eternal life that we can start enjoying today. I'll see you next.

Time. Truth Love Parent is part of the Evermind Ministries family, and is dedicated to helping you become an intentional, premeditated parent. Join us next time as we search God's Word for the truth your family needs today.