Matins Devotion: March 6, 2025

Genesis 1:20-2:3

When God initially gives Adam dominion over the earth, it’s an easy task, in a sense, because the earth has not yet been corrupted by sin. There is no killing, no death, no disease, no natural disasters. Adam names the animals but doesn’t have to battle them. Adam takes the fruit but doesn’t need to rid it of worms or keep it from rotting. When Adam exercises dominion over the earth, he can do so without breaking a sweat because all of creation is at peace with him.

But then Adam falls and everything changes. In the curse that God speaks to Satan, Adam will now have to earn his bread by the sweat of his brow. He’ll have to beat the soil into submission, have to battle the hostility of the animal kingdom. Thorns and thistles, earthquakes and typhoons, death and disease. Now he’ll break more than a sweat trying to exercise dominion over the earth.

But now our Lord has come. The greater Adam has arrived in this cursed garden, and He has come to exercise something greater than dominion. He has come to do something greater than fight and struggle against the earth. He’s come to conquer it, to subdue it entirely, to bring it home. And as Jesus Christ begins the same earthly ministry where we see Him calm storms and heal diseases with nothing but the words from His lips, we see Him cast out demons, the children of Satan, with nothing but His words. Here is the one who will not just beat back the fallen world. Here is the one who will save it, restore it, and make all things new.

And that Lord is your brother. That Lord has destroyed your sins, claimed you as His own and given you the right to live with Him in the new heavens and the new earth He has spoken and will speak into existence. Be at peace. The curse is ending. The kingdom is almost here.