Lead:

What is the cultural mandate? We’ll get to John Frame’s analysis after today’s first stop on reading through the Bible in a year.

Intro:

Welcome! We’re hours into 2020, and I hope you’ve kept your resolutions so far!

Me? Well, I’ve been agonizing over this podcast in how it relates to the whole of my life and all the other stuff I want to accomplish. So, here are a few changes, subject to some tweaking in the coming days. So…

I’m still going to podcast seven days a week, but I’m going to move the Bible reading to a five-day plan. For a few reasons.

I know most listeners don’t listen seven days a week and they tend to binge like Netflix.
While there were many things to like about the reading plan from The Bible Project, it meant being in the Old Testament 3/4 of the year, and while that’s ok with me, it’s rough on many listeners. And I heard from listeners who said they need New Testament every day (thank you Sylvia), and after thinking through different ways to do that, this year, if the Lord wills, we’re going to read Old and New each day.
One option was to create my own reading plan, and I’ll be working on that behind the scenes. But I’ve got other stuff I need to prioritize, so after looking at a bunch of plans, I’ve chosen a plan based on another listener recommendation (thank you Linda). I’ll deliver Bible during the week, and…
So what will we do the other two days a week? That’s when we’ll deliver other content such as those “how to” questions and answers that I do occasionally. I’m also committed to begin bringing you interviews. The conversational part of the podcast stays…I just can’t help myself there. And I’ll still sometimes add some commentary like I do today, but that’s going to be at the end. But these other two days we’ll as a weekend edition.

Finally, can I speak to you…YOU…I really, really appreciate hearing from each and every one of you. No note is too small. I miss the interaction of a live audience, and if I’m really honest, there are days when I’m struggling and the littlest note literally turns the light on and brightens the day. I guess it’s that “words of affirmation” love language thing.

I shall a couple more things that I’ve got coming as the days progress.

Sponsor:

Would you kindly give a shout out somewhere? Thanks for spreading the Word.

Old covenant:

Passage: Genesis 1-2:3
Translation: NLT (New Living Translation)
Verses: 34
Words: ~806

Wisdom:

Passage: Psalm 19
Translation: NLT (New Living Translation)
Verses: 14
Words: ~230

New covenant:

Passage: Mark 1
Translation: NLT (New Living Translation)
Verses: 45
Words: ~952

Commentary:

The Cultural Mandate
The cultural mandate is found in Genesis 1:28, after the story of Adam’s and Eve’s creation. “And God blessed them. 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.’ ” This is especially important, because God addresses it to the entire human race, which at the time consisted only of two people. This is the task of the whole human race.
The cultural mandate has three parts. The first is the divine blessing. The cultural mandate is not a burdensome rule but an expression of God’s good will to us. The second and third parts are commands. One is to have children, grandchildren, and so on, so as to fill the entire earth with people. Of course, those people were to glorify God. The cultural mandate does not anticipate the fall. So, Adam and Eve would fill the earth with people who are eager to do the will of God, and who would therefore live in God’s presence, under his blessing.
The third command is to “subdue” the earth, to have “dominion” over it. This means to bring out the potential of everything in the earth so that it will be of service to human beings as they bring glory to God. It doesn’t mean to exploit the earth. Some secular environmentalists blame the cultural mandate for pollution, for they think “subdue” means to exploit, to take anything in creation for our selfish gain. But, of course, subduing includes preserving, nurturing, as we see, for example, in Genesis 2:15. Human beings cannot live on God’s earth if it is utterly polluted. So, God expected them as part of their stewardship to keep that from happening.
Thus we have three elements: a divine blessing, a commandment to fill, and a commandment to subdue. I think of the first as normative, the second as existential, the third as situational. God’s blessing comes first, and his commands set our direction. Filling the earth is the personal, existential commandment, and subduing it focuses on what we do in and with our environment.
These three elements recur over and over again in the Bible. In every covenant God makes—with Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, and Jesus—there are these three elements: a divine blessing, a seed, and a land. God blesses his people by giving them descendants to live in a land, subduing that land to bring glory to God.(1) (emphases mine)

Love you!

-R

ForTheHope is a daily audio Bible + apologetics podcast and blog. We’ve got a passion for just keepin’ it real, having conversations like normal people, and living out the love of Jesus better every single day.

Roger Courville, CSP is a globally-recognized expert in digitally-extended communication and connection, an award-winning speaker, award-winning author, and a passionately bad guitarist. Follow him on Twitter -- @RogerCourville and @JoinForTheHope – or his blog: www.forthehope.org.

Sources and resources:

(1) John M. Frame, Salvation Belongs to the Lord: An Introduction to Systematic Theology (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2006), 249–250.

#993: Genesis 1-2:3 | Psalm 19 | Mark 1 | Cultural mandate