Dominion - Genesis 1:26-28

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”  So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.  Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” - Genesis 1:26-28

    Once again the news s filled with our latest venture into planetary exploration. The $850 million endeavor is called the InSight Lander. It will take photographs as other similar craft have done in an effort to prove what cannot be proven - that life exists anywhere in the universe but here on earth where God created life. Here and here alone, according to Scripture, God created all the life forms that have or will ever exist. We can speculate and hypothesize all we want and at the end of the day, the proof-box will remain empty. “Then God said, ‘Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind’; and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.” - Genesis 1:24-25. God said that the earth would bring forth the living creature. He never mentioned Mars or any other heavenly body bringing forth life! And on top of that, He saw that it was good for it to be this way.
    The only heavenly beings that God has any contact with are the angelic beings He created and they are not of dust, flesh, or bone. They are spirits. Whether they be angelic hosts or fallen angels, they are the only other created beings in God’s creation. Period!
    Now it is true that where Scripture is silent we should not speculate or engage in conjecture. Where Scripture is silent we too should remain silent. Have we not enough on our plates right here on earth? Are there not enough obstacles here and now that we as human beings need to attend to without engaging in the utterly fantastic? “The lips of the righteous feed many, but fools die for lack of wisdom.” - Proverbs 10:21.
    We have enough to contend with right here. We have enough sickness and poverty. We have enough hatred and murder. We have enough ignorance and foolishness. We have enough arrogance and pride. What we lack is enough faith in God. What we lack is enough love for our fellow men and women. What we lack is enough humility to learn. But the day is coming when we will see with our own eyes the truth of God’s creation and it won’t require a telescope, a microscope, or pictures beamed back from a distant planet. The day is coming when we will see for ourselves - “Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.” - Genesis 1:31.
    We have been charged by God with dominion over our own planet. “So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.’” - Genesis 9:1. This is our commission - dominion over God’s creation here on earth! There is nowhere in Scripture where we are commanded to search the stars for other forms of life. We must not let our pride bring us to ruin again. We still have not recovered from our last attempt to be Gods.
“And they said, ‘Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.’” - Genesis 11:4.
    Instead, we must hear the words of Christ Jesus once more - “‘Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.’ Amen.” - Matthew 28:19.
    Both the command for dominion and our commission to spread the Gospel applies nowhere in creation but right here on earth.