For the leader. On the gittit. A psalm of David:
YHVH! Our Lord! How glorious is your name throughout the earth! The fame of your majesty spreads even above the heavens!
From the mouths of babies and infants at the breast you established strength because of your foes, in order that you might silence the enemy and the avenger.
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and stars that you set in place — what are mere mortals, that you concern yourself with them; humans, that you watch over them with such care?
You made him but little lower than the angels, you crowned him with glory and honor, you had him rule what your hands made, you put everything under his feet — sheep and oxen, all of them, also the animals in the wilds, the birds in the air, the fish in the sea, whatever passes through the paths of the seas.
YHVH! Our Lord! How glorious is your name throughout the earth!
What is dominion?
In the Garden, Abba used the word radah when He says,
Genesis 1:28 …“Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea, the birds in the air and every living creature that crawls on the earth.”
Interestingly, the root of this word means to spread out and cover, which gives us clearer context when we look at the definition of radah itself:
Rule: A ruler is one who walks among the people in the sense of spreading out rather than rule on the throne alone.
Makes sense, right? Adam and Eve were to expand the Garden, not sit in one corner building their own life. They had a responsibility to grow the Kingdom, not simply take from it. And all they had to do to keep on in this place is trust the Word of God. Stay obedient and weigh out the cost of disobedience. Comparing a life full of life, or partaking of a life that ends in death. Easy, right?
Well…
Here, David uses a different word: mashal. Simply speaking it means “to rule”, but in what context? A deeper look into this reveals the following meaning:
I. Rule: II. Compare: To compare one thing to another in the sense of a rule of measurement, often a proverb or parable.
It may seem that David has switched the meaning of rulership but it seems he just added to what was already there. Ruling seems to carry with it a responsibility to expand and compare. Expanding makes sense but what exactly are we to compare?
For Adam and Eve it was two trees. One gives life, the other death.
For us, it’s two worlds. One gives life, the other death.
Turns out, they are both the same: expand the Kingdom (spreading out life), and continually weigh out whether it’s worth being obedient.
Adam and Eve had it all and it makes no sense why they would choose so poorly. It’s easy for us to look back and say, “Why couldn’t you just trust what God said?!”
But being God ourselves is such an attractive option. We don’t need to worry so much about serving since we can just tell people what to do and they’ll do it. But isn’t that exactly what they didn’t do with God? So YHVH, who is God, told people what to do and they did the opposite. And we think that if we are God, somehow people will listen? Do you see the trap here? We don’t want rulership, we want control.
Dominion is not a rule of power, it’s submission. Serving others in the same way Yeshua came to serve.
Matthew 20:25 But Yeshua called them and said, “You know that among the Goyim (nations), those who are supposed to rule them become tyrants, and their superiors become dictators. 26 Among you, it must not be like that. On the contrary, whoever among you wants to be a leader must become your servant, 27 and whoever wants to be first must be your slave! 28 For the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve — and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
True rulership requires you to give up your life. And that is not something we want to do. But if we do…
Before we state the obvious, let’s step back and build out the path that got us to where we are now.
The story of humanity's fall in Genesis 3 should be very familiar: Adam and Eve, tempted by the serpent, eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and are expelled from the Garden of Eden. But beneath the surface of this account lies a profound question:
Did Adam and Eve surrender their God-given authority to Satan when they disobeyed?
While this language is not specifically used, the implication of it being true is painfully evident. In fact, Yeshua even acknowledged this to be the case when he referred to Satan as the “ruler of this world”. More on this below.
In Genesis 1:26-28, God grants Adam and Eve dominion over creation:
"Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth..."
Human beings were created to be ambassadors, ruling the earth under God's authority. This dominion was not about exploitation, but stewardship -- to cultivate, guard, and govern the earth in alignment with God's will. And what is His will?
1 Timothy 2:4 He wants all humanity to be delivered and come to full knowledge of the truth.
When Adam and Eve obeyed the serpent instead of God, they did more than break a rule; they shifted their allegiance. By choosing to listen to and act on the serpent's words rather than God's, they placed themselves under the influence of the deceiver. As Paul later writes:
Romans 6:16 Don’t you know that if you present yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, then, of the one whom you are obeying, you are slaves — whether of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to being made righteous?
This shift wasn't just personal; it had cosmic consequences. According to Romans 5, their disobedience opened the door for sin and death to enter the world, and by extension, allowed Satan to gain a foothold of influence over humanity and the systems of the world.
By the time of Yeshua walking the earth, Satan is repeatedly described as having significant (though not ultimate) authority:
John 12:31 “Now is the time for this world to be judged, now the ruler of this world will be expelled.”
John 14:30 30 “I won’t be talking with you much longer, because the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me;”
2 Corinthians 4:4 They do not come to trust because the god of this age (the ‘olam hazeh) has blinded their minds, in order to prevent them from seeing the light shining from the Good News about the glory of the Messiah, who is the image of God.
1 John 5:19 19 We know that we are from God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the Evil One.
Even during Yeshua' temptation, Satan claims:
Luke 4:5 The Adversary took him up, showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world, 6 and said to him, “I will give you all this power and glory. It has been handed over to me, and I can give it to whomever I choose.”
Yeshua doesn't challenge the legitimacy of that claim, which suggests that humanity's fall did, in some way, result in Satan gaining real -- though ultimately subordinate -- authority over the world.
The Apostle Paul draws a direct parallel between Adam and Yeshua:
1 Corinthians 15:21 For since death came through a man, also the resurrection of the dead has come through a man.
1 Corinthians 15:45 In fact, the Tanakh says so: Adam, the first man, became a living human being; but the last “Adam” has become a life-giving Spirit.
Where Adam failed, Yeshua succeeded. Through His obedience, death, and resurrection, Yeshua broke the power of sin and death and reclaimed the authority Adam forfeited:
Matthew 28:16 So the eleven talmidim went to the hill in the Galil where Yeshua had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they prostrated themselves before him; but some hesitated. 18 Yeshua came and talked with them. He said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore, go and make people from all nations into talmidim, immersing them into the reality of the Father, the Son and the Ruach HaKodesh, 20 and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember! I will be with you always, yes, even until the end of the age.”
Colossians 2:14 He wiped away the bill of charges against us. Because of the regulations, it stood as a testimony against us; but he removed it by nailing it to the execution-stake. 15 Stripping the rulers and authorities of their power, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by means of the stake.
While Yeshua has decisively defeated Satan, the full manifestation of His reign is still unfolding. Paul writes that Yeshua must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet:
1 Corinthians 15:20 But the fact is that the Messiah has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have died. 21 For since death came through a man, also the resurrection of the dead has come through a man. 22 For just as in connection with Adam all die, so in connection with the Messiah all will be made alive. 23 But each in his own order: the Messiah is the firstfruits; then those who belong to the Messiah, at the time of his coming; 24 then the culmination, when he hands over the Kingdom to God the Father, after having put an end to every rulership, yes, to every authority and power. 25 For he has to rule until he puts all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be done away with will be death, 27 for “He put everything in subjection under his feet.” But when it says that “everything” has been subjected, obviously the word does not include God, who is himself the one subjecting everything to the Messiah. 28 Now when everything has been subjected to the Son, then he will subject himself to God, who subjected everything to him; so that God may be everything in everyone.
Believers now live in this tension of the "already but not yet" -- Yeshua reigns, Satan is defeated, yet the final judgment and full restoration are still future.
Revelation 20:7 When the thousand years are over, the Adversary will be set free from his prison 8 and will go out to deceive the nations in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for the battle. Their number is countless as the sand on the seashore; 9 and they came up over the breadth of the Land and surrounded the camp of God’s people and the city he loves. But fire came down from heaven and consumed them. 10 The Adversary who had deceived them was hurled into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet were; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
Adam and Eve may not have consciously handed over the keys of the world to Satan, but their disobedience resulted in a real transfer of influence. They forfeited their dominion, brought themselves under bondage, and enabled Satan to become a usurping ruler over a fallen world. But the gospel is the good news that Yeshua, the second Adam, has come to take it all back -- and He has. His authority is complete, His reign is advancing, and one day, it will be fully and gloriously revealed.
As for how to use this authority today, we must align our ways with His Ways.
John 14:8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it will be enough for us.” 9 Yeshua replied to him, “Have I been with you so long without your knowing me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Don’t you believe that I am united with the Father, and the Father united with me? What I am telling you, I am not saying on my own initiative; the Father living in me is doing his own works. 11 Trust me, that I am united with the Father, and the Father united with me. But if you can’t, then trust because of the works themselves. 12 Yes, indeed! I tell you that whoever trusts in me will also do the works I do! Indeed, he will do greater ones, because I am going to the Father. 13 In fact, whatever you ask for in my name, I will do; so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask me for something in my name, I will do it.”
Most people today pray “in Yeshua’s name” as if it were some formulaic process to get what we deem as the “best” outcome. Or we surrender blindly to “whatever” His will may be. The truth runs alongside both of these. Praying and asking what it is He wants to go forth in the earth, then speaking it aloud.
We are to be ambassadors for the Kingdom of God, speaking the position of the King to all of the nations. The goal? To make it so all men are saved, and to make them disciples of the King.
Adam and Eve were given dominion and authority to expand the Kingdom and usher in life. They then gave that authority to the Adversary. Then Yeshua came and took it back by spilling His own blood to permanently cover Adam and Eve’s sin (and by extension, ours also). All authority now belongs to Him. If we seek Him out and ask what it is He wants, then speak it, it will be done.
So the question is: Do you have dominion? If so, how do you use it? And, where is the evidence?