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Expediters Online.com Driver Lifestyles
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.” 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 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.
To borrow a phrase from an old E.F. Hutton commercial, “when God speaks, we should listen.” God told our first father, Adam, to (1) be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth, (2) subdue the earth and (3) have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth. This is what theologians call the “dominion mandate”. In the dominion mandate, God is telling us to raise up many generations of people and while doing so to use the earth’s resources for our sustenance. Presumably, there would be work involved in this dominion activity, and indeed there is. The mandate is given to all men because Adam was our “federal head” (that is to say Adam was the first in the line of men and thus represented all men). This was not just a mandate to Adam alone, this is our mandate, this is our commandment from God and therefore, we should listen with the intention of action. Now having read all these words, you may be wondering what on earth does this have to do with trucking? Someone might say, “Show me in the Bible where I can find the words freight, expediter, diesel or flatbed?” The simple fact of the matter is that those words do not appear in the Bible. Neither do the words computer, tire, nuclear or a host of other words. Simply because the Bible may not use our terminology does not necessarily mean it is silent as to our vocation or industry. Nevertheless, industry assumes work and work is the basis of the “dominion mandate”. Consider this: how much of the trucking industry, in all its forms, revolve around the movement of food for the consumption of the world? Is not the trucking of fish, fowl and beef taking dominion over the fish of the sea the birds of the air and every living creature that moves on the earth? What about machinery that processes fish, fowl and beef? To truck machines that process food is taking dominion over the earth. What about trucking tractor and combine parts that raise the food for mankind, or the trucking of corn, wheat, soybeans and a host of other crops? So you see the trucking industry is directly related to taking dominion over the earth. With nearly 6 billion people inhabiting the earth, an efficient transportation of resources and commodities is essential to the filling and subduing the earth. Has it become more clear how God’s words speak to the very technologies of our day from the very first commandments to Adam? I hope this is but a glimpse into this series of articles. In the days ahead, it is my intention to deal with specific topics related to the trucking industry in our series Where the Bible Meets the Road . My desire is for the readers to gain an ever-increasing desire to know God and how close to our daily lives His word, the Bible, can guide and direct us. Copyright 2005 by Expediters Online.com |