Gen. 1:26 – In our image
Again, we see the Godhead expressed. This doesn’t mean that God literally has a nose, eyes, and so on. Instead, it refers to the inner person. The body, soul, and spirit is similar to the three parts that make up the Godhead. Until the Fall, there was perfection.
Let them have dominion
This perfection led to mankind being able to rule wisely and completely over all the other creatures. People have dominion because they are more able to plan, more able to build, more able to think complex thoughts, by far than any other creature.
However, whereas now, people are known to do things for evil to animals, then their dominion was a perfectly wise one. Mankind could do all the wonderful things that he can do with animals – train them, allow them to assist him, and so on. Once the Fall came, people kept that dominion, because it still involved order, but God added to it that animals would be eaten, just as they ate each other.
Mankind’s dominion, then, does not come only because people are smarter. It comes about from a sensible order that God created – a hierarchy among His creation. Because god knew that man was going to Fall, He allowed it because, in his sovereignty, He knew people could use this dominion for wonderful things, if they chose. For instance, our ability to train dogs to help the blind is wholly because of that dominion. The animals, too, were happy servants of man – and still are, when people treat them properly. There was likely no stubbornness among them, but instead they worked in man’s best interests.
Take, for example, the story of Balaam and his donkey, starting in Numbers 22:5. God placed in that donkey the desire to help Balaam, acting in his best interest so Balaam wouldn’t run afoul of God’s angel which was ahead of him. God even caused the creature to explain this to Balaam. Whether animals could speak before the Fall is doubtful. However, the important thing is, this may have been a small picture of what it was like before, when peace ruled the earth, and animals always worked in man’s best interests.
