[This post has a supplement status because it does not directly address the question of pets in heaven; instead, it counters arguments that (falsely) claim man has lost God-given dominion over his pets.]
To frame this "dominion mandate" of Genesis 1:28¹ properly, let me say that time and location change things! We are not in the Garden of God, which is how Eden is specifically identified in Ezekiel 28:13. We are in a fallen world, surrounded by an unseen realm. Our Creator's #1 directive to mankind is modified for each age on Earth. Currently, during the present age or dispensation, Jesus' declaration to go and make disciples of all nations, baptize them, and teach them the importance of obedience² is the primary mandate for believers. Our charge of ruling over animals may have temporarily taken a back seat while there are lost and dying humans out there, but the original charge to rule is still on the bus, not thrown under it!
In your talks with Holy Spirit and prayers to the Father, when you are discussing God's plan for your personal life, ask and He will reveal the proper pet-balance for the current season of your life. Most men and women will find an ebb and flow to what God asks them to do—this is because He is raising well-rounded children. Nothing stays exactly the same for long; you typically find times when caring for a pet is so impractical that is is not best for the animal, and other times when caring for a pet helps to train you for the future by exercising a portion of that dominion in this present world.
But what about the animals in the Bible that don't seem to fit with mankind having dominion over them? Anomalies like this can make our faith waver if we don't get a handle on them; and some even point to these dominion-defiant beasts as "proof" that dominion was revoked. But the reasons that such creatures do not submit to man's authority are not evidence that our authority was nullified.
There are three in particular, and the key to unlocking all of their explanations is to accept that they are physical representations of supernatural entities. They are:
1. the Serpent of Eden, a nachash.
2. the primeval sea serpent, Leviathan
3. the strong beast, Behemoth
If you are not willing to be open to a demonic realm of the supernatural, you may as well stop reading this and go find something else to do. This blog is not here to argue that. But if you are willing to consider that these three creatures are "reptilian" in ways other than a valid phylogenetic grouping of paleontology, then I believe you will understand why these three "animals" do not neatly fit the dominion mandate of Genesis 1:28.¹
I. The Serpent of Eden
We will start with the go-to on this one, Strong's number for this animal-being is nachash, #H5175, נָחָשׁ noun masculine Genesis 3:1 serpent. Late Hebrew id.; Arabic serpent, viper.
But wait... there's more.
The noun is derived from an adjective, and Hebrew being vowel-less, this opens up connotations for bright, shining, fiery, and brassy in addition to the snake/serpent meaning. That is about as far as my web search could discover in sticking to the Genesis passage alone, but when that dot is connected to Revelation 12:9 and 20:2, which both speak of the great dragon, that old serpent,³ called the Devil, and Satan, the meaning explodes with the supernatural. This was not a talking snake from the Little Golden Book® of Moses' Fairy Tales.
As sojourners of the 21st century, [that is the perspective we need here: eventually we will put on immortality, and so today's here and now will have become a just-passing-through,] our view of the divine time line has an unnamed adversary in Genesis and throughout the Old Testament, but finally, at the end, is the revealing of who/what the ancient serpent is. For the bulk of the Bible's history, satan was basically a job description and not a name.
For now, we are mostly going to bookmark that thought because there will be a later post on the importance of Naming. But you can still get a sense of where it will go if you remember that Jesus said "in My name" believers would cast out devils. The point for today, however, is that the serpent in Eden was not the sort of created animal that God designed man to rule over. That is Jesus' job now— All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Him, Matthew 28:18. Jesus did give believers the authority to "cast out devils," that is, to claim small bits of territory demon-free zones; but that is not the same thing as ruling over him. Paul spoke of a day when we will judge supernatural entities, angels, cf I Corinthians 6:3, Do you not know that we will judge angels? But that day is not today.
II. Behemoth
Behemoth is a land dwelling creature that is mentioned only once, Job 40:15. God said He made this creature, just as He made Job. Many people have tried to identify it as a real animal that exists today, such as a water ox, bull, elephant, or hippopotamus; but if you are looking for a literal animal, one of the dinosaurs make the best fit for the Bible's description. As big and as tremendously strong as it is, it is an herbivore, and there is no mention of the wild animals on the mountain where it grazes being harmed. Even the dinosaurs' extinction is not out-of-sync with the biblical record. Job 40:19 may be predictive: He is the grandest of God's undertakings, yet his creator is approaching him with his sword, ISV. God's point in using Behemoth as an example was to show Job that he was not strong enough to save himself.
III. Leviathan
This creature is mentioned six times in five verses of the New King James scriptures. Job 3:8, Job 41:1, Psalm 74:14, Psalm 104:26, and the double mention in Isaiah 27:1.
Of these, the forty-first chapter of Job gives the best physical description, should you wish to look it up. Those who claim that man's rule over animals has been revoked often point to these sea-monster characteristics, state that it is ridiculous to think man could rule over such a creature, and fold their arms as if they have made their case. But... Isaiah 27:1 is more obviously a metaphorical description of a supernatural being, (or perhaps 3 "beings"). I will quote it here in the New American Standard:
In that day the LORD will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, With His fierce and great and mighty sword, Even Leviathan the twisted serpent; And He will kill the dragon who lives in the sea.Some commentators say these are three aspects of one entity that the Lord will reprimand. Others say there are three entities, a fleeing one, a twisted one, and a sea-dragon one, and then they attempt to match each with countries or empires. I even found one commentary that said the Lord pronounced three levels of judgments on Leviathan. Fortunately, we do not have to pick an interpretation because all we need to know to debunk using "Leviathan" as "proof" that God revoked His intent that man have dominion over animals is that this Leviathan thing, whatever it is, has a whoppin' spiritual component that puts it in a whole 'nuther league.
I doubt that any one man has a comprehensive list of all the malevolent spiritual entities. In Ephesians 6:12, Paul lists four: principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness of this world, and spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. These are not flesh-and-blood enemies, and we were never given dominion over them. Jesus gave a limited authority to believers to use His Name against demons, but that authority does not annihilate them, rather, it forces them to leave our geographic proximity.
Leviathan appears to be the physical manifestation of a supernatural entity. When reading mythology and paleoanthropologic literature or browsing YouTube videos, I kept finding Leviathan being linked to the Chaos demon. James 3:15&16 gives us a working-backward scripture that calls chaos the effect of the demonic: Such wisdom does not come from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every evil practice. Almost always there is a "twisting" motif about Leviathan, and this characteristic fits with a being that causes demonic disorder. At the risk of leaning more to the esoteric than any of my early Sunday school teachers would have been comfortable with, I would not be shocked if I learned that Leviathan is a shape-changer, the kind upon which science fiction is based.
Conclusion —
Of these creatures, there are three main interpretations: (a) they are mythological, fictitious, or exclusively allegorical, (b) they are literal, natural animals, but possibly extinct since the days of Job, or (c) they are real in the realm of the supernatural and capable of manifesting in the physicality of Earth.
Whichever conclusion you come to, your reasons for choosing it must accommodate the argument that God spoke of them as real animals that Job was familiar with. If you choose (a), you will need to explain how God’s purpose in glorifying His creation would be served by describing mythological creatures.
Best Guesses?
♦ The Serpent of Eden is clearly allegorical, but it also must have had some physicality in order to participate in an Earth environment that would affect the entire space/mass/time of Earth. It is also clearly supernatural.
♦ Behemoth was a literal, created animal that Job was familiar with, and although the hint is a bit obtuse, it is possible that God was showing as well as talking during his discourse with Job. If so, then Job 40:19, which says, "yet its Maker can approach it with his sword," could have been demonstrated at that point. I know, it is not the "extinction of the dinosaurs" theory that you are used to, but it's a hypothesis that aligns with scripture.
♦ Leviathan is the enigma that is hiding in plan sight. Job 41:34 says, "He looks on everything that is high; He is king over all the sons of pride." The physical account given in the preceding verses is of the archetypal dragon complete with fire-breathing ability, but this final verse describes the spiritual nature of this being. It fits the description of Lucifer, whose pride was central to his fall. Isaiah 14:14 confirms the part about looking on everything that is high. Ezekiel 28:16-17 tells of how he was cast down from that mountain because he corrupted wisdom for the sake of his splendor. The sons of pride are his followers. God gives Job multiple examples of how human strength and weapons are unable to defeat the supernatural Leviathan.
Bottom Line
All of these creatures had a unique role and purpose, even if adversarial, and man had not been given dominion over any of them.
Maybe one could build the argument that Adam had dominion over the Serpent of Eden, but that gets too cerebral, hypothetical, and ultimately pointless to bother with. Anyway, if the serpent was, or was possessed by—either way, if it was a fallen angel, Adam had not been given dominion over it. God told Job straight-out that man did not have dominion over Behemoth. And leviathan was the embodiment of primordial chaos, not the typical representative of animal creation.
Therefore, in my judgment, anyone who tries to use these creatures as "proof" that man lost his dominion over animals has failed to make his or her argument.
Unless you can be happy with the answer that, "Oh, my pet will be in Heaven because my God is good like that," which really is not a bad argument except that you are left with only one reason for believing your pet will be there; so if you you would prefer to meet the "two or three witnesses" standard of evidence for believing your pet will be in heaven, then assurance that we still have God-ordained dominion over our pets is essential to building the strongest case possible.
Footnotes & More
¹ God blessed them; and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth." Genesis 1:28
² 19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, 20;and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. Matthew 28:19,20
³ The Greek for serpent here is ὄφις (ophis).
Link to "nachash"
Many concepts in this post came from reading Dr. Michael S. Heiser's work, particularly in regard to the Hebrew word nachash. I haven't copied and pasted anything, or even closely paraphrased anything that I think requires footnotes as his "intellectual property," but if something seems curious in this post, you should go search his website to find out more. drmsh.com
A Rabbit Trail for You— Egyptian Hieroglyph - this is interesting in that a hieroglyph that looks roughly like a cartoon figure of the biblical Leviathan has been linked to animal sacrifice to a demon/god. Whether these creatures were worshiped or sacrificed in worship, the Egyptian artist has portrayed a physical animal being used to contact the spiritual.
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