Psalm 24:1-2 says, “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein, for he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers.” God is the creator and owner of everything and everyone. The earth and all that is in it is His. He has dominion over it all. He can bless and He can take away. At creation, God did something incredible: “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And 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 and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth” (Genesis 1:26).
God made man–created in His image–managers over everything on earth. As managers, we have great responsibility. Most of us have had bad experiences with bad managers at work. Lazy managers place heavy burdens on the workers. Domineering managers exasperate them. Incompetent managers drive them crazy. Dishonest managers rob them. Evil managers destroy them. But good managers work with the workers, keep morale high, and everything is done responsibly to please the owner. The scriptures clearly differentiate between the owner and the manager/workers.
There are plenty of parables that demonstrate this. One of the most notable is the parable of the talents. In the story, God is the master and the servants are the ones managing his talents. The servant who was given 5 talents made 5 more. The one given 2 talents made 2 more. The one given 1 talent buried it out of fear. The master was angry at the mismanagement from the one who buried it and ordered that his talent be given to the one with 10. Then he said, “Fro to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 25:29-30). We are commanded to be responsible managers of the talents and resources that God has blessed us with.