Hebrews 2:8 Commentary and Bible Study

At creation God commanded man to ‘have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth’ (Genesis 1:26). He was to subdue the earth, not instantly, but as he multiplied and multiplied across the earth; it was to be a collective enterprise. In Psalm 8 which Hebrews continues to quote here, the extent of that dominion is extremely broad and uses the term ‘all things’ to describe it. This creates a problem. Psalm 8 seems to speak of man so highly, having such an exalted place in God’s plan, and yet he seems to have failed to achieve that high place. Has David’s prophecy failed? At present we do not yet see all things under the dominion of man. We see a world under the curse, a world in rebellion, as it were, against mankind, resisting his efforts to subdue all things. Considering the current state of mankind, he concludes that this prophecy has not yet been fulfilled. Because man fell, though he was put above the animals, higher than the animals, the greatest created being on earth, yet he sinned and he lost God's favour and never achieved what God had intended for him: that he should be a supreme person in a glorified earth – under God of course – a person of triumph and victory. Does this mean that the purpose for which man was created by God has been frustrated, that he can never reach the high destiny for which he was made? That is the state of affairs in which the fall leaves him – a ruined creation which appears to be ruined beyond recovery.