The story of
God’s kingdom begins at the very beginning when God created mankind. That is
also the point at which I should like to begin these Bible studies.
Let
Us Make Man into Our Image
In Genesis
we read the following account of the creation of men and women.
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 air, and over the cattle, and
over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.”
So God created man in his own
image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
And God blessed them, and God said
to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have
dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every
living thing that moves upon the earth.” (Gen. 1:26-28)
We
see from the above passage that humanity was made in the image of God. In order
to arrive at a proper understanding of what is meant here, we need to know a
bit about ancient Near Eastern culture.
In
the ancient Near East, it was customary for the emperor (who was considered to
be a god) to erect as many images of himself as he could all over his kingdom.
These would either be made out of such materials as gold, gems or stone, while
the cheapest images were simply made from clay.
Now
these images, or icons, served an important function politically. They proved
who was ruler, for a king’s dominion extended only as far as his images were
located. The modern parallel would be a nation’s flag. So a king would try to
erect as many images of himself as he possibly could, over as wide an area as
possible. While the geographical extent of images established the king’s
dominion, the quality and number of images established his wealth and glory.
The
ultimate crime in those days would be to deface one of these images. If a king
conquered the dominion of another king, the first thing he would do would be to
destroy all the images of the former king and erect images of himself. The goal
of each king was to extend his images (and therefore his power) over the entire
earth.
Keeping
these thoughts in mind, we are in a position to return and understand the
Genesis account. In the original Hebrew, the phrase that is usually translated “make man in our image”
should actually read “make man into our image.” In other words, men and
women are not made in the image of God; they actually are the
image of God. The original readers of Genesis would have known exactly what
this meant because of the role images played in the surrounding culture. It is
God’s way of saying that He wants the human race to be His royal image and
represent Him.[1]
We
have seen that in the ancient Near East a king’s iconography had a numerical
and a geographical focus. That is, he tried to erect as many images of himself
as possible (numerical focus) to establish his wealth/glory over as wide an
area as possible (geographical focus) to mark out his territorial dominion. It
is interesting as we read through Genesis that these are also the very goals
that God Himself has as King over the whole earth. For example, the command to
be fruitful and multiply relates to the numerical expansion of God’s images
(us), while the command to fill the earth, subdue it and have dominion relates
to the geographical expansion of His images. God’s glory increases through the
multiplication of His images, while His dominion is marked out further as man
increases and spreads out. The underlying idea here is that God is establishing
a kingdom on the earth.
The
spreading out of man’s dominion involves more than mere geography. It includes
any area of life where man exerts his control over things or is involved in
ordering chaos. In Genesis 1:28-30 when the Lord lists specific things that He
is giving man control over – the fish, the birds, the beasts, every herb, every
tree, everything that has life – it becomes obvious that the Lord’s intent is
to give man dominion over all aspects of the natural creation. The
things which are singled out simply illustrate a principle that applies equally
to those things that are not mentioned by name, such as our use of minerals,
oil deposits, electrical energy, etc., as well as the academic disciplines
which involve the ordering and management of information. Whether we wash dirty
dishes, comb our hair, sell things in a store or engage in historical research
- you can see how long the list could become – we are exercising dominion and
hence extending God’s image into that little portion of the world. We see Adam
exercising dominion in an intellectual way when he named the animals. To name a
thing is part of what is involved in bringing structure, order, and ultimately
civilization, into the world. This is itself a cameo of what Adam had the
opportunity to do on a wider sphere. Since the earth held unlimited potential
for cultural, aesthetic, intellectual and technological advance, a mighty
civilization could have grown up to the glory of God with Adam as king.
When
God gave man dominion over the creation, the implication is that He was
designating us as vice-regents in His rulership, giving us dominion over the
works of His hands (Ps. 8:6). So when we use God’s materials to build a house,
have dominion over our house by vacuuming it, exercise dominion over our minds
by gathering or systematizing knowledge, rule over our bodies by preparing food
to eat, etc., we should always do so with the consciousness that we are acting as
God’s representatives over that portion of the world. This should give us a
sense of dignity. Just think, in everything we do it is our job to represent
the Supreme King of the universe!
Lest
the knowledge of this fact lead to exaltation, we should ponder that God made
us out of the dust of the ground - the same substances from which cheap clay
images were derived. This should give us a sense of humility. Like the other
clay images of that day, we have no purpose outside of glorifying the king for
whom we were made. Nothing we do has any value outside of bringing glory to
God. Thus the wonderful beginning words of the Westminster Confession: “Man’s chief end is to glorify God
and enjoy Him forever.”
Now
where does sin fit into all this? So far we have only looked at what God said before
the fall of Adam and Eve. In the next Bible study I would like to look at the
affect that sin had on God’s original plan and design for man.
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[1] See
Richard L. Pratt, Jr. Designed for Dignity: What God has Made it Possible
for You to Do (Phillipsburg, NJ: P & R Publishing, 1993).