We concluded the last post discussing the creation account from Genesis 1 up to verse 25. Starting in verse 26 we see that God begins to create something even more unique and special than any of the other things previously…and that includes the birds and animals and fish and most of them are way cooler looking than I am!
God says “Let US make man in OUR image…” Wait a minute, who is God talking to here? Well, if we take a moment and jump over to John 1, we will get more insight.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were created through Him, and without Him nothing was created that was created. In Him was life, and the life was the light of mankind. The light shines in darkness, but the darkness has not overcome it.”
John 1:1-5
We see here that this second person of the godhead, the Word as he is called, was in the beginning with God and somehow was also God. The way I like to try and explain this mystery of what is known as the Trinity (that word is not in your Bible by the way) is this. God is the father, the head, the leader, the architect. He came up with all of the plans and ideas, and sends them to the Word to complete. The Word, which fittingly enough, then speaks the plans into existence. Taking nothing and turning it into everything. I have a side theory about that I will share and link here one day. The Holy Spirit is then sort of like the building engineer. He helps us in our day to day decision making as well as giving us assistance in situations and helps us keep the spiritual systems running. When we ignore his sage advice, things start going awry. The Holy Spirit is given to each person who places their faith in Jesus, but many Christians neglect to engage Him and so their “building” is in disarray. Some folks like this architect, general contractor, building engineer example, others don’t. If you don’t, please don’t hate me, its a great mystery and for many of us it is difficult to put into easy to understand terms.
So, going back to Genesis 1:27, we see God saying “Let US” and “in OUR image”…so we know he is conversing with the Word and the Holy Spirit, which was also mentioned back in Genesis 1:2. God then created the two genders, that is a biblical stance. Then He instructs them to be fruitful and have lots of children, and to replenish the earth and subdue it.Wait, replenish the earth? I think he is asking mankind to assist in the cleaning up which he did in between verses 1 & 2 (see the first blog of this series to review).
When He made us in His own image, we were given many qualities and characteristics which point back to God. Furthermore, there are certain kinds of “stereotypical” things which men have and which women have…and that is why when He out the two together it was “very good”. The character traits that man lacks, women often have, and the things women lack, men often have. We were meant to be better together. Not at odds with one another, but a complimentary pair, fulfilling the task at hand to bring Glory to God.
God gave them some guidelines for caring for the animals and then said get ‘er dun. Just kidding…kind of. He assigned us a role on this planet, and we are to be active in that role. What role do you play in your own life? How do you fulfill the job of managing the earth, or filling it with children? How do you take the command God gave Adam and Eve here and apply it to your own life?
