Read with Me
Genesis 1:24-27b (HCSB)
Then God said, “Let the earth produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that crawl, and the wildlife of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. So God made the wildlife of the earth according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and creatures that crawl on the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.
Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness. They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, all the earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth.”
So God created man in His own image;
He created him in the image of God;
He created them male and female.
Listen with Me
Just as God had filled the water and skies with abundant living things on day five, now, on day six he filled the land with all sorts of creatures.
The creatures are listed in three broad categories livestock, which includes all domestic animals, including sheep and goats as well as cows; things that crawl, which includes all things that creep on the ground, including things like snakes, worms, and non-flying insects; and wildlife, a catch-all term that includes all the rest of the non-domesticated animals.
All these varieties of creatures were brought forth from the earth itself, each according to their kind. And when God was done, He judged everything “good”, all exactly as He had planned it.
Then, as the crown of God’s creative work, He created human beings. From the beginning, people were not animals, nor were they primitive brutes that had to evolve into something more advanced over time. The first couple was made in God’s own image and likeness, completely unlike any creature that had been made up to that point.
Although the boundaries of “image and likeness” have been debated for millennia, it is enough to understand that even though human bodies have many things in common with the bodies of animals, since we have to live in the on the same planet, breathe the same air, eat the same food and drink the same water, there the similarities end. In their minds, people are completely different creatures than animals, not only able to think and to reason, but also able to plan, imagine, and create. People can imagine things that are not, and then make those things a reality, something no animal can do.
But there is something more. Mankind was also created with an eternal, spiritual dimension. This includes a moral component. Human beings alone can understand the difference between not only good and bad behavior, but also between good and evil in the absolute sense. Thus, people are moral beings, and are thus responsible, not just before their fellow humans, but before God for the good or evil we choose.
And with this eternal spiritual dimension as part of their essential makeup, human beings can live in relationship with God. When we choose that relationship, the spiritual eyes and ears that we have received as part of God’s image and likeness can be opened, so that we can see and hear things in the heavenly dimensions where God dwells.
The purpose of people is not just to live, or even to live well. God created us to rule over the earth and all that are in it as His regents, His representatives. This, of course, requires that we serve and obey God so that we do not turn and begin to use the world for our own purposes instead of acting as God stewards.
In this section, God had Moses note that He created human beings in two genders, male and female, both created in His own image and likeness. The exact methodology God used to create us is detailed in the following section of the narrative that is now known as Genesis 2:5-24. But for this section, it is enough to understand that people were created on day six after the animals over which we would rule. We were created in two genders, male and female, and we were created in God’s own image and likeness, which means that we are unique among all the living things God made, so that we could live in continual communion with Him.
Pray with Me
Father, so much confusion today could be cleared up, so many crucial questions answered, if we would simply read what You have told us in your word and take it at face value. Instead of telling our children that they are amazing creations of a loving God, crafted in Your image and likeness so that they can have a real relationship with You, we tell them that they are animals, a cosmic accident, who came from nowhere and who are going nowhere. And then we are surprised when they act like animals and are hopeless and pessimistic over the future. Lord, help us to really let the truth of who we are, who we have been created to be, sink deep into our hearts and minds, so that we can share that amazing truth with our kids, and with everyone else, so we can restore hope and purpose in the hearts of more and more people. Amen.