The Grand Fortissimo-Genesis 1:26-31

One of the ways that ancient rulers would honor themselves and seek to self-glorify was to stamp their likeness onto money, have it depicted in shrines/tombs, or insist that it be painted on the walls in hieroglyphics. Such actions illustrated for everyone in a particular region or empire who was at the top and to whom all respect and adoration should be given. This was no doubt the case in Egypt. I imagine that all of the Hebrews slaves who worked so hard on the temples and tombs for centuries grew accustomed to the likeness of Pharaoh (who believed that he was god on earth) plastered all over the place in ways that not so subtly reiterated time and time again who ruled over them. Now freed from this dystopia, it was time for them to understand things differently. As Moses continues his retelling of the origins of the universe, he reverses this whole paradigm and applies it in more profound ways to the one true God and his people. Up to this point, the creation narrative has been building up to this grand fortissimo in vv. 26-31 in which we are made aware of the creation of mankind. In the five parts of this passage, we will learn exactly how special we are in God’s eyes and how we should live in response.

The Creation of Mankind-1:26

Following the overture of Genesis 1:1-5 and the grand crescendo of Genesis 1:6-25 is the great fortissimo of 1:26-31 in which God makes His greatest creation. More special than the stars, more beautiful than the other creatures, more impressive than the sea, more wondrous than day and the night, is mankind—“Then God said, ‘Let Us make man,…” (1:26). Everything up to this point in the creation week has been leading up to this moment—the creation of man and woman.

So much takes place in the retelling of what happened in the second part of day 6 in this short phrase. First, Moses diverges from the usual “Let there be” to “Let Us make” to highlight something especially momentous that is about to take place. Second, the plural noun “Us” is deliberately emphatic as well. Though many interpretations have been suggested for this pronoun (other gods, a heavenly court of angels, the earth, a plural of majesty, a plural of deliberation), the most appropriate view understands this plural pronoun to call to mind the fullness of God (see Hasel and Clines). According to one commentator, God is speaking here to His Spirit—the same Spirit who was hovering over the waters in verse 2. Perhaps, given the Word of God as agent of creation, God is also calling to mind His Son which is, according to John later, the “Word made flesh.”  Therefore, the plural pronoun gives the reader plenty of reason to believe that there is more to God than meets the eye. Though He is one, He is more than that as well.

Moses continues by describing the nature of mankind—“in Our image, according to Our likeness” (1:26b). Man is not only above the other creations of God because he is created last, but because he is made in the image of God. However, what exactly does this mean? What is the Imago Dei? Due to the unyielding grip of Platonic categories on the human person, many divide the human person into body and soul, or body, soul, and spirit, or body, mind, and soul (etc.). These will choose where the image of God fits accordingly. Some suggest that it is limited to physical appearance, believing that humans look like God in some way (standing erect, on two legs, etc.). Still others will delimit the Imago Dei to the soul—the eternal part of a person. However, these distinctions are at odds with the Hebrews anthropology at work in Moses’ day. As Genesis 2:7 will remind us later, the human person is a unified whole containing body AND spirit existing in radical oneness. Therefore the image of God applies to both mankind’s physical and spiritual attributes.

Not only that, but as the rest of verse 26 suggests, imaging God may also involve mankind’s capacity and calling to “rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping things that creeps on the earth” (1:26c). While God enjoyed dominion over the universe in days 1-5, in His sovereignty, He gives mankind the ability to possess the land and its creatures and rule them accordingly. In this way, mankind resembles his Creator. Additionally, as Genesis will eventually reveal, “image” and “likeness” is connected to the concept of sonship (see Gen. 5:3). Inasmuch as sons were thought to bear the image of their fathers, so too does mankind bear the image of its Creator.

A healthy interpretation of what the “image” and “likeness” of God means in its relationship to the human person takes into consideration all of the above. To image God means that human beings resemble him body AND soul, are given authority over creation, and are related to Him as sons and daughters. All of these collectively result in a measure of glory for the human person.

Psalm 8:3-9-“When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained; what is man that You take thought of him, and the son of man that You care for him? Yet You have made him a little lower than God, and You crown him with glory and majesty! You make him to rule over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet, All sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, whatever passes through the paths of the seas. O Lord, our Lord, How majestic is Your name in all the earth! ”

There is, as a result of the imago Dei, a strange paradox. Inasmuch as every human being possesses this image of God, all human life is sacred, eternal, and has the capacity for either great glory or terrible wickedness. When appreciated and used for good, humanity is wondrous. When unappreciated and used for evil, humanity is capable of great sinfulness.

C.S. Lewis: “It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree helping each other to one or the other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all of our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations - these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit - immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.”-The Weight of Glory

The Definition of Mankind-1:27

Moses moves next to give the definition of mankind—“God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female, He created them,…”(1:27a).  The repetition of “image of God” and “created” twice in this one verse highlights the uniqueness of mankind in comparison to every other created thing. Though certain cloud nebulae are said to look like the “eye” of God or the “fingerprint of God,” though certain constellations in space or cumulus formations in the atmosphere may trace and outline of a divine being, nothing images God more than a human person. This renders mankind the crown jewel and prized creation of God’s universe. Humans are God’s icons in the world that represent His dominion over the universe and return all glory, honor, and praise where it rightfully belongs.

Not only that, but just as God’s image is not a respecter of ethnicity or limited to a particular class, so too does God’s image apply equally to both men AND women. God created both male and female in His image—“male and female, He created them” (1:27b). This means that “man and woman are equally human and share the same personal worth” (Matthews, 173). This also means that God created two kinds of humans—men and women—not men, women, gender neutrals, gender queers (their label), androgynous, etc. God, as with the different kinds of birds, sea life, and land animals, saw fit to organize the earth with clear distinctions and this is true also of the human race. To suggest an alternative to male and female is to diverge from God’s original and superior plan. Sexuality and the distinctions therein is not “an accident of nature, nor is it simply a biological phenomenon. Instead it is a [divinely willed] gift of God” (Hamilton, 138).

The Blessing of Mankind-1:28

Intimately connected with the definition of mankind and the categories therein is the two-pronged blessing/assignment of mankind mentioned in verse 28—“God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth…”(1:28a). The first item on the agenda for the human race is to reproduce.  Just as the animals were called upon the fill their spheres of influence, so too is the human population called upon the make good on the ability God gave them to multiply and fill the earth. Reproduction, therefore, is understood by God and His Word as a wondrous mandate—not a killjoy or imposition. It obvious from the natural flow of the text that being created “male and female” was integral to this first command given to the human race as both sexes are required for this to take place.

Item two on the agenda is to “subdue” the earth and “rule over” its inhabitants. In other words, Mankind was given to be God’s appointed managers of the land of its creatures—further illustrating God’s propensity toward organization and cultivation. Mankind was to cultivate and care for the land as well as maintain its rightful place over the animal kingdom. This responsibility, no doubt, stemmed from the fact that men and women were created “in God’s image” while everything else was not. This means the there is something intrinsically different between mankind and plants and animals. Men and women possess something those things do not, and because of this, there is no moral equivalency between mankind and anything else on this earth.

The Gift to Mankind-1:29-30

Humans are to subdue the earth in part because it is God’s gift to them for their good pleasure—“Then God said, ‘Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you;…”(1:29). As with any gift bequeathed by a loving father, the proper thing to do is to take good care of it. This is what mankind was equipped to do and called to do from the beginning of time.

It is also at this juncture where it becomes clear that nearly everything God has done thus far in the creation week has been in an effort to set the table for his most special guest—the human race. The celestial bodies yielding their light, the water, and the soil together are enjoyed by none other than men and women who consume the natural results of these things—fruit and vegetation.

The animals follow a similar trajectory—“and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to everything that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food’ and it was so” (1:30). Here, as with in verse 29, the earth works together as a cohesive whole:  the earth yields vegetation and the animals and human race eat this vegetation.

The Reaction to Mankind-1:31

So far in the creation week—the overture (1:1-5) and the crescendo (1:6-25), everything has been described in the same way—“God saw that it was good.” However, after reaching the fortissimo of vv. 26-31, God looks upon the landscape of the universe and declares “it was very good” (1:31). Some translations read “very beautiful.” What has changed? The beginning of the verse suggests that something has been completed-- “God saw all that He had made” and that this is part of the sentiment reached here. However, what sets God’s creation over-the-top is that now God’s universe is populated with people that can rule His creation as managers and relate to Him on a personal level as they are made in “His image.” You and I and every other person that has walked this earth are capable of glorifying God in a special way. People imaging God pleases God the most when He looks out upon the universe—more than the stars, the most beautiful precipice, the mightiest beast, or colorful landscape.

Again, as with every day before it, Moses ends the description of day 6’s happenings with “and there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.”

So What?

Ultimately, this resolving chord and climatic end to the productive part of the creation week demonstrates that human beings are the apex of God’s creative order. This means that above all, we as God’s people, like God Himself, are to value, appreciate, admire, and respect our fellow man. Regardless of where we come from or how high on the social ladder we are, we are all image bearers of God—placed here on this spinning sphere in space for the purpose of representing His creative prowess and, by proxy, His matchless glory as icons. If people are expendable, common, dull, or unimpressive to you, then it becomes exceedingly easy to walk over others, use others, neglect others, even hate others. In a world that is so quick to disrespect and write off, God’s people—the people who know where they come from—are to value their fellow man and woman.

However, this passage also suffers implications for how we look at ourselves. Do you value yourself as highly as God does? If, in fact, we are just a random collection of highly evolved paramecium that has slowly evolved under an unguided and superfluous process as much of the world believes, then to believe we are valuable, special, or purposed is a farce.  In a world that promulgates this tripe, abortion becomes passé, genocide goes unreported, people grow addicted to temporary thrills, and some grow depressed and take their own lives. But exactly the opposite is the case. The Creator created you, stamped you with His image, and considers your uniqueness especially pleasing.