Sermon Tone Analysis

Born to Rule

That was a cool video, and it said a lot of what I wanted to say, but I think we can dig a bit deeper.

So let’s look at how God made us human beings.

Background: a good creation

But first, let’s talk about the background a little.

In Genesis 1 we encounter one of the most beautiful, powerful, and influential pieces of literature in human history.

If I say, “In the beginning,” what does that make you think of?

The first words of the Bible, right?

These few words in the first chapter of Genesis have had a profound impact on our culture.

Sometimes, though, we can almost forget what they say.

So what do they tell us?

They tell us of a pre-existent God, who by his mere word, brings the universe and all its complexity and simplicity into being.

They tell us of light and dark, land and waters, seas and skies.

They tell us of teeming, fruitful life that fills the land, seas, and skies.

They tell us of God speaking into existence the beauty that we glimpse as we walk a dappled forest path, or stand on a mountainside watching the sun rise or set.

The last words before God creates humanity are, “And God saw that it was good.”

(v.

25b)

That is the context into which humanity was created.

Evidence of human difference

The account of human creation in Genesis 1 is notable for the way it highlights the importance of humanity.

Let’s work through the account.

1. God chose to create us

First, God chose to create humanity—we weren’t an accident or a side-effect of something else.

God didn’t create us because circumstances drove him to it—he didn’t need us as servants or companions.

God created us because he wanted us to exist.

2. God deliberately made us in his image

The next thing to note is that God made us in his image.

The ESV here says “after our likeness.”

Scholars talk about two ways that we could be God’s image bearers.

One way is to share some important characteristics of God in some way.

The second way is in the way that, say, a policeman carries the authority of the state.

Ancient kings bore the image of their gods in this sense—they carried their authority.

We see the same image in Revelation where we bear the seal of Christ on our foreheads.

But there’s no reason why both these forms may be true, especially since in order to bear God’s image in the sense of carrying and executing his authority we need to share some of his capacities.

And this is what most scholars, and I, believe to be the case.

We are made in God’s image by sharing his characteristics in some measure and by being appointed by him to rule over this world.

We were born to rule.

3. God spoke to us in blessing

Human beings are unique in the world in our ability to communicate.

This is highlighted in Genesis when God speaks to mankind in verse 28.

All of his previous blessings have simply been pronounced over the new creation.

Yet here, “God said to them (Adam and Eve).”

You will often come across stories in the media about talking animals—a chimp that can sign, and so on.

But never confuse this with the true ability to communicate that God has granted to humanity alone.

Only human beings are capable of discussing our origins.

4. God made us to rule over the creatures of the earth

God commissioned humanity as his regents to rule over “every living thing that moves on the earth.”

But what exactly does that mean?

Here in Genesis 1 God uses two words to describe this role: subdue and dominion.

The word translated “subdue” means to bring something under your feet, or under your control.

This word study shows how such an act is so often distorted into a violent one in our world, but of course Genesis 1 has no hint of that.

In the context, the word means only that humanity was designed and designated to be in charge, to be in control, under God’s guidance.

Perhaps a word that better conveys that for us is “govern.”

The word “govern” still has a hint of humility about it.

A governor is responsible to a higher power, even though they control those below them.

The second word, dominion, simply means to rule.

Humanity is designed, born, to rule, and so their rule over all the creatures, designed by a good God, can be a benevolent rule that causes all things to fill the earth and multiply.

5. God gave us food

A beautiful feature of the Genesis account of creation is found in verse 29 and 30.

Here we discover that God has not only shared his characteristics with us, and given us authority and responsibility for all creatures, but he has also provided food for us, and for our charges.

God created a paradise, where all the human work went towards making things better, rather than into the struggle to survive.

6.

We were made “very good”

And finally, immediately after commissioning us, God looks at the whole picture, and pronounces it very good.

Now, you might suggest that this is only very good from God’s perspective, that parts of creation might themselves disagree.

But that is not the picture we get.

God is immediately able to rest.

Why?

Because he has made a creation that is harmonious and functions in symphonic unity.

There is no strife, no trouble, no spanner in the works, no fly in the ointment.

It is very good.

Our human story (according to Genesis)

So, let’s summarise this, what does Genesis 1 really tell us about ourselves?

I want to emphasize two important points:

We are creatures created by a truly good and powerful God who made all things to work together in harmony.

We owe our existence, our nature, our character, our purposes to God.

We rule his creation not because we’ve fought our way to the top, but because he made us to rule it and then placed us there as his regents.

This must always be foremost in our thoughts and our plans.

We were made to rule, we were made to bring all the earth’s creatures under our control.

We have been equipped with the ability to do that, and charged with the responsibility to do that.

We’ll unpack how that affects us, today, in the 20th century in a moment.

But first, I want to highlight how unique this view of humanity is.

I want to look at the alternative views of reality, and see how they view humans.

The alternative views

In Ancient Near Eastern myths, the gods did often intentionally create humans, but their purpose was to have slaves.

In one myth, the god Enki was reminded of how he was created, and mimicked this, creating humans out of clay to care for the gods.

In another myth (the epic of Atra-khasis) humans are created out of the body of a murdered god for the same purpose.

In the Enuma Elish, humanity is created from the blood of the murdered god Kingu, in order to do the hard labour the gods want to avoid.

So, rather than a harmonious creation where mankind is designed and placed in charge, fed and given purpose, we find a universe full of struggle and strife where mankind is enslaved to the gods in order to feed their insatiable hunger.

Eastern religion is not much better.

For example, Buddhism claims that existence is suffering, and so to escape suffering we must escape existence.

We have no purpose nor meaning, and our endless round of suffering merely leads us to yearn for a release from it all.

Our modern creation myth is very similar.

Here is Richard Dawkins’s bracing evolutionary perspective,

The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil and no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference.

From River Out of Eden, 1995, p 133.

All we can hope for is to enjoy the few brief moments of consciousness we have, though that enjoyment must be found without any pride in achievements, since achievement is impossible where there is no design, purpose, good or evil.

This sort of view leads to the terrible situation of people like Noa Pothoven, a Dutch teenager who has just starved herself to death because she saw no other way to end her “hopeless, unbearable psychological suffering.”

Where the world offers no meaning, there is no reason to keep living through the tough times, no reason to work through the dark seasons of the soul.

Still born to rule