God Has Idols
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Revolutionary
Revolutionary
That all humans are the image of God is revolutionary both in the ancient and modern world.
In the ancient world an idol was placed in the temple because the temple was the place where the gods and humans were connected.
The idol was the reflection and embodiment of the god. It was not thought of as the actual deity.
The “image of God” was also a title reserved for kings.
These special, chosen rulers were representations of the gods, ruling and reigning on their behalf.
Kings were often so closely tied to the gods that they were considered divine themselves. This made the king special and separate from his people.
You can already start to see how classes and segregation of people would seep into an ideology where only certain people were considered image-bearers of the divine.
Image: Metaphysical or Functional?
Image: Metaphysical or Functional?
26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them 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 thing that creeps on the earth.”
27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
When we say we are made in the “image of God”, what does that even mean?
Interstingly, the Hebrew word for image “Tselem” is also translated as “idol”.
So when we are talking the image of God, we are also saying the “idol of God”.
Most often we define ourselves being the image of God on a metaphysical level.
For example, we say that because we’re intelligent, have rationality, and are spiritual beings, that sets us apart from animals and therefore that makes us the image of God.
While I would say that this thought is not incorrect and is a worthy subject of thought, it is NOT the definition that the Bible itself gives of the image of God.
We, humans, mankind, are set apart from the rest of creation not metaphysically, but vocationally.
It’s our role, our function, our purpose that sets us apart and makes us humans, the image of God and defines who we are.
When we image God we LIVE in a way that is unique, beautiful and opens the way to human flourishing.
Let’s read Genesis again:
26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them 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 thing that creeps on the earth.”
27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
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.”
To understand what the image of God means we must look to the Scripture itself.
The Scriptures don’t mention anything about rationality or spirituality as defining who we are, but rather that our role given to us as humans defines who we are.
To “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.”
To image God is apparently to have lots of babies and rule and reign over the land!
That sounds a bit underwhelming but believe me, it’s not!
Let’s unpack this a bit.
Come with me to:
4 These are the lines of descent of the heavens and the earth when they were created. When Yahweh God made the earth and the heavens,
5 and no bush of the wild was on the earth yet and no plant of the wild had grown yet (because Yahweh God had not made it rain on the earth, and there was no human being to serve the ground,
6 though a stream would go up from the earth and water the entire face of the ground),
7 Yahweh God shaped a human person with earth from the ground and blew into its nostrils living breath, and the human person became a living being.
8 Yahweh God planted a garden in Eden , in the east, and put there the human being he had shaped.
9 Yahweh God made to grow up from the ground every tree that’s desirable to look at and good for food, with the life-tree in the middle of the garden, and the good-and-bad-knowledge tree.
Genesis 2 describes the world as a barren land with potential. As soon as the life-giving water would touch the barreness, beauty and life would flourish!
Water and dust combined make a maliable thing called mud or clay and so the story continues that Yahweh shaped the human and breathed into him living breath and the human became a living being.
With the stream coming up out of the ground, Yahweh plants a garden in a place called “Lavishness”, you might know it as Eden and then He places the human being there.
15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.
16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden;
17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”
v15 begins where v8 left off but take special note of the words “put”, “work it” and.
Hebrew word “put” is the same word used in the 4th commandment for “rested”.
It means to “settle” in to reign as king over your domain in peace and security. And to reign in peace and security as an image of God is to trust in His wisdom and way of ruling.
The Hebrew word for “work it” is used later on in the Torah to describe the priest’s work in the tabernacle. Interestingly it can be translated as “worship” and is used by God and Moses requesting Pharaoh to let His people “worship” Him in the wilderness.
Even the word “keep it” or “take care of it” later on often used to describe people “obeying” or “keeping” God’s commandments and ways.
The Garden of Eden was the first tabernacle.
Humans were royal priests representing Yahweh on earth.
What does this all mean?
Humans are amazingly complex and beautiful.
That humans are capable of so much. Capable of achieving so much. Capable of loving so much.
Education First Principles
Every human being, created in the image of God, is endowed with a power akin to that of the Creator—individuality, power to think and to do. The men in whom this power is developed are the men who bear responsibilities, who are leaders in enterprise, and who influence character. It is the work of true education to develop this power, to train the youth to be thinkers, and not mere reflectors of other men’s thought. Instead of confining their study to that which men have said or written, let students be directed to the sources of truth, to the vast fields opened for research in nature and revelation. Let them contemplate the great facts of duty and destiny, and the mind will expand and strengthen. p 18 Instead of educated weaklings, institutions of learning may send forth men strong to think and to act, men who are masters and not slaves of circumstances, men who possess breadth of mind, clearness of thought, and the courage of their convictions.
God created a world that He called “very good”. But God is not interested in creating humans to be His slaves and to do His biddings.
What He wants more is to create humans who will co-rule with Him and to continue and further the goodness He has provided.
To be made in God’s image is not limited to being spiritual and rational beings or even being moral beings,
But according to the first pages of the Bible to image God is to create families and communities that “rule and reign” over earth in God’s wisdom and humility so that all within the human community would feel safe and grow in their capacity to love and be loved.
Besides ruling and reigning, humans were to take care of God’s sacred space as priests and hold close communion with Yahweh.
They were to take care of the garden, multiply and make more garden temples until the glory and praise of Yahweh would fill the earth.
They were to take what God had given them and do something beautiful with it.
False Image
False Image
God commanded Israel to have no images made of Him because He already has images of Himself in the earth.
YOU
Unfortunately humans did not further God’s reign of peace and flourishing though.
When humans took the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good they effectively said that they could rule the world apart from Yahweh in their own wisdom.
Instead of living in a way that would represent the reign and rule of a self-less God, they would now only represent the ideas and desires of the selfish human heart.
So now instead of creating beauty out of the things God has given us control over, we create misery and curse.
We were supposed to increase beauty and life in the earth through our characters and transactions, but humans instead increase what is loathsome and death.
18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness,
19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.
20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.
22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools
23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.
24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.
25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
28 Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done.
29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips,
30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents;
31 they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy.
32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
Humanity 2.0
Humanity 2.0
The True Human
The True Human
So the narrative points and moves forward to a man named Jesus.
Jesus preaches about the Kingdom of God.
He preaches that a new kingdom has and is coming where God will overturn the wickedness and death and bring in a new rule.
Jesus showed and taught what it is to be human, to be the image of God.
The first will be last, and the last will be first.
Loving those who hate you and do evil to you.
Wherever He would go, people would be blessed.
Speaking only what is true.
Not speaking when it wasn’t beneficial.
To see the value and image of God in each person and nurture them to bring it out.
When Jesus died and resurrected three days later, He initiated the curse-reversal of creation.
Through Jesus the human failure is reversed and the human heart can be redeemed from its grossness and be healed and restored!
6 Return, you Israelites, to the One you have so greatly revolted against.
7 For in that day every one of you will reject the idols of silver and gold your sinful hands have made.
25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols.
26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.
28 Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God.
1 See, a king will reign in righteousness and rulers will rule with justice.
2 Each one will be like a shelter from the wind and a refuge from the storm, like streams of water in the desert and the shadow of a great rock in a thirsty land.
3 Then the eyes of those who see will no longer be closed, and the ears of those who hear will listen.
4 The fearful heart will know and understand, and the stammering tongue will be fluent and clear.
5 No longer will the fool be called noble nor the scoundrel be highly respected.
6 For fools speak folly, their hearts are bent on evil: They practice ungodliness and spread error concerning the Lord; the hungry they leave empty and from the thirsty they withhold water.
7 Scoundrels use wicked methods, they make up evil schemes to destroy the poor with lies, even when the plea of the needy is just.
8 But the noble make noble plans, and by noble deeds they stand.
Church
Church
What does this mean for you?
In whatever you do, the simplest task to the most difficult, do all to the glory of God.
Have you ever been served by someone at a cash register and by just being with them for a few minutes you felt better for it because they were cheerful, talkative and making the experience of you paying for your groceries all the more enjoyable?
In that instance you just saw the person being the image of God. They blessed you by just being with you and being a loveable person.
We all have our individual callings and purpose but ALL of us have the calling and purpose to be restored in the image of God.
That with all our faculties and circumstances we can create beauty and life around us and extend the blessing of God that bit further in the earth.
Could you imagine if instead of remaining obstinate toward the Spirit of God we would allow Him to humble and transform us what could be the result?
Peace instead of striving
Love instead of hate
Community instead of lonliness
Humility instead of pride
Beauty instead loathing
Embrace instead of rejection
A shoulder to cry on
God help us to be what we were made to be
The Image of God