Public image

How we look, how we dress, how we are seen by those around us, our public image says a lot about us, what we like, the music we like, the styles we admire most, even our class background, the things that we value and prize most of all in life and strive to emulate. How we look can say so much about us and what we want the world to see us as. Our image is ours and it belongs to us, or does it?

For many ancient cultures the phrase the ‘image of god’ was used solely for the kings, who ruled over them. These ancient peoples believed that their kings were the actual embodiment of gods. In stark contrast to this idea, the people of Israel believed that all of humanity, “adam” (the word ‘adam’ is Hebrew for humanity/ earthling being made from dust) was made in the image of God, not just the kings as they were simply human beings like the rest of us and not gods.

Gen 1:26-2826

Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”27 So God created mankind in his own image,    in the image of God he created them;    male and female he created them.28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

Judaism was the first truly monotheistic religion in the world. Other ancient religions believed in gods that they had carved and forged images from wood, stone, and metal, placing these in their temples as objects to worship. These images are merely man-made creations which as anyone with an ounce of sense knows are just man-made objects, that might as well have "Made in China" imprinted on the bottom. Objects made by human beings that can neither hear nor see, never mind change the world around them by acts of miracles or wonders! This is also the reason why Idol worship is forbidden in all of the Abrahamic faiths, which includes objects that represent the invisible God because God can't be represented by something that is created.

Exodus 20: 4-5

“You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,

For this reason places of worship do not contain anything that tries to represent the one true invisible God. We as creatures, beings that are part of the created order, cannot possibly imagine what God looks like. However, it seems ironic that our God who commands us not to make any graven images of Him creates us in His image and revealed himself through Jesus Christ His son.

God is our creator, our King, and our ruler, and he made humanity in His image and gave us the authority to rule on his behalf over all of His creation. But what exactly does it mean to be made in the image of God? What does the language of image and likeness signify?

If we look at Gen 1:  26 - 28 we see that being made in the image of God includes being given the authority to ‘rule and subdue’ all of God’s creation. At first glance, the words ‘rule and subdue’ seem very authoritarian, almost tyrannical as they suggest that humanity has been given carte blanche to plunder and pillage, or exploit and destroy, whatever it wants to profit and gain from the rest of God’s creation. But surely that’s not what ‘rule and subdue’ means?

God created humanity (us) as the pinnacle of his entire creation and gave us the authority to ‘rule and subdue’ His creation. In this, we are to continue to do what God has been doing, which is to continue making this world ordered so that life can thrive and proliferate.

If we think of gardening, and God is the greatest gardener, and taking our gardens for example, or any piece of ground, if we don’t look after it, then it will become overgrown, full of all sorts of plants, weeds, rubbish so much so that it won’t produce much of anything that is either profitable or nice to look at.

But if we rule over it, if we subdue that piece of ground and bring order to it, by clearing out the rubbish, pulling the weeds, creating spaces for wildlife, and planting vegetables, flowers, fruit trees, and shrubs, then it will produce in abundance the good things that life thrives on. Just as God did when he created the Heavens and the Earth for us to thrive and proliferate in. So in this we see that being made in the image of God is to behave like God, by being good images of him that give glory back to Him.

Gen 2:77

Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

What about our mortality? Humanity, ‘adam’, is made just like any other creature that God has made, we are taken from the dust, shaped into the image of God, and were then brought to life when God gave us the breath of life by breathing into our nostrils, just like the other living creatures that God has made and given the breath of life.  Genesis 7: 22 we read in the story of Noah that after the flood, 22 Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died.  So, we’re not that much different than everything else that God created. We are beings made in the image of God, we are terrestrial and we are mortal. This is obvious especially when we read Gen 3:19 :

“By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”

We are terrestrial creatures, mortal with limited lifespans, and easily damaged by the sometimes hostile environment of the world around us, however, we are created as ‘images of God and by that, we are to rule and have dominion over the rest of creation as God would rule and have dominion over it. We are to care for it, nurture it, and develop it for the good of all of his creation.

Have a great day, and God bless,

Trev.