The Big Story: God Makes Humanity



In Genesis 1, God creates thing after thing in rapid succession.  But in verse 26, the story takes a dramatic pause, as God stops and deliberates among his heavenly council (See Job 1).  He proposes to make man and woman in his own image.

Scholars have debated for millennia about what it means for humans to be in God's image.  The general meaning is that man and woman correspond to God in the way nothing else does.  God has a relationship with them unlike any of his other relationships.

God blesses man and woman, and puts creation in their hands.  They don't own it.  They're stewards of it.  God wants them to use it AND take care of it.  Sadly, we've been poor stewards!

Scholars debate about the relationship between Genesis 1 and 2.  Some believe both chapters are the same account, while others say they are separate accounts.  Most likely, they are separate, yet complementary accounts.  God brought them together in this place.

Verse 7 shows us how the Bible views humanity.  God creates Adam's body from the dust of the ground, breathes his breath into it, and Adam becomes a living being.  The Bible teaches that we aren't bodies with souls.  We're body-souls!  Our bodies and souls are mixed together.  What affects one affects the other.  For the Jews, real life was in a body.  

Though Adam enjoys perfect communion with God and lives in a perfect place, he's incomplete. God declares that it's not good for Adam to be alone.  He needs a "helper" corresponding to him.  God creates the animals and brings them to Adam to name. But none of them will do.

Finally, God puts Adam in a deep sleep, takes a portion of his side, and makes Eve!  When Adam wakes and sees her, he breaks out in poetry, saying, "This is it!  This is bone of bone, and flesh of my flesh!"

Though Adam and Eve are naked, they feel no shame, because they're perfectly related to each other.

In a dehumanizing time, this text shows that God made us in his image for communion with him and each other.  Every human being bears God's image, thus having infinite value.  Every human is made for loving relationship with him and with other people.  Based on God's love, we can love each other freely and self-sacrificially!

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