This is clearly the most important day of the creative activity, since the author devotes the most space to its activities. The reason for this prominence is obvious: the Bible was not written for fish, birds or animals to read; it was written to inform humans of their Creator and Redeemer! Therefore we are the primary focus of attention in the story. And we were created on the same day as the other animals, because we inhabit the same sphere: the dry land. We can learn to swim, just as we can learn to fly an airplane or parachute or bungee-jump. But we are neither aquatic nor avian: we belong on terra firma.
Here it is the earth that brings forth the creatures, as on Day Five the waters swarmed with swarms of life. But there we noted that the verb rendered "brought forth" was not a birth term. In verse 24 the Hebrew verb is different but is not used in the Bible of either human or animal birth. Still, birth metaphor or not, the source from which both animals and humans derive is "the earth". Now we saw in verse 10 that, after he had confined the terrestrial waters in seas and lakes, God called the dry land "earth" (Hebrew erets). But we need not limit the source of animal or human life to dry land, since in verse 1 the same Hebrew noun refers to the planet Earth. The point of verse 24 is simply that living animals and humans are composed of bodies and "souls": the former derived from terrestrial matter, the latter given by God. When they die, their bodies decompose into the elements that made them up, and their spirits/souls return to God who made them (Gen 3:19; Eccles 12:7).
Verse 27 tells us that God made us in some profound way like Himself — this is what being in the "image of God" means. Theologians have debated the meaning of this statement for thousands of years. Some think the "image" consists in human personality, some think it is specifically the human conscience, others think it is the ability to serve as God's vice-regents over the other creatures (see v. 26 "they will rule"). What has always intrigued me is the inclusion of the statement: "He created them male and female" in v. 27, where God is described as making humans in His image. The poetic structure of the Hebrew guarantees that "he created them male and female" belongs to the thought of the preceding, and is not just an afterthought. Does our sexual polarity have something to do with being in God's image? Neither God nor angels (see Mat 22:30; Mark 12:25) apparently have sexuality in the sense that we conceive of it. Yet human marriage is supposed to fulfill each of the two sexes by giving them a wholesome and permanent channel for love. And certainly "God is love" (1 John 4:8, 16). And if Richard Bauckham (God Crucified) is right, the very identity of God includes self-giving love, just waiting for expression in the sacrifice of the Incarnate Son. Something to think about, even if it doesn't fully explain the "image"!
God's blessing on the new humans is coupled with a command to fulfill their mission: to multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. This verse grates on the sensitivities of many today with social concerns: overpopulation and ecological abuse worry them. But the former (already fading into the background, even at the U.N.) has proven to be a false concern, while the latter is in fact included in the mandate. What do the ecologists think they are doing, if they are not trying to manage the Earth under the guise of "saving" it? Of course, it is a futile task, as Michael Crichton (State of Fear) and many others have shown: one just cannot begin to control the climates or the inexorable passing of millions of species into and out of existence. In a sense, God's mission for us is to try to manage that part of the Earth that is within our ability: to weed our gardens, recycle our trash, cultivate our crops, prune our fruit trees, grow our food. Beyond this modest mission we are simply not endowed by our Creator with sufficient powers. He controls the climate: He has put such control beyond our reach, perhaps like one puts poisons or firearms out of the reach of children. The ancients knew this very well. That is why they prayed for good weather and healthy crops. It is perhaps with this thought about humans knowing their limits and their limited mission that we fittingly close our brief meditation on the account of God's creating humans.
Because we know both our limitations and our mission, we are all the more dependent upon the God in whose likeness we were created and who has given us this mission and this blessing. With this in mind we work on, shovel in hand and prayer on our lips.
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