Humans – Genesis 1:26-27

Do we just want to congratulate ourselves when we place ourselves above the animals?  Maybe, though we place ourselves readily beneath the angels.  God made the animals to be wonderful creatures, but He indeed did give us dominion over them and made us, unlike them, in His image.

26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”  27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:26–27, ESV)

Who is God talking to when He says “us” and “our”?  I do not doubt that angels are made in God’s image, as humans are, but humans aren’t made in God’s and angels’ image, but in God’s image only, so it does not make sense that God would be talking to angels here.  Could God be using the plural of majesty, as when a king or queen says “we” when speaking of themselves?  Possibly.  But the most likely answer is that Elohim is talking to the other members of the Trinity, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  The three of them rightly can say, “Let us make man in our image.”

Unlike the creation stories of other cultures, man is not considered here a slave created to relieve the gods of hard labor.  Rather, he and she are princes and princesses, royal rulers who have been given authority over all the earth.  They aren’t God’s lackeys, they are God’s lords.  One cannot imagine such leaders wanting to do harm to the earth God has given them to rule.  They would not pollute it, deplete it, or destroy it in any way.  They would wisely explore it, exploit it in the best of ways, and exalt it.  They would invent without abuse.  They would use to everyone’s advantage.  They would leave it better than they found it.

God differentiates man as male and female.  This suggests that all that makes up male and female is part of the one image of God.  He is supra-sexual, encompassing all that is male and female, though He is always addressed as male.  By differentiating male and female humans God prepares them, as He did the animals, to reproduce.  Each gender is gloriously God-like and there should be deferential treatment between them, each seeking to outdo the other in praise.  There is no suggestion of servility between them.  They are the perfect duo for having dominion over God’s creation.