The Climax of Creation Genesis 1:24-31
Introduction
What sort of arguments do you have in your household – I’m not talking about domestic trivia like whose turn it is to do the washing up – I mean debates. Are they political – is the labour party in terminal decline – or do you argue about sports – will Andrew Murray do better than Tim Henman? Two areas that have been hotly debated in our household are covered in these verses from Genesis – are we meant to be vegetarians and do animals have souls. The two are of course linked since it is one of the carnivores in our house who was arguing that animals didn’t have souls no doubt to justify killing and eating them!
Before tackling the big issues in this passage let us note the familiar pattern that has characterised the account of creation. It is through God’s powerful word that living creatures including human beings came into being. He speaks and things happen. This “day” completes the process of filling the void which existed to start with as all living creatures are commissioned to go forth and multiply. God pronounces that what he has made is good. In v.31 there is a summary declaration “God saw all that he had made and it was very good”. There is also a feature which we noted for the first time last week – God pronounces a blessing: “God blessed them and said to them “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground” Gen.1:28. I will return to this later.
If we consider the creation of humans as the climax of this creation narrative then it is important to examine what this passage teaches us theologically about what it means to be human. We read: “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness…so God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him, male and female he made them.” Vv.26-27. This is said of no other creature, humans are distinctive because we are made in the image of God but what does that mean? There are many ways of interpreting this but most recently many theologians have identified relationship as key. God exists in relationship and it is this aspect of the godhead which we reflect in our nature as human beings. (Cogito ergo sum – tesco ergo sum – I relate therefore we are). This passage shows our human relationships in three dimensions.
Relationship with God
Relationship with other humans
Relationship with other creatures
Application
Restoration of broken relationships