Inspired by Genesis 1:26-27
Genesis 1 is a beautiful account of the creation of Earth and all the things within it. God begins hovering over the earth and the earth itself was FORMLESS and EMPTY without the Spirit of God integrated within.
But let’s stop there – this earth is NOTHING without God. How INCREDIBLE is that?
And then, BAM. God creates all of the things we know and love here on this Earth. Cool, yeah? God speaks, and creation obeys. The natural goodness of creation that God describes is a reflection of portions of Him here on Earth. Creation was made to reflect many of His characteristics, including his GOODNESS, GLORY, POWER, and AUTHORITY, among other things.
Up to this point, everything that God created was good and reflected His glory and power, but it was created to BE RULED, rather than to RULE OVER. But how often do I become a slave to things which were created? How often do I trash and stomp all over the things which were created to reflect the goodness of GOD?
Yikes, that’s convicting…
But God does not stop there. Not one of these created things were actually made to reflect God’s image. Even after God created all of these things, He had another goal in mind. To create man.
Genesis 1:26-27 - 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.” So God created mankind in His own image, in the image of God He created them; male and female He created them.
Humans were created DISTINCTLY DIFFERENT than creation. Humans were created in HIS image, according to HIS likeness, to rule over creation. Something I enjoy doing and have found a ton of benefit from is looking into the Greek and Hebrew meaning of words that stand out to me in the word. In this passage, “in our image” was translated from the word “tselem”, which means to shade, resemble, or represent. Humans were made to shade, resemble, and represent the CHARACTER of GOD, and humans were given the authority and responsibility here on earth to rule over the things that God created. WOWZA.
How often do I take advantage of the authority I have been given? How often do I miss the fact that ALL PEOPLE have been created by our creator and made IN HIS IMAGE, in the SAME AMOUNT, to reflect His character and very nature?
Well yikes, that’s even more convicting. Am I seeing all others in the way that God intended them to be seen?
But another thing that is completely insane, is how often I look at MYSELF and basically word-vomit all over the image of God that I WAS CREATED IN. How often do I stand in front of the mirror and think something along the lines of “I wish…”? Ladies, if you are anything like me you could fill in that sentence without really thinking about it too long (I could fill it with about fifteen things to be honest…). Men, I have no idea how you think… Either way, I definitely need to change the way I am thinking and talking about myself.
So where do we go from here?
The word “tselem” is used multiple times throughout the bible, but two spots that it really stood out to me was in TWO Old Testament passages: 2 Kings 11:17-18 and 2 Chronicles 23:16-19 (referenced below). The word “tselem” was used in both of these passages to describe the temple and idols within it as a representation of Baal.
What? How does this work?
This is where it gets SUPER COOL. The people of the land and Jehoiada’s response is just INCREDIBLE. Their response is to make a covenant with the LORD and tear Baal's temple down. They smashed the alters and idols. They basically destroyed the place and reestablished the temple as GOD’S place. SO COOL. They get so serious about this that they even put GATEKEEPERS on duty to GUARD the temple. This is TRANSFORMATION; this is RESTORATION of the temple and the image as God intended it.
I know right offhand that I need to pray for new vision – of created things, of others, of myself. I need TRANSFORMATION. I need God to tear all of the things down within me that do NOT reflect His image and allow Him to rebuild and restore my heart. This is where I leave GOD to do the work. It’ll probably hurt. It will probably mean sacrifice. But all of these things will be replaced with so much GOOD. My favorite prayer (although bold, because God DOES answer) is to pray that God would teach me to love what He loves and hate what He hates. What is God telling you?
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Scripture References:
Genesis 1:26-27
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.” So God created mankind in His own image, in the image of God He created them; male and female He created them.
2 Kings 11:17-18
Jehoiada then made a covenant between the Lord and the king and people that they would be the Lord’s people. He also made a covenant between the king and the people. All the people of the land went to the temple of Baal and tore it down. They smashed the altars and idols to pieces and killed Mattan the priest of Baal in front of the altars. Then Jehoiada the priest posted guards at the temple of the Lord.
2 Chronicles 23:16-19
Jehoiada then made a covenant that he, the people and the king would be the Lord’s people. All the people went to the temple of Baal and tore it down. They smashed the altars and idols and killed Mattan the priest of Baal in front of the altars. Then Jehoiada placed the oversight of the temple of the Lord in the hands of the Levitical priests, to whom David had made assignments in the temple, to present the burnt offerings of the Lord as written in the Law of Moses, with rejoicing and singing, as David had ordered. He also stationed gatekeepers at the gates of the Lord’s temple so that no one who was in any way unclean may enter.
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