Genesis Lessons -Man and woman made in God's image

Many have argued what this meant - "Made in God's image." Not quite the exact replica but an image. What attracted Eve in Gen 3 was to be like a god.  She was not satisfied with just being an image.

So what does it mean to be made in "His image?" Man and woman were made quite different from all His other creations.  It appears that man and woman were given 2 mandates: To be fruitful and multiply (1:27) and to rule over every living thing that moves.(1:28) it appears in 1:29-31 there is the food chain in place and humans held a special place in this chain.  Part of this included naming the animals 2:19

Man and woman were different from all creatures.  They were tasked to care for and tend the animals. It appears that the animals and plants on earth were given for human sustenance and flourishing. How were humans different from the other creations? They were made in God's image.  They were able to think and reason. They were able to create and make things.  They were chief of all pant and animal forms on earth.

To the original hearers, the people of Israel who had fled Egypt hearing this changed their perspective of who they were. All their lives they worked as slaves to Egypt and the Pharoah. They had no rights or no value.  They worked the pyramids and if they were sick and weak they were a burden and discarded.  Now God is telling them through Moses that they were made in the creator's image. They had a value and a purpose and an authority.  They understood this for wherever Pharoah's statue was that was his image and authority over the people. God was telling them that they are made in His image and like their first ancestors have been given the mandate to subdue and rule over creation.

Can  you imagine what this would do to their self esteem and value as humans?  

Thoughts from Genesis...Made in His image

The Judaic Christian value of respecting human beings and human life come from the theological understanding that all mankind is made in the image of God.  This deep rooted belief is grounded on the Genesis account of creation; “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”Obviously some societies have been influenced by this Genesis passage more than others.  A society which esteems its people highly and extends benefits even to visitors or foreigners to their society have this deep seated Judaic Christian value.  A society which understands this value will find a citizenry which respects each other regardless of race, religion, looks or sexual orientation.  I specifically mention these four because it is the four most dividing issues in our nation.  We tend to judge and disrespect by speaking ill and perhaps harshly to those who are most different from us specifically in these four areas.
We may not be able to accept ones religion, habits or behavior but we must always accept an individual based on the fact that he or she is created in God’s image.  It may be a broken image but nevertheless a person created by God and therefore to be respected and honored.How we treat and speak of others reveal how much we believe and understand this idea of the worth and value of an individual.  This also relates to the idea of the sanctity of life. That is why to some cultures heinous acts like beheading or burning a human alive in the name of an ideology or religion is repulsive and barbaric.

Let us look at every human being regardless of his or her belief system as individuals created by God and therefore have a value and a worth to God.  He or she created in God’s image deserves full respect and honor and should always be treated with dignity.