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02 -- Who are you?
GENESIS 1:26-31
26 And God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the cattle 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. 28 And God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every animal that moves on the earth.” 29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every crop yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with fruit, trees that give seeds. You shall have them for food. 30 And to every animal of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, which has the breath of life, I have given every green grass for food.” And it was so.
God said to his Son in the unity of the Holy Spirit, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” This expression reveals to us that God did not speak of himself as “I”, but as “We”. This points us to the unity of the Holy Trinity in His love. There is no other reason for the creation of man except the love of God.
Before creating man, the Eternal One specified for him his job that he is to rule over the animals, ordering them and guiding them.
Other humans, however, are not under the rule of man, because every person is free and equal to others in their rights. But the birds, the fish and the other animals were in the hands of man, to order, to domesticate and to use them, and not to beat and to slaughter them. For the nourishment of man in the beginning consisted of plants and seeds. This is because the essence of man is love and not force. A general peace reigned among the creatures of God, instead of a battle for survival.
So God completed the works of creation and formed man and made him the crown of all creatures. Man was not a son of God, born of His Spirit, but he was created from the dust of the earth, made by His word. However, He granted him a distinction by creating him in the glorious, loving and pure image of God. It was such that if Adam had looked in a mirror, he would have seen God's majesty and His truth.
And God commanded man to be fruitful, to multiply and to fill the earth -- not more than that. And if man would have stayed steadfastly in the love of His Creator, he would have overcome his lusts, and he would have subdued the ghost of hunger that overshadows us in our age. We live in a time, in which selfishness rules, in addition to superficiality and ignorance, exposed to the danger of an increasing population density, bringing with it despair and chaos.
God commanded man to subdue the earth, with all its riches of ores, oils and atoms, to extract from them the riches, which were bequeathed on him for the benefit of all. For this reason we glorify our Lord, when we discover secrets or invent modern machines, and His love establishes the rules of our economy. So let us always remember that God instituted us to be trustees and not lords. And we are in no way to exploit His image, which is ours, to make of ourselves gods or god-like.
Are you an image of God and His servant in your neighborhood?
MEMORIZE: God created man in his image, in the likeness of God He created him. (Genesis 1:27)
PRAYER: Heavenly Father, you have created us through your word to glorify you. But we lived for ourselves and have become sinners. Forgive us our sins and renew us through the love of your Holy Spirit, so that our companions will see Your image in us, just as it is in the born again believers in Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco and the great Sahara Desert.