God Creates Humanity in His Image

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. – Genesis 1:26

God Completes His Creation – Genesis 1:26-2:3

God personally created people in His image (let us make rather than let there be). The purpose and identity of humanity center on God and being made in His likeness. God exists as Creator and Provider and Sustainer of all He has made, plants, animals, and people. God assigned Job to work in the garden; God entrusts people with the capacity and desire for meaningful work.

God rest on the seventh day, to provide the example for humans to follow. After the Exodus, God commanded Moses to establish the seventh day as the Sabbath, part of the covenant law for His people. Keeping the day holy consistently upheld God as the source and center of individual lives and the community. God set a pattern that one day each week should celebrate the wholeness, excellence, and glory of His mighty person and work. Our reluctance to rest may reveal we wrongly believe everything depends on us. Intentional rest, with a deliberate focus on God, postures our hearts and lives to acknowledge God’s sovereign control over us and our dependence on Him. Be still, and know that I am God.

God Creates and Commissions Adam and Eve – Genesis 2:4-25

The central theme of Genesis 2 is the personal relationship between the Lord God and humanity. It is the only chapter in the entire Bible where this intimate relationship between the Creator and His creation is not tainted by sin. It describes the way life was intended to be and indicates the way life in the new heaven and new earth will be one day soon.

God breathed sacred breath into Adam’s nostrils. Adam became a living being, made in God’s image. This account captures God’s intimate, personal relationship to humanity that distinguishes humanity from all other creatures. God’s formation of the woman repeats the intimacy portrayed in His creation of the man in a similar, yet distinctive way; she shared the same nature of body, soul, and spirit as Adam. Together they shared stewardship of creation as vice-regents of God. Male and female, individually and together, reflect the image of God. God designed the differences between men and women to complement one another.