Image & Rule
Have you ever noticed that the world is full of outstanding beauty and awful ugliness? Humanity has breathtaking potential and also destructive tendencies.
In the book of beginnings we read,
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 NIV
Here we find the original blueprint. The divine design. And within it, we discover two conjoined ideas, image and rule. God and mankind in glorious partnership together. Intimately entwined. Reflective of each other. Harmonious.
When you look at mankind here, you see God. You see God’s purpose and creative rule on show in the image of humanity. In the work of humankind.
But this picture gets twisted. Adam and Eve are deceived. One of the creatures, that was meant to be ruled, becomes the ruler.
Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
Genesis 3:1 NIV
When the man and woman act on this temptation we see that both image and rule are marred and altered.
And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
Genesis 3:11 NIV
To the woman he said, “I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”
Genesis 3:16 NIV
So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.
Genesis 3:23 NIV
Now, I think we get panicked here! But God doesn’t panic. God’s still there all the way through. I can’t possibly go through every part of this story and uncover every hidden gem but keep digging, there’s plenty to find. We’re going to look at just one thread.
Consider this, man is banished from the garden but that doesn’t mean he’s banished from God.
In the ongoing story, Adam and Eve have children.
And look,
Adam made love to his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, “With the help of the Lord I have brought forth a man.”
Genesis 4:1 NIV
God’s there!
And Adam and Eve have a son.
Then the story continues with this son,
Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”
Genesis 4:6-7 NIV
And right here, there’s this rule again!
Interesting!
And it seems like it doesn’t go so well in the unfolding story either, as Cain kills Abel in the field. And it’s like the same mistakes are being repeated over and over again. And we find that Cain hears similar words to Adam before him.
“Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.”
Genesis 4:11-12 NIV
Like father, like son, you could say.
Now, Cain has a son, Enoch. And Enoch has a son who has a son. And so on.
Cain made love to his wife, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch. Cain was then building a city, and he named it after his son Enoch. To Enoch was born Irad, and Irad was the father of Mehujael, and Mehujael was the father of Methushael, and Methushael was the father of Lamech.
Genesis 4:17-18 NIV
And Adam also has another son, Seth.
Adam made love to his wife again, and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth, saying, “God has granted me another child in place of Abel, since Cain killed him.”
Genesis 4:25 NIV
And there’s God again, right here.
And then Seth also goes on to have a son, Enosh.
Seth also had a son, and he named him Enosh. At that time people began to call on the name of the Lord.
Genesis 4:26 NIV
And it’s interesting because Enosh means, man—but with the emphasis on weakness, frailty and mortality.
And it seems that this calling out to God, is somehow connected to this.
It’s like there’s this yearning. This groaning to reconnect with the image and rule that has been lost.
That there’s a connection between this longing and the sonship.
Maybe these words from Colossians speak into this somehow.
The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
Colossians 1:15-20 NIV
This son was somehow reconciling all these things! All the marred, broken and lost things. All the relationships and struggles. All this ordinary, fragile, mortal humanity.
The image and the rule that had been twisted, was being restored. A newly restored line was being reawakened. The firstborn of many sons and daughters.
Our bloodline.
Humanity.
