Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kind"; and it was so.
Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."
God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
God blessed them; and God 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 sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth."
Then God said, "Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you;
and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to every thing that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food"; and it was so.
God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
First thing that strikes me is that we are made in HIs image. We are created either to look like God or to look as God desires us to look. Either way, that is special. He loved us enough to make us look like Him or how He desired us to look.
Next thing that strikes me is kind of a pet peeve of mine. I have heard some Christian folks quote this - subdue the earth and being given rule over the animals and plants as a reason that we do not have to conserve a given species or be careful with the environment. I personally believe that if God has given us dominion over it, He expects us to be good stewards. He doesn't say that here, but in the new testament parable of the talents, He expects the servants to increase the value of the talents and not squander them or bury them. How much more would He expect us to be good stewards over the world that He created. How much more the living breathing animals that he gave to our keeping. So, while I will not be chaining myself to any trees anytime soon (except maybe the one at the high school, still debating that in my head) I do feel like as Christians we are MORE responsible for our planet, our world, the species in it than anyone else. Our Father is going to expect our "room to be clean and well kept" as it were and we are accountable for whether or not we cared for what He gave us.
One more thing. He did all this creating, all this time spent - I mean 6 days is a lot of time to spend just speaking things into existence. Six whole days He spoke this thing, or that thing into being. Then, He gave it to us. Now, I don't know about you, but I can't imagine working for 6 days, resting one and giving my kid my paycheck. It isn't all that God owned, but it was a pretty big gift. We don't have reach of the stars, but they are there for our enjoyment in the night sky. All of it speaks to who God is, but it also speaks to how much He loves us. He made it all to give to us, that we might give Him glory. He gives, He loves. Even in Genesis, the giving of God is evident. His love is evident. No one explained the love part to me when I was little. I love finding it over and over as an adult when I read His word. I thought when I was little that the love part of God didn't show up until Matthew. Nice to see it in Genesis.
thanks, this one was longer. Hope you read til the end. love y'all
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