“The Blessings of Sonship” No. 4 by Rev. Toru Asai

Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground (Gen 1:26)."

It is a great truth that God created everything for humans, and he intended to give the world to humans from the very beginning of the creation of the heavens and the earth. Humans are, and have been always heirs of the world. Among the phrases in the above scripture, this time we will explore the meanings of "in our image (tselem), in our likeness (demuth)." Since our topic is about the inheritance we receive as sons of God, we will focus upon the following points that will help us understand what these phrases mean.

1) As statues that represent God
2) As children of God
3) As ones who walk on two feet
First, concerning point 1), it can be explained from the custom that existed in the ancient world—the placing of a king's statue in the land that he conquered for the purpose of showing that it came to belong to him. A good example of this is seen in the story of king Saul who went to conquer the Amalekites who occupied the region south and south-west of the Dead Sea. Having seen that the land became his, he went to Carmel and "set up a monument in his own honor (lit. … is now erecting a hand for him (1 Sam 15:12)." His action of erecting a statue or monument indicated that he now owned the land. It is important to know that both "tselem" and "demuth" are sometimes used in the Bible to mean "idol"—a statue of a god. God does not want anybody to make idols because God made humans as his statues to represent him. By making idols, we are denying the purpose and meaning of our own existence.

The story of Jacob who set up a stone pillar at Bethel is another example associated with this idea of God's statue (Gen 28). He called the pillar "God's house" that had the function of a ladder connecting between the heaven and the earth. However, we know that God does not live in a stone. What Jacob did not know was that the stone symbolized Jacob himself who represented God on earth and functioned as a ladder, or a bull that walked on two feet. And it is not difficult to see that the stone served as a mark indicating that someday the land would be possessed by him and his descendants. When he returned from Laban's house, he came to Bethel again, and worshiped the Lord.

And God said to him, "I am God Almighty; be fruitful and increase in number. A nation and a community of nations will come from you, and kings will come from your body. The land I gave to Abraham and Isaac I also give to you, and I will give this land to your descendants after you (Gen 35:11-12)."

In this passage are found the expressions typically referring to the inheritance promised to the children of God. These words were, in a sense, a prophecy about the people of Israel who would come to exist as his heirs—the kingdom of God's treasured possession. Interestingly, there was, in fact, another kind of a kingdom that would come to be established in a similar way. The death and burial of Rachel prophecies about it. She died and was buried just outside of Bethlehem, and Jacob set up a stone pillar over her tomb (35:19). For us who know the New Testament, it sounds as if Rachel were laid there to pray for the coming of the Messaiah (Mat 2:17-18).

As for the point 2) above, the idea is obviously based upon the way children resemble their parents in many ways. For this meaning, we should look at the beginning of Adam's genealogy:

This is the written account of Adam's line. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. … When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth (5:1-3).