Another issue raised by the creation story is whether God put us on the Earth to rule over all of the plants and animals or whether it was to help cultivate and protect. Gen 1:26 ‘Then God said, ‘And now we will make human beings...They will have power over the fish, the birds and all animals domestic and wild’. Another quote, Gen 2:15 says ‘Then the Lord placed the man in the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and guard it.’ These two quotations seem to contradict each other as one says we are here to guard and the other says we are here to rule over all the animals and plants; however, it can be said that to rule over something does not mean that you have complete control over everything. Ruling also means that you have to care for it as well or you could destroy it. What this tells us is that to rule over something and to guard it is essentially the same thing.
A further reason for God creating us is found in Gen 1:26-27 where it is written ‘Let us make humanity in our own image, after our likeness;... So God created humanity in his own image; in the image of God he created it; male and female he created them’. Our likeness of God makes us special; it shows our relationship with him, it also shows that we have a physical, spiritual and moral likeness to God. He made us to be like him and sending Jesus to us he again showed us what he wants us to be like. Karl Barth once wrote, ‘He would not be man if he were not the image of God. He is the image of God in the fact that he is man’. Not even sin can take that away from us as God always shows his forgiveness and brings us back.
The Fall of humanity shows exactly how God is our salvation. It shows how the world can not exist without God. Matthew O’Keeffe says ‘God’s creation would cease to exist if he did not continue to keep it in existence...All things that exist or function in any way do so with the co-operation of God’. Ps.127 ‘Unless the Lord build the house, they labour in vein that builds it’. These show us that without God the whole world would be non-existent. God made man to guard over the Earth and when they turned from good they were punished. This is shown in Joshua 10:1-15 where we read that God turned his back on the Amorites when they started war with Gibeon. They tried to kill the people in Gibeon for making peace with the Israelites. God helped the Israelites fight the Amorites by being on their side. God controlled the weather causing hail to fall on the Amorites killing them. This shows that God is the overall ruler and he is the final. He saw what the Amorites were doing was wrong and he punished them for it.
Exodus 20 is where we find the Ten Commandments and these are what God has asked us to live by. To follow the Ten Commandments is to follow God. This whole chapter is an example of ‘theophany’ where God speaks to his people. He is telling them how to lead a good life and if you do this you will live an eternal life in heaven with God. This is another example of God sustaining the world and his people; he tries to help us by telling us how we should live thus protecting us from following evil. This shows us yet again of Gods power, the highlighting of humanities flaws makes prominent the supremacy and goodness of God.
It was Gods divine initiative that caused the whole of creation to begin, he was the first cause and it was through him that all things were made. In both Genesis and Joshua we see Gods omnipotence when we see him effortlessly create the world and man, then in Joshua where he helps the Israelites defeat the Amorites. In Exodus where God gives Moses the commandments to help the people lead a better life, God had a purpose for us and gave us the commandments to help us achieve that purpose. Jurgen Moltmann wrote ‘The human being is God’s indirect manifestation on earth’, what this tells us is that God created us to be his representatives here on Earth and therefore, by going against God we are going against Gods plan for the world and creation.
