Published: December 5, 2024 | Speaker: Chuck Hartman | Series: Biblical Theology 1 - The Arc of Revelation - Part 15 | Scripture: Genesis 1:27-28; Psalm 2; 1 Corinthians 15:20-28
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big picture the full story of the revelation of your grace and your glory so we pray that our gathering tonight would be pleasing in your sight and edifying to each one of us we ask in
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Jesus name Jesus name amen so TimeWise we have um planning two more weeks after this evening I'm running a little bit later
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into the season because of the interruption we had from Hurricane Helen but Lord willing will finish up on the 19th um the next two top the next two
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weeks the topics the topics will be a matter of life and death so you can't miss it um but tonight tonight we're going to continue
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discussing the IMO day and um you know over the years as as I've read different um books and opinions and sermons on the
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IMO day and the meaning of the image of God I I have noticed that uh very few of the authors that I've read are actually working with the text of Genesis 1
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26-28 uh rather what they're doing is they're working with a perception of the nature of nature of man so
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man so anthropology and then making connections between human attributes or attributes of humanity and attributes of deity now I'm not saying that this is
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wrong I'm just saying it's not in the text okay so the fact that we are for
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creative um mankind is generally creative and did we get that from um our creator well that's likely that part of what we're doing uh in on God's Planet
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God's Earth is is creating a world um and we we do that individually we do that collectively but that's not what's in
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the text another very popular one is
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man's his rational Powers um and all men do have some rational Powers more some more than others um but but mankind is a rational creature one of the problems with this
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view this approach to the imod Dei is that it is open to frustration for many for many Believers as the Zoological Sciences
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discover more and more rationality and creativity among creativity among animals and and then people start to wonder so what what is different it actually opens the door um for for
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liberals to attack the idea that mankind is somehow unique that we are not simply a more highly evolved animal because animals have shown the ability for
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example to communicate okay so mankind is capable of communication and that's been one of
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the things that people have said is is part of of the imod Dei that it reflects the image of god um and so that that's these These are three of them um there
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there's a long list these are some of the of the bigger ones um but another one that's very popular among reformed writers is that we are receptive let's just
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word but honestly we don't know that the animals aren't also like we know from the Psalms that well palum donkey was that's right um but we do know that they they wait upon the hand of God for their food um we we
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really don't we're making an assumption there of course CS Lewis with his Chronicles of Chronicles of Narnia um separates the animal kingdom into those that can commun and actually the plant kingdom too those that
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communicate and those that don't and and so we I don't know that obviously that's a that's a fantasy but we're making an assumption and really in all of these we're making
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an assumption that that this is something that is so so uniquely human that it's characteristic of the imod day the image of God
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and I don't know I I don't think you can you can't derive any of these from the text in Genesis 1 and really there are only U two things that you can
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definitively pull from that text so I'm going to look at that and we're going to work we already looked at one of them um but the the meaning of the imod
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Dei from Genesis 1 verses 26- 28 then God said let us make man in our image according to our likeness and let
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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 and God created man in his own
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image in the image of God he created him male and female he created them and God blessed them and God said to them be fruitful and multiply and fill the Earth
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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 on the earth now um that obviously that's
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that's the key passage that's the passage in which God uh Reveals His desire to make a creature after his own image so does anybody have any comments
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on the conventional views or any other that you may have heard there are many but any any thoughts on self awareness self-awareness okay yeah that's that's
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one and and that I think the conventional views not right
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Christ is the image of God right and and in fact Colossians tells us that all the fullness of deity dwelt in him bodily so um all of these other uh
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explanations of the imod Dei are themselves exercises in philosophical rationalization not scriptural exag Jesus image of God has to do with Christ
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work too yes so you you've hit it on both points so 10 points to Gryffindor okay if we look
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yeah it's not I mean it it's not clearly part of the Amo day I mean it's it's because there's no there's no Gap in the heart of God um and it's not that that
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um it's not that how do I say this that passage is actually I think more talking about the relationship between man as created and
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God as God as Creator and the loss of that relationship due to the fall because if it weren't for the fall I don't think there would be that
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passage that passage is a passage of frustration he has set eternity in the hearts of every man yet so that man cannot find out his ways so there's a
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there's that passage is like all of Ecclesiastes it it's somewhat of a passage of passage of desperation um Augustine said that our U our hearts are restless and can only
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rest when they find their rest in thee something of that order he he's re recognizing as did calet that the state of man yearns for
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God but cannot be satisfied because he has committed sin I don't know that that's an attribute of the amod Dei certainly not one that comes out of the
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actual passage of Genesis 1 it may be a commentary on the amod Dei but only as Fallen does that make sense it's not can
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you see that passage having any sense of Adam before he fell it's a it's it's a comment on an interrupted relationship between man as
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creature and God as Creator Ecclesiastes 3:11 something it's residual but again it's not the not the original okay we can say that God has
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set eternity in the hearts of every man we have to finish the verse okay it doesn't mean that man has a divine a divine spark you know that I'm I know you're not saying that but you have to finish
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the verse because there's a there's the vanity all is Vanity of vanities all is Vanity is in that verse too and that is because you know we can't find out what
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God is doing no matter how hard we try or as Paul would say we see as in a mirror dimly you said what I was add
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particular ex very important get out of a lot of it by just taking yeah one of the one of the problems with the Book of Job is is to finish the entire monologue you know not just pull out a verse here or a verse there and
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also try to remember who's saying it you know who's the one Speaking um before you interpret it so wisdom literature and we're going to spend a fair amount of wisdom l in wisdom literature as we
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talk about the concepts of death and life because that those are major motifs in the wisdom literature perhaps even more so than in any other genre of
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scripture of concerning death and life um is in the wi wisdom literature so if we if we stay in the passage though in Genesis 1 and I I do think we need to do
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that because that's where the concept of the amod day is introduced anything after that in Scripture is dealing with the imod Dei as
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corrupted Genesis corrupted Genesis 9 any man shed blood then by man his blood shall be shed for man is created in the image of God James talking about
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you know the IM the likeness of God um e you know even Genesis 5 where Adam begets a son Seth in his own image the concept of the image Beyond Genesis 1 is
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now pass Genesis 3 which means it's now corrupted it's still there and I think its purpose is still there and its meaning is still there but we have to
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recognize that anything that comes after Genesis one these verses here that is dealing with a different situation regarding the image including Ecclesiastes 3 so if we look at the
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passage in Genesis 1 where we have the the actual uh seminal verse verses we have two things that we can definitively
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say constitute the image one it's an
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image that's very clear now in terms of image and image and likeness they are two different words but they are probably as they are used or not used they're probably
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synonymous it is very hard to to to find any Nuance or shade of difference although many have tried but there are parallel passages where only one of the
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words is used there are parallel passages where one word is used and a very similar passage where the other word is used and then another passage where both are used and that's not just
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not just in reference to man as the image of God but the two words image and likeness were effectively both in the Hebrew and the Greek they're effectively synonyms so I'm not
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going to try to uh to to wow you with audition and say the image means one thing and the likeness means another some people have tried that and they're
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it doesn't hold water so we have an image well what is an image an image is a physical
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representation in the ancient world especially the image of a king was a physical image as was the image of a God it was something that the isra the is Israelites were not allowed to do and
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that is to create an image either of their God or of any living thing and and thereby worship it but there was an image already made God made the image of
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himself and that image was in fact man so we talked two weeks ago about the physicality which is something that is really not discussed much in the
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literature about the imod Dei and that and that I think is the influence of the Greek philosophy in the western mindset we do still tend to denigrate the
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physical in favor of the spiritual and and I think that we're all probably to some degree guilty of that or at least aware that that is a tendency one of the problems is that
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we we we know that the physical is wasting away it's corrupted it will Decay as Paul says you know outwardly we
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are we are wasting away but inwardly we are being renewed and often that's viewed as our soul or our mind or our spirit is growing in Grace but our body
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is is diminishing that does not mean that the Physical Realm is inherently evil that's Plato not Paul okay we have
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to remember that that that we cannot denigrate the physical and be in line with scripture okay it was happening in
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Paul's day whereas in in in Corinth there were those who were saying that the resurrection had already taken place well essentially what they were talking about was a spiritual resurrection that
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the physical Resurrection didn't matter and that led to a lot of um egregious sin in Corinth but it was it was a fundamental error that Paul deals with
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in one of the longest sections about the resurrection that we have 1 Corinthians 15 so the physical the meaning of an image is a physical
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representation the word icon in the Greek the the two words image and likeness they they have no other essential meaning than a physical
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representation it doesn't need to necessarily be an exact match but it it represents that for which it stands and it does so visibly
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and physically so the bodily aspect of man as created is incredibly essential to the meaning of the amod Dei which is one of the reasons why I think the actual
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mechanism of his creation is given to us in Genesis 2
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yes that image was always viewed as sacred so and and that's that's that's true here as well this that lies behind the prohibition against murder when when you when you desecrate
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when you damage or when you kill the image of God whether you murder or whether you hate or speak evil against as James says you are desecrating something that is
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sacred okay so the the the idea of the image within uh I guess what I was getting at is the word itself simply means a physical representation when
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that physical representation is of the deity then it is sacred okay so what what you're saying it it it it emanates the presence of the deity and
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it can also it's the Genesis account is not the only account in which the image is a living being because in the ancient world the kings were generally viewed as
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the image of the nation's God he was the living representation of that deity and to do any harm to that King was to
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desecrate and defile the godu
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yes yes and the Babylonian yeah right so um it is sacred it is living okay so this is but it but the the point the fundamental Point here is
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that it is visible and physical it's not conceptual or abstract and that is really where ever since the really kind of the Reformation but this is where the
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church has gone with the idea of the amod Dei we want to equate it with some abstract attit aptitude or attribute of mankind we want to make it some abstract
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concept when an image was never an abstract concept I mean there's abstraction behind it but that abstraction is represented physically and visibly by
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that image and that as as Abe was saying that image carries the sacredness when the Roman Catholic priest carries the host in
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host in procession they're carrying Christ does that make sense no it doesn't make sense because it doesn't make sense but do you understand the concept behind it this is not just some uh tradition they do this
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is carrying Christ the host before the people physically visibly it's wrong but it still it's correct in the sense that it it captures the true meaning the
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essential meaning of an image so I I I spent a lot of time on that because we we do denigrate the the body even as we
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read scripture and even as we talk about you know the life to come and and everything we really don't we know there's going to be a resurrection but we don't think about it much and we really don't understand what it's going
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to be like and what we really think is when we die I'm going to go to heaven but that's not the end of the story it can't be the end of the story and that's going to become even more
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apparent in the next two weeks when we realize the realize the phenomenal obstacle to all human rationality ambition philosophy wisdom
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and creativity that is presented by death death is a thought that we really don't have a good handle on and I'm not
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suggesting that we get more morbid but what the scripture has to say about life and death and life is pretty significant okay and we're heading in that direction
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but but here the the first undeniable aspect of the amod day is that it is a physical representation of the Creator God is everybody okay with
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that the second is not an attribute it's a function so we start out with with what it is
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does again these are the only two things that can be I think undeniably extracted from these three verses number one it is a physical representation of the deity it's an image number two it is to rule
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over God's over God's creation does that make sense now it's embellished be fruitful and multiply and subdue the Earth but the common word here used in verse 26 and
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verse 28 is Rule the phrase be fruitful and multiply and all of that that's going to come in with Noah After the flood that's going to come in in the abrahamic Covenant and
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then again to to Jacob and then again even in Egypt we see that that when the Israelites were in Egypt they were fruitful and multiplied so those two
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words will repeat themselves in the history of the development of God's people but they're all Echoes or even Illusions to this passage back here in
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Genesis 1 it it is of the essential purpose of the amod day to govern the Earth okay so to
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some theologians have kind of created a word that I have a hard time finding anything even in the Oxford English Dictionary Vice jiren you may you may have heard of that word the idea is this
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a vice Regent is one who rules for a king in his absence a vice jant is one who rules for
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a king in his presence now we are not ruling for God in his absence especially Adam okay Adam was not going to rule over Creation in God's
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absence God was present and walked in the garden with Adam until Adam fell okay so we I'll put that in in
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parenthesis he's Vice gerant ruling in the presence
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ancient title that the the uh Persians like to use in the presence of the great
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child yeah that rules until they're of age um or if for some reason the king is traveling or traveling or incapacitated the the the government will establish the heir as Regent until
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the king's return um so the idea of regent is is has always been that the Regent or vice Regent has full Royal
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Authority but that full Royal Authority is derived entirely from the higher authority the actual King
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full Authority yeah we might say all authority in Heaven and Earth and kind of get the picture of where all this is going okay that a physical image of
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almighty God the invisible God who is Spirit would reign with full authority over all the works of God's hands that's where
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we're that's where we start in Genesis one and that's where we end with Jesus Christ so there's the there's the trajectory there's the Arc of this particular Motif but we have then uh
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full Royal Authority this is not an not an ambassador okay it is not somebody with limited powers that are clearly
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circumscribed by his Charter no this is full this this man speaks as if he were the king the king himself okay and so full Authority but
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that Authority is
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God now there there's much that could be said in in another class and talking about the image of God and the uh the purpose of purpose of man as to whether or not this creation mandate this this commissioning of man
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as God's physical visible image to rule in God's stead and In God's Presence whether that position and responsibility re remained after the
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fall okay fall okay and we'll spend a little bit of time talking about talking about that but I'm going to give you a little
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urve at what point in time did the devil become the prince of this world was he created the prince of this
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world no no he was not who was created the prince of this world Adam so how did Satan or lucif Lucifer or the devil the accuser of the Brethren
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how did he come to be known the prince of the power of the air the ruler of this world is coming but he has nothing on me Jesus said there a there a
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recognized Authority okay when when he tempted Jesus and said all of these kingdoms I will give to you Jesus answer wasn't they're not they're not yours okay that could have that would
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have been a very reasonable answer if in fact it was true but it wasn't true and that was one of the purposes of Jesus coming in the first place he gained that
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Authority when Adam abdicated it Adam swore as it were in Genesis 3 if we think about it in terms of medieval um
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uh falty where where one Lord will pledge his falty to another well what Adam did as Vice Regent of Yahweh is he then bowed the knee to
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Satan and gave the vice Regency that he was given by the true God over to the usurper Satan the serpent that's when he
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became the prince of this world I can't think of any other place in the revelation of scripture where you could say well that's that's where that happened except in Genesis 3 all right
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that also gets bound up in the whole idea of life and death and it's it's really all interwoven but this idea of man ruling becomes complicated now because
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we are still the visible image of God on this planet again Genesis 9 makes that clear that sin did not eradicate the imodi it's because of that image that
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murder is a a capital crime and that that whole thought actually comes out in many other um whe whether terms or not used the concept is still present
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throughout the scripture that man is still all mankind bear the image of God but what about this responsibility do we still have a responsibility to be fruitful and
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multiply and subdue the Earth and rule over it well whether we have the responsibility or not that's what man's been doing for the last six 7,000 years okay that that's what we've been doing
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that's what we continue to do so we might say that this function of the imod day is hardwired into our constitution we don't do it well and we don't do it for the glory of God but we
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still do it and it becomes with some men an obsession the idea of ruling over others and that brings out another um interesting feature that you find in
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Genesis that you will not find in any other ancient literal literature and very little medieval or modern literature and that is the Democratic
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nature of the amod de so to summarize we have a physical image that is a representation of the deity placed in a setting where his
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responsibility is to rule over Creation in the presence of God and on behalf of God so God has made himself and his rule manifest in
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manifest in man and he has given Man full Authority which is which is one of the reasons why we have that episode of Adam naming the animals okay um and that was actually
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that whole passage is not just Adam's uh imagination like like a child coming up with different names for things what are you going to name this stuffy uh no it it reflects his wisdom because he was
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naming the animal in accordance with the nature of that creature so there's more to it than just oh I'm going to call that a horse is that's a word I just
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made it you know like sometime I mean when you read that it just seems like you know he was like a child naming his stuffies no he he understood the nature of all God's creation and that that
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episode is an illustration of two things first of all the authority that he had and then secondly that there was no other creature suitable for him that where all the other creatures were to
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multiply after their kind none of them were his were his kind and therefore that whole thing is leading up to the realiz ation that hey
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we need a woman and that's where you go in Genesis 2 so um there's The Narrative of of that passage so um when we talk about the IM the image of God at the
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very least even if we do reflect on some of the other things like this although I I don't think we should I honestly don't I think they are distractions from the biblical Revelation concerning the image
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I don't see any benefit in them and I do see a lot of harm in getting off track from what the Bible says concerning the image um and so I don't recommend this
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but at the very least we we should recognize that the image was created for a purpose and that purpose was to rule
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that is the function of the image difference image difference between no between no no they're they're what they're what's
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called cognate terms they're their derivatives of the same uh root to have dominion is to rule they're synonymous in their in their
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application okay when when someone has Dominion that's simply the definition of to rule right Dominion means dominance okay um to
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lordship you know so when we say um anodin what we're saying the year of Our Lord so yeah it's it's they're synonyms there there's no distinction um between
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Rule and have dominion uh and I and I don't think again scripture is like uh the better literature and that is the author doesn't keep using the same word
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over and over again but we like when we read scripture we like to find different meanings and nuances of meanings whenever the author uses a different
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word where he's probably just saying the same thing only using different same valid
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ahead he he's not yes that is actually Hebrew poetry this is this is um this is parallelism where some times the the two
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things that are set in parallel are set opposite each other well clearly that's not the case here these are not set in opposite these are synonyms they're they're two cou it's a couplet of two
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two descriptions of the same thing but he's doing that in order to lead to the third one the third one stands out whenever you have normally you only have two we've talked about kaym where you
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know it's a b then B prime a prime things are listed one two and then their synonyms are listed in reverse order 2 one that's kism and it it's a parallel
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it's a poetic device that we should learn to recognize like you're you're seeing it but don't don't always think they're they're
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uh not synonymous that is an actual there are synonyms there are also antonyms where the one parallelism is opposite the other okay wisdom and Folly
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are often said in Proverbs and in wisdom literature as a parallel but they're clearly opposite parallels right and we know that because of the terminology
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with wisdom you'll find righteousness and life and length of days with Folly you find Death okay corruption so but but in this case what we're doing we
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have three have three phrases and when you have three one of them is going to stand out and in this case the one that stands
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out is the third one male and female he made them okay he he he's showing at that point something that mankind would
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struggle with in fact um after the fall God says to the woman you know your desire shall be after your husband but he shall rule over you that conflict in
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ttention was never intended that Eve was created as an equal to Adam and that's the when he
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says you know in the image of God in the likeness of God he made male and female he made them he's saying there's no distinction ontologically between a man and a woman
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concerning the image of God they are equally the equally the amod okay and I also think it's important that we not say they equally have the image of God that's not what the scripture
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teaches man does not have the image he is the image it's a predicate okay it's it's not a description or an adjective it's a predicate man is the amod day not he has
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the amod day but uh so that's I I appreciate you mentioning that but I want to move on to show some of the features which indicate the radical
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nature of what Moses is writing here not only in the ient world but but remarkably in the ancient world but throughout human history this idea of
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theod Dei was not unique to Israel's scriptures by any means in fact it's found in all of the ancient literature whether it's a physical Idol or a Living
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Image in the king or the high priest the point is here and it's going to be reiterated then in Genesis 9 and elsewhere the point is
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oops that's supposed to be a
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b beginning with verse 27 we have the first and and again in the ancient world incredibly radical democ ization of the image in that it is associated with both the man and the
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woman and this is also of course before the woman was created so we we know that Genesis 2 is a parallel and and expletive account it's explaining or
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explicative account um so the first one we have is male and female but the second thing that we
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realize is that this is passed on to Seth when it is said in Genesis 5 genesis 5 that that Adam begat a son in
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His image and in his likeness he begat Seth we know in Genesis 9 that the murder of any man not the murder of the
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king but the murder of a man is a capital offense because man is created in the image of God so not only is the Democrat ization seen in the equality
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the ontological equality of male and female but the fact that there is no social hierarchy established with respect to this
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image now there's no other religion that has come close to this kind of democratization of mankind in India in the Hindu system of course you have the
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casts and that's based on the the Dharma that that is totally a part of Fate but nonetheless you are born into a cast and through throughout life you may not
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leave that cast there's no democracy in Hinduism the the same thing is true in in Daoism that the the way seems open to
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all but in fact it's not Gnostic influences of Christianity have taught that there are spiritual Christians and there are carnal Christians that there's a hierarchy within the spiritual realm
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none of this is biblical okay so not only male and female but all mankind not just the
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king I don't think we can really realize how radical this statement would have been 1500 years before Christ to an Egyptian to an Assyrian to
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to someone living in the ancient world I would hope it would have been just as radical to the former slaves the Israelites as they came out of Egypt where the Pharaoh was considered the
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embodiment of of the Egyptian God on Earth he was the physical living representation of Egypt's God and he was the only one except for his son of course then the Romans did the same
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thing in Paul's day right so throughout history especially ancient history the concept of the amod Dei was by no means
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democratized it was held very jealously and guarded very jealously by the ruler the king and it was not
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viewed as applying to anyone else even among his own people they belonged to him because he was the image of
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God when this concept starts to to become uh worldwide through the outspread of the Gospel this is when you start to see in
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modern history the development of the idea of inalienable rights and individual human individual human Liberty the concept that no man can own
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another because they are both the image of one almighty God all of those thoughts that we take for granted now we take them of course to be self-evident
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they were not self-evident even in 1776 and even in monello with its 300 black slaves okay this is not self-evident stuff here it just sounded
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good all right but it it's not um it's actually quite actually quite radical so um the so the idea here is there is no ontological
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meaning essential being there is no
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oh these all make separations yeah oh yeah I don't like them and actually I've not I've not liked them for many many years and when I read I think you're inhaling buddy
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this is not what the scripture says you know you're you're glorifying in man's rational power where you could just be an Enlightenment Phil philosop at that point you're you're not a Biblical exog
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you're just a child of the Enlightenment okay or the child of a Renaissance or or maybe you love the artistic you know that's all well and good mankind is creative and he's rational and but we we
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we're not we're not even touching close to the pulse of the meaning they're not and and you you end up establishing a hierarchy um and and of course it has
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been used the whole idea of the attributes has been used in history to to denigrate or to to uh delineate within the human race those who are in
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fact subhuman that also is used of course to justify politically and morally the institution of slavery
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very spiritual person and that's how it's used and there are a lot of people who um who put a lot of emphasis on the creative arts these days especially but it's not unique to our time but the
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creative arts as being your talent um or as being used for the glory of God as part of your bearing of His Image uhuh that that's not what that means at all
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um what it what this really mean I mean again if we just stti stick with the text what it means is we are a physical representation of the deity with the responsibility of ruling in his presence
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ruling his in his presence has always meant obeying his commands when we do not obey his commands we are actually abdicating our responsibility toward the true God and
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then associating oursel treacherously with a usurping false god Satan that's Genesis 3 okay that's what we'll be
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talking about that in the the next two weeks because Genesis 1 2 and 3 as I've said before they're really the prologue of the whole scripture the entire story of God's revelation are summarized in
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those first three chapters of of Genesis so we spent a lot of time in Genesis 1 and two and we're only going to spend two weeks in Genesis 3 and there's so much more that we could say about itm
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right Earth is ours and it's not Nature's either yeah okay Idols were were developed were developed by the by the pagans to help them understand and
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somehow control or appease the fores forces of
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nature there are deception so they are a they are a lie yes and that's that comes out of the prophets um manifestly so um we'll we'll look at Psalm 115 next week Lord willing because that's that it
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talks about the dead do not Praise Him the shol the idea of the Grave um is is really a very significant Concept in
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biblical theology because there's a certain logic involved with what the scripture says concerning the concerning the dead that drives us again I'm getting ahead of myself but it drives us to a
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doctrinal conclusion with regard to death and life life and death and we we'll get into that next week but as we talk about man we see this democratization how all
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mankind the children of men have been given the rule of the earth that is still our duty so that even after the
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fall though we have transferred our corporate loyalty to a usurper individually and then Israel as a nation was called upon to live in
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Rebellion against that usurper does that make sense man who has rebelled against the true God is now commanded to live in
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Rebellion against the false one and that is the nature of life in this age from the time of Genesis 3 to the time of of 1 Corinthians 15 the
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consummation of the ages we are called to live in a world that is has been that the rule of which has been usurped by the devil we are not to yield him
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obeses in a sense we are to be traitors but we're traitors not to the true king we are traitors to the usurper that is a common Motif or plot theme
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isn't it that the the hero is in fact a traitor but he's a traitor to the false King the man who has killed the true
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king and has has imprisoned the true Heir and we're like oh no I'm not I'm not following you because you usurp the throne you are not the rightful God or
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rightful King I am loyal to the rightful King that is the people of God we are still so in a sense yes we have handed over the authority that God
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gave us in the beginning but in a sense no we no we haven't that because we are still the IM imod de we still owe obedience and obedience to the true king not the false
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one okay so that's that's all you know it all gets to be part of it but I want to talk about the nature of the rule of this King because it's also incredibly
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yes yes well respons our it it and when I was going when you said responsibility of man um in one sense certainly it's the responsibility of man in terms of his his sin he is
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responsible for his Rebellion against the true king but I'm talking about those who have been redeemed now that our citizenship is from Heaven that that
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our king is not Caesar and that means our responsibility is still to God's name and and also to
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his creation that among all of mankind God's people are a unique A peculiar Nation a people of God's Own possession and the
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nature of their life should should manifest undying loyalty to the true king and that as I'm going to show you
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in a minute that looks like something that is described by two two particular words in in these texts okay the first one is
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one is Gardener and the second one is Shepherd okay now we're talking Kings here how many of those words are used in
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describing Mighty Kings and he was a mighty Gardener before the Lord you see Nimrod out there with his Spade okay as he went forth pruning the
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Roses you know it's like no those are not words that we use to describe worldly Earthly Kings but these are the words that that scripture
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uses now the word Gardener is actually not used it's the function that is is used there so when we talk about I'm going to say the
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mode of the King Jesus says the Lords of this Earth rule it over but you shall not be that way that he who would be greatest among you shall be the
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servant of all so the idea but this goes all the way back to Eden okay so the idea as we look at the N the notion of the king is
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twofold first of all where is his domain well Genesis 2 tells us Genesis 1 tells us that he's creating man to In His Image to rule over his creation and then Genesis 2 tells us and God made a
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garden and he put man in it to tend and keep now the same language or very similar language is going to be used with respect to the vineyard of
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Israel that God created the vineyard and he told he told Abraham you know this land is going to be you know it's the sins of the amorites are not yet complete but when time
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comes they'll already be the sists were already be dug The Vineyards already planted the fig trees already planted the cities built you're going to just go in and live in them and Israel was
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essentially brought out of Egypt and placed in God's Vineyard to do what to tend and keep it okay that the function of the levitical priests within the
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Tabernacle was to tend and keep so the gardener his
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his he was the husbandman of God's creation now it is interesting and significant that in Genesis 126 and
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28 the list of subjects of the king does not include fellow men the fish of the sea birds of the air
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the cattle of the land and even the creeping things that crawl upon the Earth but where's the other men they're not listed that is um to to show you the the
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the the poetic and very intentional layout of Genesis Seven Generations from Adam you have two different men you have lamech who is the epitome of a worldly
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King and you have Enoch who walked with God and was no more because God took him that there's a significance there in the number seven as well but you see these
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two lines of Cain and of Seth and you see that the emphasis of of one line is that in those days men began to call upon the name of the Lord but in the
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other line these men began to subdue the Earth these these were the founders of Metallurgy and of music you know the of brass and of bronze these were the men of the world the nimrods of the world
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they were not gardeners and they ruled over men and brutally so I killed a man for looking at me okay so uh it is very significant
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that in the list of subjects man is not included now the aspect of the garden then I think remains and it shows what is is very
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often overlooked and and misunderstood I think in scripture and that is the responsibility of man to Creation itself okay we talk about um
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environmentalism and of course conservatives are very much against the environmentalists primarily because many of the environmentalists are Wacko and that's okay we understand that um but
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but the the response that the church often has is is an excessive reaction that denies our own calling we are
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stewards of this planet now we understand that this planet is going to be wholly renovated and it will be a new Earth in which righteousness
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dwells but that does not abdicate us even in Israel the land was to be given rest every seven years there were principles concerning the treatment of the animals and of the
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lands a righteous man has regard for or his Beast I mean what you would you ever read those passages and wonder what's that all that all about but it it is part of the of the
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gardening of the tending and keeping that man Bears responsibility for and the destruction that has come upon the Earth by human means is because we have
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abdicated this too Satan is not interested in preserving God's creation he is only interested in destroying it okay so this is um
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rule in rule in relation to Creation
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itself now we do have to leave Genesis 1 2 and 3 and the early chapters of Genesis to get to the second again progressive revelation in all of these motifs it's not all revealed to us at
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the beginning the beginning but we but we start it seems we to me it's we start with one aspect of the royal function of the amod Dei with the aspect that is
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most often ignored and that is our relationship to God's creation that we are responsible and I think that this principle then is then
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creation groan yearning for the revelation of the sons of sons of God when many of the sons of God throughout history have not been kind to
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Creation because the true sons of God in the consummation will understand fully as they should understand at least partially now that we are creation's
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gardener okay we we do have the responsibility of of hoing and weeding and pruning and making fruitful the world in which God has placed
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has placed us that will actually that's an ethical principle that actually impacts for example what we do for a living okay what we do for a living is
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not just how we pay the bills there should be something in what we do whatever it may be there should be some cognizance that my responsibility
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as a child of God as a Son of God is oriented to the creation in which God has placed me certainly our occupations should not destroy creation we may not
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be in a position or an authority to do much uh reversing of damage already done but I really can't see where where um I don't see where a Christian with clear
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conscience can can just strip mine and then leave to erosion or just dump pollutants I don't personally see how we can do
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that plants yeah there's there's something there too I I I I'm I I hate to say this but I'm I'm fairly convinced that I will I will have to give up beef in the new Earth