The perception of God have changed over time as scholars continue delving more and more into the religious studies. This has led to a misconstruction of who God is as people continue making his identity so complex and hard to understand (King 409). Such complexities have changed the understanding of the value that man has for God. This essay seeks to prove that above anything else, God values humans more than anything.
This alone gives the idea that God has a great value for the human beings. Al the other creations He made by word of His mouth. He could only say “Let there be” and it was. He could as well have said “Let there be mankind in our own image, our likeness” and it could have been so. However, H preferred to make man with His own hands. This implies that He attached great value to the Humans. Well, this does not dispute the fact that all the other creations are important to God, but it shows that He placed man at a higher order and this is evident from the text. Even today, scholars appreciate the fact that God has great value for humans and they argue that in a similar manner, humans should treat each other with the dignity that God gave them (Fletcher 1608).
Another factor from the text which indicates God’s greater value for man is the authority that He invested in man. After creating man in His own likeness, God gave him authority over all that was in the land. Genesis Chapter 1: 28 indicates that God blessed man and said to him, “ Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.” above this, He gave man the authority to rule over all creations, including the birds of the air, all creatures that lived in the ground as well as the fishes in the waters. Well, this asserts the fact that God had great value fro human beings. There is no way that He could have given him all these privileges if He did not have a higher value for man. This is also the value that made God have such a close and personal relationship with man.
Coogan (2) also agrees with this analysis. His interpretation of the Torah has it that God worked in great ways through human beings. He argues that the Torah has different aspects related to creation; myths, facts, speeches, genealogies, among others. He also observes that God worked closely with the human beings in many ways. Citing the stories of great men such as Joseph, Coogan (2) asserts the fact that God has significant value for man. This is the same idea that is seen in the first chapter of Genesis.
Looking at the evidence provided above, and specifically relating to the first chapter of Genesis, something about the relationship between God and man comes out very strongly, indicating that He has a great value for man. First of all, there is no dispute that God treated man in a preferential manner from the other creatures right from creation. All the other creatures are as a result of a word from God but man is a result of an action of God. This automatically puts man in a different class from the others. God breathed His breath into man as well, implying that man has something else closer to God than all the other beings. He is made by the hands of God and has the breath of God while all the other creatures are just made by the word. This automatically shows God’s value for humans.
The second evidence is the authority that God vested in man. After God made all the other creations, He made man on the sixth day. He looked at His creation and was pleased by it and then He gave man the authority to rule over all these creations. Well, this indicates that God had a greater value for man and this is why He could trust man to take care of all the other forms of life on earth. Though the other animals were to multiply as well, God specifically instructed man to multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. This shows a great deal of value that God had and still has for man. With the above evidence from the creation story, it can be concluded that God has a great value and a closer relationship with man. This explains why He made man in His own image and gave him the authority over everything on earth.
Works Cited
Coogan, Michael D. A Brief Introduction to the Old Testament: The Hebrew Bible in Its Context. Oxford; Oxford University Press, 2011.
Fletcher, George P. ‘In God’s Image: The Religious Imperative of Equality Under Law.’ Columbia Literature Review, 1999. Web, 20th Oct. 2012, http://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?collection=journals&handle=hein.journals/clr99&div=62&id=&page=
JPS. The Jewish Bible: Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures—The New JPS Translation According to the Traditional Hebrew Text: Torah, Nevi’im, Kethuvim (1st ed). The jewish Publication Society, Nov. 1, 1985.
King, Martin Luther (Jr). The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr.: Volume I: Called to Serve. California: University of California Press, Jan. 9, 1992. Web, 20th Oct. 2012, http://books.google.co.ke/books?id=jzEqRY71zv0C&pg=PA410&lpg=PA410&dq=God%27s+value+for+man&source=bl&ots=lKYNUHFDar&sig=Kjmq761nzYjZXXa9CEhkh0owWz8&hl=en&sa=X&ei=_gmCULOsKIfM0QXF54DABA&ved=0CDwQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=God%27s%20value%20for%20man&f=false
