Genesis 1:26  And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
27  So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
28  And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

The Bible begins with the declaration “in the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.” The Bible makes it abundantly clear that there is only one true God. He has always been and will always be. It does not matter what opinion any person or any group of people might come to on this matter, the fact is that there is only one true God.

Psalm 90:2  Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.

In our verses we read that “God said”. God made a statement. The first time we find the Hebrew word translated as “said” is in verse 3. That Hebrew word is found 5308 times in the Old Testament. Unlike man, when God makes a statement it carries weight. God never lies. He never gives out “mis-information”. He never gives out “dis-information”. Our officials like to use those two terms whenever they hear something they do not like. They are debating legislation that would even accuse God of these so-called crimes.
God said: “let us make man in our image”. The Hebrew word translated as God here speaks of the plurality of God. The Hebrew word “eloheem” is “plural intensive and singular in meaning.” The Bible uses the word translated as “Godhead” three times. The Bible never uses the word “Trinity”. That does not mean the word “Trinity” is a bad word. It is a word that some of the cults like to hang on to as a tool to accuse Christians of using words to define God that God never uses.
The Bible does declare that the God of Creation is a plurality of three persons. Those three persons are God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. One God in three distinct and yet united persons.
This God Who is the true God, declared that He, they, were going to make man in their own image and after their likeness. Man is unique in God’s creation. God spent extra time creating man. He used some materials that He had previously created to create man. He took a rib out of the man and with that rib He created the woman. Man is blessed with the ability to think and make choices. Man is able to reason.
God gave “man dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.” You notice that when God spoke of man in this verse He used the plural word, “them”. In chapter 2 God would go into greater detail regarding the creation of the man and the woman. The word “man” is used often in reference to mankind. That is the case here. The “them” is not ever used as a term to support the so-called “gender fluidity” of our wicked time. That is a thought designed by wicked people who are following the lead of the devil, who is a liar.
Man has been given responsibility. He is capable of looking after and ruling over all of God’s creation. That ability became distorted after the fall, but God still expects man to look after and rule over His creation. Man is not a sovereign ruler. There are people who think they are in this position. They make laws that are contrary to God’s Word and they think they have the authority to do that. Many of those people have died and discovered they were absolutely wrong in that assessment. There are many alive today who will also discover that fact unless they turn to God in repentance and are saved now.
In society we have those who believe they are superior and they believe they have superior rights to others. They believe they are the real stewards of the land, but their history has proven them to be very abusive and careless. They have depleted the population of certain of God’s creatures to the place where they need special protection now.
If we as people would acknowledge the God of Creation as our God, we would find that there would be enough creatures for us to feed on and the stocks of those creatures would remain viable. Without God, we do not make very wise decisions. We have talked of that often in our devotionals. The Bible points that out. We can learn from our rebellion against God. We can be forgiven and saved and we can learn how to make much wiser decisions. It is a choice we need to make.
In verse 27, God continued His record of Creation Week, by declaring that He “created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him”. God also declared that He made them male and female.
This is important for us to reflect on. I read a report recently that a state in the U.S. was putting female hygiene products in men’s washrooms. We are living in a time where we are told that “gender is fluid”. God tells us that He made them male and female. It is true that we are fallen creatures. That fall did not change the fact that God created us male and female. This remains the same even after the fall. God often spoke of women’s behaviour and the protection they needed. He also often spoke of men’s behaviour and the responsibilities they had. He never spoke of an in-between position. There is no such thing.
Romans 1 tells us that God gave man up to a reprobate mind because he was not thankful nor did he retain the knowledge of God. We know that many people reject the reality of God. As we noted earlier in this devotional, that does not change the facts. What happens when man rejects God, is that he is guilty before God and he begins to think and act in ways God never designed man to do.
The disaster we are witnessing in this realm of gender is the result of a rejection of the true God. God judged Sodom and Gomorrah because they rejected God and chose a lifestyle that is against God’s will.
Those who are truly saved need to be fully persuaded of the authority of God in their lives. We do not need to pander to the wishes and whims of the ungodly. There could well be a price to pay for speaking the truth. There is also the blessing of being able to help some of those who have chosen defiance over truth, the opportunity to repent and be saved.
In verse 28 we see that God designed man to be fruitful and multiply. Statistics tell us there are over 8 billion people on earth now. As we have noted already that there are thousands of babies that have been murdered. Thus the total population would be much higher than it is today. That would not be a “burden” too big for this world to sustain. The need of man is to know the true God. When God rules in the heart, man is blessed. When man chooses to defy God, he faces many troubles.
Let us be sure we are building our lives on the sure foundation of God’s Word. Let us not be ashamed to build upon that foundation. There are still people who can be turned to the truth in these last days. God is still desiring to see people saved. Let us serve Him faithfully and seek to help others to know His peace and blessing in their lives.
The political world of our day is full of cowards when it comes to issues that truly matter. Those who are saved are not called upon to support their cowardice. We are called upon to stand upon the truth and help others to see the importance of knowing the truth as well. We can be a blessing in these last days. Let us unite together under God’s authority and serve Him faithfully in prayer for one another and also in supporting one another as God designed us to do.
Pastor Bartel