Image of God

In Gen. 1, we’re told that we were created in the image of God. Much ink has been spilled about what it means to be created in the image of God. To the philosopher, it means we’ve been endowed with the ability to reason and to use logic. To the artist, it means we’ve been given creativity and the ability to appreciate beauty. In fact, we have a tendency to create a meaning for “the image of God” in our own image.

But what would ancient Israelites likely think about when they heard they were made in the “image of God?” Well, when ancient kings would go conquering, in order to extend their dominion beyond their own borders, they would often have an image of themselves set up in the temple of the town they conquered.
For example, this nearly life-sized statue was found in an ancient temple. It tells us that it’s the image and likeness of the king, used to represent his rule or dominion in the foreign land. From an ancient near eastern perspective, to be told that we’re created in the image and likeness of God is to be told that we are God’s little statues, that he has placed on the earth as a representation of his dominion. When tells Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply, he’s saying, “YOU statue of God, extend my dominion, my sovereignty, into the furthest reaches of the earth.”