Let Us Make
In the creation account in Genesis 1, God repeatedly directed His creative work with His words. These creative commands are recorded in numerous verses, including verses 3,9,11,14-15,24. What we read in verse 9 is typical. Verse 9 states, “Then God said, ‘Let the water under the sky be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear.’ And it was so.”
In verses 26-27, however, we observe a creative pattern unique in Genesis 1: “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness. They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, all the earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth. So God created man in His own image; He created him in the image of God; He created them male and female.” Here are some of the unique features of this creative pattern.
- God spoke of making man in “Our image, according to Our likeness”—and that’s just what He did: “So God created man in His own image; He created him in the image of God.”
- After making a declaration that God had created man in His—God’s—own image, the Scripture says, “He created them male and female.” Thus, it is just as true that God created woman in His image as it is that He created man in His image. We see this with no other beings God made.
- God spoke of putting people in charge of the rest of the creatures He had made. In fact, He spoke of putting people in charge of “all the earth.”
- God’s prelude to creating human beings came in the form of words uttered to other beings who apparently were and are His equals: “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.”
Many Bible scholars believe that this fourth item is an early hint of the Trinity in Scripture. Even earlier than verse 26 we read that after “God created the heavens and the earth” (v. 1), “the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters” (v. 2). Moreover, much later in the Bible we see an explicit reference to Jesus’ role in creation. Of Jesus Paul wrote, “For everything was created by Him, in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him” (Col. 1:16).
So we should not be surprised at a conversation at this point between members of the Godhead; the words we read in verse 26, which were uttered and heard among the members of the Trinity, are a fitting prelude to the creation of the only creatures God would make who also would be able to converse. Perhaps this is one way in which people have been made in God’s image.
