And many of these kings claimed that they were Gods and they would even call themselves the Image of God

Meaning they had authority to tell people what to do order things to be made

Yah, they got to define good and evil

And these kings would often make statues of themselves which in hebrew were called Tselem often translated as idol or image

But for Israel they didn't view their kings as the God. In fact they were never supposed to even make images of God.

It's exactly right and that was really unique for that time and culture.

This is rooted first of all in Israel's belief that you can´t reduce the creator God down to any one thing in creation.

But there is another reason. PEOPLE AREN'T TO MAKE IMAGE OF GOD BECAUSE GOD HAS ALREADY MADE IMAGE OF HIMSELF.

When did he do that

Lets go to page 1 of the bible and the first person we meet there is God.

He is the one with authority over all creation. He speaks and the creation obeys and He defines what is good and not good

In other words, He alone is King but then surprisingly as the pinnacle of all of God's creative work He makes humans.

and he calls all of them the Image of God

So he gives all humans the authority to rule

Exactly. That is what He goes on to say.

He tells the humans to subdue the earth and to rule it. And so this task,

that once belonged only to elite kings is here in the bible, the task of every human being

This was a revolutionary statement in its day because all humans are being called

to rule and to participate in the human project.

So what does this mean, I mean, how are we all supposed to rule.

So, the picture we get in Genesis is

gardening, "Gardening?!"

Yes, Gardening. So, they rule the earth

by cultivating it, by harnessing all of the earth's raw potential and then making something more and new out of it

So, growing food for each other.

Yes, but that also includes growing families which then becomes neighborhoods

and then they create communities where people are going to work and take care of each other

and build businesses and cities and will expand to new places and so on

So, ruling is really the day to day acts of our work and creativity

Yes, we take the world somewhere

This is humanity's divine and sacred task.

This all sounds really nice

And humans have designed some pretty great things

But just as often we create things that cause a lot of sufferring and a lot of injustice

So, maybe we shouldn't actually be ruling

Yah, so the bible addresses this

In Genesis, what happens is that God gives humans

a choice of how they are going to rule.

So, are they going to use their authority for the benefit of others

which is God's definition of good

Or are they going to turn away and define good and evil for themselves

and use their authority for self advantage

and in the story they choose to define good and evil on their own terms

And so this is the bible's depiction of the human condition

so sometimes we pull off amazingly good stuff but just as often

despite our best intentions we act selfishly and we create evil in the world

and so we are stuck as mediocre rulers

making a mess of things

But that's not the end of the story

so, the bible goes on and makes this claim

that all of this was resolved when God bound himself

to humanity through Jesus and

He showed us what it looks like to truly rule as a human

So what does it look like

Well, Jesus ruled by serving and by seeking

the best for others by putting himself underneath them

and loving not just His friends but also His enemies

And that's not a typical way to rule

And not only that Jesus confronted the consequences of

all the evil and death that we have created by

our messed up ways of ruling

and he takes it, I mean he lets it kill Him

And so, when the new testament writers looked back

to Jesus's resurrection they see

a whole new future opening up for all humanity

Jesus is a new way to be human

Yah, that's why they call Jesus the Image of God or New Human

And not only that they also believe that Jesus is divine

life and power is now available to

heal and transform us to become our life and power

and this sounds really nice

but what does it really look like

So, practically the apostle Paul said it looks

like people being filled by Jesus's own presence and spirit

filled with love and joy and peace and patience

and kindness and goodness and integrity and gentleness and self control

He says this is the new humanity that God wants

to create in us. So that we become people

in whom God's image is being restored

people who will move the human project forward

and that's actually how the story of the bible ends

It's a renewed world where God is on

His throne and His servants are all around Him

But they are the ones ruling over this new world

Taking it into new uncharted territory with Jesus

as their healer and their God.

Thanks for watching this channel

We do this because we believe the bible is

one unified narrative that leads to Jesus

It has profound wisdom for the modern world

So we are making different video

series some that walk people through the

design and message of books of the bible

or whole sections of the bible

We also do a series that take one biblical

theme and trace that through the whole narrative

arch of the bible kinda like the one

you just watched and we have a lot more

series coming up that we have planned

The Bible project is possible because of

your support, so if some people give one time

gifts and there is a growing number of monthly supporters

as well and we are all behind this.

we want to make these videos free and available

to anyone anywhere.

Yah, you can join us and be a part of this

Go to jointhebibleproject.com. You can give there.

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its all because of your guy's support

so thanks a lot, thank you guys.