Here is the interesting thing. In Genesis 3, we have the fall. And at the fall, when God is delivering the curses for our original sin, God says to the serpent that he will put enmity between the serpent and the woman, and his offspring, and hers. The serpent’s role in creation is now twisted or skewed from God’s earlier command that man should exercise dominion over all creatures. Then to Eve, her role in creation similarly becomes off-kilter. Now instead of being blessed in childbirth, she will bring forth children in pain, and rather than being obedient to her husband, her desire will be to master him. Similarly, Adam, who was put on earth to tend to the creation and work it (Genesis 2:15-17) will now do so in toil and pain, and he will die. Everything becomes out of whack here. Though we are still responsible to exercise dominion, all of creation is out of whack, off-kilter, not quite right due to our sin. Our ability to exercise the dominion that God created us to do is now tainted by sin. We once lived in grace, and now we have chosen to live under God’s law by transgressing his word. Now check out Genesis 5, something interesting happens here when Shem is born in the genealogy of Adam: When God created mankind, he made them in the likeness of God. He created them male and female and blessed them. And he named them “Mankind” when they were created. When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth.
It is interesting here that the author draws this distinction between being made in God’s image pre-fall, and now being made in Adam’s image post-fall. Paul seems to pick up on this in Romans. See next post.
