This is the second-last article in a series, taken from Genesis chapter one, on improving our personal productivity by studying how God works. Today’s lesson: DELEGATE. God finished His work only after He had appointed someone else to take care of the earth. For this task, God created and commissioned mankind.1 He made mankind in His image.2
Then 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 birds of the heavens, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. (Genesis 1:26 ESV.)
Not until there were good global supervisors in place did God consider His work to be “very good.” He empowered and commanded them with specific responsibilities:
God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth. (Genesis 1:28 ESV.)
Mankind was told to:
- Be fruitful and multiply
- Fill and subdue the earth
- Have dominion (take charge) over the fish, birds and animals
God made his management team super intelligent and highly creative. They were given charge over the whole earth. Note that we humans are managers, NOT OWNERS of the planet. As managers we are accountable to our Creator, a Higher Person, not an impersonal higher power. Any organization is only as good as its top management. Therefore, appoint good management. That’s what God did. Assets require attention. Don’t leave an operation without someone in charge. Don’t leave it on autopilot. Good management is part of good personal productivity.
Unfortunately, paradise conditions did not last long. Our first parents rebelled against the LORD God and sin was introduced. The great rebellion brought sin, like a spiritual virus to all of Adam and Eve’s offspring. It also contaminated the rest of creation with hostility, decay, and death. The great rebellion introduced Murphy’s Law: “Whatever can go wrong will go wrong.” Everything on earth has suffered ever since, and will continue to suffer until the second and last Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ, comes back physically and renews this groaning planet (Romans 8:19-23).
(1) Note the expression is mankind, not humankind, or personkind. From the Bible we read that man was made first and then woman: woman as a variation or kind of man – hence mankind. We see this pattern down to the DNA level. Biologically, the male XY chromosomes can yield a female (XX) chromosome, but a female (XX chromosome) can never produce a male (XY chromosome). I see this as a genetic reflection of the female being taken out of the male. Furthermore, we read that Eve was not made from the soil like Adam, but from Adam’s side. This implies that she is to be his beloved companion. She should walk beside him, not behind him or ahead of him. The Bible further says that all men are born out of women. Together male and female reflect the full image of God.
(2) It’s significant that mankind is made in the image and likeness of God. God is spirit and yet He walked (not floated) in the Garden. In one sense God is humanoid or rather humans are made in God’s image. Note the three subtle reference to the Trinity when God said, “Let us [not me] make mankind in our [not my] image, in our [not my] likeness.”
Tom Lipp