Man:
God’s Handiwork
By
Stephen Terry
Commentary
for the October 20, 2012 Sabbath School Lesson
“What
is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?
You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory
and honor. You made them rulers over the works of your hands; you put
everything under their feet: all flocks and herds, and the animals of the wild,
the birds in the sky, and the fish in the sea, all that swim the paths of the
seas.” Psalm 8:4-8, NIV
A
popular Universal Studios television show, “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,”
has made the Las Vegas skyline famous around the world. Actors in the series
portray a team of investigators in that city who work to identify murder
victims and those who murdered them using logic and technology that Sherlock
Holmes would have loved to have at his disposal. The show’s theme song is “Who
are you?” written appropriately by “The Who.” This question of identity is the
heart of this week’s lesson. As we learned from an earlier lesson, we are in an
ongoing war that we sometimes refer to as “The Great Controversy.” Just like
the city of Las Vegas, as well as most cities around the world, we find there
are victims of this conflict. Do we know who they were? For that matter do we
know who we are?
My
uncle, who passed away a few years ago, believed that all such introspective
questions were simply “navel gazing.” He had little use for metaphysics and
asserted there was little difference between a human being and a blade of grass
-- both came from the same place and both went to the same place, from random
molecular bits to random molecular bits. This sounds reminiscent of Solomon’s
utterances about the pointlessness of life in Ecclesiastes. However, if this
point of view were true, why would any man bother to seek answers to questions
of existence and being? Why would we search for a possible meaning to life?
Perhaps we search because the alternative can lead to despair. After all, if
human existence is pointless, why should it continue? Unlike many lower life
forms, man has the ability to purposely end a pointless life. In fact, far too
many have felt they had to do just that.
The
Pentateuch approaches mankind’s existence from a completely different
perspective. The first few chapters of Genesis assure us that all of mankind
originated from the hand of God. In spite of all argument to the contrary, we
can find ample foundation in that account for the understanding that all of us
have an equality of origin. This argues strongly for an equality of personal
rights. Even the founding fathers of the United States felt that the equality
of creation was adequate to assert personal liberty when they signed The
Declaration of Independence which boldly proclaimed that “all men are created
equal.” However, throughout the history of man, there have been those who deny
those liberties, sometimes in the name of science, sometimes even in the name
of God.
Even
in the last few hundred years, some have advanced theories of racial
superiority or inferiority based on skull shapes, minor skeletal differences, facial
features, skin color and many other supposedly scientifically derived
observations that were really no more than imposing preconceived prejudicial
stereotypes on features that were believed to support those opinions. Examining
the relative simplicity of some cultures and comparing those with more technologically
advanced societies, some even felt that the races of those who were in the
simpler cultures represented an earlier stage of evolutionary development and that
these individuals were stuck in an evolutionary backwater. Those with the
technology had it simply because they had evolved while their more primitive brothers
and sisters had not. Some extreme examples of these ideas can easily be found
in the propaganda of the Third Reich of Germany. This propaganda continues to
be supported by modern-day Neo-Nazis. The idea that there can be any kind of
universal equality is abhorrent to those who hold these views. Likewise, those
who truly believe that all mankind sprung equally from the hand of God cannot countenance
the oppression of anyone based on these ideas of superiority.
Sadly,
there are also those who look at the sordid history of mankind found in the
Bible and derive ideas that are alien to this doctrine of the equality of
mankind. For instance, they see slavery mentioned in the Bible and not seeing a
universal emancipation declaration in its pages, they jump to the conclusion
that God is “O.K.” with slavery. They refuse to see that mankind was not
created to be enslaved. Instead he was given dominion over the entire earth. That
the Bible records the degradation of slavery is no more an endorsement of that
institution than it is an endorsement of polygamy when it tells us that several
biblical figures had multiple wives. From my pastoral counseling experience,
this is often an argument that philandering husbands make to attempt to excuse their
abuse of the marriage relationship. In the same way those who condoned slavery
would point to texts that mention slavery in the Bible in an attempt to excuse
the buying, selling and abusing of others.
Some
feel the Pentateuch was written when the Jews were perhaps at their lowest
possible self-image as a people. Having lived for several generations in Egypt,
they were enslaved to a people who challenged all that their own culture said
they were. Under this oppression, their concept of who they were as a people
and who they were in relationship to their Creator had eroded significantly. It
had diminished to the point that Moses was faced with the constant rebellion of
those who identified more with the culture of Egypt than with that of the Jews.
Unable to root those cultural understandings out of the current generation of
Israelites, he spent 40 years in the wilderness raising up a generation with a
new cultural perspective. His writings are revolutionary in their repeated
references to one standard for both the Israelites and the foreigners living
among them. We still struggle with this, today. In many countries, politicians
pander to xenophobic masses in misguided attempts
to secure votes from one group while betraying others who may not have the same
measure of political influence.
In
any event, when we consider the downward slide of mankind from Creation to the
Exodus, we can begin to understand the significant departure from that trend
that the Pentateuch represented. It was a step in the direction of restoring a “golden
age” of mankind where men and women were not only in a proper relationship with
their Creator, but also were in a relationship of equality with each other where
the respect and submission on the part of both were equal. Some would say that since the fall into sin,
it has not been so and cite passages in Genesis 3 to support the idea of one
sex dominating another. They see this
somehow as the normal Christian relationship between the sexes. But the same
texts reveal that it is quite clearly a result of sin that things became that way.
Why should Christians seek to emulate the effects of sin as
proper Christian behavior? Some act as though God were commanding man to
dominate woman and that they must obey. It is a mystery to me how this can be
justified.
Disease
is also a result of sin, but we have no problem recognizing the value of
working to defeat disease in our lives. As a result, there have been great
advances against diseases such as polio, tuberculosis, and smallpox, as well as
many others. We do not argue in favor of disease because we know it is wrong even
if it is definitely a result of sin. Why then do we argue in favor of sexual
domination when it, too, is the result of sin? Truly, isn’t every form of
domination and control of others without their consent a result of sin? Shouldn’t
the Christian’s doctrine of man encompass a struggle against these results of
sin wherever they occur? Unfortunately, we far too often find the battle
against the results of sin important when those results make our own lives
uncomfortable, but fail to concern ourselves when our actions dominate or
control the lives of others.
We
see the results of sin in the world around us. Biologists refer to the “food
chain,” where animals live in a relationship of prey and predator. The prophet
Isaiah assures us that heaven will not be like that. (See Isaiah 11 & 65) If
this is true then logically, the predatory relationship appears to be because of
sin. To some extent, mankind has become part of this predatory “chain.” We prey
on lesser species of animals for food and resources. Sadly, we even use the
example of fallen nature as an excuse to justify predation of our fellow human
beings in this “dog-eat-dog” world.
As
if this were not enough, we have even often made God over into this image
corrupted by sin. We simply place Him at the top of the “food chain” as the
alpha being. Instead of recognizing that we should be reflecting His image as
we were created to do, we look to the fallen world around us and declare that
to be His image. Then like a filthy mirror that is poorly suited to the purpose
for which it was created, we go about pretending that in dominating and
controlling others, we are being godlike. Instead of bringing an image of
fairness, equality and love into the world, we manipulate, control and conquer.
Perhaps it is time we reject these results of sin and become vessels of grace
to one another, allowing equality of opportunity and recognizing the validity
of claims for equal rights for all mankind without regard to race, gender,
nationality or any other excuse we use to dominate and control one another.
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