When we look to the Bible for insights into our nature and purpose, we have an early and mysterious hint. In Genesis 1.26, God addresses an unidentified audience and says, “Let US make the human in OUR image.” To whom is God speaking?
God could be speaking to the animals (who were just recently created). The human will be a combination of godly and animal qualities—hence the words “us” and “our.” As we go through our lives, we feel the presence of both tendencies. We must attend to our physical realities, as well as our inclination for altruism, kindness, and holiness.
Another possibility is that God is speaking to the angels. Though we think of God as omnipresent—being everywhere at the same time, the ancients thought of God as a monarch residing in Heaven. To get things done in the world, God sends out agents or servants—called, in Hebrew, mal’achim. These angels are God’s representatives and workers in the world, and the Biblical interpretation suggests that we humans are created with some of their characteristics. Perhaps, this is why we innately feel the desire to do good.
Our Christian friends look at the passage, “Let us make the human in our image,” as a clear indication of Jesus’ presence at the right hand of God. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are all together and discussing the creation of this new and very important creature.
Another perhaps even more profound interpretation comes from the Midrash. In Genesis Rabbah, a collection of Rabbinic teachings from 300-500 CE, we find this curious identification of God’s audience: “God was speaking to the Torah. God consulted the Torah as a builder consults a blueprint.” While we usually think of the Torah as the Five Books of Moses (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy), this analogy speaks of Torah in a more expansive sense. More than a collection of stories and laws, more than God’s rules for society and religion, it is the textual idealization of life and existence.
So often, we think of rules as restrictions or requirements superimposed upon our free lives by those in authority: parents, bosses, governmental authorities, God. Why cannot they just leave us alone?! However, if we are created from the “design specifications” in the Torah—from the idealized/Divine image we were designed to be, then the Scriptures are not God telling us what to do, but rather God informing us of ways we can live better.
A more modern analogy would be the Owner’s Manual for a car. When Honda tells me that my car works better on eighty-seven octane gas, it is not an authoritarian power play. Rather, it is advice about how to keep my car running well. I am free to put ninety-three octane gas or even orange juice in my gas tank, but Honda is advising me that my car will work better with the recommended fuel.
Likewise, the many rules of Torah are what amounts to an Owner’s Manual for human life. We are created from Torah wisdom, and we run better when we follow those patterns. God’s word is not an authoritarian and artificial imposition; it is advice about our natural and best mode of operation.