Genesis 1:27 (ESV)

So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.

Here we’re told, two more times, that we’re created in God’s image. God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. In Hebrew, you can emphasize things by repeating them. This image of God thing must really be important. But there’s a puzzle.

In the next chapter, Moses describes the creation of Eve from Adam’s rib. Here he just describes them being created male and female. Why does he write the same thing twice from two different perspectives? Is that just repetition for emphasis too?

Well, we learn a lot from seeing both points of view. For example, without this description people might have concluded that only Adam was created in God’s image. That would have been a nightmare. Sex discrimination is bad enough as it is.

These two contrasting descriptions also suggest that the chronology of events from God’s point of view may not be the same as from ours. This isn’t something that we’re going to fully understand (this side of eternity, anyway) but CS Lewis illustrated it beautifully in The Chronicles of Narnia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chronicles_of_Narnia

In The Chronicles of Narnia, the characters jump between our world and the world of Narnia, discovering that time in one world doesn’t track with time in the other. The two worlds aren’t synchronized chronologically. (In Greek, “chronos” is the word for time.)

In English, you can emphasize things by putting them in the title.

In a wondrous irony, Lewis’s lesson on time has acquired a new layer. Read the above link all the way to the end and you’ll discover that people now debate the chronology of the books of The Chronicles of Narnia. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was written and published first, but the sixth book (The Magician’s Nephew) is a prequel to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Some folks say that the books should be read in the order they were published. Others say they should be read in “internally chronological” order. CS Lewis didn’t see that one coming.

So, God extended Lewis’s lesson in a way he would have never guessed. How awesome is that?

It’s good to meditate on complex issues, while asking for the Lord’s help in understanding them. His dominion over time is a subject you can spend a lifetime studying.

Our being created in His image is no less wondrous.

The weekly study guides, which include discussion questions, are available for download here:

https://www.ailbe.org/resources/itemlist/category/91-deep-studies