Both Genesis 1 and 2 assert the creation of man and its role as part of God's creation.
Genesis 1:26: "Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion (רדה, rāḏāh) 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 2:15: "The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it (עבד)."
The fertile land, ʼădāmâ, the earth from which humans derive their identity, is also the earth from which all other forms of life, animals (2:19) and plants alike (2:9), are created and derive their identities.
The creator is depicted as a divine farmer, cultivating a garden in rich soil (2:8–9), strolling through the garden for inspection (3:8), and nourishing it with rainfall (2:5). Cultivation and caring for the fertile soil means meeting the needs, limits, and demands of the soil itself. It means living within nature's limits.
Genesis 1:26 indicates that being created in God's image gives the human a special task, not a special spiritual nature or divine characteristic that is different from other forms of life.
The primary vocation God gives humans is earth-oriented, to take charge of all living things. The Bible writer believes the human, having been made in God's image, functions as God's representative on earth and rules at God's direction. This image of the human as God's representative in the world is the source of the contemporary term "stewardship."
Read the following texts and consider what they say regarding the task and responsibilities of mankind for God's creation:
Think about the ways in which humanity cares for God's creation at a greater scale but also at a personal level. Do you think we are doing a good job being God's stewards or are there things we can do better?
