God and His Creature Man
By Emma Hildreth Adams
In What Form Did God Appear to Men in Early Old Testament Centuries?
THE question can be answered definitely only from the Word of God itself. Aside from that volume, not all the treasured libraries of the world can set forth the intensely interesting truth in the case. None of them contain an ante-Flood portraiture of Him who lifted up the young hills, set the first streams to flowing, decorated the new valleys with flowers. No other volume touches authoritatively the Creator's relations with mankind before the Deluge. Therefore to it we turn for illumination upon our inquiry. In Gen. 1:26 there gleams a definite clue to the form of God. In His proposal there recorded to Christ, the active Creator of the earth, occur these very significant words: "Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness." And the result?—"So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him." This announcement alone, of the grand inception of the once noble human form, ought to prohibit forever and under all circumstances, every member of the race from doing any deed which can dishonor the "image of God." It should impel men to live godlike lives; to cease from all the infernal things they now do to each other; to stand up for purity, justice, and right. But there is more. In Gen. 5:1 occurs this very emphatic statement: "In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made He him." Can there be denial of that assertion? More than fifteen centuries after that final act of creation, after the great Flood had accomplished its tremendous purpose, after Noah and his sons had again set foot upon solid matter, and again were giving thought to gaining a livelihood, God, in a kind, instructive talk with the great primitive navigator, made this startling declaration: "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: FOR in the IMAGE of GOD made He man." Gen. 9:6. The swift years pushed by, and in anno Domini 60, twenty-four centuries after God's decisive utterance to Noah, the apostle James, writing to the "twelve tribes scattered abroad," urging them, inspiring them, to nobler courses of life, said, "But the tongue can no man tame. . . . Therewith bless we God, . . . and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God." These scriptures, if words at all deserve our confidence, if simple, direct assertions can, in any case, stand unshaken, must lead to the conclusion that God created man an image, a likeness, a copy, a representative, of Himself, not only in respect to bodily form, but in mental, moral, and spiritual likeness as well, yet vastly, inconceivably inferior to Him in knowledge, might, and power. True, God is a spirit-being, while man is of the earth, earthly; yet the inference must be that man's physical form, at creation, was an image of God's spirit form, and was undoubtedly a nobler form than that of any of his successors who walk the earth to-day. The total history for 2,000 years succeeding the fall, indicates that God appeared to men, conversed with men, instructed them, reproved them, in the form of man. The interviews with Adam, Cain, Noah, bear that impress. A notable instance to such conclusion is portrayed in the charming visit which God or Christ and two angels paid to Abraham, one fervid noonday, as he sat at his tent door in Hebron on the plain of Mamre. Especially is this apparent in the magnanimous concessions made to Abraham's requests of God when they two were deliberating upon Sodom's fate. In that same year God held an intensely interesting talk with His "friend" Abraham, touching the birth of Isaac. The purpose settled, it is said that God "left off talking" with Abraham, thus indicating that the two persons had communed together. Other instances might be cited of personal meetings between the Author of the universe and leading members of the race. A very remarkable occasion occurred in the life of Jacob at the ford of Jabbok, where, it is stated, "there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day." That was an extraordinary scene. Both members in the contest asked of the other his name. Gen. 32:24-30. Jacob announced his name readily. His Opponent answered the question by pronouncing a rich blessing upon the human wrestler. Thereby Jacob knew Him, and cried, "I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved." The book of Exodus teems with instances wherein God and Moses, that most remarkable character of all history, held close converse concerning the transcendent scenes and deeds in which the latter acted a most distinguished and honored part through over forty years of his life. Chapter 33:11 states, "And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend." Joshua also, upon assuming the position of leader of Israel at the withdrawal of Moses, acquired strength, wisdom, courage, for his mammoth task, from cheering, personal conference with God before the great host crossed the Jordan. All that keen, pointed instruction, those mighty promises of needed power, those exact, penetrating commands, appear to have come from lips distinctly visible to the new general in authority. The many subsequent centuries of Bible history down to the close of prophecy, furnish indications of God's personal presence upon the earth, and His communication with the race in the form of man. Still, in the vast majority of cases, during Israel's long, stubborn, backsliding career, He chose to make known to them His grief, His disapproval, His threats of punishment, through 'seers, visions, prophets, angelic messengers, and startling dreams. The entire Bible narrative glows with pathetic evidence that the beings God has created in His own image, are inexpressibly dear to Him; that He craves to be near to them; that He welcomes communion with them, and desires to smooth their rough pathway till it ends in glory eternal.