5. As in Heaven, So on Earth

Genesis 1:26-28 places human beings in a special role within God’s good creation. God makes humanity in his image, creates people male and female, blesses them, and gives them work to do: fill the earth and care for its living creatures. The passage connects being made in God’s image with a task. People are not the Creator, but they are called to represent his rule within creation. Their authority is received from God and should reflect his goodness.

In Heiser’s framing, the image of God is a status and a function: humans represent God on earth, as heavenly beings serve in the heavenly realm. He connects this idea to two families under God, one in each realm. The image language itself is in Genesis; the larger connection is his interpretation. Readers can test that interpretation while attending to what the passage plainly says about human dignity and responsibility. Every person bears God’s image, and the commission is shared by humanity.

That shared calling makes human worth more than usefulness. Genesis does not say that only the strong, wise, productive, or successful bear God’s image. The blessing and task belong to humanity. So representing God cannot mean controlling people for personal gain. It means treating people as valuable and caring for the world entrusted to human beings. The command to have dominion is paired with fruitfulness and filling the earth; it describes responsibility within creation, not permission to use others without care.

The next chapter shows God placing the human in a garden to work it and keep it. Work, care, and presence belong together from the beginning of the biblical story. People reflect God in ordinary places: tending what has been entrusted to them, telling the truth, keeping a promise, repairing harm, or making room for someone who is overlooked. These acts do not make a person God. They are small ways of living out a calling that comes from God.

The phrase let us in Genesis 1:26 has prompted many interpretations. Heiser reads it as God addressing the heavenly host, and he sees the next verse’s singular description of God creating humanity as important to that reading. The passage does not name the addressees, so readers should be thoughtful about how much they claim from this phrase alone. The clear point remains: God creates humanity in his image and gives people a meaningful role.

Ask how this truth affects the way you see yourself and another person. You may not feel important, or you may be tempted to treat someone else as an obstacle. Genesis gives a steadier measure of human worth: people are made by God, blessed by God, and entrusted with responsibility. The calling begins where you are, in the way you treat people and care for the work placed in your hands.