Reflective Creatures

According to Genesis 1:26, you are made in the image and likeness of God. The word image (צֶ֫לֶם) refers to something like a carved statue and the word likeness (דְּמוּת) refers to something like a pencil sketch. In both cases, these words describe one thing that in turn resembles something else, though not entirely. Just as both a granite statue and a charcoal drawing of a lion will look like a lion, even so has God designed you as a human being to resemble his creative, loving, and holy nature. To be sure, he intends for this to be the case in more than a visual way. He intends for you to resemble him in social, emotional, intellectual, and - most of all - spiritual ways as well. In other words, God has made you to reflect him.

God has made you to reflect him.

Because of sin, you and I fall short of God's intention and we do not reflect his nature as he desires or deserves. In our failure, however, we do not cease to be reflective. When we cease to reflect God's good nature, we end up reflecting the nature of another god instead. Jesus explained this bluntly when he said, "You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do" (John 8:44).

Misplaced Worship

When you refuse to emulate God as he desires, then you also refuse to worship him as he deserves. Even so, when you make this choice you do not cease to worship. You only change the object of your worship. God made you as a worshipful and reflective being. This means that you not only will worship someone or something, but you must worship. What's more, whatever you choose to worship, that is what you choose to become. That is what you choose to emulate. That is what you choose to reflect.

The Influence of Idols

Referring to idol worship, Psalm 115:8 says, "Those who make them are like them; so is everyone who trusts in them." Psalm 135:18 later repeats this fascinating observation. Together, these lines of Hebrew poetry from the Psalter reveal that you become like the gods you worship. That which you choose to worship, whether God (the right choice) or someone or something else which he has created (the wrong choice), will strongly influence the kind of person that you become. Greg Beale says, "We resemble what we revere, either for ruin or destruction."

Becoming Like Cows

To illustrate this inescapable dynamic, pause to consider two examples from the Old Testament. When Israel turned away from the LORD in the wilderness to worship a golden calf instead, Moses portrayed them as people who "turned aside quickly out of the way" (Exo 32:8). He also described them as "stiff-necked," meaning difficult and stubborn (Exo 32:9). These portrayals resemble the the undesirable and difficult characteristics of cattle and they appear throughout the Old Testament, from the golden calf debacle and beyond. Centuries after that event, the prophet Hosea said, "For Israel is stubborn, like a stubborn calf" (Hos 4:16).

Becoming Like Nothing

As another example, consider how the the LORD describes Israel's choice to worship Baal, the Caananite fertility god, after they had settled into the land of Palestine. 2 Kings 17:15 reads, "Thus says the Lord: 'What injustice have your fathers found in me, that they have gone far from me, have followed idols, and have become idolaters?'" The prophet Jeremiah later says, "They rejected his statutes and his covenant that he had made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he had testified against them; they followed idols, became idolaters" (Jer 2:5). The recurring phrase, "they followed idols and became idolaters" translates a word (הֶ֫בֶל) which means "vanity, emptiness, or nothing" as "idols." Knowing this, you can translate this phrase as "they followed nothing and became nothing." Though this is an awkward translation to read, it conveys the essence of this statement very well. Through this, we see once again that Israel became like the god they worshiped. Having worship vain and worthless idols, they became vain people living worthless lives as a result.

A Downward Descent

In the New Testament, Paul describes a similar problem as he portrays what happens when people refuse to worship the one, true Creator God as he deserves and desires (Rom 1:18-21). When they do this, they end up worshiping other people and creatures from the animal kingdom instead (Rom 1:23). He describes this as exchanging "the truth of God for the lie" and "worshiping and serving the creature rather than the Creator" (Rom 1:25). As a result of this foolish choice, they end up thinking and behaving like animals (Rom 1:24, 26-32).This highlights a fascinating contrast. When you choose to worship the one, true Creator God, then you move in a forward direction and change in an upward way, reflecting more and more of the noble, holy, and loving nature of God. But when you choose to worship other human beings, animals, and lower aspects of God's creation, then you move in a downward way, reflecting less and less of the character of God. Notice this downward progression, for instance, in the way that Paul describes man, then birds, then four-footed animals, then creeping animals (Rom 1:23).So the question before you today is, "Who or what are you worshiping?" Are you worshiping God? Or are you worshiping someone or something else as you do lip service to God or reject him entirely? Regardless of how you answer, however, one thing is true in either case. You are becoming like the god(s) that you worship.

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R. Reed Lessing introduced many of these concepts in the introduction to a journal article and this post, in large part, reflects what he shared. R. Reed Lessing,  Yahweh Versus Marduk: Creation Theology in Isaiah 40-55 (Concordia Journal, Summer 2010).