The functional aspects of the Imago Dei
How does our status as God's image bearers inform what we do?
In Genesis 1:26, we get an idea of what the image bearers of God are to do.
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion 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.”
Our status, as I talked about in my last post, is not an ability but instead is should be thought of as a function. We are to function as steward, both men and women, of God’s creation. But what exactly does that mean?
A clue which may answer this question can be found in a surprising place—in the story of Joseph at the end of Genesis.
After Joseph is appointed to rule over Egypt, only being under Pharaoh, in order to prepare for the upcoming famine we find a surprising image being painted in the text. Tim Mackie of the Bible Project comments. “When you see Joseph cruising in the chariot, you’re like, “That’s Pharoah’s chariot.” And it’s a guy dressed like Pharaoh wearing his ring and necklace, oh, but it’s slightly different. It’s an image of Pharaoh.”1
There are other parallels in the story of Joseph and Adam and Eve. “Adam and Eve are depicted as those who don’t know good and bad yet. That’s what the forbidden tree is about. In the rest of the Hebrew Bible, to be someone who doesn’t yet know good and bad, the only other times the phrase is used i just about four or five times. And in most of those, it’s used to describe children… It is disobedience to God’s command about the tree, but their motive for it is not depicted as willful disobedience… Rather they are deceived and make a foolish decision.”2
What’s interesting about this observation is that throughout the rest of Genesis every evil act is a willful, informed type of evil. Every character acts out of willful knowledge of their evil acts. But when we get to the end, with Joseph, we see an ignorant young person. As Jon with the Bible Project mentions, “It didn’t really occur to him like, ‘I go to my brothers and tell them this is a dream about how special I am. That might not be the best move when they’re already a little bit frustrated that I’m the favorite son, got a special coal.’”3
Both foolish decisions lead to exile and to death. For Adam and Eve, they are exiled from the garden and the Tree of Life; for Joseph, he is exiled by a staged murder into slavery, out of his land, and is as good as dead to his family. When “their dad hears about the lie, that an animal ate” Joseph, “what he says is ‘I’m going to die and go down to meet my son in the grave.’”4
There are many other clues that the stories are tied together. For more, check out the podcast.
When Joseph is riding around on the chariot, we begin to understand what is meant to be the image of another authority. Joseph is not Pharaoh. But when he is acting in the authority or within the function Pharaoh has assigned him then he it is as if he were Pharaoh.
Thus, to be God’s image bearer is to act in a ruling capacity within whatever place God has put you. This ruling is not to be abused but is to be as if we were God acting in the world. Imagine if Joseph did not do the will of Pharoah and abused his power… bad deal. But because Joseph did what was right by Pharaoh and God, we see that Joseph saved many people both in and out of Egypt. To be God’s image bearers over creation is to act as God’s workers in the world and to do God’s will, on earth as it is in heaven.
BibleProject. “Genesis: Joseph the Suffering Servant.” Accessed April 24, 2024. https://bibleproject.com/podcast/joseph-suffering-servant/.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid.