Why Is Jesus Always Talking About the Kingdom of God? • Gospel of the Kingdom Ep. 1

translation. Because when you say rule, you think, who uses that word? That's not what your boss at Subway does. He doesn't rule the place, or, so that's a verb, and even in English, we think of someone in a state of ruling authority. That's why we use the word rule. And that's similar here. So, it represents humans with some real task. And that connects back to the image of God. So here's the big question. Shall we flick over the image of God in this video? - We did that before. - We did it quickly, but this would be to highlight a different nuance.

So that's Genesis 1 and not just the chapter. - Did we ever talk about just making a video about the image of God? - Yes, you know, I thought so and then I watched our thematic videos. - Well, I know it's on the list. I think we had discussed it before. - Yes, I think we had it, it will actually be involved in the new humanity. - Alright. - I think we are doing something about the new humanity. - Good. - Isn't that the one? Yeah, so that'll be that one. - So when you say it's a royal task, I mean, I don't even understand royalty in the

kingdom

s very well, but yeah, it seems like that had a very special, royal meaning. - If it does.

Yes, so let's look at Psalm 8 and then think about the image of God. And then all of this comes together in a really, I think, profound way. So Psalm 8 is a poetic reflection on Genesis 1 and specifically humanity's role in the world. So Psalm 8:4 begins with this line: "What is man that you should remember him? "What is man that you should care for him? "You've made it a little lower than the angels." - Which is pretty amazing. - Correct, then that is reflecting on this, that human beings are made of earth. So we are earthlings. - Yes. - Literally.

But there is also something transcendent or sacred. - Good? - Good. So what do biologists call this? An emerging form, something. This is physics, an emergent form in which, in evolutionary development, these leaps occur in which the complexity of a form is not reducible to any cause, but to multiple factors. And it is a new entity. It's not just a... A lot of people think of consciousness that way. - That's how it is. - Exactly correct. So, and it doesn't mean that we can't trace the development, but it does mean that at some point it stops being a bunch of stuff from the previous stage and is something new and genuine in its own right.

So what am I

talking

about? - Yes, we are dust, but... - That's right. - There's something else there. - There's something else. - Apart from the dust. - About humans. So in Genesis 1, that is reflected there as the image of God and in Genesis 2, it is called the divine breath that animates humans. But this is it, humans are a mixture of Heaven and Earth, that would be the way the Bible talks about it. And then they are crowned, and notice immediately that it says: they are crowned with glory and honor. You made them rulers over the works of your hands and over everything.

So crowned image, I mean. - Yes. - Crowned. -Crowned as king. - And rulers. So here he is. - Under your feet, that is very real. - Standing, yes, that's right. - Yes, it is about being on a throne with having like a stool or an image of, again, authority. So here, within the narrative world of Genesis 1, God is the creator King. He talks, things happen. He forms a people who will live under his reign. He makes these people a certain way and gives them a unique role. They are the image of God. And traditionally, in Western history, the image of God has been studied as a trait that distinguishes humans from animals. - Like our ethics or- - Our ability to forgive relationship or pact or the- - Cognitive capacity. - Intellect, conscience, something like that.

So far, the consensus in biblical studies, as read in the comments, is that the meaning of "the image of God" is anchored in Genesis 1, in the way the sentence is constructed. But two, in their ancient Near Eastern context. I don't know if we have time to delve into this, but it's interesting. Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. "And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea." So in Hebrew there are no dots. So let's eliminate that dot. "Let us make humans in our image, according to our likeness and that they rule or have dominion." So the first time the image of God is used, it is directly connected to something. - To reign. - To reign.

So, humans are the way that God reigns the world. So it's a very interesting narrative beginning, the image of God is something that humans are, and something that humans do, they embody and imagine God's rule and reign over the world, is that God's plan was. to share his world with humans and have his reign and his rule and his will be carried out in the world through humans. So what really opened up, if you start to think about the stories in the Bible, there is. very few stories in which God acts or does something that does not happen through a human being.

So let's think of the Exodus, as the parting of the Red Sea. But if you were just an Israel looking, you would see Moses with his staff over the waters. So the way the God of the Bible works is through image-bearing human beings. And this is how God rules the world through humans. And the humans. This is the ancient context: The word "image" refers to statue. - Good. - And it is used to refer to idol statues in the history of Israel. So Israel was never supposed to make images to represent God. - But they were warned. - But the Bible begins with God making an image of himself in humans.

Most large statues, such as those that have survived from the ancient world, are images of gods or kings. And specifically the Egyptian, Assyrian and Babylonian kings were considered and saw themselves in their cultures as deities. And so, in Egyptian, the phrase "image of God" is used, but only to describe the king as the image of God. And it is the same in the ancient Assyrians and Babylonians. - Wow, so there's this kind of flattening democratic thing happening at the beginning of Genesis. - Yeah, so this is what's great. That's right, I think Genesis 1 is intentionally making a loaded statement today that... - Not just kings. - Being the image of God is not something that only the elite do, but it is a reality that all human beings are.

And that is seen in the narrative. Humanity as a whole has the task of ruling and reigning. It is all humanity. That is why in Genesis 9, the image of God is connected to the sacredness of all human life. So if someone kills another human being, if he sheds blood, his blood will be shed, because the human being is made in the image of God. So the point is that all humans are this. - There is no classes. - There are no classes, yes, within the narrative world of the Bible, there are only humans who represent God, and humans have this real task. - And I guess that's not very scandalous to... - To modern Westerners. - Modern Westerners. - No, the scandalous thing is that it is a biblical idea.

That's where the idea comes from. It's not something we received from... - It wasn't a Greek idea. - It's not a Greek idea. It was certainly not an Eastern idea. It is a Judeo-Christian idea that humans are sacred because they were created. - And at that time, it was a very revolutionary idea. - Yes. So I think, summarizing all of this, I think Genesis 1, the first time, the idea of ​​reigning or ruling or God reigning or ruling in the Bible. No, no one's, actually God reigning, that's the other trivia question. So the first time the word or concept of ruling or reigning appears, it is humans ruling or reigning over creation.

And it is tied to their nature as made in the image of God. So God is King. He has reigned, but the Bible begins with God sharing that rule and asking humans to embody that rule and reign over creation. Therefore, it is linked to the human project of human beings administering and governing the world in the name of God. (upbeat music) - The Kingdom of God video will be available on YouTube before the end of the year, December 2015. That's what we're looking for. The rest of this conversation will be in the next two episodes. In the next episode, we talk about what went wrong with God's Kingdom and then God's plan to fix it.

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