A Brief Essay: Creating as Assigning Function and The Image of God

Again, just for fun, here’s an essay I wrote entitled, “Creating as Assigning Function and The Image of God.” I wrote this 600-word essay for my “Theology of Creation” class at NTS. 

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In The Lost World of Genesis One, Walton’s thesis is “that the cosmos is being given its functions as God’s temple, where he has taken up his residence and from where he runs the cosmos. This world is his headquarters” (Walton, 161). In this paper, I will discuss a main point of Walton’s thesis that interested me, which is that creating involves assigning function. I will explore the implications of creating as assigning function as I discuss God creating humanity and what it means to bear the image of God.

I see evidence for Walton’s view that creation involves assigning function in Genesis 1. “The account begins in verse 2 with no functions (rather than with no material)” (Walton, 162). We read that the heavens and earth were “formless and void,” (Gen 1:1) or “nonfunctional, having no purpose and generally unproductive” (Walton, 48). Walton asserts “people in the ancient world believed that something existed not by virtue of its material properties, but by virtue of its having a function in an ordered system” (Walton, 24). One reason Walton asserts this is that the Hebrew word translated ‘create’ (bara’) concerns assigning functions” (Walton, 162). The Genesis text depicts God creating by assigning functions. “On day one God created the basis for time; day two the basis for weather; and day three the basis for food. These three great functions–time, weather and food–are the foundation of life” (Walton, 58). “Days four to six pertain to functionaries in the cosmos being assigned their roles and spheres” (Walton, 162). It is after each creative act of assigning function that God says, “it was good” (Gen 1:9) which Walton thinks “refers to ‘functioning properly’” (Walton, 50). This proclamation of goodness is fascinating to me. It would imply that all functions as designed. This, then, has many implications for what being fully human means, made in God’s own image.

First, what functions did God give humanity when creating it? God assigns naming other creatures to the adam. What does this mean? “Names in the ancient world were associated with identity, role and function . . . naming is a significant part of something’s existence, and therefore of its creation” (Walton, 29). Thus, God asking the adam to name other creatures demonstrates that humans function as dynamic participants in the creative process with God.

Part of joining God in the creative process is working for our food, caring for the land, and reaping God’s good gifts of food (Gen 2:15). God is the provider of food, but one function of being human is that we must work to sow and reap the harvest. The language of stewardship describes being involved in the creative process. “We are stewards” (Walton, 145) of all creatures as we care for them (Gen 1:26). If I took the liberty of translating Gen 1:28 with Walton’s and my own points in mind, Gen 1:28 would read: “God blessed [the humans] and [assigned them functions by saying,] “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and [order] it. [Care for] the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and [for] every living creature that moves on the ground.”

As stewards, created in the image of God, “people represent God to the rest of creation” (Walton, 68). Stewardship includes wisdom to know what is in one’s control or influence and what is not. This is especially important given that being human means functioning in community. Humans were not made for isolation. How we relate to one another and the world are true marks of the image of God in us. As stewards, humans should steward what is theirs–their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors–because they have such an impact on other creatures.

In conclusion, God created, or assigned functions, to humans. We are dynamic participants in the creative process with God. We work for our food, care for the land, care for other creatures, and reap God’s good gifts. We steward our own thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, especially because they have an impact on the world around us.

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