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One main curiosity of the Bible is its seeming ambiguity. But in reality there is nothing ambiguous about the Bible; with patience, everything can be found to be coherent. In that sense, the Bible is like a safe, in that a safe won’t open unless you hit all the pins. Leave one pin out and it’s easy for one to conclude that they can’t open the safe, or they can’t make sense of the combination. The Bible is the whole combination. If you leave anything out, you won’t have access to its wonders and wisdom.
Which brings us almost to the beginning of the Bible, Genesis 1:26 in which says, “Then God said, “o’Let us make man in our image, after our likeness...’” A question arises as to whom God is talking to. Some make much of the word “Elohim” which in the literal sense is the Hebrew word for ‘Gods,’ and it is used in the early translation of the Hebrew Bible with regard to this passage. But translations aren’t perfect...it is also necessary to temper any translations with the context in which the word being translated is used.
Our understanding is that in the Judeo-Christian religions there is only one God. To say that in actuality many Gods exist in the Judeo Christian religions is to make us no different that the Greeks who worshipped Zeus with his gods, or the Romans who worshipped Jupiter and his gods. Also, then, what to make of the First Commandment, Exodus 20:2-3, in which God says to Moses, “I am the LORD your God...You shall have no other gods before me.”
Some might say at this juncture, ‘Ah ha! Then there are other gods!’ Well, to the extent of God’s allowing us to reason by virtue of Isaiah 1:18, there may be millions of “other gods,” but it seems that God is saying in Exodus 20:2-3 that we are to have nothing to do with those other gods. God created the heavens and the earth; they didn’t. God created us; they didn’t. Could God have been talking to some of them in Genesis 1:26, or Genesis 3:22 for that matter when, after Adam eats from the Tree of Good and Evil, God says “Behold, the man has become like ONE OF US in knowing good and evil”?
Seems that it is unlikely that God was talking to “other gods” when He made His Statements in Genesis 1:26, and Genesis 3:22. If God is the loving God that we know, why would He in one instance converse with “other gods” in Genesis 1:26, and Genesis 3:22, but in the next instance, in Exodus 20:2-3 He would throw them under the chariot? Is it because His Jealousy was acting up? Seems that if He tended to be jealous, He wouldn’t be sharing His creation of man with “other Gods,” which might give them a chance to take man away from Him. Seems a more plausible explanation is there are no “other gods” as far as God is concerned.
So, who could God have been speaking to? Were they “the sons of God” referred to in Job 1:6 and within Job 38:4-7? Who were the “sons of God” that Job refers to? By any reasoning they could either be angels, or other beings up in God’s Kingdom along with the angels. There is another kind of “sons of God,” mentioned in Genesis 6, Deuteronomy 32:8, and Matthew 5:9. These “sons of God” are men in the flesh.
There are some who question whether God had actually spoken to angels in Genesis 1:26 and 3:22. One quarter says that God would not say to angels that Adam is “like one of us,” since that would imply that He equates the angels with Himself. But consider the possibility that God did not have any notion of rank in mind when He made His remark. After all, He did say in Genesis 1:26 to make man “in our image;” no distinction there as to who is on the upper rung of the ladder, n’est ce pas? So at this point, the angels are still in play for consideration of their being in God’s presence.
What in the Bible would place the angels in a position where God is speaking to them in Genesis 1:26 and Genesis 3:22? Well, consider the visions that some of the prophets had. In Ezekiel 10:1-22, Ezekiel sees, as part of his vision, in Verse 19, cherubim (angels) who “stood at the entrance of the east gate of the house of the LORD.” Revelation 5:11 says, “Then I looked, and I heard around the throne [in Heaven (referred to in Revelation 4:2)]and the living creatures and the elders the voice of MANY ANGELS...”
Also consider Isaiah 14:12 which says “How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low!” This Verse is understood to refer to Lucifer, or Satan, considered a ‘fallen angel.’ Well, if that ‘angel’ fell from Heaven, then there were, and still are, other angels up there, n’est ce pas?
By many existential inferences from the Verses mentioned above, it is not difficult to place the angels in God’s presence when He uttered His Words in Genesis 1:26 and 3:22.
Which brings us almost to the beginning of the Bible, Genesis 1:26 in which says, “Then God said, “o’Let us make man in our image, after our likeness...’” A question arises as to whom God is talking to. Some make much of the word “Elohim” which in the literal sense is the Hebrew word for ‘Gods,’ and it is used in the early translation of the Hebrew Bible with regard to this passage. But translations aren’t perfect...it is also necessary to temper any translations with the context in which the word being translated is used.
Our understanding is that in the Judeo-Christian religions there is only one God. To say that in actuality many Gods exist in the Judeo Christian religions is to make us no different that the Greeks who worshipped Zeus with his gods, or the Romans who worshipped Jupiter and his gods. Also, then, what to make of the First Commandment, Exodus 20:2-3, in which God says to Moses, “I am the LORD your God...You shall have no other gods before me.”
Some might say at this juncture, ‘Ah ha! Then there are other gods!’ Well, to the extent of God’s allowing us to reason by virtue of Isaiah 1:18, there may be millions of “other gods,” but it seems that God is saying in Exodus 20:2-3 that we are to have nothing to do with those other gods. God created the heavens and the earth; they didn’t. God created us; they didn’t. Could God have been talking to some of them in Genesis 1:26, or Genesis 3:22 for that matter when, after Adam eats from the Tree of Good and Evil, God says “Behold, the man has become like ONE OF US in knowing good and evil”?
Seems that it is unlikely that God was talking to “other gods” when He made His Statements in Genesis 1:26, and Genesis 3:22. If God is the loving God that we know, why would He in one instance converse with “other gods” in Genesis 1:26, and Genesis 3:22, but in the next instance, in Exodus 20:2-3 He would throw them under the chariot? Is it because His Jealousy was acting up? Seems that if He tended to be jealous, He wouldn’t be sharing His creation of man with “other Gods,” which might give them a chance to take man away from Him. Seems a more plausible explanation is there are no “other gods” as far as God is concerned.
So, who could God have been speaking to? Were they “the sons of God” referred to in Job 1:6 and within Job 38:4-7? Who were the “sons of God” that Job refers to? By any reasoning they could either be angels, or other beings up in God’s Kingdom along with the angels. There is another kind of “sons of God,” mentioned in Genesis 6, Deuteronomy 32:8, and Matthew 5:9. These “sons of God” are men in the flesh.
There are some who question whether God had actually spoken to angels in Genesis 1:26 and 3:22. One quarter says that God would not say to angels that Adam is “like one of us,” since that would imply that He equates the angels with Himself. But consider the possibility that God did not have any notion of rank in mind when He made His remark. After all, He did say in Genesis 1:26 to make man “in our image;” no distinction there as to who is on the upper rung of the ladder, n’est ce pas? So at this point, the angels are still in play for consideration of their being in God’s presence.
What in the Bible would place the angels in a position where God is speaking to them in Genesis 1:26 and Genesis 3:22? Well, consider the visions that some of the prophets had. In Ezekiel 10:1-22, Ezekiel sees, as part of his vision, in Verse 19, cherubim (angels) who “stood at the entrance of the east gate of the house of the LORD.” Revelation 5:11 says, “Then I looked, and I heard around the throne [in Heaven (referred to in Revelation 4:2)]and the living creatures and the elders the voice of MANY ANGELS...”
Also consider Isaiah 14:12 which says “How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low!” This Verse is understood to refer to Lucifer, or Satan, considered a ‘fallen angel.’ Well, if that ‘angel’ fell from Heaven, then there were, and still are, other angels up there, n’est ce pas?
By many existential inferences from the Verses mentioned above, it is not difficult to place the angels in God’s presence when He uttered His Words in Genesis 1:26 and 3:22.
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