שֹׁפֶךְ

דָּם

הָאָדָם

בָּאָדָם

דָּם

יִשּׁפֵךְ

I find it interesting that the exact same words are reordered, with the appropriate verbal and prepositional changes. The writer used this technique to create rhetorical force. Then he adds the explanatory clause or purpose clause. In that final clause of verse 6, the fact that God’s image is in man is somehow tied to the previous two clauses. This is prose no doubt. But it is a deeper more stylized sort of prose than one finds in a Dan Brown book. One might summarize the rhetorical thrust of this verse as conveying the idea that one who kills another human will himself be killed because he has destroyed the image of God. If the third clause (which is introduced with the ki preposition) was not in the text, this might seem like something out of one of the wisdom writings, but the third clause gives a more worshipful purpose to the apparent general law of the world.

Genesis is some deep stuff. I can’t count how many times I’ve read it in English. I’ve probably read it 5 times in Hebrew, and several parts 30 times. Yet, it still fascinates me.

One thing I find interesting is that if one works from a truly evolutionary perspective, then one should allow them free reign to breed and move wherever they like. After all survival of the fittest means that if these guys kill off fire ants then they deserve the habitat because they are the fittest. Yet, it seems that “green” minded people who aren’t Christians are often the ones who think that this sort of species invasion should be controlled.

On the other hand, there is often no sort of Christian response to a species invasion. What I mean is that Christians who claim that creation was made with an intended order should be fundamentally opposed to a disruption of that order, such as species invasion. Yet, often Christians don’t even think about the implications that invading ants have on the ecology of creation, the land in which we live.

Thankfully these ants are not found in my county within Texas, but as the above picture shows, the ants are moving along the coastline.

by Aussiegall

My choice to engage in Creation Care, or Christian Environmentalism, is not because I fear Global Warming. There are stories which point out inconsistencies in the Global Warming argument, and I anticipate more and more of this sort of data/stories. I pointed out to a University of Arizona sociologist, that my motivation for Creation Care is a scriptural motivation. Since I believe that God’s word describes the Creator of the Universe, and Earth, as handing the responsibility for the care of that creation over to humanity, I believe I should treat God’s creation in a loving manner. When I manage properties for my dad, I do it in a way that I think will please him. The same applies to how I treat the earth that I was placed in charge of (Gen 1:26; 2:15). Because of this, my motivation for engaging in Creation Care, or environmentalism, is not related at all to whether or not Human induced Global Warming (or cooling) is occurring. As an evangelical I am motivated by God’s word.

Let’s say you mow a few lawns while you are in high school, and by the time you graduate you make as much as some of your friends who work hourly jobs. Let’s say $300 a week. Instead of going to college, you work on developing a business, and then when they graduate college (with lots of debt), you are making $600 a week. So someone who didn’t go to college, might make (50*600) $30,000 a year. In six more years you might double that and actually be making more than the person who went to college. But, you still don’t have debt.

I think we don’t need more people going to college. I think we need more people to be trained for jobs that are needed. If they are willing to work hard and find a mentor for advice, they might come out better in the end.

But, I’m someone who has been a student in higher education for 13yrs. I’m a professional student. So, I like education. In fact, I want to teach undergraduates and graduate students. But, I think that there is quite a lot one doesn’t learn in the classroom. While being a full-time student, I worked 9 of those years. Formal Education isn’t always the answer. Sometimes it is, but sometimes mentoring and professional development, as well as networking will go just as far.