In the beginning God...

This story is coming form  Genesis 1. God creates, by His Word and Spirit, a 'very good' world and He puts mankind in it to be His 'royal representatives' who were to do God's will on the earth. 

The Genesis 1 story tells us that God preexisted all created things, and that all created things are dependent upon God. In the account God is, God acts, God speaks and what God does is good and what God says is good is 'very good'. The story begins in the beginning and it tells us of an uninhabitable earth that was ‘formless and empty’ with the Spirit of God hovering over the chaotic waters. 

We then find God speaking the good ‘light’ into existence which He separated from the darkness; naming them ‘day’ and ‘night’. The next day God spoke an expanse into existence which separated the waters above from the waters below; and called it ‘sky’. On the third day God spoke and gathered the waters below the expanse together and dry ground appeared; which He called ‘land’. God spoke again and the land produced plants, vegetation, and trees. So on ‘Days 1-3’ God addressed the ‘formlessness’ of the earth by speaking the light, the sky and the land into existence.

On ‘Days 4-6’ God spoke and filled the ‘emptiness’ with the sun to govern the day and the moon to govern the night and He also made the stars. The next day God created the fish, sea creatures, and birds and God blessed them and told them to ‘fill’ the seas and ‘multiply’ on the earth. On Day 6, God created the animals and all the various creatures that move on the ground. Then God made mankind, male and female, as equally sharing in the image of God. They were to 'fill’ the earth with images of God, who would do God’s will on the earth. God blessed them and told them to “be fruitful and increase in number, to fill the earth and subdue it. They were to rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over all the creatures that moves on the ground.

The Genesis 1 story also tells us that mankind is dependent upon God and responsible to God. Man is who he is in relationship to the 'Creator God'  and man or mankind is also responsible to God. All people are to reflect God; to reflect God's character and His creative activity. All people, no matter their gender, race of economic status are made in 'God's image' . Therefore, all people have dignity and worth and are to be treated accordingly. On the other hand, people are not God, they are dependent upon God for we are only images of God.  

In the ancient world the various ‘kings and pharaohs’ were considered the ‘image of their gods’ who were called to do ‘the will’ of their gods on the earth. The image symbolically represents the land's true ruler or the land’s ‘true king’. The Genesis 1 story makes it clear that ‘all people’, male or female, poor or rich, are the image of God. Not just 'kings and pharaohs' but even those poor Israelite slaves were God’s image and were to do ‘God’s will’ on the earth. According to the story, everything God originally made was ‘very good’. Moreover, God made mankind to be God's 'royal representatives’ and they were to do God’s will on the earth as the ‘stewards’ of God’s good creation. So far, so good!