Man was made in the image of God. The creation of Adam and Eve was the beginning of the revelation of the invisible God. God does not resemble an animal or any of the other images demon-worshiping men have carved out for themselves. God showed us His image and likeness when He created Adam and Eve.

Adam reveals the capacity for rulership and judgment that are in God's Nature. Eve shows the beauty and fruitfulness in God's Nature. Taken as one, Adam and Eve portray in themselves the image and likeness of God. Together they were entrusted with the responsibility of multiplying the image of God and with the authority to rule the works of God's hands.

Man is the image of God, has the capacity for union with God and with others of his kind, and has been commissioned to be fruitful and also to govern the works of God's hands. None of these endowments is true of any animal. None of these is true of any order of angels.

However, Adam and Eve were but a faint image and testimony of who and what the invisible God is and does. If people are to be faithful and true witnesses of Almighty God, many Divine operations must be performed on them after they are born into the world, and God Himself and Christ must enter them.

In Adam and Eve we gain a glimpse of the Father in Heaven. But the way of God, the truth of God, and the Life of God are not portrayed in Adam and Eve.

The nation of Israel was selected from among the descendants of Adam and Eve to be the witness of God's Person and will. Other nations of peoples were deemed expendable so the testimony could be brought forth through Israel.

But now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine. For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour: I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee. Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. (Isaiah 43:1,3,10)

Israel was the light, the testimony, the witness of God for a season. After the ministry of John the Baptist, the true Light of God, Christ, appeared for three short years. Then the lamp was passed to the Christian Church.

From God's Word to Abraham, and to other patriarchs, prophets, and apostles, we understand the Kingdom of God is coming to the earth, that His will shall be done in the earth. The true witness of God, the true herald of the dawn, the true morning star, is the one who brings the light of that Kingdom to us.

To be continued.