The book of Genesis
begins and ends
with image and dominion (1:26-28):
The subject of Genesis
is man
bearing the image of God
and exercising God’s dominion over all things:
For God to create man in His image
means that God created man with the intention
that man would become
a duplication of God,
the reproduction of God,
for His corporate expression.
God’s intention in giving man dominion
was for man to exercise God’s authority
to deal with the enemy,
to recover the earth,
and to bring in the kingdom of God;
dominion and the kingdom
are synonymous.
We were created for the purpose of
expressing God
and exercising His dominion;
this is
the heart of Genesis.
Genesis concludes with a life
that, in Jacob,
expressed God in His image
and, in Joseph,
represented God with His dominion.
After Jacob was transformed and matured,
he became the expression of God,
becoming Israel, a corporate person.
The exercise of God’s dominion
over all things
was manifested in Joseph’s life:
Joseph’s life under the heavenly vision
was the life of the kingdom of the heavens
described in Matthew 5—7.
Joseph’s self-denial
was the key
to the practice of the kingdom life.
Because Joseph
lived under God’s restriction,
the kingdom
could be brought in
through him.
The reigning of Joseph in Egypt
was the kingdom of God
for the fulfillment of God’s purpose.
In Genesis 47
we have
a picture of the millennium:
Under Joseph,
Egypt prefigured the millennium
with all the people on the same level,
without distinctions.
Under Joseph’s rule,
the whole land of Egypt
became a land of enjoyment:
All the people
were enjoyers on the same level
because everyone and everything
was under Joseph.
This is
a picture of the millennium,
where everything
will be under the Lord’s hand.
The matters of image and dominion,
presented as seeds in Genesis,
are developed and consummated
in the New Testament:
Christ’s incarnation and God-man living
fulfilled God’s intention
in His creation of man:
The incarnation of Christ
and His God-man living
are closely related to God’s purpose
that man would receive Him as life
and express Him in His attributes.
When Christ came,
He brought the kingdom of God with Him;
the kingdom subdues rebellion,
casts out demons,
heals the sick,
and raises the dead.
Whereas in Genesis 1
image precedes dominion,
in the gospel
the order is reversed,
and dominion comes before image,
because man
has fallen from God’s dominion
and must repent:
Through the gospel of the kingdom,
God brings rebellious people
under the ruling of His authority
so that they
may become His kingdom
and be ruled by His authority:
The gospel of the kingdom
is proclaimed
so that rebellious sinners
might be saved, qualified, and equipped
to enter into the kingdom of God (Acts 8:12).
As believers in Christ,
we have been regenerated
to enter into the kingdom of God
as the realm of the divine species
to live under the rule of God in life.
Christ is
the image of God
and the effulgence of His glory;
hence,
the gospel of Christ
is the gospel of His glory
that illuminates and shines forth:
In 2 Corinthians 4:4
God is the image,
the image is Christ,
Christ is the glory,
the glory is the gospel,
and the gospel is the illumination.
Through the illumination
of the gospel of the glory of Christ,
the shining reality of Christ,
who is
the embodiment and expression
of the Triune God,
is the treasure within us.
God intends
that the believers in Christ
be conformed to
the image of the firstborn Son
and that they
reign in life:
Conformation to the image of God’s Son
issues in
His being the Firstborn
among many brothers:
Conformation denotes
the shaping of life,
shaping us into
the image of the firstborn Son of God.
Conformation is a process
in which we are saved in life
from our self-likeness
to be conformed to
the image of the firstborn Son
for His corporate expression.
God’s complete salvation
is for us to reign in life
by the abundance
of grace and of the gift of righteousness:
In experience,
to reign in life
is to be under the ruling of
the divine life, the kingly and royal life
with which we have been regenerated.
All the believers
who have received the abundance
of grace and of the gift of righteousness
need to practice
the restriction and limitation
of the divine life.
As believers,
we may know Christ
as the image of God
and live in the kingdom
of the Son of God’s love:
God is invisible,
but Christ as the Son of His love,
who is the effulgence of His glory
and the impress of His substance,
is His image,
expressing what He is.
To be transferred into the kingdom
of the Son of the Father’s love
is to be transferred into the Son, the Beloved,
who is life to us:
Because the Father delights in His Son,
the kingdom of the Son
is a pleasant thing,
a matter of delight.
The kingdom
in which we may live today
is a realm
full of life, light, and love;
in this realm
there is no fear.
The church
is the kingdom
of the Son of the Father’s love,
which is
as delightful to the Father
as the Son is.
The church as the one new man
is the corporate man
in God’s intention;
this universal new man
will fulfill the twofold purpose
of bearing God’s image
to express Him
and exercising God’s authority
to represent Him
and fight against God’s enemy
for God’s kingdom:
God’s creation of man
for His expression and representation
is a picture, a type,
of the universal new man
in God’s new creation.
The corporate new man
bears the image of Him
who created him,
for the new man
was “created according to God
in righteousness and holiness
of the reality”.
The one new man
is a corporate warrior
fighting against God’s enemy
to bring in God’s kingdom.
In the coming age,
the age of the millennial kingdom,
the glorious kingdom of God
will be manifested on earth:
When the Lord Jesus comes again,
He and the overcomers
as the corporate smiting stone
will become a great mountain
to fill the whole earth,
making the whole earth
God’s kingdom, His dominion.
The kingdom is a realm
in which God exercises His power
so that He can express His glory;
thus,
God’s glory
goes with His kingdom.
In the millennium
the overcoming believers
will be with Christ
in the bright glory of the kingdom,
shining forth “like the sun
in the kingdom of their Father”.
The New Jerusalem in eternity
is the consummation
of image and dominion:
The New Jerusalem
bears the image, the appearance, of God,
expressing the Triune God
by her shining with a light
“like a jasper stone,
as clear as crystal”.
The New Jerusalem
is the eternal kingdom of God,
filled with the glory of God.
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7 replies on “Image and Dominion-the Heart of Genesis”
Prophecy note, 21 December 2014
When Christ came,
He brought
the kingdom of God with Him;
the kingdom
subdues rebellion,
casts out demons,
heals the sick,
and raises the dead.
To be transferred into the kingdom
of the Son of the Father’s love
is to be transferred into the Son
who is life to us.
The Son in resurrection
is now the life-giving Spirit.
He rules us
in His resurrection life
with love.
This is the kingdom
of the Son
of the Father’s love.
When we live
by the Son
as our life
in resurrection,
we are living
in His kingdom,
enjoying Him
in the Father’s love.
Eventually
the whole land of Egypt
became a land of enjoyment.
All the people
became enjoyers on the same level
because everyone and everything
was under the same lord.
This is
a picture of the millennium.
Truly
the earth is the Lord’s
and the fullness thereof.
Because Christ
has claimed everything of us,
we all
are now on the same level
enjoying the riches of Christ.
The whole New Jerusalem
expresses God,
bearing God’s appearance.
The New Jerusalem
also exercises God’s divine authority
to maintain God’s dominion
for eternity.
Today,
these two seeds
are growing in us.
The image of God and the authority of God
are constantly growing within us.
When we are in New Jerusalem,
we shall marvel to see
that the whole city
has the same appearance of jasper
as the corporate expression of God.
The nations will walk by the light
of the New Jerusalem, an organic building.
Thus,
the entire eternal kingdom of God
will be
under the shining of God’s glory
in the Redeemer
through the redeemed
as the diffuser.
Day 6
There are many believers,
but there is only one new man
in the universe.
All the believers
are components of
this corporate and universal new man.
According to Ephesians 4:13,
we are to grow up
until we arrive at a full-grown man,
and in 4:24
we see that, in a practical way,
we need to put on the new man.
In chapter 6
we see that the church is a warrior
to defeat God’s enemy, the devil.
In order to fight the spiritual warfare,
we need both the power of the Lord
and also the whole armor of God.
The church is a corporate warrior,
and the believers are parts
of this unique warrior.
We must fight the spiritual warfare
in the Body,
not individually.
According to Daniel 2:35 and 44,
Christ will come as the stone
cut out without hands
to crush the great human image
from the toes to the head.
However,
He will not come by Himself;
He will come with His bride.
Before His coming
He will have a wedding,
uniting His overcomers to Himself
as one entity.
Whereas Daniel 2 speaks of Christ
coming as a stone cut out without hands,
Revelation 19 speaks of Christ
coming as the One
who has His bride as His army.
After crushing the human government,
God will have cleared up
the entire universe.
The old creation will be gone,
and the human government
will become chaff
blown away by the wind.
Then the corporate Christ,
Christ with His overcomers,
will become a great mountain
to fill the whole earth,
making the whole earth God’s kingdom.
Both the earth and the heaven
will then be new
for God to exercise His kingdom.
In the coming age,
the entering into the kingdom of God
and the entering into the glory of God
will take place simultaneously.
When we live
by the divine life, the life of God,
we surely will express God,
and the expressed God
is the divine glory.
Since we live such a life,
we are in the divine glory.
Then spontaneously
we are in the kingdom of God,
because the kingdom of God
is just God’s manifestation
in His glory
with His authority
for His divine administration.
Hence,
to enter into the kingdom of God
and to enter into the expressed glory of God
transpire at the same time
as one thing.
Matthew 6:13 indicates
that God’s glory
goes with His kingdom
and is expressed
in the realm of His kingdom.
The kingdom is the realm
for God to exercise His power
that He may express His glory.
At the Lord’s coming,
He will take away
only the overcomers,
leaving the rest of the believers
in another category
because they will not have
the maturity in His divine life.
In the millennium
the overcoming believers
will be with Christ
in the bright glory of the kingdom.
The whole New Jerusalem
expresses God,
bearing God’s appearance.
The New Jerusalem
also exercises God’s divine authority
to maintain God’s dominion
for eternity.
Today,
these two seeds
are growing in you and me.
The image of God and the authority of God
are constantly growing within us.
Jasper is the appearance of God (Rev. 4:3).
Hence, the jasper wall [in 21:11]
signifies that the whole city,
as the corporate expression of God
in eternity,
bears the appearance of God.
When we are in New Jerusalem,
we shall marvel to see
that the whole city
has the same appearance,
the appearance of jasper.
The nations will walk by the light
of the New Jerusalem, an organic building.
Thus,
the entire eternal kingdom of God
will be
under the shining of God’s glory
in the Redeemer
through the redeemed
as the diffuser.
The eternal kingdom of God
includes the New Jerusalem
and the nations around it.
Day 5
For Christ
to be the Head of the Body,
and for us, His believers,
to be the members of His Body,
God needed to deliver us out of
the authority of darkness, the kingdom of Satan,
and transfer us
into the kingdom
of the Son of His love.
This is to qualify us
to partake of
the all-inclusive Christ
as our allotted portion.
God is invisible.
But the Son of His love,
who is the effulgence of His glory
and the impress of His substance,
is His image,
expressing what He is.
The image here
is not a physical form
but an expression of God’s being
in all His attributes and virtues.
To be transferred into the kingdom
of the Son of the Father’s love
is to be transferred into the Son
who is life to us.
The Son in resurrection
is now the life-giving Spirit.
He rules us
in His resurrection life with love.
This is the kingdom
of the Son of the Father’s love.
When we live by the Son
as our life in resurrection,
we are living in His kingdom,
enjoying Him in the Father’s love.
According to the New Testament,
the Son of God
is the expression of the divine life
and its embodiment.
This means
that the kingdom of the Son
is a realm of life.
The fact that the kingdom
into which we have been transferred
is the kingdom of the Son of God’s love
indicates that this realm of life
is in love,
not in fear.
The kingdom
in which we find ourselves today
is a realm
full of life, light, and love.
The words the Son of God
are a delight to the Father’s ears.
When the Lord Jesus was baptized,
the Father declared,
“This is My Son, the Beloved,
in whom I have found My delight”
(Matt. 3:17).
When the Lord was transfigured,
the Father made the same declaration
(Matt. 17:5).
Because the Father delights in His Son,
the kingdom
of the Son of the Father’s love
is a pleasant thing, a matter of delight.
The stress in Colossians 1:13
is the kingdom
of the Son of God’s love
in this age,
which is
the reality of the church.
The church life today
is the kingdom
of the Son of God’s love,
which is
as delightful to God the Father
as the Son of God is.
We, the believers, all
have been transferred into
this delightful kingdom
of the Son of God’s love.
God the Father
loves the delightful part of the kingdom,
just as He
loves His delightful Son as His own.
God’s creation of man in Genesis 1
is a picture of the new man
in God’s new creation.
This means
that the old creation
is a figure, a type,
of the new creation.
In God’s old creation
the central character
is man.
It is the same
in God’s new creation.
Therefore,
in both the old creation
and the new creation
man is the center.
Eventually,
the church as the new man
is the man in God’s intention.
God wanted a man,
and in the old creation
He created a figure, a type,
not the real man.
The real man
is the man
Christ created on the cross
through His all-inclusive death.
This man is called
the new man.
The old man
did not fulfill God’s dual purpose.
However,
the new man in God’s new creation
does fulfill the twofold purpose
of expressing God
and dealing with God’s enemy.
The old man
was created outwardly
according to the image of God
but without God’s life and nature
(Gen. 1:26-27),
whereas the new man
was created inwardly
according to God Himself
and with God’s life and nature
(Col. 3:10, Eph. 4:24)
In the life of Jesus,
righteousness and holiness of the reality
were continuously manifested.
It was
in the righteousness and holiness
of this reality,
which is God
realized and expressed,
that the new man
was created.
Day 4
In 2 Corinthians 4:4
Paul says
that “the illumination
of the gospel of the glory of Christ,
who is the image of God,
might not shine on them.”
This verse indicates
that the terms
God, image, Christ, glory, gospel, and illumination
are all in apposition to one another;
thus, they all
refer to the same wonderful person.
God is the image,
the image is Christ,
Christ is the glory,
the glory is the gospel,
and the gospel is the illumination.
We reign in life
in being conformed to
the image of God’s firstborn Son
through the Spirit’s interceding
that all things
may work together
for the conformation of those
who love God.
Conformation
is the end result of transformation.
It includes
the changing of our inward essence and nature,
and it also includes
the changing of our outward form,
that we may match
the glorified image of Christ, the God-man.
He is the prototype
and we are the mass production.
Christ was
the only begotten Son of God
from eternity.
When He was sent by God into the world,
He was still
the only begotten Son of God.
By His passing through death
and entering into resurrection,
His humanity was uplifted
into His divinity.
Thus,
in His divinity with His humanity
that passed through death and resurrection,
He was born in resurrection
as God’s firstborn Son (Acts 13:33).
At the same time,
all His believers
were raised together with Him
in His resurrection (1 Pet. 1:3)
and were begotten together with Him
as the many sons of God.
Thus they became His many brothers
to constitute His Body
and be God’s corporate expression in Him.
Conformation denotes
the shaping of life.
As the divine life grows within us
and transforms us,
it spontaneously shapes us
into the pattern, the image,
of the firstborn Son of God.
Self-likeness
is the expression, the appearance, of the self.
We need to be saved
in the life of Christ
from such a self-expression.
To be saved from the self
is to be conformed to
the image of the Son of God.
This means
that to be saved from the self
is to be made truly
a son of God.
God’s complete salvation
is for us to reign in life
by the abundance
of grace
(God Himself
as our all-sufficient supply
for our organic salvation)
and of the gift of righteousness
(God’s judicial redemption
applied to us
in a practical way).
When we are all reigning in life,
living under
the ruling of the divine life,
the issue
is the real and practical Body life.
To be saved in life
causes us to reign as kings [Rom. 5:17].
A justified person
should reign
because he has
the divine life, a kingly life,
with which to reign.
Without the kingly life,
no one can reign.
When we were redeemed by Christ,
forgiven of our sins,
and washed by the blood of Christ,
we were justified.
In addition,
we were regenerated with
a divine, spiritual, heavenly,
kingly, and royal life.
Thus,
we are now able to reign in life
as kings.
Today
there is the need
for all the believers
who have received the abundance
of grace and of the gift of righteousness
to practice
the life restriction and limitation
in the divine life.
Day 3
The two crucial words in chapter one of Genesis
are image and dominion.
You may forget
the creeping things and the fish,
but don’t forget
man with image and dominion.
Man was not made
in the image of a serpent or scorpion
but in the image of God.
This is the climax:
man bearing God’s image,
exercising God’s authority
to maintain dominion.
Image and dominion
were sown as two seeds in Genesis 1.
However, these seeds
need the whole Bible
to grow and develop.
The harvest, the full maturity,
is in Revelation 21 and 22.
The Lord Jesus
had a genuine man’s living
by God’s mind, will, and emotion
—to express God
in God’s attributes.
The Lord did not seek His own will
but God’s will.
He came
not to do His own will
but to do God’s will.
This means that He
came to live as a man
not by man’s life,
but by God’s life.
He lived
by God’s mind, will, and emotion
to express God
in God’s attributes.
These attributes
are contained in and mingled with
His human virtues.
God is recovering His right over the earth
in order to make the whole earth
His kingdom (Rev. 11:15).
When Christ came,
He brought
the kingdom of God with Him.
This kingdom has been enlarged
into the church (16:18-19),
which will accomplish
the establishing of the kingdom of God
on the whole earth.
Human society,
and every individual human being as well,
is full of “storms” of
rebellion, demons, unclean industry (hog raising),
death-sickness, and death.
This is
the actual situation of mankind.
But the Slave-Savior
has brought the kingdom to us,
and the kingdom
is the answer to the condition of fallen man.
The kingdom subdues rebellion,
the kingdom casts out demons,
the kingdom clears up the unclean industry,
the kingdom heals the sick,
and the kingdom raises the dead.
Some may ask
why Genesis 1:26 and 28
mention expressing God with His image first
and representing Him with His dominion second.
The reason for this
is that there we see God’s original purpose.
But because man has fallen,
in the gospel
man has to repent
in order to come back to the beginning.
Therefore,
in the gospel,
dominion is first
and image follows.
On one hand,
the Bible reveals the gospel
as the gospel of grace,
which is
for us
to become believers
through faith.
On the other hand,
the Bible says
that the gospel
is the gospel of the kingdom,
which is
for us
to become the Lord’s disciples,
those who are
trained, ruled, disciplined, and dealt with
by the Lord’s authority.
According to the gospel of grace,
God is pleased
to freely grant us grace,
and we can receive this grace simply
by believing.
However,
this gospel is
also the gospel of the kingdom
through which God desires to bring us
under the ruling of the heavenly authority
so that we
may become His kingdom,
those who are ruled
by God’s authority.
Satan instigated man
to rebel against God
by building
the city and tower of Babel.
The building of the city and tower of Babel
was a declaration of independence from God.
Mankind was declaring
that it had become independent of God.
The gospel is for the kingdom.
The purpose of the preaching of the gospel
is that men
might enter into the kingdom.
The gospel is proclaimed
that people might be
saved, qualified, and equipped
to enter into the kingdom.
The gospel of the kingdom
brings the rebellious sinners
into the church.
But now we need to see
what is the reality of the church.
The reality of the church
is the kingdom.
Day 2
Jacob was matured in life
to become Israel.
El in the name Israel
means “God.”
God gave Jacob this name
to signify that he
had experienced God’s dealing
and had reached maturity.
He was
God’s overcomer,
God’s prince.
He was full of God’s element
and became God’s expression.
Under God’s sovereignty,
through the sufferings in his circumstances
and through God’s direct dealing,
Jacob was transformed and matured
so that he became Israel.
In the last few chapters of Genesis
we see an Israel
expressing God’s image
and exercising His dominion.
The exercise of God’s dominion over all things
is manifested in Joseph’s life,
whereas God’s image
is expressed in Israel.
Joseph is not separate from Jacob
but is an aspect of the life
that expresses God’s image.
The two aspects of
expressing God’s image
and exercising God’s dominion
must be found in one person.
Therefore,
what is found in Joseph’s life
may be called
the reigning aspect of the matured Israel.
Without this light,
you will not be able to understand
this portion of the Word.
Joseph’s life under the heavenly vision
was the life of the kingdom of the heavens
described in Matthew 5, 6, and 7.
According to the constitution
of the heavenly kingdom
revealed in these chapters in Matthew,
our anger must be subdued
and our lust conquered
(Matt. 5:21-32).
If we claim to be the kingdom people,
yet we cannot subdue our anger
or conquer our lust,
we are finished.
Instead of being in the kingdom,
we are those
giving vent to our anger
and indulging in lust.
But all the kingdom people
subdue their anger
and conquer their lust.
This is the kingdom life.
We, the kingdom people in the kingdom life,
are being trained
to be kings,
to be Josephs,
to be the reigning aspect
of the mature life.
Do you want to have
a pleasant church life?
Then you must be under restriction
and deny yourself.
We all need to learn this.
Suppose Joseph had not been
a self-denying person.
In such a case
it would have been impossible
for the kingdom of God
to be brought in
and realized in a practical way.
Joseph’s self-denial,
his restriction under God’s sovereign hand,
was the key
to the practice of the kingdom life.
Thank God for Joseph’s self-denying life.
Through such a life
God’s purpose
was fulfilled,
and the kingdom
was brought in,
realized,
and practiced.
At the end of Genesis
we find
a seed of the truth
of self-denial.
In the closing chapters of Genesis,
Christ is typified
by Joseph,
and the kingdom is foreshadowed
by the house of Israel.
Because Joseph denied himself,
the kingdom of God
could be realized
in a practical way.
The entire universe
belongs to God,
and God desires a kingdom.
Although Pharaoh
was ruling in Egypt,
the kingdom of God
was nonetheless realized
through the reign of Joseph.
The reigning of Joseph
was the kingdom of God,
which is for the fulfillment
of God’s purpose.
If you study Genesis 47,
you will see
that eventually the whole land of Egypt
became a land of enjoyment.
No longer were there distinctions
between high and low and rich and poor.
All the people
became enjoyers on the same level
because everyone and everything
was under the same lord.
This is
a picture of the millennium.
In the millennium
there will be
no capitalism or socialism.
Everyone
will be on the same level
because everything
will be under the Lord’s hand.
He will have bought
everything,
and He will have claimed
everything and everyone.
Truly the earth is the Lord’s
and the fullness thereof.
Because Christ
has claimed everything of us,
we all
are now on the same level
enjoying the riches of Christ.
Day 1
Gen. 1:26
And God said,
Let Us make man in Our image,
according to Our likeness;
and let them have dominion
over the fish of the sea
and over the birds of heaven
and over the cattle
and over all the earth
and over every creeping thing
that creeps upon the earth.
Gen. 1:28
And God blessed them;
and God said to them,
Be fruitful and multiply,
and fill the earth
and subdue it,
and have dominion
over the fish of the sea
and over the birds of heaven
and over every living thing
that moves upon the earth.
The record in the Bible
has a purpose.
Genesis,
a book of God’s image and dominion,
shows a complete picture of
how human beings
can be remade and transformed
to express God in His image
and to represent Him with His dominion.
The last fourteen chapters of Genesis
indicate that
after Jacob had become Israel,
he bore the image of God
and exercised the dominion of God.
The book of Genesis
is complete;
it ends the way it begins.
It begins and ends
with God’s image and dominion.
In the closing chapters of Genesis,
God must have been happy,
and He could have said,
“Now I have a man on earth
expressing Me
and representing Me.
This man
bears My image
and exercises My dominion.
His words
are My prophecy,
and his actions
are the exercise of My dominion.”
This is
the subject of the book of Genesis.
Genesis 1:26
is a very crucial verse.
Notice two significant words here
—image and dominion.
We must consider
in what way and for what purpose
man was created.
The Bible says
that man
was made in the image of God.
Nothing is higher than God.
Thus, man
was made
in the image of the highest One.
Perhaps
you have never regarded yourself
this highly before.
Because we
bear the divine image,
we should have
a high regard for ourselves.
We are not low creatures;
we were made for the purpose of
expressing God
and exercising His dominion.
The subject of Genesis
is man
bearing the image of God
and exercising God’s dominion
over all things.
We bear God’s image
that we might express Him,
and we have God’s dominion
that we might represent Him.
Therefore,
we are
God’s expression and representation.
This is
the heart of Genesis.
For God to create man in His image
means that God created man
with the intention
that man
would become a duplicate of God;
the word image
implies that man
has the capacity and ability
to take God into him
and to contain Him.
The man created in God’s image
was created to be God’s container.
The word likeness
refers to
outward form,
outward fashion,
outward appearance.
Hence,
likeness here
is a matter of expression.
First,
man
was made in God’s image
to be a duplicate of God,
and then man
was made after God’s likeness
to have the appearance of God
for His expression.
God created a corporate man
not only to express Himself
with His image
but also to represent Him
by exercising His dominion
over all things.
God’s intention
in giving man dominion
is (1) to subdue God’s enemy, Satan,
who rebelled against God;
(2) to recover the earth,
which was usurped by Satan;
and (3) to exercise God’s authority
over the earth
in order that the kingdom of God
may come to the earth,
the will of God
may be done on the earth,
and the glory of God
may be manifested on the earth.
We have seen
that Jacob, God’s expression,
bore the image of God.
But what about God’s dominion?
The book of Genesis
ends with Joseph
exercising dominion
over the whole earth.
Although Pharaoh was the king,
he was merely a figurehead.
The acting king
was Joseph,
who is a part of Jacob
in the experience of life.
In Jacob with Joseph
we see
the expression of God
with the dominion of God.
Never separate Joseph from Jacob.
The record
of the last fourteen chapters of Genesis
mixes the two together.
This indicates
that Joseph
is the reigning part of Jacob
and that Jacob and Joseph
should not be considered
as separate persons.