Expert: Bob Hill - 1/31/2004

Question
Genesis 3:22
 Then the Lord God said, "Behold the man has become loke one of US, to know good and evil".
Genesis 11:7
  Come let Us go down and there confuse their language that they may not understand one anothers speech.
 Can you explain to me who God is talking to when He says "US".  Is he speaking to his Angels or to the Holy spirit and Jesus?
Thanks for your help.

Answer
Dear David,

When God said, in Gen 3:22, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us”, this could be God speaking to the angels. But, when we consider Gen 1:26: “God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness'” we see that He was talking to the other 2 members of the trinity, since we were created in His likeness. Further, since the Hebrew word used here is Elohim, a plural noun that is translated gods, elsewhere, we have further evidence that He is talking to those of the Godhead.

I'm sure you are aware of the use of God in John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” There, we definitely have two aspects of God. When we look at Psalm 110:1, we see that “the LORD (Yahweh, Jehovah) said to my Lord (adonay, David's Lord). This would seem to be a theophany of God the Son.

Later, in Gen 11:7-9, when it says: “Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.” 8 So the LORD  (Yahweh, Jehovah) scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city. 9 Therefore its name is called Babel, because there the LORD  (Yahweh, Jehovah) confused the language of all the earth; and from there the LORD  (Yahweh, Jehovah) scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.”, we see that the Us is referred to as the LORD  (Yahweh, Jehovah).

One of the most telling incidents occurs in Gen 19:24. Here it shows us that God on earth rains down fire and brimstone from God in heaven. “Then the LORD (Yahweh, Jehovah) rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the LORD (Yahweh, Jehovah) out of the heavens.”

With this as my basis, there is some more Scripture in the New Testament that gives us further light on this issue. When God inspired Paul to write about the creation, we find that the person of the Godhead who became a man to redeem us, in my opinion, first took the form in Col 1:15 that was called the image of the invisible God. It seems that He created an image that He indwelled when He created the rest of the universe, and of course, the earth. Col 1:15 “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.” I also believe this image was also called, “the beginning of the creation of God” in Rev 3:14 “And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, ‘These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the beginning of the creation of God.'” He, God (as the Son), then indwelled this image that belonged to Him and created everything else (Col 1:16).

Then, back to Genesis, He made man in the likeness of His image and likeness in Gen 1:26. When God was in this image, apparently man could see Him without fear of being destroyed.

When it says that no one has ever seen God, we see from John 6:46 that it means the Father can't be seen: “Not that anyone has seen the Father, except He who is from God; He has seen the Father.”

The Son shows and explains the Father in John 14:9,10 “He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father'? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works.” In John 1:18, when it says: “No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.”, all they could see of the invisible God (the Father) was shown in the Son.

In Phi 2:6-8, it gives us more information about the Son. “Who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation” The Greek word here is (ekenwse), literally, He emptied Himself. I think He emptied Himself of His non-moral attributes of deity such as omniscience, omnipotence and omnipresence. We also see that He left the form of God, the one He created and indwelled, and took upon Himself the form and attributes of a servant, and came in the likeness of man. But He still retained His moral attributes such as love, compassion, mercy, and repentance. Verse 7 continues, “taking the form of a servant, and coming in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.”

Notice, Christ was in the form of God. He was God according to John 1:1. The form was created by God the Son and belonged to God. He then left that form and took another form, the form of man. Yet, He was still God according to John 20:28, “And Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!” (ho kurios mou kai ho theos mou) It is interesting that both Lord and God have the article here. Also, why didn't Christ correct Thomas if he was wrong in calling Him God?

Considering the word “form” as found here, and in Gen 1:26, He made man in the likeness of that form which belonged to God. He made “man in Our [plural] image, according to Our [plural] likeness.” Again, this was the likeness or image that God (the Son) first created according to Col 1:15.

In Christ, my redeemer,
Bob Hill