Recently, I heard a pastor talk about the place of human kind in the creation. His comments revolved around humans being the pinnacle of God's creative work. Not bald eagles or spotted owls or sequoias; people. A case can be made for his point, but a poor case it is, indeed.
As I read the scripture I find that in the beginning, when God formed things, God put humans as eikons in the creation to be God's representatives in the world. Kings in the ANE would place statues, or eikons, of themselves at various places in their domains to remind folks who was the real authority. People in the realm were subject to the king. Similarly, idols were used as representative images of whatever deity in order to show that the particular deity had some sovereignty in these places. In both cases the eikon represented something or someone.
Humans were/are God's eikons. As such, we represent God's interests in the world. We are stewards, not owners. The world does not belong to humans, but to Yahweh. We have a responsibility to watch over the creation and to honor and care for it. This includes the bald eagles, spotted owls and sequoias. To diminish these, as this particular pastor appeared to have done, is to diminish God's presence in the world and elevate some human-made image above God's image. I think we need to be careful before making irresponsible statements that are not based in the scripture nor the revelation of God.
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