Our human “let us” mindset is running rampant right now, but as I look at Scripture and history, the “let us” mentality has existed since Genesis 3 when Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden. Our first parents tried to usurp God’s authority and humanity has been doing the same thing ever since. A quick look at the phrase “let us” in the book of Genesis helps us see mankind’s sin of wanting to be God.
The phrase “let us” rightfully belongs to God. God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” (Gen 1:26). This one verse alone teaches us much about our identity. First, we are made. We are creatures. We exist because of God. Second, we bear the thumbprint of God. We were made in his likeness. We can create because we come from the original Creator and bear his image, but we are not the starting point for anything. (And oh, how we want to be, how I want to be! Even as I’m typing this, I want these words and ideas to originate with me, but they don’t. They begin with God, who breathed out his ideas in Scripture.) Third, the Triune God is the one who did the making. Notice the plural us is used in the creation account. We know not only God the Father, but Jesus and the Holy Spirit also were involved in the act of creation (see Col 1:16, John 1:3, Job 33:4). Moses also used the plural us because he was writing to the enslaved Israelites in Egypt reminding them that they were God’s, not Pharaoh’s. Richard Pratt explains in He Gave Us Stories, “Moses wrote the book of Genesis to teach his readers that leaving Egypt and possessing Canaan was God’s design for Israel” (281). As God’s chosen people had multiplied in Egypt since the time of Joseph, they had grown accustomed to seeing replicas of Pharaoh all over the land. Moses wanted the Israelites to remember Whose they were and that, unlike the images of Pharaoh, they were the image bearers of God who needed to relocate to their Promised Land. The plural us was also used because during this time in history, kings spoke of themselves in the plural. By Moses writing about God in the plural form, he was also declaring that the God of the Bible is the King of kings, the absolute King.
What I find interesting is how Moses uses the “let us” phrase after the creation story. After the fall of man, we are given four stories in the book of Genesis where created beings use the phrase “let us” that rightly belongs to God alone. We see in these stories what happens when we try to play God.
The Tower of Babel: Genesis 11:3-4
“And they said to one another, ‘Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly . . . Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” At Babel, we see mankind trying to be God by building a city instead of a universe. We also see mankind trying to be a savior by making a tower to reach the heavens, but no human can bridge the immense gap between mankind and God. Only One who is perfectly, fully human and fully God can accomplish salvation. In fact, verse 7 gives us a hint of the incarnation written about in John 1. God takes back his rightful phrase “let us” and continues it with “go down.” God knows that we cannot reach him. He knows any chance of a connection and relationship between us and him will not come through our human efforts of building, but through his divine work as the One who comes down to us.
Lot’s Daughters: Genesis 19:32
“Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve offspring from our father.” Lot’s two daughters have their father drink wine, and they sleep with him one at a time. He did not know when they came in to his chamber or when they left (v.33, 35), yet they both become pregnant by their father (v.36). They were living in a cave with only their father. They had no hope of having a husband or children. So, out of their desperate state, they take matters into their own hands. Let us . . .
Dinah is defiled: Genesis 34
In Genesis 33, Jacob arrives at the city of Shechem in Canaan and buys land there. Then, Genesis 34 gives us the horrific story of Jacob’s daughter, Dinah, being raped by Shechem, the prince of the land. He is drawn to Dinah and wants to marry her. He and his father, Hamor, go to talk to Jacob. Jacob’s sons come in from the field and are angry about this outrageous act against their sister. Hamor pleads with Jacob and his sons for their two nations to intermarry and trade with one another. The sons of Jacob say they cannot give their sister in marriage to an uncircumcised Canaanite, but if the Canaanites have all of their males circumcised then they can dwell together and “become one people” (v.16). The problem with this idea is that God desired for Israel to be a holy nation, set apart from other nations. One way Israel was to remain set apart was not to intermarry with other nations who did not believe in the God of Israel. Hamor and Shechem were pleased with the condition set by Jacob’s sons and explain at their city’s gate what is now required of the men of Shechem. As they explain the requirement, they say, “Let us take their daughters as wives, and let us give them our daughters” (v.21). They take not just matters, but human lives, into their own hands as if other humans are property to exchange (which did not end well for them – you’ve got to finish reading the story). We move from this story about people treating others as if they are a commodity to a family being willing to kill one of their own.
Joseph’s Brothers: Genesis 37:20
Joseph’s brothers, filled with envy for their brother because he was their father Jacob’s favorite, plot to kill Joseph. “Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits. Then we will say that a fierce animal has devoured him, and we will see what will become of his dreams” (v.20).
In these four “let us” stories in Genesis, we see humanity’s perspective on life go from self-absorption to not even valuing life in others. Our world today is no different. We ebb and flow between being self-absorbed and devaluing others. Why? Because we’re still trying to play God. Our struggle is letting God be God. We need to replace our “let us” mentality with one instead that cries out “let God.” Father God, forgive us for thinking we can rule ourselves and others. You are the rightful King. We are your stewards. May we remember our call, as Your created beings, to manage what you own and to steward what you give.
(Featured image: A drawing of Brock Denton’s on my classroom board.)