How Significant is Man?

     It is often said by the naïve that the president of the United States is the most powerful person in the world.

     To begin this discussion let’s acknowledge that man was in fact created in the very image of God.

     “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”  Genesis 1:27

     After His creation activities on earth, God confirmed the worthiness of His creation.

     “Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good…”  Genesis 1:31

     But man rebelled against his Creator and the curse was pronounced.

     “…For out of it (ground) you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return.”  Genesis 3:19

     Death awaited every man after Adam.  After their disobedience, Adam and his wife were denied access to the tree of life.

     Universal death to man because of Adam’s sin was confirmed thousands of years later by the Apostle Paul.

     “For since by man came death…For as in Adam all die…” 1 Corinthians 15:21a, 22a

     “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned…”  Romans 5:12

     Now let’s examine the reality of the significance of man in this current day.  The following will apply to the natural man, not the man who has been born again.  Redeemed man is an entirely different story.

     “Man decays like a rotten thing…is of few days and full of trouble.  He comes forth like a flower and fades away; he flees like a shadow and does not continue.”  Job 13:28, 14:1-2

     The major thought here is the surety of the decay and wasting away of mortal man.

     Then Job speaks of the predetermined days of life for every man.

     “Since his days are determined, the number of his months is with You; You have appointed his limits, so that he cannot pass.”  Job 14:5

     A man’s days have been pre-numbered by God from the foundation of the world.

The Hebrew for ‘determined’ means to have been decided or decreed before time began.  Likewise ‘appointed’ means to prepare, accomplish, and fulfill God’s plan.

     The Psalmists had much to say about the mortality of man.

     “LORD, make me to know my end, and what is the measure of my days, that I may know how frail I am.  Indeed, You have made my days as handbreadths, and my age is as nothing before You; Certainly every man at his best state is but vapor.”  Psalm 39:4-5

     Again, every man’s days have been numbered in advance.  At man’s very best his short life is considered as vapor meaning vanity or emptiness.  A major thought in the above is the transitory nature of man’s existence.

     “For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust.  As for man, his days are like grass; as a flower of the field…for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more.”  Psalm 103:14-16

     Because of his frailty and evanescence, man is told not to place trust in another man.

     “Do not put your trust in princes, nor in a son of man, in whom there is no help.  His spirit departs, he returns to his earth...”  Psalm 146:3-4

     Jesus’ half brother James summed up the revelation given in the Old Testament wisdom books relative to the transitory nature of man.

     “…whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow…For what is your life?  It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away…”  James 4:14

     Now then, if the president of the United States issues executive orders, or signs legislation that protects those who break God’s laws, such as the genocide of unborn children, is he a natural man?

     Or if the president states that the only way to achieve peace in the Middle East is to divide Israel between the Jews and Arabs, is he a natural man or redeemed man.  Again, you decide.

     But if he is in fact a natural man, is he really the most powerful man in the world?