49. Genesis 1:26. And God said, "Let us make a human in our image, after our likeness; and these will rule over the fish of the sea and over the bird in the heavens, and over the beast, and over all the earth, and over every creeping animal that creeps on the earth."

To members of the earliest church, whom the Lord addressed face to face, he appeared as a human being. (Many things could be told about these people, but this is not the right time.) ¹ As a consequence, they used the term human for none but him, or for his qualities. They did not even call themselves human, excepting whatever they could tell he gave them, such as all the good embraced by love and all the truth espoused by faith. These traits they described as human, because they were the Lord's.

[2] As a consequence, the terms human being and son of humankind ² in the prophets have the Lord as their highest meaning. At a lower but still internal level, the meaning is wisdom and understanding and accordingly everyone who has been reborn. An example from Jeremiah:

I looked at the earth, and there — void and emptiness; and to the heavens, and there — no light in them! I looked, and there — not a human! And all the birds of the heavens had fled. (Jeremiah 4:23, 25)

At the inner level, the following passage in Isaiah uses a human being to mean one reborn, and on the highest level the Lord himself, as an exemplar:

This is what Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel and its fashioner, has said: "I made the earth, and the human being on it I created. My hands stretched out the heavens, and to their whole army ³ I gave commands." (Isaiah 45:11-12, 13)

[3] For this reason, the prophets saw the Lord as a human being. Ezekiel was one who did:

Above the expanse was a seeming appearance of sapphire stone, like a throne, and on the likeness of a throne was what looked like the appearance of a person on it, high above. (Ezekiel 1:26)

When Daniel saw the Lord, he called him "Son of Humankind," or human being, which is the same thing:

I looked, and there! In the clouds of the sky, it was as if the Son of Humankind was coming. And he came to the Ancient One, and they brought him before [the Ancient One]. And he was given power to rule, and glory, and kingship; and all peoples, nations, and tongues will serve him. His ruling power is eternal, a power that will not pass away, and his kingship one that will not perish. (Daniel 7:13-14)

[4] In fact, the Lord often calls himself Son of Humankind, ⁴ or human; echoing the prophecy in Daniel that he will come in glory, he says:

They will see the Son of Humankind coming in the clouds of the sky with strength and glory. (Matthew 24:27, 30)

"The clouds of the heavens" (or sky) is what the literal meaning of the Word is called. "Strength and glory" are terms for the Word's inner meaning, which at each and every point focuses exclusively on the Lord and his kingdom. This focus is what gives the inner meaning strength and glory.

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73. Genesis 2

1. And the heavens and the earth were completed, and their whole army. ¹

2. And on the seventh day God completed the work that he had done; and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done.

3. And God blessed the seventh day and consecrated it, because on it he rested from all the work that he had done as God in creating it.

4. These are the births of the heavens and the earth when he created them, on the day on which he, Jehovah God, made the earth and the heavens.

5. And no shrub of the field was yet on the earth, and no plant of the field was yet sprouting, because Jehovah God had not made it rain on the earth. And there was no human to cultivate the ground.

6. And he made a mist rise up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground.

7. And Jehovah God formed a human, dirt from the ground, and he breathed into the human's nostrils the breath of lives, ² and the human was made into a living soul.

8. And Jehovah God planted a garden in Eden, on the east, and put in it the human whom he had formed.

9. And Jehovah God caused to sprout from the ground every tree desirable in appearance and good for food, and the tree of lives in the middle of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

10. And a river was going out from Eden to water the garden, and from there it parted and became four headwaters.

11. The name of the first is Pishon; it is circling the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold.

12. And the gold of that land is good; there is bdellium there, and shoham ³ stone.

13. And the name of the second river is Gihon; it is circling the whole land of Cush. ⁴

14. And the name of the third river is Hiddekel; ⁵ it goes east toward Assyria. And the fourth river is the Phrath. ⁶

15. And Jehovah God took the human and put the human in the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and to guard it.

16. And Jehovah God commanded the human concerning it, saying, "From every tree of the garden you definitely may eat.

17. But from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you may not eat, because on the day on which you eat from it you will surely die."

73. Summary

HAVING been changed from lifeless people to people focused on spirit, we are now changed from spiritual to heavenly; and heavenly people are the subject here (verse 1).

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