243. The third living creature had a face like a human being. This symbolizes the Divine truth of the Word in respect to its wisdom.

A human being in the Word symbolizes wisdom, because the human being was born to receive wisdom from the Lord and become an angel. The wiser someone is, therefore, the more human he is. True human wisdom consists in perceiving the existence of God, the nature of God, and what pertains to God. This is what the Divine truth of the Word teaches.

That a human being symbolizes wisdom is apparent from the following passages:

I will make a man more rare than fine gold, and a human being more rare than the gold of Ophir. (Isaiah 13:12)

A man means intelligence, and a human being wisdom.

...the inhabitants of the earth shall be burned up, and rare will be the human being left. (Isaiah 24:6)

...I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of a human being and the seed of an animal. (Jeremiah 31:27)

You are My flock...; you are humankind, I am your God. (Ezekiel 34:31)

...the ruined cities shall be filled with a flock of humankind. (Ezekiel 36:38)

I looked upon the earth when, lo, it was empty and void, and to the heavens when they had not their light... I looked when, lo, there was no human being... (Jeremiah 4:23, 25)

They sacrifice a human being, they kiss the calves. (Hosea 13:2)

He measured the wall (of the Holy Jerusalem): one hundred and forty-four cubits, the measure of a human being, which is that of an angel. (Revelation 21:17)

So, too, in many other places, where a human being symbolizes someone who is wise, and in an abstract sense, wisdom itself.

9010. 'And God caused it to happen at his hand' means appearing as something happening by chance. This is clear from ancient people's idea of chance, which was that whatever happened was brought about by God; and this was why they expressed the idea of chance by saying that 'God caused it to happen at someone's hand'. Those who belonged to the ancient Churches knew that the Lord's providence was present in every single thing, and that contingencies, that is, things which appeared to happen by chance, were providential. Simple people therefore who could see no difference between things that happened because He permitted them and those that happened because He was well pleased by them attributed to the Lord both good and evil, good because they knew that He was the author of everything good, but evil on account of the appearance. For when a person performs evil deeds, and by performing them turns away from the Lord, the appearance is that the Lord turns away; at this time the Lord appears to him to be behind, not in front of him. These then are the reasons why if anyone struck another by chance, that is, his will had not contemplated the deed beforehand, the words 'God caused it to happen at his hand' were used to express it.

The Lord's providence is in every single thing, see 1919 (end), 4329, 5122 (end), 5155, 5195, 5894 (end), 6058, 6481-6487, 6489, 6491, 7004, 7007, 8478, 8717.

Contingencies or chance occurrences are providential, 5508, 6493, 6494.

Evil is attributed to the Lord, when in fact it originates in man, 2447, 5798, 6071, 6832, 6991, 6997, 7533, 7877, 7926, 8197, 8227, 8228, 8282, 8284, 8483, 8632.