49. Verse 26 And God said, Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and they will have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, ¹ and over the beasts, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

To people in the Most Ancient Church with whom the Lord spoke face to face, the Lord appeared as Man. (Much can be told about those people, but this is not the time to do so.) For this reason they called nobody man except the Lord and whatever may have been His. They did not even call themselves man, but only the things which they perceived that they had from the Lord, such as every good stemming from love and every truth of faith. These things were said to be human because they were the Lord's.

[2] In the Prophets therefore, in the highest sense, 'man' and 'son of man' are used to mean the Lord. In the internal sense they are used to mean wisdom and intelligence, and so everyone who is regenerate, as in Jeremiah,

I looked to the earth, and behold, a void and an emptiness, and towards the heavens, and behold, they had no light. I looked, and behold there was no man; and all the birds of the air ¹ had fled. Jeremiah 4:23, 25.

In Isaiah where in the internal sense 'man' means a regenerate person, the Lord Himself as the One Man is meant in the highest sense,

Thus said Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, and He who formed him, It was I that made the earth and it was I that created man upon it; My hands stretched out the heavens, and I commanded all their host. Isaiah 45:11-13

[3] The Lord was therefore seen by the Prophets as Man, for example by Ezekiel,

Above the firmament in appearance like a sapphire stone there was the likeness of a throne, and above the likeness of a throne, there was a likeness, as the appearance of a Man upon it above. Ezekiel 1:26.

And the One whom Daniel saw was called 'a Son of Man', or what amounts to the same, Man,

I looked, and behold, with the clouds of heaven One like the Son of Man was coming; and He came even to the Ancient of Days, and they brought Him near before Him. And to Him was given dominion and glory and kingdom; and all peoples, nations, and languages will serve Him. His dominion is the dominion of an age, which will not pass away, and His kingdom one that will not perish. Daniel 7:13-14.

[4] Moreover the Lord quite often calls Himself the Son of Man or Man, and, as is done in Daniel, foretells His entry into glory,

They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and glory. Matthew 24:23, 30.

The literal sense of the Word is called 'the clouds of heaven', its internal sense 'power and glory'. The internal sense, in every single detail, focuses exclusively on the Lord and His kingdom. Consequently it is the spiritual sense which contains power and glory.

Footnotes:

3741. THE GRAND MAN AND CORRESPONDENCE WITH IT - continued

The heavenly kingdom resembles one human being since every specific thing in it corresponds to the only Lord - that is to say, to His Divine Human - who alone is Man, 49, 288, 565, 1894. By virtue of its correspondence with Him, and of its being the image and likeness of Him, heaven is called the Grand Man. The Lord's Divine is the source in heaven of everything celestial, which in essence is good, and of everything spiritual, which in essence is truth. Every angel there is a form, that is, every angel is substance taking a form that is determined by his reception of Divine qualities flowing from the Lord. These Divine qualities which are the Lord's and are received by the angels are called celestial and spiritual because Divine life, and from this Divine light, manifests itself and is modified in them as the recipients.

[2] In addition therefore the forms and material substances with man too are of a similar nature, though they exist in a lower degree since they are grosser and more composite. The fact that these too are recipient forms of celestial and spiritual qualities is quite evident from the plainly visible signs of them - for example, from thought which flows into the organic forms of the tongue and produces speech; from the feelings of mind which manifest themselves visibly in the face; or from the will which passes through the muscles of the body into actions; and so on. The thought and will which produce these activities are spiritual and celestial entities, whereas the forms or substances which receive them and carry them into effect are material. These material substances, it is clear, have been used to produce forms solely for the reception of those spiritual and celestial entities. From this it is evident that spiritual and celestial qualities are the source of the material forms, and that if they were not, such forms could not come into being at all.