Arcana Coelestia #49
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:
1. literally, bird of the heavens (or the skies)
Genesis 7
1
Yahweh said to Noah, "Come with all of your household into the ship, for I have seen your righteousness before me in this generation.
2
You shall take seven pairs of every clean animal with you, the male and his female. Of the animals that are not clean, take two, the male and his female.
3
Also of the birds of the sky, seven and seven, male and female, to keep seed alive on the surface of all the earth.
4
In seven days, I will cause it to rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights. Every living thing that I have made, I will destroy from the surface of the ground."
5
Noah did everything that Yahweh commanded him.
6
Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came on the earth.
7
Noah went into the ship with his sons, his wife, and his sons' wives, because of the waters of the flood.
8
Clean animals, animals that are not Clean, birds, and everything that creeps on the ground
9
went by pairs to Noah into the ship, male and female, as God commanded Noah.
10
It happened after the seven days, that the waters of the flood came on the earth.
11
In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day all the fountains of the great deep were burst open, and the sky's windows were opened.
12
The rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights.
13
In the same day Noah, and Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, entered into the ship;
14
they, and every animal after its kind, all the livestock after their kind, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after its kind, and every bird after its kind, every bird of every sort.
15
They went to Noah into the ship, by pairs of all flesh with the breath of life in them.
16
Those who went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God commanded him; and Yahweh shut him in.
17
The flood was forty days on the earth. The waters increased, and lifted up the ship, and it was lifted up above the earth.
18
The waters prevailed, and increased greatly on the earth; and the ship floated on the surface of the waters.
19
The waters prevailed exceedingly on the earth. All the high mountains that were under the whole sky were covered.
20
The waters prevailed fifteen cubits upward, and the mountains were covered.
21
All flesh died that moved on the earth, including birds, livestock, animals, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, and every man.
22
All in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, of all that was on the dry land, died.
23
Every living thing was destroyed that was on the surface of the ground, including man, livestock, creeping things, and birds of the sky. They were destroyed from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ship.
24
The waters prevailed on the earth one hundred fifty days.
