25. THE FIRST STATE OF THIS MOST ANCIENT CHURCH, OR ITS RISE AND MORNING, is described in the first chapter of Genesis by these words:

God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and God created man in His own image; in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them (Gen. 1:26-27);

and also by these in the second chapter:

Jehovah God formed man dust of the earth, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of lives; and man became a living soul (Gen. 2:7).

That its rise, or morning, is described by his being made, or created, "in the image of God," is because every man, when he is first born, and while an infant, is an "image of God" interiorly; for the faculty of receiving and of applying to himself those things which proceed from God, is implanted in him; and since he is also formed "dust of the earth" exteriorly, and there is thence in him an inclination to lick that dust like the serpent (Gen. 3:14), therefore, if he remains an external or natural man, and does not become at the same time internal, or spiritual, he destroys the "image of God," and puts on the image of the serpent which seduced Adam. But, on the other hand, the man who strives and labours to become an "image of God," subdues the external man in himself, and interiorly in the natural becomes spiritual, thus spiritual-natural; and this is effected by a new creation, that is, regeneration by the Lord. Such a man is an "image of God," because he wills and believes that he lives from God and not from himself: on the contrary, man is an image of the serpent as long as he wills and believes that he lives from himself and not from God. What is man but an "image of God" when he wills and believes that he is in the Lord and the Lord in him (John 6:56; 14:20; 15:4-5, 7; 17:26), and that he can do nothing of himself (John 3:27; 15:5)? What is a man but an "image of God" when, by a new birth, he becomes a "son of God" (John 1:12-13)? Who does not know that the image of the father is in the son? The rise, or morning, of this Church is described by Jehovah God's "breathing into his nostrils the breath of lives," and by his thus "becoming a living soul," because by "lives," in the plural, are meant love and wisdom, which two are essentially God; for, in proportion as a man receives and applies to himself those two essentials of life, which proceed continually from God, and continually flow into the souls of men, in the same proportion he becomes "a living soul"; for "lives" are the same as love and wisdom. Hence it is evident, that the rise and morning of the life of the men of the Most Ancient Church, who taken collectively are represented by Adam, is described by those two shrines of life.

5264. 'What God is doing He has pointed out to Pharaoh' means that the natural was allowed to discern what was provided. This is clear from the meaning of 'what God is doing' as what was provided, dealt with below; from the meaning of 'pointing out' as communicating and allowing one to discern, dealt with in 3608, 4856; and from the representation of 'Pharaoh' as the natural, dealt with above in 5263. From this it is evident that 'what God is doing He has pointed out to Pharaoh' means that the natural was allowed to discern what was provided.

[2] The reason why 'what God is doing' means what has been provided is that everything done by God, that is, by the Lord, constitutes His Providence. Every act of Providence is Divine, for it holds what is eternal and infinite within it. It holds what is eternal because its view is not limited by any beginning or end, and it holds what is infinite because its view comprehends simultaneously the entire whole within any specific part, and every specific part within the entire whole. All this is called 'Providence'; and because every single one of the Lord's acts holds what is eternal and infinite within it, no other expression than Providence exists to describe it. This truth that every single one of the Lord's acts holds what is infinite and eternal within it will in the Lord's Divine mercy be illustrated elsewhere with the help of examples.