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.

Примітки:

4530. Colours are also seen in the next life whose splendour and brilliance so surpass the richness of the colours in the world that scarcely any comparison is possible. They are products of the variegation of light and shade there. And because intelligence and wisdom from the Lord exist there which are seen as light by the eyes of angels and spirits, and at the same time inwardly enlighten their understanding, the colours there are in essence variations, or one may say, modifications, of intelligence and wisdom. The colours there with which not only the flowers are adorned, different skies painted, and different rainbows produced, but also those which are manifested in other forms, I have seen so many times that I can hardly number them. Their splendour derives from the truth which belongs to intelligence, and their brilliance from the good which belongs to wisdom, while the colours themselves are products of the brightness and the dullness of these, and so are the products of light and shade, like the colourings produced in this world. Consequently the colours which are mentioned in the Word - such as those of the precious stones in Aaron's breastplate, and on his holy vestments; those in the curtains of the tent where the Ark was; those in the foundation-stones of the New Jerusalem which are described by John in the Book of Revelation; and those mentioned elsewhere in the Word - represented aspects of intelligence and wisdom, though what each represents individually will in the Lord's Divine mercy be stated in the explanations of those parts of the Word. In general to the extent that they contain splendour and derive from the shining brightness of light the colours there are products of the truth which belongs to intelligence, and to the extent they possess brilliance and derive from the purple glow of light they are products of the good which belongs to wisdom. Those colours which owe their origin to such sources also belong to the provinces of the eyes.