What is Man 2-21-23 Session 2 Rev. 1

In this session, Philip Black explores the question of whether man is in the image of God. He emphasizes the importance of understanding the origin of the word "image" to grasp its meaning. Using word pictures, he breaks down the Hebrew word for image, "Selem," which means shadow, phantom, or resemblance. He connects the word pictures to the letters in the Hebrew word for God, "Elohim," and suggests that man, as God's representative on earth, has the duty to bring order and control to the chaos and darkness. He references Genesis 1 and explains how God spoke and brought light, created dry land, and filled the earth with living beings. In summary, man is created to represent God's authority and bring order to the world. Hello, this is Philip Black, and this is the second session on the topic, What is Man? Is Man in the Image of God? I offer this today as a personal commentary, as an observation, after considering Chapter 1 of Genesis. I don't offer this as a doctrine to try to, I guess you would say, create another religion. No, that is not the purpose of this session. This session is only to try to understand what is in the mind of God. So, with the word image, which will be our focus for this session, there is a challenge to me as a human being to really understand the origin of this word, the message and the mental picture that I should draw from the word of God. So, we would understand that it's very important to have a proper understanding of the origin of this word, so that we can have the correct mental picture. What I understand is, whenever we communicate, and I'm saying we as a human, and we know that the word of God is a communication to humans, but what happens sometimes is the message becomes misunderstood or distorted, mainly because we are not in the mind of the person, nor do we have the mental picture that the person has when they begin to speak. So, it is important for us to understand that this message of the Bible is so that the speaker can let us understand what he values, what he sees, and that's what makes it difficult, because if God could open up the human mind and just pour himself in, then we would have an accurate picture. Of course, we do know that the spirit of God dwells in us, but the things that we need to fully understand from him, sometimes we don't yield ourselves to clearly hear. That's a challenge. So, my attempt is, in this session, is to try to get as close as I can to his words, to understand his value, and to get a picture of what he is saying to me as a human being. This is not an attempt to speak for God. No way should any human try to say they speak for God. It's just what we need to do here is to try to say, I'm hoping to hear the message. With that being said, I would like to read Genesis 126, and this is from the complete Jewish Bible. Then God said, let us make humankind in our image, in the likeness of ourselves, and let them rule over the fish in the sea, the birds in the air, the animals, and over all the earth, and every creeping creature that crawls on the earth. That word image is our focus point. So, with that being said, I am going to share with you one of the references that I use to try to research the meaning of this word image, and this is what is used to translate the King James Version from the Hebrew letters, and that is the Strong's Concordance, and it defines the word image this way. Selem is the Hebrew word for image, and it means shadow, phantom, illusion, resemblance, a representative figure. So, with him saying this, we need to further understand the origin of the word Selem. Where does that word come from? One of the things that we do understand, and it is recorded, I will say it this way, is that the Hebrew letters came from word pictures. That is correct. The letters actually come from word pictures. So, I use a book that is written by Dr. Frank T. Seekings, which is called Hebrew Word Pictures, and the word Selem has three letters. This is the Siddiq, Lamed, and the Mim, and the only purpose of using the word pictures is to try to better understand the origin. That is the whole focus, to understand the origin of the word image. Word pictures are not something that is new. Word pictures were used throughout the ancient world before communications, or letters, or written form of communications were made. One of the examples that most of us should be familiar with are the Egyptian hieroglyphics, and some when you have heard about the Stone Age cave paintings. And even today, we have signs. That's correct. Signs today are word pictures. Many of us have seen signs with no writing or letters on it, and we clearly understand what it is communicating to us. As a deer crossing, it's a possibility we may encounter a deer as we drive on this path. So, let's begin looking at this word image. Let's try to break this word image down into word pictures. So, this is my attempt to understand the word. The first letter is the Siddiq, which has a literal meaning of a fish hook, and a symbolic meaning of catch, desire, and need. The whole purpose of the hook is to catch the fish by its own desire for food. If the fish doesn't become hungry, it wouldn't be caught. Humans, in the same manner, are drawn by our desires, whether they are good or evil. The second letter is the Lamed, which has a literal meaning of a cattle goad, or a shepherd's hook. It has a symbolic meaning of control, authority, to move forward, and the time. The cattle goad usually has a short point at the end of it. Marten cattle goads, or what we would call prongs, can be electrified. When cattle are driven, a goad is used to cause them to move forward, or to change directions. I would like to use an example which we find in the book of Acts, to try to get an understanding of how God uses his cattle goad, or the goad, for us. Acts 9 verse 5, the Lord uses this symbolically to urge Paul to change his direction. And Paul said, Who art thou Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecust. It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. This is the King James. But if you look at that word in the Greek, that word actually is ox goad. So we see how the Lord uses the ox goad to cause Paul to move forward, and to change his direction. The third letter, and final letter, is the Mem, which has a literal meaning of waves of water, and a symbolic meaning of chaos, liquid, and massive. So when we look at Genesis 1 and 2, it reads, And the earth was without form, and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. So here we see the world is covered in water, literally. And we see it is also covered in darkness. But here we plainly see that God uses his Spirit to move on the faces of the waters. After reading this verse, several questions come to my mind. Why is God troubled or concerned about the condition of the earth? And what did he do to change the condition of the earth? How did he change the condition? From this picture we can clearly see the world has no order. It's in chaos, you want to say. And nothing is there, and darkness blocks the light, and the waters cover the entire surface. And there is no dry land. So in order for us to try to further understand this image, how is man in the image of God, or how is man like God? We need to understand the word God. It would help us, I believe, to unlock this question of what is man? Is man in the image of God? The word for God in Hebrew is Elohim. And the letters for the word in Hebrew are the Ale, the Lame, the He, the Yud, and the Mem. Now the letters that are common to the Hebrew word for image and the Hebrew word for God are the Lamed and the Mem. So here the Aleph has a literal meaning of an ox or a bull, and symbolically means strength, leader, or first. Second is the Lamed, which has a literal meaning, as we read earlier, of a cattle goad or a shepherd's hook. And symbolic meanings are for control, authority, or to move forward in the time. The third letter is the He, has a literal meaning of lifted hands or open windows, and symbolically means to reveal or to behold. The fourth is the Yud, has a literal meaning of a hand closed, and symbolic meanings are to work and make. The final letter is the Mem, which has a literal meaning of waves of water, and symbolic meaning of chaos, liquid, and mass. So this is what I have put together by looking at the word pictures and their symbolic meanings, and this is what I believe it is saying. The first strong leader who exercises control and authority through his word and spirit over the works of chaos and war. And I believe John, we are talking about the Apostle John, the Disciple John. I'm reading from John 1, 1 through verses 3, and it states, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made, and that is the King James Version. So the word picture for Selim illustrates a desire to control the darkness, chaos, and waters upon the earth to make it inhabitable. This is why I believe in Genesis 1, 26-28, it is so important to understand the whole duty of humanity in the earth. Let me say that again, that is our duty in the earth, is to control the things that God brought order to. Throughout the ancient world, rulers are pictured with a crown, and we are talking about human rulers, on their head, and has horns or spikes representing strength. They have rods in their hands symbolizing control and exercise of authority in the earth by decree. Images of statues and carvings were used throughout their kingdoms to represent all that was under their authority. So we are God's representatives in the earth. So with that being said, as we look at, and I say we, I'm referring to looking at Genesis 1, 3-25, it reveals the things that God did to satisfy the question in my mind of what did he do? Why was he bothered by what he sees? And how did he go about doing it? To summarize the situation, God sought a need to bring balance to an extreme situation in order to what I call a mess. It was chaotic, without purpose, and out of control. So he began to speak, he spoke, and light changed a dark situation, and dry land appears by the force of his spirit. He gives purpose by beginning to fill an empty earth, a wasteland, by calling forth living animals. So how will God maintain his work? The answer is human beings. God makes a declaration to the host of heaven that he has decreed that humanity will be his representative in the earth, not spirits. A human being has not been formed at this time from the dust of the earth. Man at this time, humanity, or mankind at this time is just spirit. And the reason why I want to emphasize this is because I believe Jeremiah 1, 5 gives us a clear understanding as to the fact that this was just a spirit being. Before I formed you in the belly, I knew thee, and before thou came out of the womb, I sanctified thee, and I ordered thee a prophet unto the nations. It is clear in Jeremiah 1, 5 that God said, I knew thee before I formed a physical body for you. And we will cover that in the next few sessions where God forms a body for mankind. So here, in discussing this verse, we focus on the fact that God is acquainted with Jeremiah before he even forms a body of flesh. So both human, male and female, are given the same duties in the earth. God does not promote gender. God does not designate any particular skin color, nation, or country that would be excluded from bearing his image. So any human, religion, or group, or institution that teaches or allows anything different is morally distorting and dishonoring the image of Almighty God. That is why it is important for us that we practice the things that he desired for us. And that we should not practice anything that he did not desire for humans. We don't want to distort his image. We want to be able to walk in the fear of God. We don't want to willfully practice or participate in things that distort his image. What is clear, that anything that exists was not by the will of any human. Humanity's existence is to work with God to keep the balance of order that he created. Humanity does not replace God, but operates under his authority. Many have used his name to establish their own authority. And in later sessions we will continue to discuss how as humans we distort the image of God. And therefore we will begin to understand how sin comes upon humanity. With that in mind, I'm going to close until our next session. This once again is Phillip Black from Royalty to Humanity. And I hope that you get some insight or a better picture of what is expected of humanity from our creator. So we are to work with him to maintain the balance and control over a chaotic situation. And this is our duty as humans. So with that being said, until the next time, may God bless you. May he give you understanding of his word and your purpose in the earth as humans. Until then, signing off from Voice to Humanity. Copyright © 2020, New Thinking Allowed Foundation