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 The 6th Day: Genesis 1:24-31
24. And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living soul after its kind; the beast, and the thing moving itself, and the wild animal of the earth, after its kind; and it was so.
25. And God made the wild animal of the earth after its kind, and the beast after its kind, and everything that creepeth on the ground after its kind; and God saw that it was good.
26. And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the heavens, and over the beast, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
27. And God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them.
28. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the heavens, and over every living thing that creepeth upon the earth.
29. And God said, Behold, I give you every herb bearing seed which is upon the faces of all the earth, and every tree in which is fruit; the tree yielding seed, to you it shall be for food.
30. And to every wild animal of the earth, and to every fowl of the heavens, and to everything that creepeth upon the earth wherein is a living soul, every green herb for food; and it was so.
31. And God saw everything that He had made, and behold it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
Summary
The sixth state is when, from faith, and thence from love, he speaks what is true, and does what is good: the things which he then brings forth are called the "living soul" and the "beast." And as he then begins to act at once and together from both faith and love, he becomes a spiritual man, who is called an "image." His spiritual life is delighted and sustained by such things as belong to the knowledges of faith, and to works of charity, which are called his "food and his natural life is delighted and sustained by those which belong to the body and the senses; whence a combat arises, until love gains the dominion, and he becomes a celestial man.
Details from Emanuel Swedenborg:
Verses 24-31,
from
Thomas King,
from Theodore Pitcairn
from illustration by David Chambers,
from
Lee Woofenden:
As we get those in
line, then, finally, on the sixth day we have the warm-blooded animals. We have
all the land animals, and finally human beings. These are when we really begin
to do things from faith and love together. Not just because we believe we ought
to but because we really love to. We begin to take joy in serving
other people. We begin to like it when we can do something for another
person. We don't do it because of a sense of obligation. You know: "God
says I have to do it, so I'd better do it." That was before. Now it is:
"I really enjoy doing what's good and right. This gives me happiness
inside, and I have pleasure and happiness from serving others."
These are the land
animals, and finally the human beings. This is when we become truly human. When
we're acting, yes, from faith, but especially from love in our hearts. When
we're acting because we care about other people and because we love God, and
when we get joy from serving one another. This is when we become truly human. At
that point, we finally reach the seventh day. There is evening, and there is
morning, and then there is the seventh day.
from
Lee Woofenden
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