Hello Bob,
I’m thinking about this verse:
Genesis 1:26 « Then God said, “Let us MAKE mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,[a] and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
The verb « to make » here is the translation of the Hebrew ASAH ( Strong 06213). Ray taught us that this verb means to make something out of something that already exists, as opposed to BARA (Strong 01254) (Gen 1:27, Gen 2:23) which means to create something that didn’t existed before.
So when God created humanity in His image there was already the material, the basis, the foundations. Before Adam was FORMED (Yatsar, Strong 03335) or established in a spiritual way, there was already humanity on earth, but it was composed of unwise men, no close relationship to God. The fact that humanity needs to be in the image of God means to me that men must be wise so that they can have a real and close relationship with God abd then He can model it (yatsar, Gen 2:7).
The idea is: humanity already was inhabiting earth: ASAH
Then God decides to create a new man taken from this unwise humanity by making this man all new, wiser with a new heart: BARA
And when the man is wise, with a new spirit, God starts to teach him and model him: YATSAR, so that Adam becomes a living soul which is able to cultivate the Eden, which is spiritual.
It reminds me of a post I read yesterday on this forum. It was talking about the work of the goldsmith refining silver. Here’s the link:
https://bible-truths.com/forums/index.php/topic,14337.0.htmlWe are a soiled piece of silver, then God cleanse us with the fire of His Judgement, and at the end we piece of silver are so pure God can see His own image in us. Big process.