God created man as a corresponding person with a soul. Like God (image), we have the ability to discern spiritual things. The breath of God is in us (Genesis 2:7).
Unlike animals, humans can learn from the experiences of others outside their own senses (intergenerational records), think philosophically, create music and have the ability to make independent decisions.
God seeks contact with human beings (Genesis 3:8). He speaks to them and shares his thoughts and feelings with them. He also shows them the consequences of their choices (Genesis 2:17).
God calls: Adam, where are you? (Genesis 3:9). This is the first indication of the “Adventus Domini” – the “coming of the Lord”. It is not man who seeks God, but God who seeks man.
Messiah images in the Torah
- God seeks us – Adam where are you?
- The possibility of a choice – Two trees in the Garden of Eden
- Neediness instead divinity – A new view
- God’s master plan – Salvation through a human being
- A divine clothing – God acts
- A world upside down – Kai and Abel
- Living in the presence of God – Enoch
- God is calling – Noah
- A king-priest like Melchizedek
- God visits Abraham
- Life through a sacrifice – Isaac
- The ladder to heaven – Jacob
- New identity from Jacob to Israel
- Messiah Ben Joseph – Joseph the son of Jacob
- Shiloh, whom all nations will serve – Blessing on Judah
- Moses, the prototype of the Saviour
- References to Jesus in Moses
- The Passover Lamb
- The pillar of cloud and fire
- God wants to be with us – The tabernacle / The temple
- The snake on a pole – An image of a new beginning
- The rock in the desert – Faith is not a method
- A prophet greater than Moses
- A star from Jacob – Bileam