DP 329 - Predestination; DP 331, 333 - The Lord's Providence Is Divine Order

DP 329 [3]

1. Any predestination other than a predestination to heaven
is contrary to Divine love and its infinity.

2. Any predestination other than a predestination to heaven
is contrary to Divine wisdom and its infinity.

3. The idea that only those people
born in the church are saved
is an insane heresy.

4. The idea that some members of the human race
have been damned by predestination
is a cruel heresy.

DP 331 [2]

One can also say that the Lord is providence,
as we say that God is order.
For Divine providence is
the Divine order primarily concerned with
the salvation of humankind,
and as order is impossible without laws,
since laws constitute it,
and since every law takes its origin from order,
so that it also is order,
therefore it follows that as God is order,
so He is the law of His order.
The same may be said of Divine providence,
that as the Lord is His providence,
He is also the law of His providence.

It is apparent from this
that the Lord cannot go against
the laws of His Divine providence,
because to go against them
would be to go against Himself.

DP 333 [1]

We say that
the operation of Divine providence to save a person
begins at his birth and continues to the end of his life.
To understand this one must know
that the Lord sees what a person's character is,
and foresees what the person wills it to be,
thus what it will be.
Moreover, for him to be human and thus immortal,
his will's freedom cannot be taken away . . ..
Consequently the Lord foresees
a person's state after death
and provides for it from his birth
even to the end of his life.
In the case of evil people
He provides by permitting
and continually steering away from evils.
But in the case of good people
He provides by leading to good.
Thus Divine providence operates unceasingly
to save a person.
But no more can be saved
than those who wish to be saved,
and those wish to be saved
who acknowledge God and are led by Him,
whereas those do not wish to be saved
who do not acknowledge God and guide themselves.
For the latter do not think
about eternal life and salvation,
whereas the former do.

This the Lord sees,
and yet He leads them,
and leads them in accordance with
the laws of His Divine providence,
which He cannot go against,
as to go against them
would be to go against His Divine love
and against His Divine wisdom,
thus against Himself.

~ If a Person Sins ~

"' If a person sins
because he does not speak up when he hears
a public charge to testify regarding something
he has seen or learned about,
he will be held responsible.'"

(Leviticus 5:1)

The Lord said to Moses:
"If anyone sins and is unfaithful to the Lord
by deceiving his neighbor
about something entrusted to him
or left in his care or stolen,
or if he cheats him,
or if he finds lost property and lies about it,
or if he swears falsely,
or if he commits any such sin that people may do --
when he thus sins and becomes guilty,
he must return what he has stolen
or taken by extortion,
or what was entrusted to him,
or the lost property he found,
or whatever it was he swore falsely about.
He must make restitution in full,
add a fifth of the value to it
and give it all to the owner
on the day he presents his guilt offering.

(Leviticus 6:1-5)

DP 327, 328 - Why Religion Perishes

DP 327

The person himself is at fault if he is not saved.

The reason for the adoption of evil . . .
to the point that religion finally perishes --
this we shall state under the following series of headings:

1.  Every religion in the course of time declines
and comes to an end.

2.  Every religion declines and comes to and end
by the inversion of the image of God in mankind.

3.  The results from continual increases in hereditary evil
through the generations.

4.  The Lord nevertheless provides that it be possible
for everyone to be saved.

5.  He also provides that a new church follow
in place of the earlier, devastated one.

DP 328 [5-6]

God alone is love and wisdom.
Man was created to be a recipient vessel of both --
his will to be the recipient vessel
of Divine love,
and his intellect to be the recipient vessel
of Divine wisdom.
These two vessels are . . . in man from creation
and are what make him human,
and are also formed in everyone in the womb.
The human being is therefore an image of God
in his being a recipient of Divine wisdom,
and a likeness of God
in his being a recipient of Divine love.
Consequently the recipient vessel
called the intellect is an image of God,
and the recipient vessel
called the will a likeness of God.
Because the human being
was created and formed to be a recipient vessel,
it follows then that he was so created and formed
that his will might receive love from God
and that his intellect might receive wisdom from God.
And a person also receives these
when he acknowledges God
and lives according to His commandments,
but in a lesser or greater degree
according to the knowledge of God he has from religion
and knowledge of His commandments,
and according therefore to his knowledge of truths.
For truths teach what God is
and how He is to be acknowledged,
and also what His commandments are
and how one is to live according to them.

The image of God and likeness of God
are not lost in mankind, but only seemingly so.
For they remain implanted in his two faculties
called freedom and rationality . . ..
They became seemingly lost
when mankind made the recipient vessel of Divine love,
his will, a recipient vessel of self-love,
and the recipient vessel of Divine wisdom, his intellect,
a recipient vessel of his own intelligence.
In so doing he inverted the image and likeness of God,
for he turned these recipient vessels away from God
and directed them toward himself.
It is because of this
that these recipient vessels
are closed above and open below,
or are closed in front and open behind,
even though from creation
they were open in front and closed behind.
And when their opening and closing are thus reversed,
then the recipient vessel of love, or the will,
receives influx from hell or from its own native self,
and so, too,
the recipient vessel of wisdom, or the intellect.
For this reason there arose in the churches
a worship of people instead of a worship of God,
and a worship founded on teachings of falsities
instead of a worship founded on teachings of truth,
the first owing to people's self-love,
and the latter to a conceit in their own intelligence.

It is apparent from this
that religion in the course of time declines
and comes to an end
by an inversion of the image of God in mankind.

~ Some on Grain Offerings ~

"'If you bring a grain offering baked in an oven,
it is to consist of fine flour:
cakes made without yeast and mixed with oil,
or wafers made without yeast and spread with oil.
If your grain offering is prepared on a griddle,
it is to be made of fine flour mixed with oil,
and without yeast.
Crumble it and pour oil on it;
it is a grain offering.
If your grain offering is cooked in a pan,
it is to be made of fine flour and oil.
Bring the grain offering made of these things to the Lord;
present it to the priest,
who shall take it to the altar.
He shall take out
the memorial portion from the grain offering
and burn it on the altar as an offering made by fire,
an aroma pleasing to the Lord.
The rest of the grain offering
belongs to Aaron and his sons;
it is the most holy part of the offerings
made to the Lord by fire.

(Leviticus 2:4-10)

DP 322 - Reformation Not Predestination; DP 326 - Living the Ten Commandments

Every Person Can Be Reformed,
and There Is No Predestination

DP 322

Sound reason declares that all people
have been predestined for heaven and no one for hell.
For all have been born human beings,
and therefore they have the image of God in them.
The image of God in them
is their ability to understand truth
and their ability to do good.
The ability to understand truth
originates from Divine wisdom,
and the ability to do good from Divine love.
This capacity is the image of God,
which remains in a healthy person and is not eradicated.

It is because of this
that a person can become civic-minded and moral,
and someone who is civic-minded and moral
can also become spiritual,
for civic-mindedness and morality
are the recipient vessel of a spiritual quality.
He is called a civic-minded person
who knows the laws
of the kingdom of which he is a citizen
and lives according to them;
and he is called a moral person
who makes those laws his mores and his virtues
and lives them in conformity with reason.

. . . Live those laws not only as civil and moral laws,
but also as Divine laws,
and you will be a spiritual person.

It is owing to the Lord's Divine providence
that every nation has some religion,
and the primary tenet of every religion
is to acknowledge the existence of God,
for otherwise it is not called a religion.
Moreover, every nation that lives its religion,
namely that does not do evil
because it is opposed to their God,
receives some spiritual element in its natural existence.

DP 326 [6-7]

. . . to acknowledge God with the heart
is possible only to people who live rightly.
These the Lord turns away from hell and toward Himself
in accordance with the goodness of their life.
That is because only they love God,
for they love the Divine precepts that they have from Him,
putting them into practice.
The Divine precepts that they have from God
are the commandments of His law.
These are God,
because He is His own Divine emanation,
and to love them is to love God.
Therefore the Lord says,

He who (does) My commandments. . . ,
it is he who loves Me.
(But) He who does not (do) My (commandments)
does not love Me.
(John 14:21-24)

It is for this reason
that there are two tables of the Decalogue,
one for God and the other for mankind.
God works unceasingly to induce a person
to accept the precepts that are on His, God's, table;
but if the person does not put into practice
the precepts that are on his, mankind's, table,
he does not accept
with an acknowledgment of the heart
the precepts that are on God's table,
and if he does not accept them,
there is no conjunction.
Therefore the two tables
were joined together to form a single whole,
and were called the tables of the covenant,
a covenant symbolizing conjunction.
Everyone acknowledges God
and is conjoined with Him
in accordance with the goodness of his life
for the reason that goodness of life
is like the good which is in the Lord
and so which is from the Lord.
Consequently when a person possesses goodness of life,
a conjunction is formed.
The contrary is the case with evil of life.
This rejects the Lord.

~ So the Tabernacle Was Set Up As the Lord Commanded ~

So the tabernacle was set up
on the first day of the first month in the second year.
When Moses set up the tabernacle,
he put the bases in place,
erected the frames,
inserted the crossbars and set up the posts.
Then he spread the tent over the tabernacle
and put the covering over the tent,
as the Lord commanded him.

He took the Testimony and placed it in the ark,
attached the poles to the ark
and put the atonement cover over it.
Then he brought the ark into the tabernacle
and hung the shielding curtain
and shielded the ark of the testimony,
as the Lord commanded him.

Moses placed the table in the Tent of Meeting
on the north side of the tabernacle outside the curtain
and set out the bread on it before the Lord,
as the Lord commanded him.

He placed the lampstand in the Tent of Meeting
opposite the table on the south side of the tabernacle
and set up the lamps before the Lord,
as the Lord commanded him.

Moses placed the gold altar in the Tent of Meeting
in front of the curtain
and burned fragrant incense on it,
as the Lord commanded him.
Then he put up the curtain
at the entrance to the tabernacle.

He set the altar of burnt offering
near the entrance to the tabernacle, the Tent of Meeting,
and offered on it burnt offerings and grain offerings,
as the Lord commanded him.

He placed the basin
between the Tent of Meeting and the altar
and put water in it for washing,
and Moses and Aaron and his sons used it
to wash their hands and feet.
They washed whenever they entered
the Tent of Meeting or approached the altar,
as the Lord commanded Moses.

Then Moses set up the courtyard
around the tabernacle and altar
and put up the curtain at the entrance to the courtyard.
And so Moses finished the work.

Then the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting,
and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
Moses could not enter the Tent of Meeting
because the cloud had settled upon it,
and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.

In all the travels of the Israelites,
whenever the cloud lifted from the above the tabernacle,
they would set out;
but if the cloud did not lift,
they did not set out --
until the day it lifted.
So the cloud of the Lord was over the tabernacle by day,
and fire was in the cloud by night,
in the sight of all the house of Israel
during all their travels.

(Exodus 40:17-38)

DP 320 - If a Person Were to Believe

DP 320

If a person were to believe, as is the truth,
that all goodness and truth originate from the Lord,
and all evil and falsity from hell,
he would not assign goodness to himself
and make it deserving of merit,
nor assign evil to himself
and make himself guilty of it.
This, however, is contrary to the belief of people
who have affirmed in themselves the appearance
that wisdom and prudence originate from mankind
and do not flow in
in accordance with the state of the organization
of people's minds, as discussed just above in no. 319.
Therefore we must demonstrate it,
and to do so clearly,
we must demonstrate the several points
in the following sequence:

1. Someone who affirms in himself the appearance
that wisdom and prudence originate from mankind,
and that they are therefore in him as his,
cannot but have it seem to him
that he would otherwise not be human,
but would be either an animal or a statue,
when in fact the opposite is the case.

2. To believe and think, as is the truth,
that all goodness and truth originate from the Lord,
and all evil and falsity from hell,
seems to be an impossibility,
when in fact
it is something truly human and thus angelic.

3. To believe and think in this way is impossible for people
who do not acknowledge the Lord's Divinity,
and who do not acknowledge evils to be sins,
whereas it is possible for people
who do acknowledge these two things.

4. Insofar as they refrain from evils as sins
and are averse to them,
people who possess these two acknowledgments
simply reflect on the evils in themselves
and cast them away from themselves
back to hell from where they came.

5. Thus Divine providence does not assign evil to anyone,
nor good to anyone,
but it is a person's own prudence
that assigns the one or the other to him.

~ Gold, Silver, and Bronze ~

These are the amounts of the materials
used for the tabernacle,
the tabernacle of the Testimony,
which were recorded at Moses' command by the Levites
under the direction of Ithamar son of Aaron, the priest.
(Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah,
made everything the Lord commanded Moses;
with him was Oholiab son of Ahisamach,
of the tribe of Dan --
a craftsman and designer,
and an embroiderer
in blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen.)
 
The total amount of the gold from the wave offering
used for all the work on the sanctuary was
29 talents and 730 shekels,
according to the sanctuary shekel.

The silver obtained from those of the community
who were counted in the census
was 100 talents and 1,775 shekels,
according to the sanctuary shekel . . .

The bronze from the wave offering was
70 talents and 2,400 shekels.

(Exodus 38:21-25, 29)

DP 318 - How A Person's State Is Changes; DP 319 - Spiraling

DP 318

But we must now say how a person's state is changed
by affirmations and consequent persuasions,
and this under the following series of headings:

1. There is nothing that cannot be defended,
and falsity more easily than truth.

2. Truth is not seen by confirmed falsity,
but confirmed truth causes falsity to be seen.

3. To be able to affirm whatever one pleases
does not constitute intelligence, but only ingenuity,
possible even in the worst of people.

4. It is possible to have an intellectual affirmation
that is not at the same time an affirmation of the will,
but every affirmation of the will is also an intellectual one.

5. An affirmation of evil by the will
that is at the same time an intellectual one
causes a person to believe
that his own prudence is everything
and Divine providence nothing,
but an intellectual affirmation alone does not.

6. Everything affirmed by the will and intellect together
remains to eternity,
but not something affirmed only by the intellect.

DP 319 [3-4]

We will now describe
the nature of these purely organic forms and substances
in evil people and in good people.
In good people they spiral forward,
but in evil people backward.
Moreover, those which spiral forward
are turned to the Lord and receive influx from Him,
while those which spiral backward
are turned toward hell and receive influx from there.

It should be known
that in the measure they are turned backward
they are open behind and closed in front,
and conversely,
that in the measure they are turned forward
they are open in front and closed behind.

It can be seen from this
the kind of form or instrument an evil person is,
and the kind of form or instrument a good person is,
namely that they are turned in opposite directions.
And because, once induced,
the turning cannot be reversed,
it is apparent that what a person is like when he dies,
so he remains to eternity.

The love belonging to a person's will
is what causes this turning,
or what turns him this way or that,
for as we said above,
every person is an expression of his love.
For this reason
everyone goes the way of his love after death,
to heaven if he has been directed by a good love,
and to hell if he has been directed by an evil love.
Nor does he find rest
except in the society where his is the reigning love.
And what is surprising,
everyone knows the way.
It is as though his nostrils smelled it.

~ Offerings for the Tabernacle ~

Moses said to the whole Israelite community,
"This is what the Lord has commanded:
From what you have,
take an offering for the Lord.
Everyone who is willing
is to bring to the Lord an offering
of gold, silver and bronze;
blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen;
goat hair;
ram skins dyed red and hides of sea cows;
acacia wood;
olive oil for the light;
spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense;
and onyx stones and other gems
to be mounted on the ephod and breastpiece.

(Exodus 35:4-9)

DP 308 - Everything Flows In; DP 311 - Prudence Not Our Own

DP 308 [2]

. . . everything a person thinks and wills flows in;
and because all speech flows from thought,
as an effect from its cause,
and likewise all action from the will,
that everything a person says and does flows in too,
though secondarily or indirectly.

No one can deny that everything
a person sees, hears, smells, tastes or feels flows in.
Why not what a person thinks and wills?
Can there be any other difference than this,
that into the organs of the outer or physical senses
flow such things as are found in the natural world,
while into the organic substances
of the inner or mental senses
flow such things as are found in the spiritual world?
Consequently, that as the organs
of the outer or physical senses
are the recipient vessels of natural objects,
so the organic substances
of the inner or mental senses
are the recipient vessels of spiritual objects?

DP 311 [1-3]

From the description of one's own prudence
and of those caught up in it,
it can be seen what prudence not one's own is like
and the kind of people who are governed by it,
namely that prudence not one's own
is the prudence in people who do not affirm in themselves
that intelligence and wisdom originate from man,
but say, "How can anyone be wise of himself,
and how can anyone do good of himself?"
And when they say this,
they see in themselves the reality,
for they think more interiorly
and also believe that others think likewise,
especially the learned,
because they do not know
that anyone can think only externally.

They are not, through any affirmations of appearances,
caught up in misconceptions.
As a result they know and perceive
that murder, adultery, theft, and false witness are sins,
and therefore refrain from them.
Moreover they know and perceive
that maliciousness is not wisdom,
and that guile is not intelligence.
When they hear
clever arguments founded on misconceptions,
they are surprised and laugh to themselves.
The reason is that they do not have in them
a veil between their inner and outer elements,
or between the spiritual and natural components of the mind,
as there is in sensual people.
Consequently they receive an influx from heaven
which enables them to see these things interiorly.

They speak more straightforwardly and honestly than others,
and place wisdom in life and not in speech.
They are comparatively like lambs and sheep,
while those caught up in their own prudence
are like wolves and foxes.
They are also like people living in a house
who through the windows see the sky,
whereas those caught up in their own prudence
are like people living in the basement of the house,
who through their windows see only objects under ground.
Or they are like people standing on a mountain,
who see those caught up in their own prudence
as people wandering in the valleys in forests.

~ The Second Trip Up Mount Sinai ~

The Lord said to Moses,
"Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones,
and I will write on them the words
that were on the first tablets,
which you broke.
Be ready in the morning,
and then come up on Mount Sinai.
Present yourself to Me there on top of the mountain;
not even the flocks and herds may graze
in front of the mountain.

So Moses chiseled out
two stone tablets like the first ones
and went up Mount Sinai early in the morning,
as the Lord had commanded him;
and he carried the two stone tablets in his hands.
Then the Lord came down in the cloud
and stood there with him
and proclaimed His name, the Lord.

(Exodus 34:1-5)

DP 296 - Divine Providence's Goal Is to Save; DP 298 - Truth Effects Reformation

DP 296

. . . in every person
Divine providence operates in a thousand ways,
even in very secret ways;
that it continually has as its end to purge him,
because it has as an end to save him;
and that nothing more is incumbent on the person
than to put away evils in his external self.
The Lord provides the rest,
if entreated to.

DP 298 [5]

All reformation is effected by means of truth
and not apart from it,
for without truth
the will is continually intent on its evil,
and if it consults the intellect,
it is not instructed,
but the evil is justified by falsities.

~ The Sabbath ~

Then the Lord said to Moses,
"Say to the Israelites,
'You must observe My Sabbaths.
this will be a sign between Me and you
for the generations to come,
so you may know that I am the Lord,
who makes you holy.

"'Observe the Sabbath, because it is holy to you.
Anyone who desecrates it must be put to death;
whoever does any work on that day
must be cut off from his people.
For six days,
work is to be done,
but the seventh day is a Sabbath of rest,
holy to the Lord.
Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day
must be put to death.
The Israelites are to observe the Sabbath,
celebrating it for the generations to come
as a lasting covenant.
It will be a sign between Me and the Israelites forever,
for in six days
the Lord made the heavens and the earth,
and on the seventh day
He abstained from work and rested.'"

When the Lord finished
speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai,
He gave him the two tablets of stone
inscribed by the finger of God.

(Exodus 31:12-18)

DP 288, 296 - How We Receive the Lord

DP 288

. . . any truth or good emanating from the Lord
is completely changed
when received by people caught up in falsity and evil,
and so transformed
that the original form is no longer visible.

DP 296 [6]

It should be known that in respect to his spirit
every person is in the spiritual world
and in some society there --
an evil person in a society of hell,
and a good person in a society of heaven.
The person also sometimes appears there
when he is engaged in deep meditation.

 

~ Two Lambs a Year Old ~

"This is what you are to offer on the altar regularly each day:
two lambs a year old.
Offer one in the morning and the other at twilight.
With the first lamb
offer a tenth of an ephah of fine flour
mixed with a quarter of a hin of oil from pressed olives,
and a quarter of a hin of wine as a drink offering.
Sacrifice the other lamb at twilight
with the same grain offering
and its drink offering as in the morning --
a pleasing aroma,
an offering made to the Lord by fire.

"For the generations to come
this burnt offering is to be made regularly
at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting before the Lord.
There I will meet you and speak to you;
there also I will meet with the Israelites,
and the place will be consecrated by My glory.

"So I will consecrate the Tent of Meeting and the altar
and will consecrate Aaron and his sons
to serve Me as priests.
Then I will dwell among the Israelites
and be their God.
They will know that I am the Lord their God,
who brought them out of Egypt
so that I might dwell among them.
I am the Lord their God."

(Exodus 29:38-46)
 

DP 283 - Evils

DP 283

A person is permitted to entertain evils in thought
even to the point of intending them
in order that they may be displaced, as we said,
by civil, moral and spiritual precepts,
and this is the case when he thinks that something
is contrary to justice and equity,
contrary to honor and decorum,
and contrary to goodness and truth,
thus contrary to peace, happiness and blessedness of life.
Through these three classes of precepts
the Lord heals the will's love in a person --
at first, indeed by fears, and afterward by loves.
But still, evils are not separated and cast out of a person,
but are only displaced and banished to the sides;
and when that is where they are,
and good at the center,
then the evils do not appear.
For whatever is at the center is directly in view
and is seen and perceived.

It should be known, however,
that even if good is at the center,
still the person is not therefore in a state of good
unless the evils to the sides
incline downward and outward.
If they look upward or inward,
they have not been set aside,
for they continue to attempt to return to the center.
Evils incline or look downward and outward
when a person refrains from his evils as sins,
and still more when he is averse to them,
for then he condemns them
and consigns them to hell
and causes them to look in that direction.

~ The Tent ~

"Make a curtain of blue, purple and scarlet yarn
and finely twisted linen,
with cherubim worked into it by a skilled craftsman.
Hang it with gold hooks on four posts of acacia wood
overlaid with gold and standing on four silver bases.
Hang the curtain from the clasps
and place the ark of the Testimony behind the curtain.
The curtain will separate
the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place.
Put the atonement cover on the ark of the Testimony
in the Most Holy Place.
Place the table outside the curtain
on the north side of the tabernacle
and put the lampstand opposite it on the south side.

"For the entrance to the tent
make a curtain of blue, purple and scarlet yarn
and finely twisted linen --
the work of an embroiderer.
Make gold hooks for this curtain
and five posts of acacia wood overlaid with gold.
And cast five bronze bases for them.

(Exodus 26:31-37)
 

DP 278 - Reforming

DP 278 [6]

. . . a person must examine himself,
see and acknowledge his sins,
and repent,
and then persevere in this
to the end of his life.

 

~ "I Am Sending an Angel" ~

"See, I am  sending an angel ahead of you
to guard you along the way
and to bring you to the place I have prepared.
Pay attention to him and listen to what he says.
Do not rebel against him;
he will not forgive your rebellion,
since My Name is in him.
If you listen carefully to what he says
and do all that I say,
I will be an enemy to your enemies
and will oppose those who oppose you.
My angel will go ahead of you
and bring you into the land of the
Amorites, Hittites, and Perizzites,
Canaanites, Hivites and Jebusites,
and I will wipe them out.
Do not bow down before their gods
or worship them or follow their practices.
You must demolish them
and break their sacred stones to pieces.
Worship the Lord your God,
and His blessing will be on your food and water.
I will take away sickness from among you,
and none will miscarry or be barren in your land.
I will give you a full life span."

(Exodus 23:20-26)

DP 265 - Questions

DP 265 [1-3]

. . . people do not know
that to refrain from evils as sins
is the essence of Christian religion.

. . . I have asked . . . whether they know
that to refrain from evils as sins
is the essence of religion.
They have said they did not,
and that it is something new they had not heard before,
but that they had been told
that they could not do good of themselves
and were not under the yoke of the law.
When I asked whether they knew
that a person should examine himself,
see his sins, repent, and then begin a new life,
and that otherwise his sins are not forgiven;
that if their sins are not forgiven, they are not saved;
and that this was something read aloud before them
whenever they attended the Holy Supper,
they replied that they took no notice of that
but focused only on this,
that through the Holy Supper
they gained forgiveness for their sins,
and that their faith did the rest without their knowing.

I asked again,
"Why did you teach your little children
the Ten Commandments?
Was it not that they might know
what evils are sins to be shunned?
Were the Commandments
only things for them to know and believe,
and not for them to obey?
Why then do you say that this is something new?"

~ Do Not ~

"Do not mistreat an alien or oppress him,
for you were aliens in Egypt.

"Do not take advantage of a widow or an orphan.
If you do and they cry out to Me,
I will certainly hear their cry.

"Do not blaspheme God
or curse the ruler of your people."

(Exodus 22:22-23, 28)

DP 260 - The Jews in the Word

DP 260 [1, 3]

. . . by the Jews in the Word are meant
all who are in the church
and acknowledge the Lord,
and that by the land of Canaan
into which it says they were to be introduced
is meant the Lord's church.

That this nation has been preserved
and dispersed over much of the earth
is for the sake of the Word in its original language,
which they, more than Christians, hold sacred,
and in every particular of which
the Lord's Divinity is present.
For the Word is Divine truth
that emanates in union with Divine good from the Lord,
and accordingly the Word is the means
of the Lord's conjunction with the church
and of the presence of heaven . . .
existing everywhere the Word is read reverently.
This is the objective of Divine providence,
for the sake of which the Jewish people
have been preserved and dispersed
over much of the earth.

~ In the Third Month ~

In the third month after the Israelites left Egypt --
on the very day --
they came to the Desert of Sinai.
After they set out from Rephidim,
they entered the Desert of Sinai,
and Israel camped there in the desert
in front of the mountain.

Then Moses went up to God,
and the Lord called to him from the mountain and said,
"This is what you are to say to the house of Jacob
and what you are to tell the people of Israel:
'You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt,
and how I carried you on eagles' wings
and brought you to Myself.
Now if you obey Me fully
and keep My covenant,
then out of all nations
you will be My treasured possession.
Although the whole earth is Mine,
you will be for Me
a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.'
These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites."

(Exodus 19:1-6)

DP 256, 257, 259 - The Lord Gives

DP 256

. . . where the Word is read reverently
and the Lord worshiped in the light of the Word,
there the Lord is present with heaven.
And the reason is that the Lord is the Word,
and the Word is the Divine truth which produces heaven.
Therefore the Lord says,

 . . . where two or three are gathered together in My name,
I am there in the midst of them.
(Matthew 18:20)

DP 257 [3]

. . . apart from the Lord there is no salvation . . ..

DP 259 [3]

There are three essential components of the church:
acknowledgment of the Lord's Divinity;
acknowledgment of the holiness of the Word;
and living the life called charity.
-- Everyone has faith
according as he lives a life of charity;
-- from the Word
he has a concept of what that life must be;
-- and from the Lord
he gains reformation and salvation.

~ The Waters of Marah and Elim ~

Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea
and they went into the Desert of Shur.
For three days
they traveled in the desert without finding water.
When they came to Marah,
they could not drink its water because it was bitter.
(That is why the place is called Marah.)
So the people grumbled against Moses, saying,
What are we to drink?"

Then Moses cried out to the Lord,
and the Lord showed him a piece of wood.
He threw it into the water,
and the water became sweet.

There the Lord made a decree and a law for them,
and there He tested them.
He said, "If you listen carefully
to the voice of the Lord your God
and do what is right in His eyes,
if you pay attention to His commands
and keep all His decrees,
I will not bring on you any of the diseases
I brought on the Egyptians,
for I am the Lord,
who heals you."

Then they came to Elim,
where there were twelve springs
and seventy palm trees,
and they camped there near the water.

(Exodus 15:22-27)

DP250-254 - Short Gems

DP 250 [3]

. . . the Lord's kingdom is a kingdom of useful endeavors,
and where there are but few
who are performing useful services
for the sake of useful service,
He causes worshipers of self
to be raised to higher positions of authority,
in which each is spurred by his love to render good service.

DP251 [1, 3, 6]

. . . if evils were not permitted to break out,
a person would not see them,
and therefore would not acknowledge them,
and so could not be brought to resist them.

. . . all wars, though occurring on the civil plane,
are representative of states of the church in heaven,
and are corresponding parallels.

Everything flows in either from heaven or from hell --
from hell by permission,
from heaven by providence.

DP 252

Spirits of hell attack,
and angels of heaven defend themselves.

DP 254 [3, 6]

. . . everyone who enters into heaven
enters into his heart's highest joy.
He can bear no higher one,
since he would be suffocated in it.

. . . because the Lord wills the salvation of all,
He has also provided that it be possible for everyone
to have some place in heaven
if he has lived rightly.

~ From the Song of Moses ~

"Who among the gods is like You, O Lord?
Who is like You --
majestic in holiness,
awesome in glory,
working wonders?

"In Your unfailing love
You will lead the people You have redeemed.
In Your strength
You will guide them to Your holy dwelling.

You will bring them in and plant them
on the mountain of Your inheritance --
the place, O Lord, You made for Your dwelling,
the sanctuary, O Lord, Your hands established.
The Lord will reign for ever and ever."

(Exodus 15:11, 13, 17-18)

DP 242 - Charity and Faith

DP 242 [2]

For love does not exist apart from wisdom,
nor charity apart from faith.


People who are governed by a faith divorced from charity
are governed by their own intelligence,
while people who are governed by charity,
and for that reason by faith,
are governed by an intelligence from the Lord,
thus by Divine providence.

~ The Lord Passes Over ~

At midnight
the Lord struck down all the firstborn in Egypt,
from the firstborn of Pharaoh,
who sat on the throne,
to the firstborn of the prisoner,
who was in the dungeon,
and the firstborn of all the livestock as well.
Pharaoh and all his officials and all the Egyptians
got up during the night,
and there was loud wailing in Egypt,
for there was not a house without someone dead.

During the night
Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said,
"Up!  Leave my people, you and the Israelites!
Go, worship the Lord as you have requested.
Take your flocks and herds,
as you have said, and go.
And also bless me."

(Exodus 12:29-31)

DP 233 - Evils - Love of Self - Must Be Put Aside First

DP 233 [5, 11]

Goodness and usefulness are the same thing.


Love of self, which is at the head of all evils,
excels all other loves in its talent
for adulterating goods and falsifying truths,
and it accomplishes this by abusing
the rationality that every person,
both evil and good,
has from the Lord.
Indeed, through its justifications
it can make evil appear altogether as good,
and falsity as truth.

~ The Lord Warns About the Last Plague ~

Now the Lord had said to Moses,
"I will bring one more plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt.
After that, he will let you go from here,
and when he does,
he will drive you out completely.
Tell the people that men and women alike
are to ask their neighbors for articles of silver and gold.
(The Lord made the Egyptians favorably disposed
toward the people,
and Moses himself was highly regarded in Egypt
by Pharaoh's officials and by the people.)

So Moses said, "This is what the Lord says:
'About midnight I will go throughout Egypt.
Every firstborn son in Egypt will die,
from the firstborn son of Pharaoh,
who sits on the throne,
to the the firstborn son of the slave girl,
who is at her hand mill,
and all the firstborn of the cattle as well.
there will be loud wailing throughout Egypt --
worse than there has ever been or ever will be again.
But among the Israelites
not a dog will bark at any man or animal.'
Then you will know that the Lord makes a distinction
between Egypt and Israel.
All these officials of yours will come to me,
bowing down before me and saying,
'Go, you and all the people who follow you!'
After that I will leave."
Then Moses, hot with anger, left Pharaoh.

The Lord had said to Moses,
"Pharaoh will refuse to listen to you --
so that My wonders may be multiplied in Egypt."
Moses and Aaron performed all these wonders
before Pharaoh's heart,
and he would not let the Israelites go out of his country.

(Exodus 11)

DP 230, 231 - Profanation

DP 230

Profanation of the sacred is meant
in the second commandment of the Decalogue
by the declaration,
"You shall not profane the name of your God."
And that His name is not to be profaned
is meant in the Lord's Prayer by the phrase,
"Hallowed be Your name."

, , , in the Word God is symbolically meant by
the name of God,
with every Divine attribute residing in Him
and emanating from Him.
Moreover, because the Word is the Divinity emanating,
it is the name of God.
And because all Divine matters
that are called the spiritual concerns of the church
come from the Word,
they too are the name of God.

DP 231 (portions)

Since by profanation of the sacred
we mean profanation by people who from the Word
are acquainted with truths of faith and goods of charity
and who also in some measure acknowledge them,
and do not mean
people who are not acquainted with these,
or people who, out of impiety, utterly reject them . . ..

THE FIRST KIND OF PROFANATION
is committed by people who make jokes 
from or about the Word,
or from or about the Divine things of the church.
Some do this out of a deplorable habit,
taking names and phrases from the Word
and mixing them into remarks
hardly becoming and sometimes filthy.
This cannot help but be
coupled with some contempt for the Word.
And yet the Word in each and every one of its particulars
is Divine and sacred.
For every single word there
conceals within it something Divine,
and through it has a communication with heaven.

But this kind of profanation is lighter or more serious
in the measure of the jokers' acknowledgment
of the sanctity of the Word
and the unbecoming nature of the remark
into which they introduce it.

THE SECOND KIND OF PROFANATION
is committed by people
who understand and acknowledge Divine truths
and yet live contrary to them.

THE THIRD KIND OF PROFANATION
is committed by people
who employ the literal sense of the Word
to defend evil loves and false premises.
The reason is that a defense of falsity is a denial of truth,
and a defense of evil is a rejection of good,
and the Word at its core
is nothing but Divine truth and Divine good.

THE FOURTH KIND OF PROFANATION
is committed by people
who utter pious and reverent sentiments with the mouth,
and moreover feign in tone and gesture
the affections of a love for them,
and yet at heart do not believe or love them.
Most of these people are hypocrites and pharisees,
who after death
have every truth and good taken from them,
and who are then dispatched into outer darkness.

. . . Instances of hypocrisy, however,
may be lighter or more serious,
depending on one's persuasions against God
and one's contentions outwardly for God.

THE FIFTH KIND OF PROFANATION
is committed by people
who attribute Divine powers to themselves.
. . . in the Word, and by Babylon
there is meant a profanation of good,
and by Chaldea a profanation of truth,
both of which are found in people
who attribute Divine powers to themselves.

THE SIXTH KIND OF PROFANATION
is committed by people
who acknowledge the Word
and yet deny the Lord's Divinity.
In the world these people are called Socinians,
and some Arians.
The fate of both is to call on the Father and not the Lord,
and to continually pray to the Father --
some, indeed, for the sake of the Son . . ..

THE SEVENTH KIND OF PROFANATION
is committed by people
who first acknowledge Divine truths
and live according to them,
and afterward turn away and deny them.
This is the worst kind of profanation,
because people who do this
mix sacred things with profane ones,
until the two cannot be separated.
And yet they must be separated
for people to be either in heaven or in hell.
So, because this is impossible in their case,
everything human
pertaining to the intellect and to the will
is eradicated,
and they become, as we said before,
no longer human.

~ The Finger of God ~ (Exodus 8)

Then the Lord said to Moses,
"Tell Aaron, 'Stretch out your staff
and strike the dust of the ground,'
and throughout the land of Egypt
the dust will become gnats."
They did this,
and when Aaron stretched out his hand with the staff
and struck the dust of the ground,
gnats came upon men and animals.
All the dust throughout the land of Egypt became gnats.
But when the magicians
tried to produce gnats by their secret arts,
they could not.
And the gnats were on men and animals.

The magicians said to Pharaoh,
"This is the finger of God."
But Pharaoh's heart was hard
and he would not listen,
just as the Lord had said.

(Exodus 8:16-19)

DP 221 - A Person Is Admitted No More Interiorly into Truths of Faith and Goods of Charity than the Extent to Which He Can Be Maintained in Them to the End of His Life

DP  221

In the Christian world people know
that the Lord wills the salvation of all,
and moreover that He is omnipotent.
Many therefore conclude from this
that the Lord can save everyone,
and that He saves those who implore His mercy,
especially those who implore it
using the formula of the accepted faith,
that God the Father may have mercy
for the sake of the Son,
particularly if they implore Him at the same time
to grant them that faith.

But the case is quite different . . .
the Lord cannot act contrary
to the laws of His Divine providence,
because to act contrary to them
would be to act against His Divine love
and against His Divine wisdom,
thus against Himself.
. . . such mercy apart from means is not possible,
because a person's salvation
is accomplished through means,
and a person can be led in accordance with these means
only by one who wills the salvation of all
and who is at the same time omnipotent,
thus the Lord.

The means by which a person is led by the Lord
are what we call laws of Divine providence,
and among them is this one,
that a person is not admitted more interiorly
into truths of wisdom and goods of love
than the extent to which
he can be maintained in them to the end of his life.
But to make this apparent to reason,
we need to explain it
in accordance with the following outline:

(1) A person may be admitted
into wisdom regarding spiritual matters
and also into a love for them and yet not be reformed.

(2) If the person afterward turns away from these
and goes off in the opposite direction,
he profanes things that are sacred.

(3) There are many kinds of profanation,
but this kind is the worst of all.

(4) Therefore the Lord admits a person
no more interiorly into truths of wisdom
and at the same time goods of love
than the extent to which he can be maintained in them
to the end of his life.

~ Aaron Meets Moses at Mr. Horeb ~

The Lord said to Aaron,
"Go into the desert to meet Moses."
So he met Moses at the mountain of God
and kissed him.
Then Moses told Aaron everything
the Lord had sent him to say,
and also about all the miraculous signs
He had commanded him to perform.

Moses and Aaron brought together
all the elders of the Israelites,
and Aaron told them everything
the Lord had said to Moses.
He also performed the signs before the people,
and they believed.
And when they heard
that the Lord was concerned about them
and had seen their misery,
they bowed down and worshiped.

(Exodus 4:27-31)

DP 220 - Natural or Spiritual Advancements and Honors

DP 220 [8-10]

Advancements with their accompanying honors
are natural and temporal
when a person regards himself personally in them,
and not the public welfare
and the useful opportunities in them;
for in that case the person cannot help
but think inwardly to himself
that the public exists for him
and not himself for the public.
He is like a king
who thinks that the kingdom and all the people in it
exist for his sake,
and not that he exists
for the sake of the kingdom and its people.

On the other hand,
those same advancements
with their accompanying honors
 are spiritual and eternal
when a person regards himself personally
as existing to serve the public
and the useful opportunities in the advancements,
and does not regard them as existing to serve him.
If he does this,
the person is in that case impelled by the truth
and embraces the essential nature
of his advancement and honor.
But if he does the other,
he is then caught up in
the corresponding form and appearance,
and if he affirms these in him,
he is impelled by fallacies
and has conjunction with the Lord
only as those do who are caught up in falsities
and their resulting evils.
For fallacies are falsities
with which evils conjoin themselves.
Such people have indeed
performed useful services and good deeds,
but from themselves and not from the Lord.
Thus they have substituted themselves for the Lord.

It is the same with wealth and riches.
These, too, are natural and temporal,
and also spiritual and eternal.
Wealth and riches are natural and temporal
in the case of people who have regard
only for them and for themselves in them,
and in them find all their pleasure and delight.
But the same wealth and riches
are spiritual and eternal
in the case of people who regard
the good and useful opportunities in them,
and find their interior pleasure and delight
in those opportunities.
In their case the outward pleasure and delight
becomes also spiritual,
and the temporal condition becomes eternal.
Consequently, after death
they are also in heaven and live in palaces there,
the useful forms of which
glisten with gold and precious stones.
And yet they regard these only
as the glistening and translucent outward forms
of the inward ones which are useful ends,
from which they derive their real pleasure and delight,
a pleasure and delight
that in themselves constitute
the happiness and felicity of heaven.

The contrary is the lot for people
who have regarded wealth and riches
only for the sake of wealth and riches
and for the sake of themselves,
thus for external considerations
and not at the same time for internal ones --
in accordance with appearances therefore,
and not in accordance with their essential purposes.
When such people put off those appearances,
as they do when they die,
they take on the internal forms of these;
and because the internal forms are not spiritual,
they cannot but be hellish.
For either the one or the other is present in them.
Both cannot be present together.
Consequently instead of wealth
they experience poverty,
and instead of riches,
hard times.

~ Moses Talks with the God on Mount Horeb ~

Now Moses was tending the flock
of Jethro his father-in-law,
the priest of Midian,
and he led the flock to the far side of the desert
and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.
There the angel of the Lord appeared to him
in flames of fire from within a bush.
Moses saw that though the bush was on fire
it did not burn up.
So Moses thought,
"I will go over and see this strange sight --
why the bush does not burn up."

When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look,
God called to him from within the bush,
"Moses!  Moses!"

And Moses said, "Here I am."

"Do not come any closer," God said.
"Take off your sandals,
for the place where you are standing is holy ground."
Then He said,
"I am the God of your father,
the God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac
and the God of Jacob."
At this, Moses hid his face,
because he was afraid to look at God.

. . . But Moses said to God,
"Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh
and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?"

And God said, "I will be with you.
And this will be the sign to you
that it is I who have sent you:
When you have brought the people out of Egypt,
you will worship God on this mountain."

(Exodus 3:1-6, 11-12)

DP 214 - The Ends of Divine Providence; DP 215 - A History Lesson

DP 214

The fact that Divine providence regards eternal ends,
and not temporal ones
except as they coincide with eternal ones --
this we are going to demonstrate
under the following series of headings:

(1) Temporal ends have to do with advancements and riches,
thus with honors and material gains, in the world.

(2) Eternal ends have to do with spiritual honors and riches,
which are those of love and wisdom, in heaven.

(3) Temporal and eternal ends are separated by mankind,
but conjoined by the Lord.

(4) The conjoining of temporal and eternal ends
is the Lord's Divine providence.

DP 215 [2-6]

Advancements and riches in most ancient times
were altogether different
from what they gradually became thereafter.
Advancements in most ancient times were simply
the kind that exist between parents and children --
advancements of the children
that were advancements in love,
full of respect and veneration,
not because of the children's birth from the parents,
but because of the instruction and wisdom
gained from them,
which was a second birth,
in itself spiritual,
because it was a birth of their spirit.

This was the only advancement in most ancient times,
because tribes, clans and households
dwelled separately then,
and not under governments as today.
It was the head of the family
in relation to whom the advancement was made.
People of old called those times golden ages.

After those times, however,
a love of ruling gradually entered
owing simply to the delight of that love.
And because there entered at the same time
an enmity and hostility toward those
who refused to submit,
tribes, clans and households
out of necessity banded together into confederations,
and they set over themselves
someone they called at first a judge,
then a prince, and finally a king or emperor.
And at the same time
they also began to fortify themselves
with towers, earthworks, and walls.

From the judge, prince, king or emperor --
as from the head into the body --
a lust to rule spread like a contagion to many others.
Degrees of advancement arose as a result,
and also honors in accordance with them,
and with these a love of self
and people's pride in their own prudence.

Something similar happened with a love of riches.
In most ancient times,
when tribes and clans lived apart from each other,
the only love of riches
was a desire to possess the necessities of life,
which they acquired for themselves
by their flocks and herds,
and by their farmlands, fields, and gardens,
which supplied them with food.
Among their necessities of life
were also attractive houses,
equipped with implements of every kind,
and also garments.
Engaged in pursuing and laboring for all these things
were parents, children, menservants, and maidservants --
those included in the household.

But after a love of ruling entered
and destroyed this state of affairs,
a love of possessing means
beyond the necessities
entered also,
and it grew to such a height
that it wished to possess
the means belonging to all others.

These two loves are like blood brothers,
as someone who wishes to rule over all things
also wishes to possess all things;
for thus all others become their servants,
and they alone lords.
This is clearly apparent
from those in the Roman Catholic world,
who have exalted their dominion
even into heaven to the Lord's throne,
on which they have placed themselves --
that they seek out the wealth of the whole world
and enlarge their treasuries endlessly.

~ After Joseph and Pharaoh ~

Now Joseph and all his brothers
and all that generation died,
but the Israelites were fruitful and multiplied greatly
and became exceedingly numerous,
so that the land was filled with them.

Then a new king,
who did not know about Joseph,
came to power in Egypt.
"Look," he said to his people,
"the Israelites have become much too numerous for us.
Come, we must deal shrewdly with them
or they will become even more numerous and,
if war breaks out,
will join our enemies,
fight against us and leave the country.

So they put slave masters over them
to oppress them with forced labor,
and they built Pithom and Rameses
as store cities for Pharaoh.
But the more they were oppressed,
the more they multiplied and spread;
so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites
and worked them ruthlessly.

(Exodus 1:6-13)
 

DP 201-211 (various portions) - Divine Providence and Human Prudence

DP 201 [1, 3]

Those who ascribe everything to nature
also ascribe everything to human prudence.
For people who ascribe everything to nature,
at heart deny God,
and people who ascribe everything to human prudence,
at heart deny Divine providence.
One is inseparable from the other.

What is in God called providence
is in man called prudence.

DP 202 [2, 3]

. . .  no one can be reformed
of himself through his own prudence,
but only by the Lord through His Divine providence.
It follows, therefore,
that unless a person is guided by the Lord every moment,
even every least moment,
he departs from the path of reformation and perishes.

The Lord accomplishes this
in accordance with the laws of His Divine providence.
And it is in accordance with these laws also
that it appear to a person
that it is he who guides himself.
But the Lord foresees how he is guiding himself
and continually makes adjustments.

DP 203 [2]

. . . the Lord's Divine providence is universal
because it operates in the least particulars,
and that this is an infinite and eternal creating,
which the Lord has provided for Himself
by the creation of the universe.

A person sees nothing of this universal providence,
and if he were to see it,
it could appear to his eyes only
as do scattered heaps
and assembled piles of materials
to passers-by,
the materials out of which a house is to be built.
But to the Lord it appears as a magnificent palace
constantly being built and enlarged.

DP 207

The origin and nature of Divine providence:
Divine providence is the Divine operation
in a person who has set aside love of self.
For a love of self is, as we said, the devil,
and its lusts and their delights
are the evils of its kingdom, which is hell.
When this love has been set aside,
the Lord enters with the affections
of a love for the neighbor,
and He opens the window overhead
and then the windows to the sides,
and enables the person to see that there is a heaven,
a life after death, and eternal happiness.
And by the spiritual light flowing in,
and at the same time spiritual love,
He causes the person to acknowledge
that by His Divine providence God governs all things.

DP 211

If you wish to be led by Divine providence, therefore,
use prudence as a servant or assistant
who faithfully manages the goods of his lord.
This prudence is the mina given
to each of the servants to do business with,
of which they were to render an account,
in Luke 19:12-25, cf. Matt. 25:14-30.
This prudence appears to a person to be his own,
and he believes it to be his own
as long as he keeps shut up in him
the most implacable foe of God and Divine providence,
namely, love of self.
This love dwells in the interior qualities
of every person from birth.
If you do not recognize it
(for it does not wish to be recognized),
it dwells secure,
and it guards the door
to keep the person from opening it
and thus the Lord from casting it out.

A person opens that door
by refraining from evils as sins as though of himself,
with the acknowledgment that he does so from the Lord.
It is this prudence with which
Divine providence acts in concert.

~ Israel Blesses Ephraim & Manasseh ~

Israel said to Joseph,
"I never expected to see your face again,
and now God has allowed me to see your children, too."

Then Joseph removed them from Israel's knees
and bowed down with his face to the ground.
And Joseph took both of them,
Ephraim on his right toward Israel's left hand
and Manasseh on his left toward Israel's right hand,
and brought them close to him.
But Israel reached out his right hand
and put it on Ephraim's head,
though he was the younger,
and crossing his arms,
he put his left hand on Manasseh's head,
even though Manasseh was the firstborn.

Then he blessed Joseph and said,

"May the God before whom my fathers
Abraham and Isaac walked,
the God who has been my Shepherd
all my life to this day,
the Angel who has delivered me from all harm
-- may He bless these boys.
May they be called by my name
and the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac,
and may they increase greatly upon the earth."

When Joseph saw his father
placing his right hand on Ephraim's head
he was displeased;
so he took hold of his father's hand
to move it from Ephraim's head to Manasseh's head.
Joseph said to him,
"No, my father, this one is the firstborn;
but your right hand on his head."

But his father refused and said,
"I know, my son, I know.
He too will become a people,
and he too will become great.
Nevertheless, his younger brother will be greater than he,
and his descendants will become a group of nations."
He blessed them that day and said,

"In your name will Israel pronounce this blessing;
'May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh.'"

So he put Ephraim ahead of Manasseh.

(Genesis 48: 11-20)

DP 191 - Human Prudence and Divine Providence; DP 195 - What Good and Truth Are

DP 191

The idea that one's own prudence is not real
is altogether contrary to the appearance
and so contrary to many people's belief.
And because that is the case,
no one who, owing to the appearance,
holds the belief
that human prudence accomplishes all things,
can be convinced otherwise
except by the arguments of a deeper investigation,
which must be drawn from causes.
The appearance is an effect,
and causes disclose the reason for it.
. . . Contrary to the appearance
is the teaching of the church
that love and faith spring not from man but from God,
likewise wisdom and intelligence,
and so, too, prudence --
in general all goodness and truth.
When these tenets are accepted,
accepted also must be the idea
that one's own prudence is not real,
but only appears to be.
Prudence is simply the product of intelligence and wisdom,
and these two are produced simply by the intellect
and its ensuing thought about truth and goodness.

This - what we have just stated -
is accepted and believed by people
who acknowledge Divine providence,
but not by those
who acknowledge only human prudence.

[2] Now either what the church teaches must be true,
that all wisdom and prudence spring from God,
or what the world teaches,
that all wisdom and prudence spring from man.
Can these views be reconciled in any other way
than to say that what the church teaches is the truth
and that what the world teaches is the appearance?
For the church affirms its teaching
in the light of the Word,
while the world affirms its in the light of human nature,
and the Word originates from God,
while human nature originates from man.

DP 195 [2]

Good, to everyone,
is what his affection finds delight in,
and truth what his thought
consequently finds satisfaction in.

~ Joseph Presents Jacob to Pharaoh ~

Then Joseph brought his father Jacob in
and presented him before Pharaoh.
After Jacob blessed Pharaoh,
Pharaoh asked him, "How old are you?"

And Jacob said to Pharaoh,
"The years of my prilgrimage are a hundred and thirty.
My years have been few and difficult,
and they do not equal
the years of the pilgrimage of my fathers."
Then Jacob blessed Pharaoh
and went out from his presence.

So Joseph settled his father and his brothers in Egypt
and gave them property in the best part of the land,
the district of Rameses, as Pharaoh directed.
Joseph also provided his father and his brothers
and all his father's household with food,
according to the number of their children.

(Genesis 47:7-12)


-

DP 180, 183 - Can We See Divine Providence Working?

DP 180

If a person were to clearly see Divine providence,
he would inject himself into
the order and course of its progression,
and upset and destroy it.

DP 183

Divine providence never acts in harmony 
with the will's love in a person,
but continually in opposition to it.
For in consequence of his hereditary evil
a person forever goes panting toward the lowest hell,
whereas the Lord by His providence
is constantly diverting him
and drawing him back from there,
first to a milder hell,
then out of hell,
and finally to Himself in heaven.

This operation of Divine providence is unceasing.
Consequently if a person were to clearly see or feel
this withdrawal or diverting,
it would anger him,
and he would regard God as an enemy,
and from the evil of his native character deny Him.
Therefore, lest a person become conscious of this,
he is kept in a state of freedom,
so that he does not know other
than that he is guiding himself.

~ "I Am Joseph! ~

Then Joseph could no longer control himself
before all his attendants,
and he cried out,
"Have everyone leave my presence!"
So there was no one with Joseph
when he made himself known to his brothers.
And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard him,
and Pharaoh's household heard about it.

Joseph said to his brothers,
"I am Joseph!  Is my father still living?"
But his brothers were not able to answer him,
because they were terrified at his presence.

Then Joseph said to his brothers,
"Come close to me."
When they had done so, he said,
"I am your brother Joseph,
the one you sold into Egypt!
And no, do not be distressed
and do not be angry with yourselves
for selling me here,
because it was to save lives
that God sent me ahead of you."

(Genesis 45:1-5)

DP 175, 177, 178 - God , Providence and Freedom

DP 175

For one who attributes nothing to God
attributes nothing to Divine providence either,
as God and Divine Providence are inseparably connected.

DP 177, 178

The operation of the Lord's Divine providence
is constant in withdrawing a person from evils.
If someone were to perceive or sense
this constant operation
and yet not be led as one bound,
would he not continually resist it,
and in that case either contend with God
or intervene in Divine providence?
If he did the latter
he would make himself also God.
If he did the first,
he would free himself from the constraint
and deny God.
This much is clearly apparent,
that there would be two forces
 continually acting in opposition to each other --
a force for evil on the person's part,
and a force for good on the Lord's part.
And when two opposites act against each other,
then either one is victorious or both fail.
In the present instance, however,
both fail if one is victorious,
for the evil that a person has
does not accept good from the Lord in a moment,
nor does good from the Lord cast out the evil
from a person in a moment.
If the one or the other were to happen in a moment,
no life would be left to the person.

That also is why it is not granted
a person to foreknow events,
that he may be able to act in freedom
in accordance with his reason.
For as people know, whatever a person loves,
he wishes to bring into effect,
and he guides himself to it by means of his reason.
People know, too, that everything
a person considers with his reason
springs from a love for it
to come through his thought into effect.
Consequently, if in consequence of some Divine prediction
he were to know the end result or outcome,
his reason would surrender,
and with reason his love.
For love comes to rest with reason in the effect,
and from it then begins anew.

Reason's essential delight is to envision from love
the effect in thought --
not at the time of the effect, but prior to it,
or not at the present time, but in a time to come.
It is this that gives a person what we call hope,
which grows or dwindles in his reason
as it envisions or anticipates the outcome.
This delight is fulfilled in the outcome,
but afterward erased, 
along with thought about it.
The same would be the case
with any outcome foreknown.

~ Joseph Feeds His Brothers ~

So the men took the gifts
and double the amount of silver,
and Benjamin also.
They hurried down to Egypt
and presented themselves to Joseph.
When Joseph saw Benjamin with them,
he said to the steward of his house,
"Take these men to my house,
slaughter an animal and prepare dinner;
they are to eat with me at noon."

When Joseph came home,
they presented to him the gifts
they had brought into the house,
and they bowed down before him to the ground.
He asked them how they were,
and then he said,
"How is your aged father you told me about?
Is he still living?"

They replied,
"Your servant our father is still alive and well."
And they bowed low to pay him honor.

As he looked about and saw his brother Benjamin,
his own mother's son, he asked,
"Is this your youngest brother,
the one you told me about?"
And he said, "God be gracious to you, my son."
Deeply moved at the sight of his brother,
Joseph hurried out and looked for a place to weep.
He went into his private room and wept there.

After he had washed his face,
he came out and, controlling himself, said,
"Serve the food."

(Genesis 43:15-16, 26-31)

DP 165, 168, 172 - The Lord, the Word, Being Human

DP 165

The Lord leads a person by influx
because to be led and also to flow in
are expressions applied to love and the will;
and He teaches a person by enlightenment
because to be taught and to be enlightened
are properly expressions
applied to wisdom and the intellect.

DP 168

An interior and an exterior
enlightenment by the Lord is possible,
and also is an interior and an exterior
enlightenment by man.
It is an interior enlightenment by the Lord
that enables a person to perceive at first hearing
whether a statement is true or not.
An exterior enlightenment
is the result of this in his consequent thought.
An interior enlightenment by man
is the result of mere justification.
And an exterior enlightenment by man
comes from the simple possession of knowledge.

DP 172 [2, 4]

Now, because the Word is from the Lord alone
and about the Lord alone,
it follows that when a person is taught by the Word,
he is taught by the Lord.
For the Word is Divine.
Who can communicate something Divine
and implant it in people's hearts
but the Divine itself
from whom it comes and of whom it treats?

. . . the Lord is
the Divine truth accompanying Divine good.
Every human being is human
not because of his face and anatomy,
but because of the goodness of his love
and the truths of his wisdom.
And as a human being is human because of these,
every person is also his own truth and own good,
or his own love and own wisdom.
Without these he is not human.
The Lord, however, is goodness itself and truth itself,
or to say the same thing,
love itself and wisdom itself.
And these are the Word
which was in the beginning with God,
and which was God,
and which became flesh.

~ Seven Years of Abundance ~

Joseph was thirty years old
when he entered the service of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
And Joseph went out from Pharaoh's presence
and traveled throughout Egypt.
During the seven years of abundance
the land produced plentifully.
Joseph collected all the food produced
in those seven years of abundance in Egypt
and stored it in the cities.
In each city
he put the food grown in the fields surrounding it.
Joseph stored up huge quantities of grain,
like the sand of the sea;
it was so much that he stopped keeping records
because it was beyond measure.

(Genesis 41:46-49)

 

DP 154 - The Reality Is That a Person Is Led and Taught By the Lord Alone

DP 154

The appearance is
that a person leads and teaches himself,
but in reality a person is led and taught
by the Lord alone.
People who affirm in themselves the appearance
and not at the same time the reality,
are unable to put away evils from themselves as sins.
By contrast, those who affirm in themselves
the appearance and at the same time the reality
are able to do so,
for evils are put away as sins
apparently by the person,
but in reality by the Lord.
The latter people can be reformed,
but not the former.

(1) A person is led and taught by the Lord alone.
(2) A person is led and taught by the Lord alone
through the angelic heaven and from it.
(3) The Lord leads a person by influx
and teaches him by enlightenment.
(4) The Lord teaches a person through the Word
and through doctrine and preaching from the Word,
thus directly from Himself alone.
(5) A person is led and taught by the Lord
in outward respects to all appearance
as though of himself. 

 

~ Joseph Ends Up in Egypt ~

Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt.
Potiphar, an Egyptian who was one of Pharaoh's officials,
the captain of the guard,
bought him from the Ishmaelites
who had taken him there.

The Lord was with Joseph and he prospered,
and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master.
When his master saw that the Lord was with him
and that the Lord gave him success
in everything he did,
Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant.
Potiphar put him in charge of his household,
and he entrusted to his care everything he owned.
From the time he put him in charge of his household,
and of all that he owned,
the Lord blessed the household of the Egyptian
because of Joseph.
The blessing of the Lord was on everything Potiphar had,
both in the house and in the field.

(Genesis 39:1-5)

DP152 - Being Reformed

DP 152

Since a person has an inner self and an outer self,
and both must be reformed 
for the person to be reformed,
and since no one can be reformed
unless he examines himself,
sees and acknowledges his evils,
and afterward desists from them,
it follows that he needs to examine
not only his outer self but also his inner self.
If a person examines only his outer self,
he sees no more than what he has actually done --
as for example, that he has not murdered,
has not committed adultery,
has not stolen,
and has not borne false witness, and so on.
Thus he examines his physical evils,
but not the evils of his spirit;
and yet for anyone to be reformed
he needs to examine the evils of his spirit,
for a person lives as a spirit after death,
and all the evils that are in him remain.
He examines his spirit, moreover,
only by paying attention to his thoughts,
especially to his intentions,
for intentions are thoughts springing from the will.
Evils have their origin there and their root,
which is to say,
they exist there in their lusts and in their delights,
and unless these are seen and acknowledged,
the person is still governed by evils,
however much
he has not committed them in outward acts.

 

~ A Coat and Two Dreams ~

Joseph, a young man of seventeen,
was tending the flocks with his brothers,
the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah,
his father's wives,
and he brought their father a bad report about them.

Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons,
because he had been born to him in his old age;
and he made a richly ornamented robe for him.
When his brothers saw that their father loved him
more than any of them,
they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.

Joseph had a dream,
and when he told it to his brothers,
they hated him all the more.
He said to them,
"Listen to this dream I had:
We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field
when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright,
while your sheaves gathered around mine
and bowed down to it."

His brothers said to him,
"Do you intend to reign over us?
Will you actually rule us?"
And they hated him all the more
because of his dream and what he had said.

Then he had another dream,
and he told it to his brothers,
"Listen," he said,
"I had another dream,
and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars
were bowing down to me."

When he told his father as well as his brothers,
his father rebuked him and said,
"What is this dream you had?
Will your mother and I and your brothers
actually come and bow down to the ground before you?"
His brothers were jealous of him,
but his father kept the matter in mind.

(Genesis 37:2-11)