AR 353 - Asher - A Love of Performing Useful Services; AR 354 - Naphtali - The Power of the Lord's Divine Humanity; AR 355 - Manasseh - To Serve

AR 353

Of the tribe of Asher twelve thousand were sealed.
(Revelation 7:6)

In the highest sense Asher symbolizes eternity;
in the spiritual sense, eternal bliss;
and in the natural sense,
an affection for goodness and truth.
Here, however, Asher symbolizes
a love of performing useful services,
which is found among people
who are in the Lord's celestial kingdom,
and is called there mutual love.
This love descends directly from love toward the Lord,
since the Lord's love
is to perform useful services to the community
and to each society in the community,
and He does these through the agency of people
who possess a love for Him.

His name, too, is derived from a word meaning bliss,
and people who have a love for performing useful services
to the community and society
enjoy in heaven a greater state of bliss than others.

AR 354

Of the tribe of Naphtali twelve thousand were sealed.
(Revelation 7:6)

In the highest sense Naphtali symbolizes
the intrinsic power of the Lord's Divine humanity;
in the spiritual sense, temptation or trial, and victory;
and in the natural sense,
resistance on the part of the natural self.
For his name was derived
from a word meaning wrestling.
Here, however, Naphtali symbolizes
a perception of useful endeavor, and of what is useful,
because in the series he comes after Asher,
who symbolizes a love of useful services.
Moreover those people
who have overcome in temptations or trials
have an interior perception of useful ends;
for temptations or trials open
the interior constituents of the mind.

AR 355

Of the tribe of Manasseh twelve thousand were sealed.
(Revelation 7:6)

This symbolizes a will to serve and to put into practice . . ..

There are three things that follow in order:
love toward the Lord, wisdom, and useful endeavor.
So again here:
mutual love, understanding or perception, and will or action.
These also form a unit, so that if one is missing,
the other two have no reality.
A will to serve, combined with action, constitute the effect,
thus the final element,
in which the two prior ones are present and coexist.

Manasseh has this symbolism because Joseph,
who was the father of Manasseh and Ephraim,
symbolizes the spiritual component of the church,
and the spiritual component of the church
is goodness of will
and at the same time truth in the intellect.
Manasseh consequently symbolizes
the volitional component of the church,
and Ephraim its intellectual component.