They apparently do an amazing display of nativities from all over the
world. But this year, in-person is not possible, so they are offering
this virtual calendar.
You might want to check it out:
https://glencairnmuseum.org/world-nativities-2020
AE 780 [3]
For every truth from the Lord is in its form a human;
therefore the angels,
as they are recipients of Divine truth from the Lord,
are human forms . . ..
May the Lord answer you when you are
in distress;
may the name of the God of Jacob protect you.
May He send you help from the sanctuary
and grant you support from Zion.
May He remember all your sacrifices
and accept your burnt offerings.
Selah.
May He give you the desire of your heart
and make all your plans succeed.
We will shout for joy when you are victorious
and will lift up our banners in the name of our God.
May the Lord grant all your requests.
Now I now that the Lord saves His anointed;
He answers Him from His holy heaven
with the saving power of His right hand.
Some trust in chariots and some in horses,
but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.
They are brought to their knees and fall,
but we raise up and stand firm.
(Psalm 20:1-8)
AE 774 [4]
. . . no person has or can have
a freedom to do good from himself,
since a person is merely the recipient;
consequently the good that a person receives is not theirs
but is the Lord's with him.
Nor do angels even have any good
except from the Lord;
and the more they acknowledge and perceive this
the more they are angels,
that is, higher and wiser than the others.
The Lord has dealt with me according to my righteousness;
according to the cleanness of my hands
He has rewarded me.
For I have kept the ways of the Lord;
I have not done evil by turning from my God.
As for God,
His way is perfect;
the word of the Lord is flawless.
(Psalm 18: 20-21, 30)
AE 773
And I saw a beast coming up out of the sea
having seven heads and ten horns,
and upon his horns ten diadems,
and upon his heads a name of blasphemy.
(Revelation 13:1)
"And I saw a beast coming up out of the sea,"
means reasonings from the natural man
confirming the separation of faith from life;
"having seven heads,"
means knowledge of holy things,
which are falsified and adulterated;
"and ten horns,"
means much power;
"and upon his horns ten diadems,"
means power from the appearances of truth in abundance;
"and upon his heads a name of blasphemy,"
means the falsifications of the Word.
In his arrogance
the wicked man hunts down the weak,
who are caught in the schemes he devises.
He boasts of the cravings of his heart;
he blesses the greedy and reviles the Lord.
In his pride the wicked does not seek him;
in all his thoughts there is no room for God.
His ways are always prosperous;
he is haughty
and Your laws are far from him;
he sneers at all his enemies.
He says to himself, "Nothing will shake me;
I'll always be happy and never have trouble."
His mouth is full of curses and lies and threats;
trouble and evil are under his tongue.
He lies in wait near the villages;
from ambush he murders the innocent,
watching in secret for his victims.
He lies in wait like a lion in cover;
he lies in wait to catch the helpless;
he catches the helpless and drags them off in his net.
His victims are crushed, they collapse;
they fall under his strength.
The Lord is in His holy temple;
the Lord is on His heavenly throne.
He observes the sons of men;
His eyes examine them.
The Lord examines the righteous,
but the wicked and those who love violence
His soul hates.
On the wicked
He will rain fiery coals and burning sulfur;
a scorching wind will be their lot.
For the Lord is righteous,
He loves justice;
upright men will see His face.
(Psalm 9:2-10; 11:4-7)
AE 768 [4, 9]
. . . "the born of God" means
those who are regenerated by the Lord
by means of Divine truth,
and a life according thereto.
They are the seed of the blessed of Jehovah,
and their offspring with them.
(Isaiah 65:23)
This, also, is said of the church from the Lord;
and "the seed of the blessed of Jehovah"
means those who will receive Divine truth from the Lord;
and "their offspring," those who live according to it;
but in the sense abstracted from persons,
which is the genuine spiritual sense,
"seed" means Divine truth,
and "offspring," a life according to it.
I will praise You, O Lord, with all my heart;
I will tell of all Your wonders.
I will be glad and rejoice in You;
I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High.
The Lord reigns forever;
He has established His throne for judgment.
He will judge the world in righteousness;
He will govern the peoples with justice.
The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed,
a stronghold in times of trouble.
Those who know Your name will trust in You,
for You, Lord,
have never forsaken those who seek You.
(Psalm 9:1-2, 7-10)
AE 768 [2]
. . . in the Word the neighbor must be loved
as one loves himself,
but in the spiritual sense this does not mean
that the neighbor is thus to be loved
in respect to person,
but those things are to be loved
which are from the Lord with the person;
for a person is not actually loved
because of his being a person or a man,
but because of his being such as he is;
thus the person is loved because of his quality,
consequently that quality is meant by "neighbor,"
and that is the spiritual neighbor
or the neighbor in the spiritual sense
that must be loved;
and this with those who are of the Lord's church
is everything that proceeds from the Lord;
and this in general refers to
all good, spiritual, moral, and civil;
therefore those who are in these goods
love those who are in the same goods;
and this therefore is
to love one's neighbor as oneself.
Many are asking, "Who can show us any good?"
Let the light of Your face shine upon us, O Lord.
You have filled my heart with greater joy
than when their grain and new wine abound.
I will lie down and sleep in peace,
for You alone, O Lord,
make me dwell in safety.
(Psalm 4:6-8)
AE 764 [2]
It is commonly believed,
and they themselves who defend
justification by faith alone believe,
that they think and reason spiritually
because they think and reason keenly and craftily.
But let it be known
that only he who is in enlightenment from the Lord,
and from that in the spiritual affection of truth,
thinks and reasons spiritually,
for these are in the light of truth,
and the light of truth is the light of heaven
from which the angels have intelligence and wisdom;
that light is what is called spiritual light,
and consequently
those who are in that light are spiritual.
But those who are in falsities,
however keenly they may think and reason,
are not spiritual, but natural, indeed, sensual,
for their thoughts and reasonings therefrom
are for the most part from the fallacies of the senses,
which some adorn with eloquence
and embellish with the flowers of rhetoric,
and confirm by appearances from nature alone,
while others add knowledges
and adapt them to their reasonings,
and these they proclaim from the fire of self-love
and the pride of self-intelligence therefrom
that sounds like the affection of truth.
In such things their craftiness consists,
and to such as cannot or dare not
enter with any understanding into the things
that pertain to the church and the Word
this seems to be wisdom.
Sensual people have the ability to think, speak,
and act craftily,
because all evil has its seat in a person's sensual,
and in it cunning is as predominant
as intelligence is in the spiritual person.
Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old
when he became king,
and he reigned in Jerusalem three months.
His mother's name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah;
she was from Libna.
He did evil in the eyes of the Lord,
just as his fathers had done.
Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old
when he became king,
and he reigned in Jerusalem eleven years.
His mother's name was Zebidah daughter of Pedaiah;
she was from Rumah.
And he did evil in the eyes of the Lord,
just as his fathers had done.
Jehoiachin was eighteen years old
when he became king,
and he reigned in Jerusalem three months.
His mother's name was Nehushta daughter of Elnathan;
she was from Jerusalem.
He did evil in the eyes of the Lord,
just as his father had done.
Zedekiah was twenty-one years old
when he became king,
and he reigned in Jerusalem eleven years.
His mother's name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah;
she was from Libnah.
He did evil in the eyes of the Lord,
just as Jehoiakim had done.
On the seventh day of the fifth month,
in the nineteenth year
of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon,
Nebuzaradan commander of the imperial guard,
an official of the king of Babylon,
came to Jerusalem.
He set fire to the temple of the Lord,
the royal palace and all the houses of Jerusalem.
Every important building he burned down.
The whole Babylonian army,
under the commander of the imperial guard,
broke down the walls around Jerusalem.
(II Kings 23:31-32, 36-37; 24:8-9, 18-19; 25:8-10)
AE 758 [2]
All who are in the hells
are in the loves of self and the world,
but all who are in the heavens
are in love to the Lord and love towards the neighbor,
and these loves are direct opposites.
Those who are in the loves of self and of the world
love nothing but what is their own [proprium],
and what is a person's own is nothing but evil;
but those who are in love to the Lord
and love towards the neighbor
do not love what is their own,
for they love the Lord above self,
and the neighbor beyond self.
Moreover, they are withheld from what is their own,
and are held in the Lord's own [proprium],
which is the Divine.
AE 759 [4]
. . . "the wings of an eagle" that were given to the woman
signify the understanding of truth;
for all who are of that church
have the understanding enlightened
and from this they are able
to see truth from the light of truth,
that is, whether a thing be true or not true.
Because they see truth in this way
they acknowledge it,
and receive it with the affection which is of the will.
By this the truths they have are made spiritual;
and in consequence the spiritual mind,
which is above the natural mind,
is opened with them;
and when this is opened it receives angelic sight,
which is the sight of truth itself from its own light.
Josiah was eight years old when he
became king,
and he reigned in Jerusalem thirty-one years.
His mother's name was Jedidiah daughter of Adaiah;
she was from Bozkath.
He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord
and walked in all the ways of his father David,
not turning aside to the right or to the left.
The king gave this order to all the people:
"Celebrate the Passover to the Lord your God,
as it is written in this Book of the Covenant."
Not since the days of the judges who led Israel,
nor throughout the days
of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah,
had any such Passover been observed.
But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah,
this Passover was celebrated to the Lord in Jerusalem.
Furthermore, Josiah got rid of
the mediums and spiritists,
the household gods,
the idols and all the other detestable things
seen in Judah of Jerusalem.
This he did to fulfill the requirements of the law
written in the book that Hilkiah the priest
had discovered in the temple of the Lord.
Neither before nor after Josiah
was there a king like him
who turned to the Lord as he did --
with all his heart and
with all his soul
and with all his strength,
in accordance with all the Law of Moses.
(II Kings 22:1-2; 23:21-25)
AE 751
For this rejoice, ye heavens and ye that dwell in them,
(Revelation 12:12)
means the salvation and consequent joy of those
who become spiritual by the reception of Divine truth.
This is evident from the meaning of "rejoicing,"
as being joy on account of salvation;
also from the meaning of "heavens,"
as being those who are spiritual;
also from the meaning of "ye that dwell,"
as being those who live, here spiritually.
"The heavens" mean those who are spiritual,
because all who are in the heavens are spiritual;
and because people who have become spiritual
are likewise in the heavens,
although in respect to the body they are in the world,
so "ye that dwell in the heavens" means not only angels,
but also men (people).
For every person with whom the interior mind,
which is called the spiritual mind,
has been opened, is in the heavens, indeed,
sometimes he even appears among the angels
in the heavens.
That this is so has not been known before in the world;
let it be known, therefore,
that person in respect to his spirit a person
is among spirits and angels,
and even in that society of them
into which he is to come after death.
This is because the spiritual mind of a person
is formed wholly to the image of heaven,
even so that it is a heaven in least form;
consequently that mind,
although it is still in the body,
must nevertheless be where its form is.
AE 752
. . . "heaven and earth" in certain passages in the Word
mean the church internal and external,
or spiritual or natural;
also in particular the spiritual and the natural person,
since the church is in person,
and so it follows that he who is spiritual is a church.
AE 754 [1]
. . . every thing that proceeds from the Lord
is called spiritual.
To live from the Word is to live from the Lord,
for the Lord is in the Word,
indeed, He is the Word.
Manasseh was twelve years old when he
became king,
and he reigned in Jerusalem fifty-five years.
His mother's name was Hephzibah.
He did evil in the eyes of the Lord,
following the detestable practices of the nations
the Lord had driven out before the Israelites.
. . . Moreover, Manasseh also shed
so much innocent blood
that he filled Jerusalem from end to end --
besides the sin that he had caused Judah to commit,
so that they did evil in the eyes of the Lord.
Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king,
and he reigned in Jerusalem two years.
His mother's name was
Meshullemeth daughter of Haruz;
she was from Jotbah.
He did evil in the eyes of the Lord,
as his father Manasseh had done.
(II Kings 21:1-2, 16, 19-20)
AE 748
. . . all Divine truth which fills the heavens
and constitutes the wisdom of the angels in the heavens
proceeds from the Lord's Divine Human;
for the Lord's Divine Human is united to the Divine Itself
which was in Him from conception,
so that they are one;
the Divine Itself that was in Him from conception
is what He called "Father;"
this is united to His Human
as the soul is united with the body;
this is why the Lord says that:
He is one with the Father.
(John 10:30, 38)
And that He is in the Father and the Father in Him.
(John 14:7-11)
Because there is such a union,
Divine truth, after the glorification of His Human,
proceeds from His Divine Human.
The Divine truth proceeding
from the Lord's Divine Human
is what is called "the Holy Spirit."
That this proceeds
from the glorified Human of the Lord,
He Himself teaches in John:
The Holy Spirit was not yet,
because Jesus was not yet glorified.
(John 7:39)
The Human glorified is the Divine Human.
. . . the Lord's Human is Divine,
for the Divine itself cannot dwell elsewhere
than in what is Divine itself.
AE 750 [5, 6, 28]
That "soul" means the life of man's spirit,
which is called his spiritual life . . ..
Thou shalt love Jehovah thy God
with all thy heart,
with all thy soul,
and with all thy might.
(Deuteronomy 6:5; 10:12; 11:13; 26:16)
And in the Gospels:
Jesus said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God
with all thy heart
and with all thy soul
and with all thy mind.
(Matthew 22:37; Mark 12:30, 33; Luke 10:27)
"To love Jehovah God
with all the heart and all the soul"
means with all the will and all the understanding,
also with all the love and all the faith,
for "heart" signifies the love and the will,
and "soul" signifies the faith and the understanding.
"Heart" signifies these two,
the love and the will,
because a person's love is of his will;
and "soul" signifies the two,
namely, faith and understanding,
because faith is of the understanding.
And as the Divine proceeding from the Lord
constitutes the life of all,
therefore that life is meant by "soul"
in the celestial sense.
Because the Divine proceeding, wherever it comes,
forms an image of the Lord,
thus it so forms angels and spirits
that they may be human forms according to reception;
so it now follows
that the soul that lives after death
must mean the spirit of a person,
which is a person with both a soul and a body,
a soul that rules over the body,
and a body by which the soul effects
its will in the world in which it is.
In the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel,
Hezekiah son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign.
He was twenty-five years old when he became king,
and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years.
His mother's name was Abijah daughter of Zechariah.
He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord,
just as his father David had done.
He removed the high places,
smashed the sacred stones
and cut down the Asherah poles.
He broke into pieces
the bronze snake Moses had made,
for up to that time
the Israelites had been burning incense to it.
(It was called Nehushtan.)
Hezekiah trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel.
There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah,
either before him or after him.
He held fast to the Lord and did not cease to follow Him;
he kept the commands the Lord had given Moses.
And the Lord was with him;
he was successful in whatever he undertook.
(II Kings 18:1-7)
AE 740 [17]
. . . the interior things of the church
must not only be represented by external acts,
but must also be loved and done
from the soul and heart . . .
In the seventeenth year of Pekah son
of Remaliah,
Ahaz son of Jotham king of Judah began to reign.
Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king,
and he reigned in Jerusalem sixteen years.
Unlike David his father, he did not do
what was right in the eyes of the Lord his God.
In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah,
Hoshea son of Elah became king of Israel in Samaria,
and he reigned nine years.
He did evil in the eyes of the Lord,
but not like the kings of Israel who preceded him.
. . . In the ninth year of Hoshea,
the king of Assyria captured Samaria
and deported the Israelites to Assyria.
He settled them in Halah,
in Gozan on the Habor River
and in the towns of the Medes.
(II Kings 16:1-2; 17:1-2, 6)
AE 745 [3]
One who does not know the laws of Divine order
might believe that the Lord can save anyone He pleases,
thus the evil as well as the good;
and for this reason some are of the opinion
that in the end all who are in hell will be saved.
But that no one can be saved by immediate mercy,
but only by mediate,
and that still it is from pure mercy,
that those who receive Divine truth from the Lord
in soul and heart are saved . . ..
AE 746 [1, 3, 10]
. . . he that accuses
also attacks, denounces, and reproaches.
. . . "brother" signifies the good of charity,
and as this good is the essential of the church,
all are also spiritually conjoined by it.
Another reason is that "Israel" in the highest sense
means the Lord,
and from that "the sons of Israel" mean the church.
It is therefore to be kept in mind
that the Lord did not call them "brethren"
because He was a man like them,
according to an opinion
that is received in the Christian world;
and for this reason it is not allowable for any man
to call the Lord "brother,"
for He is God
even in respect to the Human,
and God is not a brother,
but the Father.
In the churches on the earth the Lord is called brother,
because the idea of His Human
which they have formed
is the same as their idea of any other man's human,
when yet the Lord's Human is Divine.
In the fifteenth year of Amaziah
son of Joash king of Judah,
Jeroboam son of Jehoash king of Israel
became king in Samaria,
and he reigned forty-one years.
In the twenty-seventh year of Jeroboam king of Israel,
Azariah son of Amaziah king of Judah began to reign.
In the thirty-eighth year of Azariah king of Judah,
Zechariah son of Jeroboam
became king of Israel in Samaria,
and he reigned six months.
Shallum son of Jabesh became king
in the thirty-ninth year of Uzziah king of Judah
and he reigned in Samaria one month.
In the thirty-ninth year of Azariah king of Judah,
Menahem son of Gadi became king of Israel,
and he reigned in Samaria ten years.
In the fiftieth year of Azariah king of Judah,
Pekahiah son of Menahem
became king of Israel in Samaria,
and he reigned two years.
In the fifty-second year of Azariah king of Judah,
Pekah son of Remaliah became king of Israel in Samaria,
and he reigned twenty years.
In the second year of Pekah
son of Remaliah king of Israel,
Jotham son of Uzziah king of Judah began to reign.
(II Kings 14:23; 15:1, 8, 13, 17, 23, 27, 32)
signifies = means
AE 743
And they overcame him through the blood of the Lamb,
and through the word of their testimony;
and they loved not their soul even unto death.
For this rejoice, you heavens and you that dwell in them.
(Revelation 12:11-12 first part)
"And they overcame him through the blood of the Lamb,"
signifies
resistance and victory by Divine truth
proceeding from the Lord's Divine Human;
"and through the word of their testimony,"
signifies
and through the confession and acknowledgment
of the Divine in His Human;
"and they loved not their soul, even unto death,"
signifies
the faithful who have endured temptations
for the sake of these truths,
and who have regarded
the life of the world as of no account
in comparison with the life of heaven.
"For this rejoice, you heavens
and you that dwell in them,"
signifies
the salvation and consequent joy
of those who become spiritual
by the reception of Divine truth . . ..
In the twenty-third year
of Joash son of Ahaziah king of Judah,
Jehoahaz son of Jehu became king of Israel in Samaria,
and reigned seventeen years.
He did evil in the eyes of the Lord
by following the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat,
which he had caused Israel to commit,
and he did not turn away from them.
In the thirty-seventh year of Joash king of Judah,
Jehoash son of Jehoahaz
became king of Israel in Samaria,
and he reigned sixteen years.
He did evil in the eyes of the Lord
and did not turn away from
any of the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat,
which he had caused Israel to commit;
he continued in them.
Elisha died and was buried.
In the second year
of Jehoash son of Jehoahaz king of Israel,
Amaziah son of Joash king of Judah began to reign.
He was twenty-five years old when he became king,
and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years.
His mother's name was Jehoaddin;
she was from Jerusalem.
He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord,
but not as his father David had done.
In everything he followed
the example of his father Joash.
The high places, however, were not removed;
the people continued to offer sacrifices
and burn incense there.
Amaziah son of Joash king of Judah
lived for fifteen years after the death
of Jehoash son of Jehoahaz king of Israel.
Then all the people of Judah took Azariah,
who was sixteen years old,
and made him king in place of his father Amaziah.
He was the one who rebuilt Elath
and restored it to Judah
after Amaziah rested with his fathers.
(II Kings 13:1-2, 10-11, 20; 14:1-4, 17, 21-22)
AE 740 [11]
. . . faith without charity is the faith of falsity.
AE 741 [2-4]
. . . since this chapter treats of "the dragon,"
which especially means
the religion of faith separate from charity,
I will mention in passing some things whereby
the defenders of faith separate seduce the world.
They especially seduce by teaching
that as from oneself
no one can do good that is in itself good,
or can do good without placing merit in it,
so good works can contribute nothing to salvation;
nevertheless, goods should be done
on account of use for the public good;
and these are the goods that are meant in the Word
and from there in preachings,
and in some of the prayers of the church.
How great an error this is shall now be told.
When a person does good from the Word,
that is, because it is commanded by the Lord in the Word,
he does it not from himself but from the Lord,
for the Lord is the Word (John 1:1, 14),
and the Lord is in those things
that man has from the Word,
as He teaches in these words in John:
He that keeps My word,
I will come unto him
and will make My abode with him.
(John 14:23)
This is why the Lord so often commands
that His words and commandments must be done;
and that those who do them shall have eternal life;
so also that everyone will be judged
according to his works.
From this it then follows
that those who do good from the Word
do good from the Lord,
and good from the Lord is truly good,
and so far as it is from the Lord there is no merit in it.
That good from the Word,
thus from the Lord,
is truly good,
is evident also from these words in Revelation:
I stand at the door and knock;
if anyone hear My voice and open the door,
I will come in to him and will sup with him
and he with Me.
(Revelation 3:20)
This shows that the Lord
is always and continually present
and bestows the effort to do good,
but that a person must open the door,
that is, must receive the Lord;
and he receives Him when he does good from His Word.
Although this appears to a person
to be done as of himself,
yet it is not of man
but of the Lord in him.
It so appears to man
because he has no other feeling
than that he thinks from himself
and acts from himself;
and yet when he thinks and acts from the Word
he does it as if of himself,
therefore he then also believes
that he does it of the Lord.
From this it can be seen
that the good that a person does from the Word
is spiritual good,
and that this conjoins a person to the Lord and to heaven.
But the good that a person does for the world's sake
and for the sake of the communities in the world,
which is called civil and moral good,
conjoins him to the world and not to heaven.
Moreover, the conjunction of the truth of faith
is with spiritual good,
which is the good of charity towards the neighbor,
because faith in itself is spiritual,
and what is spiritual
cannot be conjoined with any other good
than what is equally spiritual.
But civil and moral good,
separate from spiritual good,
is not good in itself,
because it is from people;
yes, so far as self and the world lie concealed in it,
it is evil;
this good, therefore, cannot be conjoined with faith,
yes, if it were to be conjoined faith would be dissipated.
So Jehu destroyed Baal worship in
Israel.
However, he did not turn away from
the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat,
which he had caused Israel to commit --
the worship of the golden calves at Bethel and Dan.
Jehu rested with his fathers and was buried in Samaria.
And Jehoahaz his son succeeded him as king.
The time that Jehu reigned over Israel in Samaria
was twenty-eight years.
When Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah
saw that her son was dead,
she proceeded to destroy the whole royal family.
But Jehosheba,
the daughter of King Jehoram and sister of Ahaziah,
took Joash son of Ahaziah
and stole him away from the among the royal princes,
who were about to be murdered.
She put him and his nurse in a bedroom
to hide him from Athalia; so he was not killed.
He remained hidden with his nurse
at the temple of the Lord
for six years while Athaliah ruled the land.
In the seventh year
Jehoaida (the priest) brought out the king's son
and put the crown on him;
he presented him with a copy of the covenant
and proclaimed him king.
They anointed him,
and the people clapped their hands and shouted,
"Long live the king!"
Jehoiada then made a covenant
between the Lord and the king and people
that they would be the Lord's people.
He also made a covenant
between the king and the people.
All the people of the land
went to the temple of Baal and tore it down.
They smashed the altars and idols to pieces
and killed Mattan the priest of Baal in front of the altars.
Then Jehoiada the priest
posted guards at the temple of the Lord.
He took with him the commanders of hundreds,
the Carites, the guards and all the people of the land,
and together they brought
the king down from the temple of the Lord
and went into the palace,
entering by way of the gate of the guards.
The king then took his place on the royal throne,
and all the people of the land rejoiced.
And the city as quiet,
because Athaliah had been slain
with the sword at the palace.
Joash was seven years old when he began to reign.
(II Kings 10:28-29, 35; 11: portion 4, 12, 17-21)
AE 739 [2-4, 10]
. . . there are with people three degrees of life,
an inmost, a middle, and an ultimate,
and that these degrees with a person
are opened successively as he becomes wise.
Every person at his birth is altogether sensual,
so that even the five senses of his body
must be opened by use;
he next becomes sensual in thought,
since he thinks from the objects
that have entered through his bodily senses;
afterwards he becomes more interiorly sensual;
but so far as by visual experiences, by knowledges,
and especially by the practices of moral life,
he acquires for himself natural light,
he becomes interiorly natural.
This is the first or ultimate degree of a person's life.
And as at this time from parents, masters, and preachers,
and from reading the Word and books from there,
he imbibes knowledges of spiritual truth and good,
and stores them up in his memory like other knowledges,
he lays the foundations of the church with himself;
and yet if he goes no further
he continues natural.
But if he goes on further,
namely if he lives according
to these knowledges from the Word,
the interior degree is opened in him
and he becomes spiritual,
but only so far as he is affected by truths,
understands them, wills them, and does them;
and for the reason that evils and the falsities from them
which by heredity have their seat
in the natural and sensual person,
are removed and as it were scattered in this
and in no other way.
For the spiritual person is in heaven
and the natural in the world,
and so far as heaven, that is, the Lord through heaven,
can flow in through the spiritual person into the natural,
so far evils and the falsities from them,
which, as was said,
have their seat in the natural person, are removed;
for the Lord removes them,
as He removes hell from heaven.
The interior degree with people
can be opened in no other way,
because the evils and falsities
that are in the natural person keep it closed up;
for the spiritual degree, that is, the spiritual mind,
contracts itself against
evil and the falsity of evil of every kind
as a fibril of the body does
at the touch of a sharp point;
for like as the fibers of the body contract themselves
at every harsh touch,
so does a person's interior mind,
which is called the spiritual mind,
at the touch or breath of evil or the falsity from there.
But on the other hand, when things homogeneous,
which are Divine truths from the Word
that derive their essence from good,
approach that mind, it opens itself;
yet the opening is not otherwise effected
than by the reception of the good of love
flowing in through heaven from the Lord,
and by its conjunction with the truths
that a person has stored up in his memory,
and this conjunction is only effected by
a life according to Divine truths in the Word,
for when these truths come to be of the life
they are called goods.
Consequently it may be clear
how the second or middle degree is opened.
The third or inmost degree is opened with those
who apply Divine truths at once to life,
and do not reason about them from the memory,
and thus bring them into doubt.
This is called the celestial degree.
. . . the sensual person believes that he knows all things,
and that nothing is concealed from him;
but not so the celestial person,
who knows that he knows nothing from himself
but only from the Lord,
and that what he does know is so little
as to be scarcely anything
as compared with what he does not know.
The prophet Elisha summoned
a man from the company of the prophets and said to him,
"Tuck your cloak into your belt,
take this flask of oil with you and go to Ramoth Gilead.
When you get there,
look for Jehu son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi.
Go to him,
get him away from his companions
and take him into a inner room.
Then take the flask and pour the oil on his head
and declare, 'This is what the Lord says:
I anoint you king over Israel.'
Then open the door and run:
don't delay!"
(II Kings 9:1-3)
AE 734 [24, 25, 26]
. . . evil will fight with evil
and falsity with falsity,
for evils never agree among themselves
nor falsities among themselves;
this is why churches are divided,
and so many heresies have arisen . . ..
. . . "wars" in the Word mean spiritual wars,
which are the combats of falsity against truth
and of truth against falsity . . ..
. . . it is always those who are in falsities who attack,
while those who are in truths only defend;
but in reference to the Lord,
He never even resists,
but merely protects truths.
In the fifth year of Joram son of Ahab
king of Israel,
when Jehosphaphat was king of Judah,
Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat
began his reign as king of Judah.
He was thirty-two years old when he became king,
and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years.
He walked in the ways of kings of Israel,
as the house of Ahab had done,
for he married a daughter of Ahab.
He did evil in the eyes of the Lord.
In the twelfth year of Joram son of Ahab king of Israel,
Ahaziah son of Jehoram king of Judah began to reign.
Ahaziah was twenty-two year old when he became king,
and he reigned in Jerusalem one year.
His mother's name was Athaliah,
a granddaughter of Omri king of Israel.
He walked in the ways of the house of Ahab
and did evil in the evils of the Lord,
as the house of Ahab had done,
for he was related by marriage to Ahab's family.
(II Kings 8:16-18, 25-27)
AE 734 [1, 14]
And there was war in heaven
(Revelation 12:7)
means the combat of falsity against truth
and of truth against falsity.
All those are in the falsities of evil
who in their life
have given no thought to heaven and the Lord,
but have thought only of self and the world.
To think of heaven and the Lord in the life
is to think that this or that must be done
because the Word so teaches and commands;
those who do this,
since they live from the Word,
live from the Lord and heaven.
But to think only of self and the world
is to think that this or that must be done
because of the laws of the country,
and for the sake of reputation, honor and gain;
such do not live for the Lord and heaven,
but for self and the world.
These in respect to life are in evil,
and from evil in falsities;
and those who are in falsities from this origin
fight against truths.
That "war" signifies spiritual war,
which is against things infernal,
is clearly evident from this,
that the offices and ministries of the Levites
about the Tent of meeting were called "military service,"
as is evident from these words of Moses:
It was commanded Moses
that the Levites should be numbered
from a son of thirty years to a son of fifty years,
to do military service,
to do the work in the Tent of meeting
(Numbers 4:23, 35, 39, 43, 47).
And elsewhere:
This is the office of the Levites;
from a son of twenty-five years and upward
he shall come to do military service
in the ministry of the Tent of meeting,
but from a son of fifty years
he shall cease from the military service of the ministry
and shall minister no more.
(Numbers 8:24, 25)
The works and ministries
of the Levites about the Tent of meeting
are called "military service"
because the Levites represented the truths of the church,
and Aaron, to whom the Levites were given
and assigned for service,
represented the Lord in relation to the good of love
and in reference to the work of salvation,
and as the Lord from the good of love
by means of truths from the Word
regenerates and saves men,
and also removes the evils and falsities
that are from hell,
against which He continually fights,
therefore the functions and ministries of the Levites
were called "military service."
The same is evident from this also,
that their ministries were called "military service"
although the Levites did not war
against the enemies of the land.
This shows that the priesthood is a military service,
but against falsities and evils.
For the same reason the church at this day
is called the church militant.
Now the king of Aram was at war with
Israel.
After conferring with his officers, he said,
"I will set up my camp in such and such a place."
The man of God sent word to the king of Israel:
"Beware of passing that place,
because the Arameans are going down there."
So the king of Israel checked on the place indicated
by the man of God.
Time and again Elisha warned the king,
so that he was on his guard in such places.
This enraged the king of Aram.
He summoned his officers and demanded of them,
"Will you not tell me
which of us is on the side of the king of Israel?"
"None of us, my lord the king," said one of his officers,
"but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel,
tells the king of Israel
the very words you speak in your bedroom."
"Go, find out where he is," the king ordered,
"so I can send men and capture him."
The report came back: "He is in Dothan."
Then he sent horses and chariots
and a strong force there.
They went by night and surrounded the city.
When the servant of the man of God got up
and went out early the next morning,
an army with horses and chariots
had surrounded the city.
"Oh, my lord, what shall we do?" the servant asked.
"Don't be afraid," the prophet answered.
"Those who are with us
are more than those who are with them."
And Elisha prayed,
"O Lord, open his eyes so he may see."
Then the Lord opened the servant's eyes,
and he looked and saw
the hills full of horses and chariots of fire
all around Elisha.
(II Kings 6:8-17)
___________________________
AE 504 [13]
Because the Word is
Divine truth itself united to Divine good,
for everywhere in it there is
a marriage of good and truth, therefore:
Elijah was seen to ascend up into heaven
by a chariot of fire and horses of fire.
(II Kings 2:11)
For the same reason the mountain was seen
to be full of horses and chariots of fire
round about Elisha.
(II Kings 6:17)
For Elijah and Elisha represented
the Lord in relation to the Word;
therefore the "chariot" meant doctrine from the Word,
and "the horses" the understanding of the Word.
AE 731 [1, 2]
. . . the meaning of "prepared by God,"
as being to be provided by the Lord,
for what is done by man is prepared,
but what is done by the Lord is provided.
. . . the quality of every one is known
from the place where he dwells,
and where he dwells is known from what he is . . ..
AE 732 [3]
. . . the New Church on the earth grows
according to its increase in the world of spirits,
for spirits from that world are with people,
and they are from such
as while they lived on earth
were in the faith of their church,
and none of these receive the doctrine
but those who have been in the spiritual affection of truth;
these only are conjoined to heaven where that doctrine is,
and they conjoin heaven to people.
The number of these in the spiritual world
now increases daily,
therefore according to their increase
does that church that is called the New Jerusalem
increase on earth.
Joram son of Ahab became king of
Israel in Samaria
in the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah,
and he reigned twelve years.
He did evil in the eyes of the Lord,
but not as his father and mother had done.
He got rid of the sacred stone of Baal
that his father had made.
Nevertheless
he clung to the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat,
which he had caused Israel to commit;
he did not turn away from them.
(II Kings 3:1-3)
AE 730 [41, 42]
As a "wilderness" signifies a state of temptations,
and "forty," whether years or days,
their whole duration from beginning to end,
therefore the temptations of the Lord,
which were the most direful of all,
and which He sustained from childhood
to the passion of the cross,
are signified by the temptations
of the forty days in the desert,
which are thus described in the Gospels:
Jesus was led by the spirit into the wilderness,
to be tempted of the devil;
and when He had fasted forty days and forty nights
He afterwards hungered;
and the tempter drew near unto Him.
(Matthew 4:1-3; Luke 4:1-3)
The spirit urging Jesus
caused Him to go out into the wilderness;
and He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted,
and He was with the beasts.
(Mark 1:12, 13)
This does not mean
that the Lord was tempted by the devil only forty days,
and at the end of these,
but that He was tempted throughout His whole life
even to the last, when He endured
direful anguish of heart in Gethsemane
and afterwards the dreadful passion of the cross;
for by means of the temptations
admitted into the human that He had from the mother,
the Lord subjugated all the hells,
and at the same time glorified His Human.
AE 730 [42]
. . . the natural man with everyone,
so long as it is separated from the spiritual,
as it is before regeneration,
is a hell,
because all the hereditary evil into which man is born
resides in his natural man,
and is not cast out from it, that is, removed,
except by the influx of Divine truth
through heaven from the Lord;
and this influx into the natural man
can come only through the spiritual,
for the natural man is in the world
and the spiritual in heaven;
therefore the spiritual man must be opened
before the hell that is in the natural man
can be removed by the Lord out of heaven.
After Ahab's death,
Moab rebelled against Israel.
Now Ahaziah had fallen through the lattice
of his upper room in Samaria and injured himself.
So he sent messengers, saying to them,
"Go and consult Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron,
to see if I will recover from this injury."
But the angel of the Lord said to Elijah the Tishbite,
"Go up and meet the messengers of the king of Samaria
and ask them,
'Is it because there is no God in Israel
that you are going off to consult Baal-Zebub,
the god of Ekron?'
Therefore this is what the Lord says:
'You will not leave the bed you are lying on.
You will certainly die!'"
So Elijah went.
When the messengers return to the king,
he asked them, "Why have you come back?"
"A man came to meet us," they replied.
"And he said to us, 'Go back to the king who sent you
and tell him, "This is what the Lord says:
Is it because there is no God in Israel
that you are sending men to consult Baal-Zebub,
the god of Ekron?
Therefore you will not leave the bed you are lying on.
You will certainly die!"'"
The king asked them, "What kind of man was it
who came to meet you and told you this?"
They replied, "He was a man with a garment of hair
and with a leather belt around his waist."
The king said, "That was Elijah the Tishbite."
(II Kings 1:1-8)
AE 730 [22, 31]
. . . where there is no truth and good,
there is falsity and evil;
the two cannot exist together,
and this is meant by the Lord's words,
that "no one can serve two masters."
Again, "wilderness" means
the state of those who are in temptations . . ..
Every person is born natural,
and lives naturally
until he becomes rational;
and when he has become rational
he can be led by the Lord and become spiritual;
and this is effected by
the implanting of the knowledges of truth from the Word,
and at the same time
by the opening of the spiritual mind
which receives the things of heaven,
and by calling forth these knowledges
and elevating them out of the natural person
and conjoining them with the spiritual affection of truth.
This opening and conjunction is possible
only through temptations,
because in temptations a person fights interiorly
against the falsities and evils
that are in the natural person.
In a word, a person is introduced into the church
and becomes a church
through temptations.
Jehoshaphat son of Asa became king of
Judah
in the forth year of Ahab king of Israel.
Jehosphaphat was thirty-five years old
when he became king,
and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-five years.
His mother's name was Azubah daughter of Shilhi.
In everything he walked in the ways of his father Asa
and did not stray from them;
he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord.
. . . Then Jehoshaphat rested with his fathers
and was buried with them in the city of David his father.
And Jehoram his son succeeded him.
Ahaziah son of Ahab became king of Israel in Samaria
in the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah,
and he reigned over Israel two years.
He did evil in the eyes of the Lord,
because he walked in the ways of his father and mother
and in the ways of Jeroboam son of Nebat,
who cased Israel to sin.
He served and worshiped Baal
and provoked the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger,
just as his father had done.
(I Kings 22:41-43, 50-53)
AE 726
. . . the Lord alone has power,
and He exercises it
through Divine truth that proceeds from Him.
But that this may be more clearly perceived
it shall be shown:
(1) That the Lord has infinite power.
(2) That the Lord has this power from Himself
through His Divine truth.
(3) That all power is together in ultimates,
and therefore that the Lord has infinite power
from things first through ultimates.
(4) That so far as angels and people
are recipients of Divine truth from the Lord
they are powers.
(5) That power resides in the truths of the natural person
so far as it receives influx from the Lord
through the spiritual person.
(6) That the truths of the natural person
without that influx
have nothing of power.
The next spring Ben-Hadad mustered the
Arameans
and went up to Aphek to fight against Israel.
When the Israelites
were also mustered and given provisions,
they marched out to meet them.
The Israelites camped opposite them
like two small flocks of goats,
while the Arameans covered the countryside.
The man of God came up and told the king of Israel,
"This is what the Lord says:
'Because the Arameans think
the Lord is a God of the hills
and not a God of the valleys,
I will deliver this vast army into your hands,
and you will know that I am the Lord.'"
For seven days they camped opposite each other,
and on the seventh day the battle was joined.
The Israelites inflicted a hundred thousand casualties
on the Aramean foot soldiers in one day.
The rest of them escaped to the city of Aphek,
where the wall collapsed
on twenty-seven thousand of them.
And Ben-Hadad fled to the city
and hid in the inner room.
(I Kings 20:26-31)
AE 724
. . . doctrine contains the truths that are for the church.
But the genuine doctrine of the church
is the doctrine of good,
thus the doctrine of life,
which is of love to the Lord
and of charity towards the neighbor;
but yet it is the doctrine of truth,
since doctrine teaches life, love, and charity,
and so far as it teaches it is truth;
for when a person knows and understands what good is,
what life is,
what love is,
and what charity is,
he knows and understands these things as truths,
since he knows and understands what good is,
how he ought to live, and what love and charity are,
and of what quality a person is
who is in the life of love and charity;
and as long as these are
matters of knowledge and understanding
they are nothing but truths, and thus doctrines;
but as soon as they pass over from knowledge
and from the understanding into the will,
and thus into act,
they are no longer truths but goods;
for interiorly a person wills nothing but what he loves,
and that which he loves is to him good.
From this it can be seen
that every doctrine of the church is a doctrine of truth,
and that the truth of doctrine becomes good
and comes to be of love and charity
when from doctrine it passes into life.
Now Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe
in Gilead,
said to Ahab,
"As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives,
whom I serve,
there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years
except at my word."
Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah:
"Leave here,
turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine,
east of the Jordan.
You will drink from the brook,
and I have ordered the ravens to feed you there."
So he did what the Lord had told him.
He went to the Kerith Ravine,
east of the Jordan,
and stayed there.
the ravens brought him
bread and meat in the morning
and bread and meat in the evening,
and he drank from the brook.
(I Kings 17:1-6)
AE 721 [26]
Jehovah God said to the woman,
In multiplying I will multiply thy pain and thy conception;
in pain shalt thou bring forth sons;
and thy obedience shall be to thy man,
and he shall rule over thee.
(Genesis 3:16)
This does not mean
that women are to bring forth sons in pain,
but "the woman" means the church
that from celestial has become natural;
"eating of the tree of knowledge" signifies this.
That the man of the church cannot easily be regenerated
by means of truths and a life according to them,
and that he must endure temptations
that truths may be implanted and conjoined to good,
is meant by "pain and conception shall be multiplied,"
and by "she shall bring forth sons in pain,"
"conception" meaning the reception
of truth that is from good,
and "to bring forth sons" meaning
to bring forth truths from the marriage of truth and good.
Because the natural person is full of lusts
from the love of self and of the world,
and these can be removed only by means of truths,
therefore it is said
"thy obedience shall be to thy man,
and he shall rule over thee,"
"man" signifying here as elsewhere in the Word
the truth of the church.
That man is reformed and regenerated
by means of truths and a life according to them
has been shown above.
From this it can now be seen that
conceptions, births, nativities, and generations
signify in the Word
spiritual conceptions, births, nativities, and generations.
Nadab son of Jeroboam became king of
Israel
in the second year of Asa king of Judah,
and he reigned over Israel two years.
He did evil in the eyes of the Lord,
walking in the ways of his father and in his sin,
which he had caused Israel to commit.
In the third year of Asa king of Judah,
Baasha son of Ahijah became king of all Israel in Tirzah,
and he reigned twenty-four years.
He did evil in the eyes of the Lord,
walking in the ways of Jeroboam and in his sin,
which he had caused Israel to commit.
In the twenty-sixth year of Asa king of Judah,
Elah son of Baasha became king of Israel,
and he reigned in Tirzah two years.
In the twenty-seventh year of Asa king of Judah,
Zimri reigned in Tirzah seven days.
In the thirty-first year of Asa king of Judah,
Omri became king of Israel,
and he reigned twelve years,
six of them in Tirzah.
He bought the hill of Samaria from Shemer
for two talents of silver
and built a city on the hill,
calling it Samaria, after Shemer,
the name of the former owner of the hill.
In the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah,
Ahab son of Omri bcame king of Israel,
and he reigned in Samaria over Israel twenty-two years.
Ahab son of Omri did more evil in the eyes of the Lord
than any of those before him.
AE 717 [2, 3, 17]
. . . "stone" means truth
therefore "precious stones" mean Divine truths.
They mean Divine truths in the ultimate of order,
which are the truths of the sense of the letter of the Word,
because these are transparent,
having in them a spiritual sense,
and in that sense there is the light of heaven,
which makes all things in
in the sense of the letter of the Word to be clear . . ..
. . . the truths of the sense of the letter of the Word
shine wherever they are,
as well with the evil as with the good,
for the spiritual light that is in them
is not extinguished by their being with the evil,
for heaven still flows into those truths.
. . . those who are in charity,
which is the life of faith,
have the light of intelligence from the Word.
Rehoboam son of Solomon was king of
Judah.
He was forty-one years old when he became king,
and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem,
the city the Lord had chosen
out of all the tribes of Israel in which to put His Name.
His Mother's name was Naamah;
she was an Ammonite.
Judah did evil in the eyes of the Lord
In the eighteenth year of the reign of
Jeroboam son of Nebat,
Abijah became king of Judah,
and he reigned in Jerusalem three years.
His mother's name was Maacah daughter of Abishalom.
He committed all the sins
his father had done before him;
his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God,
as the heart of David his forefather had been.
In the twentieth year of Jeroboam king of Israel,
Asa became king of Judah,
and he reigned in Jerusalem forty-one years.
His grandmother's name was
Maacah daughter of Abishalom.
Asa did what was right in the eyes of the Lord,
as his father David had done.
(I Kings 14:21-22; 15:1-3, 9-11)
AE 714 [16, 28]
. . . truth falsified is mere falsity,
and good adulterated is mere evil . . ..
. . . when the good of charity and love
is not implanted by the life of a person
there is evil in place of it,
and where there is evil
there is falsity.
AE 715 [1, 2]
. . . what is contrary to what is holy is profane.
Be it known that the craftiness meant by
"the head of the dragon"
is a craftiness in perverting
the truths and goods of the Word
by means of reasonings from fallacies
and sophistries (fallacious arguments),
also from things persuasive,
by which the understanding is fascinated,
thus by inducing upon falsities
the appearance that they are true.
AE 716 [3]
. . . it is to be known
that falsities from evils have no power
against truth from good;
for truth from good is from the Lord,
and the Lord has all power by His Divine truth.
. . . a person is in evil and in the falsities from them
hereditarily from his parents,
and afterwards from actual life,
especially at the end of the church;
and these falsities from evil
cannot be expelled from a person in a moment,
but little by little;
for if they were expelled in a moment
a person would expire,
because they constitute his life.
. . . the Lord by His Divine truth might instantly
cast out the falsities of evil that are with a person,
but this would be to cast the person
instantly into hell;
for these falsities must first be removed,
and so far as they are removed,
so far there is a place
for implanting truths from good,
and a person is reformed.
By the word of the Lord
a man of God came from Judah to Bethel,
as Jeroboam was standing by the altar
to make an offering.
he cried out against the altar by the word of the Lord:
"O altar, altar! This is what the Lord says:
'A son named Josiah will be born to the house of David.
On you he will sacrifice the priests of the high places
who now make offerings here,
and human bones will be burned on you.'"
That same day the man of God gave a sign:
"This is the sign the Lord has declared:
The altar will be split apart
and the ashes on it will be poured out."
When King Jeroboam heard what the man of God
cried out against the altar at Bethel,
he stretched out his hand from the altar and said,
"Seize him!"
But the hand he stretched out
toward the man shriveled up,
so that he could not pull it back.
Also, the altar was split apart and its ashes poured out
according to the sign given by the man of God
by the word of the Lord.
(I Kings 13:1-5)
AE 714 [9, 10]
. . . the Word, viewed in itself,
is simply the doctrine of love to the Lord
and of charity towards the neighbor,
and nowhere the doctrine of faith separate from charity.
. . . but all who are in the spiritual affection of truth,
that is, who love truth because it is truth
and because it is serviceable to eternal life
and to the life of people's souls,
have intelligence from the Lord.
King Solomon was greater in riches and
wisdom
than all the other kings of the earth.
The whole world sought audience with Solomon
to hear the wisdom God put in his heart.
King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women
besides Pharaoh's daughter --
Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites.
They were from nations
about which the Lord had told the Israelites,
"You must not intermarry with them,
because they will surely
turn your hearts after their gods."
Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love.
(I Kings 10:23-24; 11:1-5)
AE 714 [1, 2]
And behold a great red dragon,
(Revelation 12:3)
means all who are merely natural and sensual
from the love of self,
and yet have more or less knowledge from the Word,
from doctrine therefrom
or from preaching,
and think to be saved
by knowledge alone apart from life.
. . . all who live for the body and the world,
and not for God and heaven,
become merely natural and sensual;
for everyone is inwardly formed according to his life,
and to live for the body and the world
is to live a natural and sensual life,
while to live for God and heaven is to live a spiritual life.
. . . one who knows the things taught in the Word
or in doctrine or by a preacher,
and does not live according to them,
however learned and erudite he may appear,
is nevertheless not spiritual but natural,
and even sensual,
for knowledge and the ability to reason
do not make a person spiritual,
but the life itself.
This is so because knowledge
and the faculty of reasoning are merely natural,
and can therefore also be with evil people,
even with the worst of people;
but truths from the Word with a life according to them
are what make a person spiritual,
for life is willing truths and doing them
from a love of them;
this is not possible to the natural person alone,
but must come from the spiritual,
and from its influx into the natural;
for to love truths
and from love to will them
and from that will to do them
is from heaven, that is, through heaven from the Lord,
and is in its nature celestial and Divine . . ..
(Hiram's ships brought gold from
Ophir;
and from there they brought
great cargoes of almugwood and precious stones.
The king used the almugwood to make supports
for the temple of the Lord and for the royal palace,
and to make harps and lyres for the musicians.
So much almugwood has never been imported
or seen since that day.)
(I Kings 10:11-12)
AE 710 [25, 26]
. . . there are marriages in the heavens even as on earth,
but in the heavens the marriages are of like with like;
for man is born to act from the understanding,
but woman from affection,
and the understanding with men
is the understanding of truth and good,
and the affection with women
is the affection of truth and good;
and as all understanding derives its life from affection,
therefore the two there are joined together,
as the affection which belongs to the will
is joined with the correspondent thought
which belongs to the understanding.
For the understanding is different with everyone,
as the truths that constitute the understanding
are different.
"Therefore they are no more twain but one flesh"
signifies that thus the understanding of good and truth
and the affection of good and truth
are not two but one,
in like manner
as while will and understanding are two
they are nevertheless one;
and the like is true of truth and good
and of faith and charity,
which indeed are two but yet one,
that is, when truth is of good and good is of truth,
so also when faith is of charity and charity is of faith;
and this also is the source of conjugial love.
Then King Solomon summoned
into his presence at Jerusalem
the elders of Israel,
all the heads of the tribes
and the chiefs of the Israelite families,
to bring up the ark of the Lord's covenant
from Zion, the City of David.
All the men of Israel came together to King Solomon
at the time of the festival
in the month of Ethanim, the seventh month.
When all the elders of Israel had arrived,
the priests took up the ark,
and they brought up the ark of the Lord
and the Tent of Meeting
and all the sacred furnishings in it.
The priests and Levites carried them up,
and King Solomon and the entire assembly of Israel
that had gathered about him
were before the ark,
sacrificing so many sheep and cattle
that they could not be recorded or counted.
The priests then brought
the ark of the Lord's covenant
to its place in the inner sanctuary of the temple,
the Most Holy Place,
and put it beneath the wings of the cherubim.
The cherubim spread their wings
over the place of the ark
and overshadowed the ark and its carrying poles.
These poles were so long
that their ends could be seen from the Holy Place
in front of the inner sanctuary,
but not from outside the Holy Place;
and they are still there today.
There was nothing in the ark
except the two stone tablets
that Moses had placed in it at Horeb,
where the Lord made a covenant with the Israelites
after they came out of Egypt.
When the priests withdrew from the Holy Place,
the cloud filled the temple of the Lord.
And the priests could not perform their service
because of the cloud,
for the glory of the Lord filled His temple.
. . . then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord
in front of the whole assembly of Israel,
spread out of his hands toward heaven and said:
"O Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like You
in the heaven above or on earth below --
You who keep your covenant of love with Your servants
who continue wholeheartedly in Your way.
. . . Hear the supplication of Your servant
and of Your people Israel
when they pray toward this place.
Hear from heaven,
Your dwelling place,
and when You year, forgive."
(I Kings 8: 1-11, 22-23, 30)
AE 707
A woman arrayed with the sun,
(Revelation 12:2)
means the church with those who are in love to the Lord,
and from that, in love towards the neighbor.
. . . the life of the love of everyone,
both of a person and of spirit and angel,
forms a sphere about them
from
which what is their quality is perceived,
even afar off;
moreover,
by means of that sphere
consociations and conjunctions
are effected
in the heavens and also in the hells;
and as here the church
which
is in love to the Lord from the Lord is treated of,
and that church
is meant by "the woman,"
and that love by "the sun,"
so "the woman
arrayed with the sun"
means the church with those
who are in
love to the Lord from the Lord.
It is added, and so in love
towards the neighbor,
because love towards the neighbor
is derived
from love to the Lord . . .
for love to the Lord
is to love and
to will those things that are of the Lord,
consequently those things
that the Lord has commanded in the Word,
and love towards the
neighbor is to act from that will,
thus it consists in the
performance of uses,
which are effects.
AE 708
And the moon under her feet,
(Revelation 12:2)
means faith with those who are natural
and who are in charity.
This is evident from the signification of "moon"
as being faith in
which there is charity;
and from the
signification of "feet,"
as being things natural;
here, therefore, those who are natural,
because this
is said of the "woman,"
by whom the church is meant,
and the
"sun" with which she was arrayed,
signifies love to the Lord from
the Lord
and love to the neighbor;
therefore "the woman arrayed with the sun"
means the
church with those
who are celestial and consequently spiritual,
and "the
moon under her feet"
signifies the church with those
who are natural
and sensual,
and at the same time in the faith of charity;
for the
goods and the truths therefrom
of heaven and the church succeed in
order,
like the head, the body, and the feet with man.
In the head
of the Greatest Man, which is heaven,
are those who are in love to
the Lord from the Lord,
and these are called celestial;
but in the
body, from the breast even to the loins
of that Greatest Man, which
is heaven,
are those who are in love towards the neighbor,
and these
are called spiritual;
but in the feet of the Greatest Man, which is
heaven,
are those who are obscurely in the faith of charity,
and
these are called natural.
In the four hundred and eightieth year
after the Israelites had come out of Egypt,
in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel,
in the month of Ziv, the second month,
he began to build the temple of the Lord.
. . . In building the temple,
only blocks dressed at the quarry were used,
and no hammer, chisel or any other iron tool
was heard at the temple site
while it was being built.
The foundation of the temple of the Lord
was laid in the fourth year,
in the month of Ziv.
In the eleventh year in the month of Bul,
the eighth month,
the temple was finished in all its details
according to its specifications.
He had spent seven years building it.
(I Kings 6:1, 7, 37-38)
AE 706 [1, 2, 3]
"Sign" and "wonder" are mentioned
in many passages in the Word,
"sign" meaning that which indicates, witnesses,
and persuades respecting the subject of inquiry,
and "wonder" meaning that which stirs up,
strikes dumb, and fills with amazement;
thus a sign moves the understanding and faith,
but a wonder the will and its affection,
for the will and its affection are what are stirred up,
stricken dumb, and filled with amazement,
while the understanding and its faith
are what are persuaded and moved
by indications and proofs.
. . . in every particular of the Word
there is a marriage of truth and good,
and thus also of the understanding and will,
for truth is of the understanding and good of the will,
consequently "signs" there
have reference to things pertaining to truth,
and to faith and the understanding,
and "wonders" to the things pertaining to good,
and to affection and the will.
. . . a "sign" has reference to a prophet,
and a "wonder" to a dreamer of dreams,
because a "prophet" means one who teaches truths,
and in the abstract sense the doctrine of truth,
and a "dreamer" means one who stirs up to doing,
and in the abstract sense
the stirring up from which a thing is done;
this, too, pertains to a "wonder,"
and the former to a "sign;"
for prophets were instructed
by a living voice from the Lord,
and "dreamers" by representatives excited to doing,
which flowed into the affection of the dreamer,
and from that into the sight of the thought,
for when a person dreams
his natural understanding is laid asleep
and his spiritual sight is opened,
which draws its all from the affection.
God gave Solomon wisdom and very great
insight,
and a breadth of understanding
as measureless as the sand on the seashore.
Solomon's wisdom was greater than
the wisdom of all the men of the East,
and greater than all the wisdom of Egypt.
He was wiser than any other man,
including Ethan the Ezrahite --
wiser than Heman, Calcol and Darda, the sons of Mahol.
And his fame spread to all the surrounding nations.
He spoke three thousand proverbs
and his songs numbered a thousand and five.
He described plant life,
from the cedar of Lebanon
to the hyssop that grows out of walls.
He also taught about animals and birds, reptiles and fish.
Men of all nations came to listen to Solomon's wisdom,
sent by all the kings of the world,
who had heard of his wisdom.
(I Kings 4:29-34)
AE 701 [27]
The sons of Israel shall keep the Sabbath
in their generations, the covenant of an age.
(Exodus 31:16)
The Sabbath was called "the covenant of an age,"
because the "Sabbath" signified in the highest sense
the union of the Divine with the Human in the Lord,
and in a relative sense
the conjunction of the Lord with heaven and the church,
and in a universal sense
the conjunction of good and truth,
which conjunction is called the heavenly marriage.
Therefore "the rest on the Sabbath day"
meant the state of that union and of that conjunction,
since by that state there is peace and rest to the Lord,
and thereby peace and salvation
in the heavens and on the earth.
To Abiathar the priest the king said,
"Go back to your fields in Anathoth.
You deserve to die,
but I will not put you to death now,
because you carried the ark of the Sovereign Lord
before my father David
and shared all my father's hardships."
So Solomon removed
Abiathar from the priesthood of the Lord,
fulfilling the word the Lord had spoken at Shiloh
about the house of Eli.
(I Kings 2:26-27)
