AC 4493 - The Secret Reason

 AC 4493 [4-6]

If a person of the Most Ancient Church
had read the historic or prophetic Word,
he would have seen its internal sense
without any previous instruction or explanation,
and this so fully
that the celestial and spiritual things of this sense
would have at once occurred to him,
and scarcely anything in the sense of the letter;
thus the internal sense would have been
in clearness to him,
but the sense of the letter in obscurity.
He would be like one who hears another speaking
and gets the meaning without attending to the words.

But if a person of the Ancient Church
had read the Word
he could not have seen its internal sense
without previous instruction or explanation;
thus the internal sense would have been
in obscurity to him,
but the sense of the letter in clearness.
He would be like one who hears another speaking
and is intent upon the words
while not attending to the meaning,
which is thus lost to him.

But when a person of the Jewish Church
reads the Word,
he apprehends nothing beyond the sense of the letter,
he is not aware that there is any internal sense,
and also denies it;
and at the present day the case is the same
with a person of the Christian Church.

All this shows what was the difference
between those represented by Hamor and Shechem
(who being of the remains of the Most Ancient Church
were in internals and not in externals),
and those signified by the sons of Jacob
(who were in externals and not in internals);
and it shows further that Hamor and Shechem
could not accede to externals
and accept those among the sons of Jacob
without their internals being closed;
thus causing their eternal destruction.

This is the secret reason why
Hamor and Shechem with their families were slain,
which otherwise would not have been permitted.
But this does not exculpate the sons of Jacob
from having committed an enormous crime.
They knew nothing of this secret reason,
and it was not the end they had in view.
Everyone is judged according to his end or intention,
and that their intention was fraudulent
is plainly stated in the thirteenth verse;
and when any such crime is permitted by the Lord,
it is evil men and their infernal instigators
who are the authors of it.
Nevertheless all the evil
which the evil intend and do to the good
is turned by the Lord into good,
as in the present instance,
in that Hamor and Shechem with their families
were saved.