TCR 301, 302, 303 - the third commandment; TCR 305, 306, 307 - the fourth commandment

Remember to keep the Sabbath day holy;
for six days you are to labor and do all your work,
but the seventh day
is the Sabbath for Jehovah your God.

TCR 301
For this third commandment . . .
In the natural or literal sense this means
that six days are for man and his work,
and the seventh is for the Lord,
and for Him to give man rest.
Sabbath in the language of the original means rest.
Among the Children of Israel
the Sabbath was the holiest of observances,
because it represented the Lord.
The six days represented
the Lord's toils and battles against the hells,
the seventh His victory over them, and so rest.
Since that day represented
the completion of the Lord's whole act of redemption,
it was for that reason the height of holiness.
When, however, the Lord came into the world,
so that representations of Him ceased,
that day became a day for instruction in Divine matters,
and also a day of rest from work,
for meditation about matters
conducive to salvation and everlasting life,
and a day for love towards the neighbor.

TCR 302
In the spiritual sense
this commandment means man's reformation
and regeneration by the Lord.
'Six days of work' means the fight against
the flesh and its lusts,
and at the same time against the evils and falsities
which are implanted in one by hell.
The seventh day means
his being conjoined with the Lord,
and his consequent regeneration.

The reason why this commandment in the spiritual sense
means a person's reformation and regeneration
is that it parallels the Lord's toils and battles with the hells,
and His victory over them, followed by rest.
For the way in which the Lord glorified His Human
and made it Divine
is the same as the way in which
He reforms man and regenerates him, making him spiritual.

TCR 303
In the celestial sense this commandment means
being conjoined with the Lord,
leading to peace as the result of protection from hell.
The Sabbath means rest and,
in this highest sense, peace.
That is why the Lord is called the Prince of peace,
and He calls Himself peace . . ..

Honor your father and your mother,
so that your days may be long
and you may prosper upon earth.

TCR 305

Honoring your father and mother
means in the natural or literal sense
honoring one's parents, obeying them,
being attached to them,
and showing gratitude for the kindnesses they do.
These include feeding and clothing their children,
and bringing them into the world,
so that there they may live
civilized and respectable lives;
also bringing them into heaven
by teaching them the rules of religion.
In this way they provide for their temporal prosperity
as well as their eternal happiness.
They do all this because of the love they have from the Lord,
in whose place they act.

In a wider sense this commandment means
that one should honor one's king and magistrates,
since these provide all with the necessities of life in general,
just as parents do in particular cases.
In the widest sense the commandment means
that one should love one's country,
since it feeds and protects one;
hence it is called one's fatherland.
Honor should be shown by parents
to both one's country and its rulers,
and they should implant this idea in their children.

TCR 306
In the spiritual sense honoring one's father and mother
means reverencing and loving God and the church.
In this sense father means God, who is the Father of all,
and mother means the church.

The reason why mother in the spiritual sense
means the church,
is that just as a mother on earth
feeds her children with natural food,
so the church does with spiritual food.
This too is why in the Word
the church is frequently called mother.

TCR 307
In the celestial sense father means our Lord Jesus Christ,
and mother means the communion of saints,
that is, His church scattered throughout the world.

On the New Jerusalem meaning the new church
now being established by the Lord . . ..
It is this church, not the earlier one,
which is wife and mother in this sense.
The spiritual offspring born of this marriage
are the various kinds of good which constitute charity,
and the truths which constitute faith;
and those whom the Lord puts in possession of these
are called 'sons of the wedding,'
'sons of God,' and 'born of God.'

The Lord Almighty

The Lord Almighty . . .
has made the earth by His power;
He founded the world by His wisdom
and stretched out the heavens by His understanding.
When He thunders,
the waters in the heavens roar;
He makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth.
He sends lightning with the rain
and brings out the wind from from His storehouses.

(Jeremiah 51: 14,15-16)

TCR 297 - He listens.

TCR 297

God is present
in everything to do with religion,
and when He is duly invoked,
His presence is summoned by His name,
and He listens.

TCR 291, 292, 293, 294, 295 - the first commandment; TCR 297, 298, 299 - the second commandment

There is not to be any other God before My face.

TCR 291, 292, 293
These are the words of the first commandment.
(Exodus 20:3; Deuteronomy 5:7)
Their ordinary meaning in the natural or literal sense
is that idols are not to be worshipped . . ..

. . . that no human being, alive or dead,
is to be worshipped as a god,
another practice found in Asia
and various surrounding countries.
Many of the heathen gods were no more than this,
such as Baal, Ashtaroth, Chemosh, Milkom, Beelzebub;
and at Athens and Rome, Saturn, Jupiter, Neptune,
Pluto, Apollo, Pallas, etc.
Some of these were first worshipped as saints,
then as divine powers, and finally as gods.

. . . this commandment also means
that no one is to be loved above all except God,
nor anything except what comes from God.
. . . For instance,
if anyone loves himself or the world above all else,
then he or the world is his own god.

TCR 294
The spiritual sense of this commandment
is that no other God is to be worshipped
except the Lord God Jesus Christ,
because He is Jehovah,
who came into the world
and carried out the redemption,
without which no man, nor any angel,
could have been saved.

TCR 295
The celestial sense of this commandment
is that the Lord Jehovah
is infinite, measureless and eternal;
He is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent.
He is the first and the last,
the beginning and the end,
who was and who is and who shall be.
He is love itself and wisdom itself,
or good itself and truth itself,
and consequently life itself.
Thus He is the sole source of everything.

You are not to take
the name of Jehovah your God in vain,
for Jehovah will not hold anyone guiltless,
who takes His name in vain.

TCR 297
Taking the name of Jehovah God in vain
means in the natural or literal sense
the misuse of the name itself in all sorts of conversation,
especially false statements or lies,
and in swearing without good cause,
or in order to avoid being blamed,
in evil intentions, which are curses,
and in witchcraft and spells.
On the other hand, swearing by God and His holiness,
the Word and the Gospel, at coronations,
ordination into the priesthood,
or inauguration into offices of trust,
is not taking the name of God in vain,
unless the one who takes the oath 
subsequently rejects his promises as worthless.
The name of God, being holiness itself,
is to be constantly employed
in the sacred business of the church,
as in prayers, hymns and all forms of worship,
as well as in sermons and writings on religious subjects.
This is because God is present
in everything to do with religion,
and when He is duly invoked,
His presence is summoned by His name,
and He listens.
In these ways the name of God is hallowed.

TCR 298
In the spiritual sense the name of God
means the whole of the church's teaching
taken from the Word,
and through which the Lord is invoked and worshipped.
All of this is summed up in the name of God.
Therefore taking the name of God in vain
means using anything from this source in idle talk,
false statements, lies, curses, witchcraft and spells;
for this too is slandering and blaspheming God,
and so His name.

TCR 299
In the celestial sense, taking the name of God in vain
means what the Lord said to the Pharisees:

A man shall be forgiven every sin and blasphemy,
but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven.
(Matthew 12:31, 32)

Blasphemy against the Spirit means blasphemy
against the divinity of the Lord's Human,
and the holiness of the Word.

In Those Days

"In those days, at that time," declares the Lord,
"the people of Israel and the people of Judah together
will go in tears to seek the Lord their God.
They will ask the way to Zion
and turn their faces toward it.
They will come and bind themselves to the Lord
in an everlasting covenant that will not be forgotten.

"My people have been lost sheep;
their shepherds have led them astray
and caused them to roam on the mountains.
They wandered over mountain and hill
and forgot their own resting place.
Whoever found them devoured them;
their enemies said,
'We are not guilty,
for they sinned against the Lord,
their true pasture,
the Lord,
the hope of their fathers.'

(Jeremiah 50:4-7)

TCR 282, 290 - The Ten Commandments Are Divine Laws

TCR 282
One might therefore be amazed that these laws,
which are universally known on earth,
were proclaimed in such a miraculous fashion
by Jehovah Himself from Mount Sinai.
But pay attention:
they were proclaimed in such a miraculous fashion,
so that it should be known
that those laws were not just civil and moral legislation,
but also Divine laws,
so that acting against them
was not only wronging the neighbor,
that is, one's fellow citizens and society,
but also sinning against God.
So by being proclaimed by Jehovah from Mount Sinai
they became religious laws.
It is obvious that any commandment given by Jehovah
is intended to be a religious command,
something that must be done,
if one is to be saved.

TCR 290
No one who is ignorant of the nature of the Word
can have the slightest idea
that infinity is contained in its details,
that is to say,
that its contents are countless,
so that not even the angels can exhaust them.
Anything found there can be compared to a seed,
which planted in the ground can grow into a great tree,
and produce an abundance of seeds;
these again produce similar trees to form a garden,
and their seeds in turn form other gardens,
and so on to infinity.
The Word of the Lord is like this in its details,
and such above all are the Ten Commandments.
For since they teach love to the Lord
and love towards the neighbor,
they are a short summary of the whole Word.
The Lord also shows
that the Word is like this by a comparison:

The kingdom of God is like a mustard seed,
which a man took and planted in his land.
This seed is smaller than all other seeds;
but when it has grown up,
it is larger than any plant,
and it becomes a tree,
so that the birds of the sky come
and nest in its branches.
(Matthew 13:31, 32; Mark 4:31, 32; Luke 13:18, 19;
cf. also Ezekial 17:2-8)

The fact that such an infinity of spiritual seeds or truths
lies in the Word,
can be established from the wisdom of the angels,
the whole of which is derived from the Word.
In their case wisdom goes on growing for ever.
The wiser they become,
the more clearly do they see that wisdom has no end;
and they perceive that they are merely at its entrance,
and they cannot reach
even the minutest part of the Lord's Divine wisdom.

TCR 280 - thinking spiritually, thinking naturally

TCR 280 [9]

'A further point is that thinking spiritually
means thinking without using time and space;
thinking naturally involves time and space.
For every idea of natural thought,
but not of spiritual thought,
has something of time and space clinging to it.
This is because the spiritual world is not in space and time,
as is the natural world,
though it has the appearance of both of them.
Thoughts and perceptions also differ in this respect.
For this reason you can think
of God's essence and omnipresence from eternity,
that is, of God before the creation of the world,
because you think about God's essence
with no idea of time,
and about His omnipresence
with no idea of space.
Thus you grasp ideas
which are far beyond the natural ideas of men.'

O Remnant of Judah

"O remnant of Judah,
the Lord has told you,
'Do not go to Egypt.'
Be sure of this:
I warn you today that you made a mistake
when you sent me to the Lord your God and said,
'Pray to the Lord our God for us;
tell us everything He says
and we will do it.'
I have told you today,
but you still have not obeyed the Lord your God
in all He sent me to tell you.
So now, be sure of this:
You will die by the sword, famine and plague
in the place where you want to go to settle."

(Jeremiah 42:19-22)

TCR 272 - The Lord, His Word, Heaven

TCR 272

. . . the Word is for a person
a means of communication with heaven.
. . . just as the Word is the Lord,
so too the Word is heaven,
since heaven's being heaven 
comes from the Lord,
and the Lord 
by means of the Word
is the all in all of heaven.

The Lord's Warning to Jeremiah

Now Jeremiah was free to come and go among the people,
for he had not yet been put in prison.
Pharaoh's army had marched out of Egypt,
and when the Babylonians
who were besieging Jerusalem
heard the report about them,
they withdrew from Jerusalem.

Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet:
"This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says:
Tell the king of Judah,
who sent you to inquire of Me,
'Pharaoh's army,
which has marched out to support you,
will go back to its own land, to Egypt.
Then the Babylonians will return and attack this city;
they will capture it and burn it down.'

"This is what the Lord says:
Do not deceive yourselves, thinking,
'The Babylonians will surely leave us.'
They will not!
Even if you were to defeat the entire Babylonian army
that is attacking you
and only wounded men were left in their tents,
they would come out and burn this city down."

(Jeremiah 37:4-10)

TCR 267 - it is enough

TCR 267

There can be no conjunction with heaven
unless somewhere on earth there is a church,
which possesses the Word,
and so the Lord is known
because the Lord is the God of heaven and earth,
and without Him salvation is impossible.
Conjunction with the Lord
is established by means of the Word,
and so is association with angels.
It is enough
if there is a church which possesses the Word,
even though it is composed of relatively few people.
The Lord is still present
by means of it throughout the world,
for the Word effects conjunction
between heaven and the human race.

The Days Are Coming

"'The days are coming,' declares the Lord,
'when I will fulfill the gracious promise I made
to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah.

"'In those days and at that time
I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David's line;
He will do what is just and right in the land.
In those days Judah will be saved
and Jerusalem will live in safety.
This is the name by which He will be called:
The Lord Our Righteousness.'"

(Jeremiah 33:14-16)

TCR 248 - every Divine act

TCR 248
. . . in every Divine act
good is joined with truth
and truth with good.

Seek Me

This is what the Lord says:
"When seventy years are completed for Babylon,
I will come to you
and fulfill My gracious promise
to bring you back to this place.
For I know the plans I have for you,"
declares the Lord,
"plans to prosper you
and not harm you,
plans to give you hope and a future.
Then you will call upon Me
and come and pray to Me,
and I will listen to you.
You will seek Me
and find Me
when you seek Me 
with all your heart.
I will be found by you,"
declares the Lord . . ..

(Jeremiah 29:10-14)

TCR 247 - What is the church like?

TCR 247 [4]

. . . what the church is like
depends on how the Word is understood in it.
It is excellent and valuable,
if its understanding is based
upon genuine truths from the Word,
but ruined and actually foul,
if based upon falsified truths.

Am I?

"Am I only a God nearby,"
declares the Lord,
"And not a God far away?
Can anyone hide in secret places
so that I cannot see him?"
 declares the Lord.
"Do not I fill heaven and earth?"
declares the Lord.

(Jeremiah 23:23-24)

TCR 229, 233 - the truths of the Word shape us

TCR 229
. . . since the truths of the Word
increase in number as they are loved
and this love gives them shape,
so they show through and become visible
more and more clearly.

TCR 233
When one's ends in view
are oneself and the world,
then while reading the Word
the mind cannot rise above oneself and the world;
and one's thinking is constantly dominated by the self,
and a person's self is enveloped in thick darkness
in all he thinks about heaven or the church.
In that state
a person cannot be withdrawn by the Lord
and lifted into the light of heaven,
and so cannot receive any influence
from the Lord through heaven.

I have also seen these people allowed into heaven;
and when it was discovered there
that they were devoid of truths,
they were thrown out.
Yet they still retained their proud conviction
that they had deserved admission.
Quite different was the treatment of those
whose study of the Word
had been impelled by a desire to know the truth
because it is true and serves to promote a useful life,
not only their own, but their neighbor's too.
These I saw lifted up to heaven,
to enjoy the light which there surrounds Divine truth,
and at the same time they were raised
to a state of angelic wisdom
and the happiness it brings,
which the angels of heaven enjoy.
 

Why?

"People from many nations will pass by this city
and will ask one another,
'Why has the Lord done such a thing to this great city?'
And the answer will be:
'Because they have forsaken the covenant
of the Lord their God
and have worshiped and served other gods.'"

(Jeremiah 22:8-9)

TCR 215 - the Word and Its Truths

TCR 215 [1,5]

The truths in the literal sense of the Word
are in part not bare truths,
but appearances of truth.
They are like similes and comparative analogies
taken from appearances in the natural world.
Thus they are adapted and brought down
to the level at which they may be understood
by simple people and even children.
But because they are at the same time correspondences,
they serve to receive and make a home for genuine truth.
They are containers in the sense
that a crystal cup is a container of vintage wine,
a silver salver of tempting foods;
or like the clothes which we wear,
whether a baby's shawls or the pretty dresses of a girl.
They are also like the facts
stored in the memory of the natural man,
which include his perception of and affections for spiritual truth.
The bare truths themselves which are wrapped,
contained, clothed and grasped,
exist in the spiritual sense of the Word;
the bare forms of good exist in its celestial sense.


The Word being like this in the literal sense,
it follows that those who possess Divine truths,
and believe that the Word inwardly in its depths
is something holy and Divine,
and more so those who believe
that the Word is like this
because of its spiritual and celestial senses,
these people, when they read the Word
and receive enlightenment from the Lord,
see Divine truths by natural light.
For the light of heaven,
which illuminates the spiritual sense of the Word,
exerts an influence on the natural light
which illuminates its literal sense,
and enlightens man's intellectual faculty,
also called rational,
enabling it to see and recognize Divine truths,
whether plain to view or hidden.
The light of heaven has this effect upon people,
sometimes even without their knowing it.

Blessed Is the Man

"But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
whose confidence is in Him.
He will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit."     
    
"I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind,
to reward a man according to his conduct,
according to what his deeds deserves."

(Jeremiah 17:7-8,9)

TCR 201 - Divine ideas; TCR 209 - angels

TCR 201
. . . Divine ideas are presented in the world
as correspondences,
this and no other
is the way the Word was written.

TCR 209
The angels themselves,
when they come down from heaven
to perform a duty below,
appear to be surrounded by small stars,
especially round their heads;
this is a sign
that they possess Divine truths from the Word.

Tell Them This

But God made the earth
by His power;
He founded the world
by His wisdom
and stretched out the heavens
by His understanding.
When He thunders,
the waters in the heavens roar;
He makes clouds rise
from the ends of the earth.
He sends lightning with the rain
and brings out the wind
from His storehouses.

(Jeremiah 10:12-13)

TCR 200 - meanings

TCR 200 [1-3]

At various places in the Word
there is talk of Egypt, Assyria, Edom,
Moab, the Children of Ammon, the Philistines,
Tyre and Sidon, and Gog.
Anyone who does not know that their names stand
for matters that relate to heaven and the church,
may be led into the erroneous belief
that the Word has much to say about peoples and nations,
and only a little about heaven and the church,
much, that is, on worldly subjects
and little on heavenly ones.
But when he knows what is meant
by these peoples or their names,
he can be rescued from his error
and brought back to the true belief.

It is similar when one sees in the Word
so many mentions of a garden,
a grove, a wood, or the trees in them,
such as the olive, the vine, the cedar, the poplar or the oak;
or so many mentions of
the lamb, the sheep, the goat, the calf or the ox;
or of mountains, hills, valleys
and the springs, rivers and waters in them,
or many other similar things.
Anyone who knows nothing
of the spiritual sense of the Word
cannot help thinking
that it is merely these things which are intended.
For he is unaware that garden, grove and wood
mean wisdom, intelligence and knowledge,
or that olive, vine, cedar, poplar and oak
mean the good and truth of the church
in their celestial, spiritual, rational, natural and sensual forms.
Nor does he know that lamb, sheep, goat, calf and ox
mean innocence, charity and natural affection;
or that mountains, hills and valleys
mean the highest, lower and lowest elements in the church.

Nor does he know that Egypt means factual knowledge,
Assyria the faculty of reason,
Edom the natural level,
Moab the adulteration of good,
the Children of Ammon the adulteration of truth,
the Philistines faith without charity,
Tyre and Sidon the knowledge of good and of truth,
Gog external worship without any internal.
In general, Jacob in the Word means the natural church,
Israel the spiritual church,
Judah the celestial church.

When one knows all these meanings,
it is possible to reflect
that the Word speaks only of heavenly matters,
and those worldly matters
are merely the underlying supports for the others. 

Let Him Who Boasts

This is what the Lord says:

"Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom
or the strong man boast of his strength
or the rich man boast of his riches,
but let him who boasts
boast about this:
that he understands and knows Me,
that I am the Lord
who exercises kindness,
justice and righteousness on earth,
for in these I delight,"
declares the Lord.

(Jeremiah 9:23-24)

TCR 191 - having life by means of the Word

TCR 191

. . . the only people to have life from the Word
are those who read it
with the intention 
of drawing Divine truths from it,
like water from the spring,
and at the same time
with the intention 
of putting the Divine truths drawn from it
into practice in their lives.

Return to Me

If you will return, O Israel,
return to Me,"
declares the Lord.
"If you put your detestable idols
out of My sight
and no longer go astray,
and if in a truthful, just and righteous way
you swear,
'As surely as the Lord lives,'
then the nations will be blessed by Him
and in Him they will glory."

(Jeremiah 4:1-2)

TCR 185 - climate

TCR 185

The spiritual world contains climatic zones
similar to those in the natural world.
There is nothing in this world
which does not have its counterpart in the other,
but their origins are different.
In the natural world the varying season depend upon
how are the sun is from the equator;
in the spiritual world they depend upon
how remote the affections of the will,
and so the thoughts of the understanding,
are from true love and true faith.
Everything there corresponds to these two.

"For I Am Merciful"

The Lord said to me . . .
"Go, proclaim this message toward the north:

"'Return, faithless Israel', declares the Lord,
'I will frown on you no longer,
for I am merciful,' declares the Lord,
'I will not be angry forever.
Only acknowledge your guilt -
you have rebelled against the Lord your God,
you have scattered your favors to foreign gods
under every spreading tree,
and have not obeyed Me,'" declares the Lord.

(Jeremiah 3:11-13)

TCR 177 - faith

TCR 177 [3]

. . . faith grapples and hauls in to itself
as it were by ropes
whatever it can.
If it is a false faith,
it commits adultery with every truth in it,
leading it astray and falsifying it,
so that people become of unsound mind in spiritual matters.
If, however, it is a true faith,
then it enjoys the favor of the whole Word,
and the God of the Word,
who is the Lord God the Savior,
pours in light,
and breathes His Divine assent upon it,
so that people become wise.

Who the Lord Esteems

This is what the Lord says:

"This is the one I esteem:
he who is humble and contrite in spirit,
and trembles at My word."

(Isaiah 66:1,2)

TCR 163 - a correct idea of God

TCR 163

I have discussed God the Creator,

and at the same time the creation,

and then the Lord the Redeemer,

and at the same time the process of redemption;

and now finally the Holy Spirit,

and at the same time how God works.

So having discussed God the Three-in-one,

I must now also discuss the Divine Trinity,

a subject familiar to Christian people,

yet actually one they know nothing about.

For this is the only way of acquiring a correct idea of God;

and a correct idea of God is to the congregation

like the sanctuary and altar in a church . . ..

From this hangs the whole body of theology,

like a chain from its anchor-point.

If you are prepared to believe me,

the idea everyone has of God

determines his place in the heavens.

It is like the touchstone used to test gold and silver,

that is to say,

it tests the nature of the good and truth a person has.

For he cannot have any good which leads to salvation

except from God,

nor any truth

which does not get its quality from the good deep within it.

But to reveal the nature of the Divine Trinity

so that it can be seen by both eyes,

the discussion must be split up into propositions, as follows.

(i) There is a Divine Trinity

consisting of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

(ii) Those three, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,

are the three essentials of a single God,

which make one as soul, body and activity do with a person.

(iii) This Trinity did not exist before the creation of the world,

but it was provided and made after the creation of the world,

when God became incarnate,

and then it was in

the Lord God, the Redeemer and Savior, Jesus Christ.

(iv) A Trinity of Divine persons from eternity,

or existing before the creation of the world,

implies thinking about a Trinity of Gods;

and this thought cannot be banished

by a verbal confession of belief in one God.

(v) The Trinity of persons was unknown to the Apostolic church,

but was the invention of the Council of Nicaea,

leading to its introduction into the Roman Catholic church,

and thus to the churches which split from it.

"Why Have We Fasted?"

"'Why have we fasted,' they say,

'and You have not seen it?

Why have we humbled ourselves,

and You have not noticed?'"

"Yet on the day of your fasting,

you do as you please,

and exploit all your workers.

Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife,

and in striking each other with wicked fists.

You cannot fast as you do today

and expect your voice to be heard on high.

Is this the kind if fast I have chosen,

only a day for a man to humble himself?

Is it only for bowing one's head like a reed

and for lying on sackcloth, and ashes?

Is that what you call a fast,

a day acceptable to the Lord?

"Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:

to loose the chains of injustice

and untie the cords of the yoke,

to set the oppressed free

and break every yoke?

Is it not to share your food with the hungry

and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter -

when you see the naked, to clothe him,

and not turn away from your own flesh and blood?

Then your light will break forth like the dawn,

and your healing will quickly appear;

then your righteousness will go before you,

and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.

Then you will call,

and the Lord will answer;

you will cry for help,

and He will say:  Here am I."

(Isaiah 58:3-9)

TCR 161 - Divine favor

TCR 161 [2]

Is it not contrary to sound reason

to think that God the Father

withdrew His favor from the human race,

reproved it and cut off communication with it?

Surely Divine favor is an attribute of the Divine Essence?

So withdrawing His favor

would be withdrawing His Divine Essence,

and that would mean ceasing to be God.

Surely God cannot become estranged from Himself?

Believe me, favor on God's part

is both infinite and eternal.

God's favor can be lost on man's part,

if he fails to accept it . . ..

Maintain Justice and Do What Is Right

This is what the Lord says:

"Maintain justice and do what is right,

for My salvation is close at hand

and My righteousness will soon be revealed.

Blessed is the man who does this,

the man who holds it fast,

who keeps the Sabbath without desecrating it,

and keeps his hand from doing any evil."

"Whom have you so dreaded and feared

that you have been false to Me,

and have neither remembered Me

nor pondered this in your hearts?

Is it not because I have long been silent

that you do not fear Me?

I will expose your righteousness and your works,

and they will not benefit you.

When you cry out for help,

let your collection of idols save you!

The wind will carry all of them off,

a mere breath will blow them away.

But the man who makes Me his refuge

will inherit the land

and possess My holy mountain."

(Isaiah 56:1-2; 57:11-13)

TCR 159 - believing, seeing and recognizing

TCR 159 [7]

God is no three-letter word,

but the whole of reality from alpha to omega.

Consequently He is life and salvation

to all who believe in Him as a visible God,

not to those who say that they believe in an invisible God.

For believing, seeing and recognizing

make up a single act,

which is why the Lord said to Philip:

He who sees and knows Me 

sees and knows the Father.

(John 14:6-15)

Lift Up Your Eyes

"Listen to Me, My people;

hear Me, My nation:

The law will go out from Me;

My justice will become a light to the nations.

My righteousness draws near speedily,

My salvation is on the way,

and My arm will bring justice to the nations.

The islands will look to Me

and wait in hope for My arm.

Lift up your eyes to the heavens,

look at the earth beneath;

the heavens will vanish like smoke,

the earth will wear out like a garment

and its inhabitants die like flies.

But My salvation will last forever,

My righteousness will never fail."

(Isaiah 51:4-6)

TCR 154 - We choose to live by the Word.

TCR 154 [5-6]

The Lord's Word is like an ocean, a flower-bed and a garden.

When the Word is present in considerable fullness

in a person's internal,

then he speaks and acts of himself from the Word,

but the Word does not act by his means.

It is the same with the Lord,

since He is the Word,

that is, the Divine truth and Divine good it contains.

The Lord of Himself or from the Word

acts in and on people,

but not by their means,

since everyone freely acts and speaks from the Lord

when he does so from the Word.

A closer parallel to this might be

the mutual relationship between the soul and the body,

which are two separate things,

but linked in a reciprocal bond.

The soul acts in and on the body,

but not by means of the body;

and the body acts of itself from the soul.

The soul does not act by means of the body,

because they do not consult and deliberate together;

nor does the soul order or beg the body to do this or that,

or to speak by its own mouth.

Nor does the body demand or request

the soul to give it or supply something,

for everything of the soul's belongs to the body,

and vice versa.

It is the same with the Lord's Divine and His Human;

for the Divine of the Father is the soul of His Human,

and the Human is His body.

The Human does not ask its Divine what it is to say or do.

Therefore, the Lord says:

On that day you will ask in my name;

and I do not tell you that

I shall ask the Father for you,

for the Father Himself loves you,

because you have loved me.

(John 16:26, 27)

If Only

This is what the Lord says -

your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:

"I am the Lord your God,

who teaches you what is best for you,

who directs you in the way you should go.

If only you had paid attention to My commands,

your peace would have been like a river,

your righteousness like the waves of the sea.

Your descendants would have been like the sand,

your children like its numberless grains;

their name would never be cut off

nor destroyed from before Me."

(Isaiah 48:17-19)

TCR 151 - believing and acknowledging

TCR 151

Believing in the Lord

is not just a matter of acknowledging Him,

but includes keeping His commandments.

Merely to acknowledge Him

only demands some thought

on the part of the understanding,

but to keep His commandments

requires acknowledgment too

on the part of the will.

What the Lord Says

"This is what the Lord says -
Israel's King and Redeemer,

the Lord Almighty:

I am the first

and I am the last;

apart from Me there is no God.

Who then is like Me?

Let him proclaim it.

Let him declare and lay out before Me

what has happened

since I established My ancient people,

and what is yet to come -

yes, let him foretell what will come.

Do not tremble,

do not be afraid.

Did I not proclaim this and foretell it long ago?

You are My witnesses.

Is there any God besides Me?

No, there is no other Rock;

I know not one."

(Isaiah 44:6-8)

TCR 139 - One in the Lord

TCR 139

The Holy Spirit means properly the Divine Truth,
so also the Word;
and in this sense the Lord is Himself
also the Holy Spirit.
But the present-day church uses the term 'Holy Spirit'
to describe the way God works,
that is, the actual process of making a person righteous,
so this is the meaning given here to the Holy Spirit . . ..

. . . the activity of God takes place
by means of the Divine Truth
which proceeds from the Lord;
and that which proceeds
is of one and the same essence
as He from whom it proceeds.
This is like the trio of soul, body and what proceeds
making up a single essence,
which in the case of a human being is purely human,
but in the case of the Lord
is Divine and human at the same time . . ..
So the three essentials called
the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit
are one in the Lord.

The Lord is the Everlasting God

Why do you say, O Jacob,
and complain, O Israel,
"My way is hidden from the Lord;
my cause is disregarded by my God"?
Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and His understanding no one can fathom.
He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the Lord
will renew their strength.
They will soar on the wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.

(Isaiah 40:27-31)

TCR 137 - our faith and its truths

TCR 137 [5]

. . . our faith is,
has been,
and ever will be
in the Lord God the Savior,
whose Human is Divine
and whose Divine is Human. 

This makes it easy for us to accept,
as uniting the Divine spiritual to the natural of men.
So it becomes a spiritual faith at the natural level,
and this makes the natural as it were translucent,
as the result of the spiritual light
which illuminates our faith. 

The truths of which it is made up
are as numerous as the verses in Holy Writ;
all its truths are like stars,
which by their light show it forth and give it form. 

A person acquires faith from the Word
by means of his own natural powers of enlightenment,
which are based upon
knowledge, thought and false belief. 

But with those who believe in the Lord,
He turns these into
conviction, trust and confidence.
This makes the natural faith spiritual,
and charity gives it life.

The Scroll of the Lord

Look in the scroll of the Lord and read:

None of these will be missing,
not one will lack her mate.
For it is His mouth that has given the order,
and His Spirit will gather them together.
He allots their portions;
His hand distributes them by measure.
They will possess it forever
and dwell there from generation to generation.

The desert and the parched land will be glad;
the wilderness will rejoice and blossom.
Like the crocus, it will burst into bloom;
it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy.
The glory of Lebanon will be given to it,
the splendor of Carmel and Sharon;
they will see the glory of the Lord,
the splendor of our God.

Strengthen the feeble hands,
steady the knees that give way;
say to those with fearful hearts,
"Be strong, do not fear;
your God will come,
He will come with vengeance;
with Divine retribution He will come to save you."

Then will the eyes of the blind be opened
and the ears of the deaf unstopped.
Then will the lame leap like a deer,
and the mute tongue shout for joy.
Water will gush forth in the wilderness
and streams in the desert.
The burning sand will become a pool,
the thirsty ground bubbling springs.
In the haunts where jackals once lay,
grass and reeds and papyrus will grow.

And a highway will be there;
it will be called the Way of Holiness.
The unclean will not journey on it;
it will be for those who walk in that Way;
wicked fools will not go about on it.
No lion will be there,
nor will any ferocious beast get up on it;
they will not be found there.
But only the redeemed will walk there,
and the ransomed of the Lord will return.
They will enter Zion with singing;
everlasting joy will crown their heads.
Gladness and joy will overtake them,
and sorrow and sighing will flee away.

(Isaiah 34:16-17; 35:1-10)

TCR 130 - the Lord's passion

TCR 130 [3]

The details of the Lord's passion show clearly
that as the Prophet
He represented the state of the Jewish church
with regard to the Word.
For example, His betrayal by Judas;
His arrest and conviction by the chief priests and the elders;
His being beaten;
His head being struck with a reed;
His crowning with a crown of thorns;
the dividing of His garments,
and the casting of lots for His tunic;
His crucifixion;
His being given vinegar to drink;
His side being pierced;
His burial and resurrection on the third day.

-- His betrayal by Judas
meant that He was betrayed by the Jewish nation,
which possessed the Word,
since Judas represented that nation.
-- His arrest and conviction
by the chief priests and elders
meant that the whole of that church so behaved.
-- His being beaten, being spat upon in the face,
being flogged and having His head struck with a reed
meant their similar treatment of the Word
as regards the Divine truths it contains.
-- The crowning with thorns
meant that they falsified and adulterated these truths.
-- The dividing of His garments
and throwing lots for His tunic
meant that they threw to the winds
all the truths of the Word,
but not its spiritual sense,
which is what the tunic meant.
-- The crucifixion
meant that they destroyed and profaned the whole Word.
-- Their giving Him vinegar to drink
meant that they offered only falsified truths,
which is why He did not drink it.
-- The piercing of His side
meant that they utterly extinguished
all the truth and all the good of the Word.
-- His burial
meant the rejection of all He had left from His mother.
-- His resurrection on the third day
meant His glorification,
or the union of His Human with the Father's Divine.

From this it is now plain that 'carrying iniquities'
does not mean removing them,
but representing the profaning of truths in the Word.

The Lord is our Mighty One.

O Lord, be gracious to us;
we long for you.
Be our strength every morning,
our salvation in time of distress.

The Lord is exalted,
for He dwells on high;
He will fill Zion with justice and righteousness.
He will be the sure foundation for your times,
a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge;
the fear of the Lord is the key to this treasure.

Look upon Zion, the city of our festivals;
your eyes will see Jerusalem,
a peaceful abode,
a tent that will not be moved;
its stakes will never be pulled up,
nor any of its ropes broken.
There the Lord will be our Mighty One.
It will be like a lace of broad rivers and streams.
No galley with oars will ride them,
no mighty ship will will sail them.
For the Lord is our judge,
the Lord is our lawgiver,
the Lord is our king;
it is He who will save us.

(Isaiah 33:2,5-6,20-22)

TCR 126 - the Lord had two purposes

TCR 126, 127

The Lord had two purposes in coming into the world,
redemption and the glorification of His Human;
and by these He saved both men and angels.
These two purposes are quite distinct,
but still they are combined in effecting salvation.
The nature of redemption was . . .
to be a battle against the hells, their subjugation
and afterwards the ordering of the heavens.
Glorification, however,
is the uniting of the Lord's Human
with His Father's Divine.
This took place by stages
and was completed by His passion on the cross.
For every person ought for his own part
to approach God,
and the more nearly he does so,
the more closely does God on His side enter into him.
It is similar to the building of a church:
its construction by human hands must come first,
and then afterwards it must be consecrated,
and finally prayers must be said
for God to be present and unite Himself
with its congregation.
The reason why the actual union was fully achieved
by the passion on the cross
is that it was the last temptation
which the Lord underwent in the world;
and temptations create conjunction.
In temptation it looks as if a person is left to himself,
but he is not,
since God is then most closely present in his inmost,
and secretly gives him support.
When therefore anyone is victorious over temptation,
he is most inwardly linked with God,
and in this case the Lord
was most inwardly united with God His Father.

. . . although redemption and the passion on the cross
are two distinct events,
still they are combined in effecting salvation,
since the Lord by His union with the Father,
the result of His suffering on the cross,
became the Redeemer for ever.

The Rock Eternal

We have a strong city;
God makes salvation its walls and ramparts.
Open the gates
that the righteous nation my enter,
the nation that keeps faith.
You will keep in perfect peace
him whose mind is stead fast,
because he trusts in You.
Trust in the Lord forever,
for the Lord, the Lord, is the rock eternal.

(Isaiah 26:1-4)

TCR 118 - What is redemption?

TCR 118

To redeem means to free from damnation,
to reclaim from everlasting death,
to snatch from hell,
and to release
the captives and those in bondage
from the hands of the devil.
The Lord performed this
by conquering the hells
and founding a new heaven.
The reason why people could not
by any other means be saved
was that the spiritual world
is so closely integrated with the natural world
that they are inseparable.
This principally affects people's interiors,
what is called their souls and minds;
those of the good are conjoined
with the souls and minds of angels,
those of the wicked
with the souls and minds of the spirits of hell.
Their union is such
that if a person were deprived of them,
he would fall lifeless,
like a block of wood.
Likewise neither could angels and spirits
remain in existence,
if human beings were taken away from them.

"Glory to the Righteous One"

They raise their voices,
they shout for joy;
from the west they acclaim the Lord's majesty.
Therefore in the east give glory to the Lord;
exalt the name of the Lord, the God of Israel,
in the islands of the sea.
From the ends of the earth we hear singing:
"Glory to the Righteous One."

(Isaiah 24:14-16)

TCR 113 - the idea of the Lord

TCR 113 [6]
For the idea of God enters into every part of religion,
and it is this which establishes conjunction with God,
and that conjunction is the means of salvation.
We in heaven recite that prayer every day,
just as people on earth do;
but then we do not think of God the Father,
since He is invisible,
but we think of Him in His Divine Human,
 since in this He is visible.
In this you call Him Christ,
we call Him the Lord;
thus the Lord is our Father in the heavens.
The Lord too taught that He and the Father are one,
that the Father is in Him and He is in the Father;
that he who sees Him, sees the Father;
and that no one comes to the Father except through Him.

The Lord Says

This is what the Lord says to me:
"I will remain quiet
and will look on from My dwelling place,
like shimmering heat in the sunshine,
like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest."

(Isaiah 18:4)

TCR 110 - conjunction with the Lord

TCR 110 [5-6]

To prepare oneself to receive and be conjoined to God
is to live in accordance with Divine order,
and the laws of order are all the commandments of God.
The Lord fulfilled these down to the last comma,
and so made Himself a receiver of the Divinity
in all its fulness.
Therefore Paul says that in Jesus Christ
all the fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily,
and the Lord says that all things of the Father's are His.

It is further to be held
that the Lord alone is active in a person,
and the person by himself is only passive,
but he is moved to activity
by the influx of life from the Lord.
This perpetual influx from the Lord
makes it appear to a person that he acts of himself.
Because this is so, he also has free will,
and this is given to him
in order to prepare himself
to receive and be conjoined to the Lord,
a state which would be impossible
if the conjunction were not reciprocal.
This is accomplished
when a person acts of his own free will,
yet is led by faith to attribute all activity to the Lord.

In That Day

See, the Lord, the Lord Almighty,
will lop off the boughs with great power.
The lofty trees will be felled,
the tall ones will be brought low.
He will cut down the forest thickets with an ax;
Lebanon will fall before the Mighty One.

In that day you will say:

"I will praise You, O Lord.
Although You were angry with me,
Your anger has turned away
and You have comforted me.
Surely God is my salvation;
I will trust and not be afraid.
The Lord, the Lord, 
is my strength and my song;
He has become my salvation."
With joy you will draw water
from the wells of salvation.

In that day you will say:

"Give thanks to the Lord, call on His name;
make known among the nations what He has done,
and proclaim that His name is exalted.
Sing to the Lord,
for He has done glorious things;
let this be known to all the world.
Shout aloud and sing for joy, people of Zion,
for great is the Holy One of Israel among you."

(Psalm 10:33-34; 12:1-6)

TCR 105 - two states in order

TCR 105 [2]

That every person
who from being natural becomes spiritual
passes through two states,
entering through the first into the second,
and thus from the world into heaven . . ..
. . . in the first state,
which is called the state of reformation,
a person has complete freedom to act
according to the rationality of his understanding:
and in the second,
which is the state of regeneration,
he has the same freedom;
but he now wills and acts, 
and thinks and speaks,
from a new love and a new intelligence,
which are from the Lord.
For in the first state
the understanding takes the chief part
and the will the second;
while in the following state
the will takes the chief part,
and the understanding the second;
nevertheless, the understanding now acts from the will,
and not the will through the understanding.
The conjunction of good and truth, 
of charity and faith,
and of the internal and external,
is effected in the same way.

The Lord Warns

The Lord spoke to me with His strong hand upon me,
warning me not to follow the way of this people.
He said:

"Do not call conspiracy
everything that these people call conspiracy;
do not fear what they fear,
and do not dread it.
The Lord Almighty is the One you are to regard as holy,
He is the One you are to fear,
He is the One your are to dread,
and He will be a sanctuary . . .."

Bind up the testimony
and seal up the law among my disciples.
I will wait for the Lord,
who is hiding His face from the house of Jacob.
I will put my trust in Him.

(Isaiah 8:11-13,16-17)

TCR 95,96 - acts of redemption, righteousness; TCR 100 - an immutable law

TCR 95
The Christian churches to-day say and believe
that merit and righteousness belong to the Lord alone
through the obedience He showed to God the Father,
while He was in the world,
in particular by His passion on the cross.
But they have assumed
that suffering the cross was itself the act of redemption;
yet that was not it,
but the act of glorifying His Human . . ..
The acts of redemption
by which the Lord made Himself righteousness
were His carrying out of the last judgment,
which took place in the spiritual world.
He then separated the wicked from the good
and the goats from the sheep,
expelling from heaven
those who made common cause
with the beasts of the dragon.
From the worthy He founded a new heaven,
from the unworthy a new hell;
and by stages He brought everything everywhere
back into order,
and in addition He established a new church.
These were the acts of redemption
by which the Lord made Himself righteousness;
for righteousness consists
in doing everything in accordance with Divine order,
and restoring everything which had slipped out of order.
Divine order itself is righteousness.

TCR 96
Yet the truth is that the Lord's righteousness,
being of such a nature and origin that it is purely Divine,
could not be conjoined with any person,
so that it could not cause anyone to be saved,
any more than the Divine life can,
which is the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom.
The Lord enters into every person with these,
but unless that person lives in accordance with order,
though he has that life within him,
it contributes nothing to his salvation,
giving him merely the ability
to understand truth and to do good.
Living in accordance with order
is living in accordance with God's commandments.

TCR 100
. . . it is a fixed and immutable law
that the Lord approaches a person
to the extent that he approaches the Lord.

Come Now

"Come now, let us reason together," says the Lord.
"Though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red as crimson,
they shall be like wool.
If you are willing and obedient,
you will eat the best from the land;
but if you resist and rebel,
you will be devoured by the sword."

For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

(Isaiah 1:18-20)

TCR 86 - rounded points, sharp points

TCR 86

The reason Jehovah God came down into the world
as the Divine Truth
was so that He could effect redemption.
Redemption was the conquest of the hells,
the ordering of the heavens,
and afterwards the establishment of a church.
To achieve these aims
the Divine Good is not powerful enough,
but the Divine Truth coming from the Divine Good is.
Divine Good regarded in itself
is like a rounded point on a sword,
or like a blunt piece of wood, 
or a bow without arrows.
But the Divine Truth coming from the Divine Good
is like a sharpened sword,
and like a piece of wood pointed to make a spear,
and like a bow with arrows,
all of which are potent against enemies.
Swords, spears and bows
in the spiritual sense of the Word
stand for militant truths . . ..
There was no other way in which the falsities and evils,
in which the whole of hell was and perpetually is plunged,
could be attacked, defeated and conquered
except through the Divine Truth coming from the Word.
There was no other way in which
a new heaven could be founded,
formed and set in order,
as was then done.
There was no other way in which 
a new church could be established on earth.
Moreover, all the strength,
all the might and power of God
belongs to the Divine Truth
coming from the Divine Good.
This was the reason why Jehovah God
came down as the Divine Truth,
which is the Word. 

Therefore it is said in the Psalms of David:

Gird your sword upon Your thigh,
O Mighty One, and go up in Your splendor,
ride upon the Word of truth;
Your right hand shall teach You wondrous things;
sharp are Your arrows,
Your enemies shall fall beneath You.
(Psalm 45:3-5)

This passage describes the Lord,
His combats with the hells
and His victories over them.

Let My Prayer Be

Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord;
keep watch over the door of my lips.
Let not my heart be drawn to what is evil,
to take part in wicked deeds
with men who are evildoers;
let me not eat of their delicacies.

(Psalm 141:3-4)

TCR 80 - thinking

TCR 80

. . . thinking sensually . . . blocks any ideas
from a more inward mode of thinking.

The Lord Is Hope

Out of the depth I cry to You, O Lord;
O Lord, hear my voice.
Let Your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy.

If You, O Lord, kept a record of sins,
O Lord, who could stand?
But with You there is forgiveness;
therefore You are feared.

I wait for the Lord,
my soul waits,
and in His Word I put my hope.
. . . for with the Lord is unfailing love
and with Him is full redemption.

(Psalm 130:1-5,7)

TCR 78 - God's creations

TCR 78 [3]

God is love itself and wisdom itself,
and His love contains infinite affections,
and His wisdom infinite perceptions;
all the things to be seen upon earth
are correspondences of these affections and perceptions.
This is the origin of birds and animals,
trees and shrubs, crops and grain, plants and grasses.
For God has no extension,
but is everywhere in space;
so He fills the universe from first to last.
Because He is omnipresent,
there are such correspondences
of the affections of His love and wisdom
throughout the natural world.

His Statutes Last Forever

Hear my voice in accordance with Your love;
preserve my life, O Lord, according to Your laws.
Those who devise wicked schemes are near,
but they are far from Your law.
Yet You are near, O Lord,
and all Your commands are true.
Long ago I learned from Your statutes
that You established them to last forever.

(Psalm 119:149-152)

TCR 73 - the order of order

TCR 73 [2]

The omnipotent God created the world
from the order within Him,
that is, into the order in which He is,
and in accordance with which He rules;
and He impressed upon the universe
and each and all things of it its own order,
upon mankind his order,
upon the beast its order,
upon bird and fish and worm,
and every tree and even every blade of grass,
upon each its own order.

. . . The laws of order enjoined upon a person are,
that he should acquire for himself truths from the Word,
and reflect upon them naturally,
and as far as he can, rationally,
and thus acquire for himself a natural faith.

The laws of order on the part of God then are,
that He will draw near
and fill these truths with His Divine light,
and thus fill the person's natural faith
(which is mere knowledge and persuasion)
with a Divine essence.
In this and in no other way can faith become saving.
It is the same with charity.

Teach Me, O Lord

Teach me, O Lord, to follow Your decrees;
then I will keep them to the end.
Give me understanding,
and I will keep Your law
and obey it with all my heart.
Direct me in the path of Your commands,
for there I find delight.
Turn my heart toward Your statutes
and not toward selfish gain.
Turn my eyes away from worthless things;
preserve my life according to Your Word.
Fulfill Your promise to Your servant,
so that You may be feared.
Take away the disgrace I dread,
for Your laws are good.
How I long for Your precepts!
Preserve my life in Your righteousness.

(Psalm 119:33-40)

TCR 71 - a few of the laws of order

TCR 71 [2,3]

God is Order itself.

He created man from order according to order
and to be subject to order.

A consequential law of order is therefore
that a person ought to enter into faith
by means of truths from the Word,
and into charity by means of good deeds,
and so reform and regenerate himself.

It is a law of order
that a person should by his own efforts and ability
cleanse himself from sins,
and not stand idly confident of his inability to act,
waiting for God to wipe away his sins in an instant.

It is also a law of order that a person
should love God with all his soul and all his heart,
and his neighbor as himself . . ..

It is a law of order too
that a person should by his efforts and ability
acquire for himself faith
by means of truths from the Word,
while believing that not a grain of faith
comes from himself,
but from God;
and that a person should by his efforts and ability
aim to justify himself,
but he is to believe
that not a jot of justification comes from himself,
but from God.

Holy and Awesome Is His Name

Praise the Lord.

I will extol the Lord with all my heart
in the council of the upright and in the assembly.

Great are the works of the Lord;
they are pondered by all who delight in them.
Glorious and majestic are His deeds,
and His righteousness endures forever.
He has caused His wonder to be remembered;
the Lord is gracious and compassionate.
He provides for for those who fear Him;
He remembers His covenant forever.
He has shown His people the power of His works,
giving them the lands of other nations.
The works of His hands are faithful and just;
all His precepts are trustworthy.
They are steadfast forever and ever,
done in faithfulness and uprightness.
He provided redemption for His people;
He ordained His covenant forever --
holy and awesome is His name.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom;
all who follow His precepts have good understanding.
To Him belongs eternal praise.

(Psalm 111)

TCR 59 - light

TCR 59
. . . in the Word,
every time light is mentioned,
wisdom is meant.

He Wraps Himself in Light

Praise the Lord, O my soul.

O Lord my God, You are very great;
You are clothed with splendor and majesty.
He wraps himself in light
as with a garment;
He stretches out the heavens like a tent
and lays the beams of His upper chambers
on their waters.
He makes the clouds His chariot
and rides on the wings of the wind.

(Psalm 104:1-3)

TCR 50 - wisdom

TCR 50

The fact that God's omnipotence,
omniscience and omnipresence arise
through the wisdom of His love
is what is meant by the following passage from John:
 
In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
All things were made through Him,
and without Him was nothing made which was made.
In Him was life,
and the life was the light of men;
and the world was made through Him;
and the Word was made flesh.
(John 1:1, 3, 4, 10, 14)

'Word' here means Divine Truth,
or, what comes to the same thing,
the Divine Wisdom.
That is why it is also called life and light;
for these are nothing but wisdom.

For the Lord Is the Great God

Who will rise up for me against the wicked?
Who will take a stand for me against evildoers?
Unless the Lord had given me help,
I would soon have dwelt in the silence of death.
When I said, "My foot is slipping,"
Your love, O Lord, supported me.
When anxiety was great within me,
Your consolation brought joy to my soul.

Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord;
let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.
Let us come before Him with thanksgiving
and extol Him with music and song.
For the Lord is the great God,
and the great King above all gods.
In His hand are the depths of the earth,
and the mountain peaks belong to Him.
The sea is His, for He made it,
and His hands formed the dry land.

Come, let us bow down in worship,
let us kneel before the Lord our Maker;
for He is our God
and we are the people of His pasture,
the flock under His care.

(Psalm 94:16-19; 95:1-7)

TCR 43 - the essence of God; TCR 48 - an image & likeness

TCR 43
The essence of God consists of two things,
love and wisdom;
while the essence of His love consists of three things,
namely, to love others outside of Himself,
to desire to be one with them,
and from Himself to render them blessed.
And because love and wisdom in God make one,
. . . the same three things
constitute the essence of His wisdom;
and love desires these three things,
and wisdom brings them forth. 


TCR 48 [7]
A person is a receptacle of God,
and a receptacle of God is an image of God;
and as God is love itself and wisdom itself,
a person is a receptacle of these;
and the receptacle becomes an image of God
in the measure in which it receives.
And a person is a likeness of God
from his feeling that the things that are from God
are in him as his own;
and yet from that likeness
he is only so far an image of God
as he acknowledges that love and wisdom,
or good and truth,
are not his own in him,
and are not from him,
but are solely in God,
and consequently from God.

The Lord Reigns

The Lord reigns,
He is robed in majesty;
the Lord is robed in majesty
and is armed with strength.
The world is firmly established;
it cannot be moved.
Your throne was established long ago;
You are from all eternity.
The seas have lifted up, O Lord,
the seas have lifted up their voice;
the seas have lifted up their pounding waves.
Mightier than the thunder of the great waters,
mightier than the breakers on the sea -
the Lord on high is mighty.

Your statutes stand firm;
holiness adorns Your house for endless days,
O Lord.

(Psalm 93)

TCR 40 - the perils of thinking from the senses

TCR 40 [2]

Let everyone therefore beware of convincing himself
that he owes his life to himself,
or his intelligence, belief, love, perception of truth
or his willing and doing good.
In so far as he convinces himself of these ideas,
so far does he cast down
his mind earthwards from heaven,
and from being spiritual becomes natural,
influenced by the senses and the body.
For he thus shuts off the higher regions of his mind,
so that he becomes blinded to everything
which relates to God, heaven and the church.
Everything he may then think, reason and say
is mere foolishness, because he is in darkness;
yet at the same time he becomes confident
that these are the products of wisdom.
For when the higher regions of the mind,
the abode of the true light of life, are shut off,
the region of the mind below these,
which is illuminated only by the faint glimmer of the world,
is opened up.
This glimmer,
unsupported by the light of the higher regions,
is a misleading illumination,
in which falsities look like truths,
and truths like falsities;
reasoning from falsities looks like wisdom,
and from truths like madness.
Then a person believes himself to have
the keenness of sight of an eagle,
though he can see no more of wisdom
than a bat in daytime.

Righteousness Goes Before Him

I will listen to what God the Lord will say;
he promises peace to His people, His saints -
but let them not return to folly.
Surely His salvation is near those who fear Him,
that His glory may dwell in our land.

Love and faithfulness meet together;
righteousness and peace kiss each other.
Faithfulness springs forth from the earth,
and righteousness looks down from heaven.
The Lord will indeed give what is good,
and our land will yield its harvest.
Righteousness goes before Him
and prepares the way for His steps.

(Psalm 85:8-13)

TCR 27, 31 - time and space

TCR 27
There are two properties peculiar to the natural world
which make everything in it finite.
One is space, the other time.
Because that world was created by God,
and spatial distances and periods of time
were created along with it
and serve to define it,
their two starting-points,
immensity and eternity,
need to be discussed.
For the immensity of God relates to space,
and His eternity to time,
while His infinity embraces both immensity and eternity.

TCR 31 [2]
The angels in heaven understand
by the immensity of God
the Divinity as to Its Being (Esse),
and by His eternity
the Divinity as to Its Coming-into-Being (Existere);
they understand also
by immensity the Divinity as to Love
and by eternity the Divinity as to Wisdom.
This is because the angels banish 
space and time from their ideas of the Divinity, 
and this is the result.
But because human beings are incapable of thinking
except by means of ideas formed from
spatial and temporal concepts,
they cannot form any idea 
of the immensity of God before space existed 
or His eternity before time existed.
In fact,
when the human mind wishes to form such an idea,
. . . in the attempt to penetrate these mysteries,
it can easily become deranged,
and thus be led to deny the existence of God.

Remember

I will remember the deeds of the Lord;
yes, I will remember Your miracles of long ago.
I will meditate on all Your works
and consider all your mighty deeds.

(Psalm 77:11-12)

TCR 25 - infinitely the same

TCR 25 [3]

. . . the Divine Being, which is in itself God,
is the same;
not the same in a simple way,
but infinitely the same,
that is, the same from eternity to eternity.
He is the same everywhere,
the same with each person and in each person;
but all the changes and differences occur
in the person who receives Him,
and it is his state which causes this.

The Lord Is My Refuge

When my heart was grieved
and my spirit embittered,
I was senseless and ignorant;
I was a brute beast before You.

Yet I am always with You;
You hold me by my right hand.
You guide me with Your counsel,
and afterward You will take me into glory.
Whom have I in heaven but You?
And earth has nothing I desire besides You.

My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart
and my portion forever.

Those who are far from You will perish;
You destroy all who are unfaithful to you.
But as for me,
it is good to be near God.
I have made the Sovereign Lord my refuge;
I will tell of all your deeds.

(Psalm 73:21-28)