AE 325 - all true worship

AE 325 [7]

. . . all worship of the Lord which is truly worship
comes from celestial good through spiritual good;
for spiritual good,
which is charity towards the neighbor,
is in effect of celestial good,
for charity towards the neighbor
is the performance of uses,
and living a moral life from a heavenly origin . . .
this therefore is spiritual good;
while celestial good is looking to the Lord
and acknowledging
that every good and truth is from Him,
and that from man,
or from what is man's own (proprium),
there is nothing but evil.

A Chariot of Fire and Horses of Fire

When the Lord was about to take Elijah
up to heaven in a whirlwind,
Elijah and Elisha were on their way from Gilgal.
Elijah said to Elisha,
"Stay here; the Lord has sent me to Bethel."

But Elisha said,
"As surely as the Lord lives and as you live,
I will not leave you."
So they went down to Bethel.

The company of the prophets at Bethel
came out to Elisha and asked,
"Do you know that the Lord is going
to take your master from you today?"

"Yes, I know," Elisha replied, "but do not speak of it."

Then Elijah said to him,
"Stay here, Elisha; the Lord has sent me to Jericho."

And he replied,
"As surely as the Lord lives and as you live,
I will not leave you."
So they went to Jericho.

The company of the prophets at Jericho
went up to Elisha and asked him,
"Do you know that the Lord is going
to take your master from you today?"

"Yes, I know," he replied, "but do not speak of it."

Then Elijah said to him,
"Stay here; the Lord has sent me to the Jordan."

And he replied,
"As surely as the Lord lives and as you live,
I will not leave you."
So the two of them walked on.

Fifty men of the company of the prophets
went and stood at a distance,
facing the place where Elijah and Elisha
had stopped at the Jordan.
Elijah took his cloak,
rolled it up
and struck the water with it.
The water divided to the right and to the left,
and the two of them crossed over on dry ground.

When they had crossed,
Elijah said to Elisha,
"Tell me, what can I do for you
before I am taken from you?"

"Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit,"
Elisha replied.

"You have asked a difficult thing," Elijah said,
"yet if you see me when I am taken from you,
it will be yours - otherwise not."

As they were walking along and talking together,
suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire
appeared and separated the two of them,
And Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind.
Elisha saw this and cried out,
"My father!  My father!
The chariots and horsemen of Israel!"
And Elisha saw him no more.
Then he took hold of his own clothes
and tore them apart."

He picked up the cloak that had fallen from Elijah
and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan.
Then he took the cloak that had fallen from him
and struck the water with it.
"Where now is the Lord, the God of Elijah?"
he asked.
When he struck the water,
it divided to the right and to the left,
and he crossed over.

The company of the prophets from Jericho,
who were watching said,
"The spirit of Elijah is resting on Elisha."
And they went to meet him
and bowed to the ground before him.

(II Kings 2:1-15)

AE 316 - working together

AE 316 [26]
. . . it is through truths
that good acts and speaks.

Jehoshaphat King of Judah

Jehoshaphat son of Asa became king of Judah
in the fourth year of Ahab king of Israel.
Jehoshaphat 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.
The high places, however, were not removed,
and the people continued to offer sacrifices
and burn incense there.
Jehoshaphat was also at peace with the king of Israel.

As for the other events of Jehoshaphat's reign,
the things he achieved and his military exploits,
are they not written
in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah?
He rid the land of the rest of the male shrine prostitutes
who remained there
even after the reign of his father Asa.
There was then no king in Edom;
a deputy ruled.

(I Kings 22: 41-47)

AE 316 - cerebellum and cerebrum

AE 316 [16]

. . . according to the influx of good and truth
with man and spirit . . .
all good is received behind,
and all truth in front,
as the cerebellum is formed to receive the good,
which is of the will,
and the cerebrum to receive the truth,
which is of the understanding . . .

Under a Tree and in a Cave

Now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done
and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword.
So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say,
"May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely,
if by this time tomorrow
I do not make your life like that of one of them."

Elijah was afraid and ran for his life.
When he came to Beersheba in Judah,
he left his servant there,
while he himself went a day's journey into the desert.
He came to a broom tree,
sat down under it and prayed that he might die.
"I have had enough, Lord," he said.
"Take my life; I am not better than my ancestors."
Then he lay down under the tree and fell asleep.

All at once an angel touched him and said,
"Get up and eat."
He looked around,
and there by his head
was a cake of bread baked over hot coals,
and a jar of water.
He ate and drank and then lay down again.

The angel of the Lord came back a second time
and touched him and said,
"Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you."
So he got up and ate and drank.
Strengthened by that food,
he traveled forty days and forty nights
until he reached Horeb,
the mountain of God.
There he went into a cave and spent the night.

And the word of the Lord came to him:
"What are you doing here, Elijah?"

He replied,
"I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty.
The Israelites have rejected your covenant,
broken down your altars,
and put your prophets to death with the sword.
I am the only one left,
and now they are trying to kill me, too."

The Lord said,
"Go out and stand on the mountain
in the presence of the Lord,
for the Lord is about to pass by."

Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart
and shattered the rocks before the Lord,
but the Lord was not in the wind.
After the wind there was an earthquake,
but the Lord was not in the earthquake.
After the earthquake came a fire,
but the Lord was not in the fire.
And after the fire came a still small Voice.
When Elijah heard it,
he pulled his cloak over his face
and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.

Then a Voice said to him,
"What are you doing here, Elijah?"

He replied,
"I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty.
The Israelites have rejected Your covenant,
broken down Your altars,
and put Your prophets to death with the sword.
I am the only one left,
and now they are trying to kill me, too."

The Lord said to him,
"Go back the way you came,
and go to the Desert of Damascus.
When you get there,
anoint Hazael king over Aram.
Also, anoint Jehu son of Nimshi king of Israel,
and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah
to succeed you as prophet.
Jehu will put to death
any who escape the sword of Hazael,
and Elisha will put to death
any who escape the sword of Jehu.
Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel -
all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal
and all whose mouths have not kissed him."

(I Kings 19:1-18)

AE 314 - "lamb", "wolf", "sheep"

AE 314[4-5, 9]

Because a "lamb" signifies innocence,
or those who are innocent,
and a "wolf" those who are against innocence,
it is said . . .:

The wolf and the lamb shall feed together;
they shall not do evil in the whole mountain of holiness.
(Isaiah 65:25);

"the mountain of holiness" is heaven,
especially the inmost heaven.
Therefore the Lord said to the seventy whom He sent forth:

I send you forth as lambs in the midst of wolves.
(Luke 10:3)

Because "lambs" signify
those who are in the love to the Lord,
which love is one with innocence,
and because "sheep" signify those
who are in love towards the neighbor,
which love is charity,
the Lord said to Peter:

Simon, son of Jonas, do you love Me?
He says unto Him,
Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.
He said unto Him, Feed My lambs;
and afterwards, Feed My sheep.
(John 21:15-17).

These things were said to Peter,
because by "Peter" truth from good,
or faith from charity was meant,
and truth from good teaches;
"to feed" meaning to teach.

Since a "lamb" signifies innocence,
which, viewed in itself, is love to the Lord,
a "lamb," in the highest sense,
signifies the Lord in respect to the Divine Human,
for in respect to this,
the Lord was innocence itself;
as may be seen in the following passages:

He endured persecution and He was afflicted,
yet He opened not His mouth;
He is led as a lamb to the slaughter.
(Isaiah 53:7)

John sees Jesus coming unto him, and says,
Behold the Lamb of God,
that takes away the sin of the world.
And afterwards, seeing Jesus walking,
he said, Behold the Lamb of God.
(John 1:29, 36)

The Lamb in the midst of the throne shall feed them,
and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters.
(Revelation 7:17)

The Ravens Feed Elijah

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 309 - the body is the soul's obedience

AE 309

Behold, the Lion has overcome,
(Revelation 5:5)

signifies that the Lord from His own power
subjugated the hells,
and reduced all things there and in the heavens to order.
This is evident from the signification of "overcoming,"
when predicated of the Lord,
namely, that when He was in the world
He subjugated the hells,
and reduced all things there and in the heavens to order,
and this by temptations admitted into His Human,
and then by continual victories.
. . . and as the Lord had done these things
from His own power,
He is called a "Lion;"
for "lion" signifies power.
That the Lord did these things from His own power
is known from the Word;
but as few are aware of this,
I wish to say something respecting it.
The Lord did this
from the Divine that was in Him from conception;
this Divine He had as a man has a soul from his father;
and the soul of everyone 
works by means of the body,
for the body is the soul's obedience. 

A Kingdom Divided

Also, Jeroboam son of Nebat rebelled against the king.
He was one of Solomon's officials,
an Ephraimite from Zeredah,
and his mother was a widow named Zeruah.

Here is the account of how he rebelled against the king:
Solomon had built the supporting terraces
and had filled in the gap in the wall
of the city of David his father.
Now Jeroboam was a man of standing,
and when Solomon saw
how well the young man did his work,
he put him in charge of the whole labor force 
of the house of Joseph.

About that time Jeroboam was going out of Jerusalem,
and Ahijah the prophet of Shiloh met him on the way,
wearing a new cloak.
The two of them were alone out in the country,
and Ahijah took hold of the new cloak he was wearing
and tore it into twelve pieces.
then he said to Jeroboam,
"Take ten pieces for yourself,
for this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says:
'See, I am going to tear the kingdom
out of Solomon's hand
and give you ten tribes.
But for the sake of My servant David
and the city of Jerusalem,
which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel,
he will have one tribe.
I will do this because they have forsaken Me
and worshiped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians,
Chemosh the god of the Moabites,
and Molech the god of the Ammonites,
and have not walked in My ways,
nor done what is right in My eyes,
nor kept My statutes and laws as David,
Solomon's father did.

"'But I will not take
the whole kingdom out of Solomon's hand;
I have made him ruler all the days of his life
for the sake of David My servant,
whom I chose
and who observed My commands and statues.
I will take the kingdom from his son's hands
and give you ten tribes."

Solomon tried to kill Jeroboam,
but Jeroboam fled to Egypt,
to Shishak the king,
and stayed there until Solomon's death.

As for the other events of Solomon's reign -
all he did and the wisdom he displayed -
are they not written
in the book of the annals of Solomon?
Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel forty years.
Then he rested with his fathers
and was buried in the city of David his father.
And Rehoboam his son
succeeded him as king.

(I Kings 11:26-35,40-43)

AE 304 - "land" signifies the church

AE 304 [56, 61]

I have made the earth, man and beast
that are upon the faces of the earth,
and I give it to him who is right in My eyes.
(Jeremiah 27:5)

"Man and beast that are upon the faces of the earth"
signify the affections of truth and good
in the spiritual and the natural man;
and since these affections with men
constitute the church in them it is said,
"I have made the earth, man and beast
that are upon the faces of the earth,
and I give it to him who is right in My eyes."
Everyone knows that God gives the earth
not only to those who are right in His eyes,
but also to those who are not right,
while the church He gives to those only who are right;
"right" signifying truth and its affection.

Because the "land" [or ground] signified the church:

The Lord spat on the earth,
and made clay of the spittle,
and anointed the eyes of the blind man, and said,
'Go wash thee in the pool of Siloam.'
(John 9:6-7, 11, 15)

So the Lord,
when the Scribes and Pharisees questioned Him
respecting the woman taken in adultery,
stooping down, wrote twice on the earth (John 8:6, 8);
which signified that the church was full of adulteries,
that is, full of the adulteration of good
and the falsification of truth;
therefore the Lord said to them:

He that is without sin among you,
let him first cast a stone at her;
but they went out one by one,
beginning from the elders,
even unto the last.
(John 8:7, 9)

From Solomon's Blessing

When Solomon had finished
all these prayers and supplications to the Lord,
he rose from before the altar of the Lord,
where he had been kneeling
with his hands spread out toward heaven.
He stood and blessed
the whole assembly of Israel in a loud voice, saying:

"Praise be to the Lord,
who has given rest to His people Israel
just as He promised.
Not one word has failed
of all the good promises 
He gave through His servant Moses.
May the Lord our God be with us
as He was with our fathers;
may He never leave us nor forsake us.
May He turn our hearts to Him,
to walk in all His ways
and to keep the commands, decrees and regulations
He gave our fathers."

(I Kings 8:54-58)

AE 304 - "Sing aloud O heavens"

AE 304 [32]

I have given thee for a covenant to the people,
to restore the earth.
Sing aloud O heavens,
and exult O earth,
and break forth O mountains with a song.
(Isaiah 49:8, 13)

This treats of the Lord and His coming;
the establishment of the church by Him is described by
"I have given thee for a covenant of the people,
to restore the earth,"
to "restore the earth" being to reestablish the church;
it is known that the Lord did not restore
the earth to the Jewish people,
but that He established a church among the Gentiles;
the joy in consequence is described by,
"Sing aloud O heavens,
and exult O earth,
and break forth O mountains with a song,"
"the heavens"
being the heavens where angels are
who are in the interior truths of the church,
"the earth"
the church among men,
and "the mountains"
those who are in the good of love to the Lord.

Solomon's Kingdom

The people of Judah and Israel
were as numerous as the sand on the seashore;
they ate, they drank and they were happy.
And Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms
from the River to the land of the Philistines,
as far as the border of Egypt.
These countries brought tribute
and were Solomon's subjects all his life.

(I Kings 4:20-21)

AE 302 - "a great voice"; AE 304 - angels and men

AE 302
. . . the influx of the Lord
is signified by "a great voice;"
for "voice," in reference to the Lord,
signifies every truth of the Word,
of doctrine,
and of faith from Him . . ..

. . . no one, of himself,
from the love of good
can be affected by good,
and from the love of truth
can think truth,
but that this flows in from heaven,
that is, through heaven from the Lord;
and because this is so,
"a great voice" signifies influx of the Lord.

AE 304 [3]
. . . an angel is not an angel, nor is a man a man,
from the human form, which both have,
but because of heaven and the church with them.

Adonijah Thinks He Is King

Now Adonijah, whose mother was Haggith,
put himself forward and said,
"I will be king."
So he got chariots and horses ready,
with fifty men to run ahead of him.
(His father had never interfered with him by asking,
"Why do you behave as you do?"
He was also very handsome
and was born next after Absalom.)

Adonijah conferred with Joab son of Zeruiah
and with Abiathar the priest,
and they gave him their support.
But Zadok the priest, 
Benaiah son of Jehoiada,
Nathan the prophet,
Shimei and Rei and David's special guard
did not join Adohijah.

. . . King David said,
"Call in Zadock the Priest, Nathan the prophet
and Benaiah son of Jehoiada."
When they came before the king, he said to them:
"Take your lord's servants with you
and set Solomon my son on my own mule
and take him down to Gihon.
There have Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet
anoint him king over Israel.
Blow the trumpet and shout,
'Long live King Solomon!'
Then you are to go up with him,
and he is to come
and sit on my throne and reign in my place.
I have appointed him ruler over Israel and Judah."

(I Kings 1:5-8,32-35)

AE 298 - "right hand"

AE 298 [2]

. . . "right hand" in reference to the Lord
signifies both omnipotence and omniscience,
and in reference to men
power and wisdom . . .

When One Rules

"The Spirit of the Lord spoke through me:
his word was on my tongue.
The God of Israel spoke,
the Rock of Israel said to me:

"When one rules over men in righteousness,
when he rules in the fear of God,
he is like the light of morning at sunrise
on a cloudless morning,
like the brightness after rain
that brings the grass from the earth."

(II Samuel 23:2-4)

AE 297 - judgment

AE 297

There are two things
that proceed from the Lord as the sun of heaven,
namely, Divine good and Divine truth.
Divine good from the Lord
is called "the Father in the heavens,"
and is here meant by "Him that sat upon the throne;"
and Divine truth from the Lord
is called "the Son of man," but here "the Lamb."

[2] For in respect to judgment, the case is this:
The Lord is present with all,
and from Divine Love He wills to save all,
and He turns and leads all towards Himself.
Those who are in good and in truths therefrom follow,
for they apply themselves,
but those who are in evil and in falsities therefrom
do not follow, but turn backwards from the Lord,
and to turn themselves backwards from the Lord
is to turn from heaven to hell;
for every man-spirit is either
his own good and the truth therefrom,
or his own evil and the falsity therefrom.
He who is a good and the truth therefrom
permits himself to be led by the Lord;
but he who is an evil and the falsity therefrom
does not permit himself to be led;
he resists with all his strength and endeavor,
for his will is toward his own love;
for this love is his breath and life;
therefore his desire is toward those
who are in a like love of evil.
From this it can be seen that
the Lord does not judge anyone,
but that Divine truth received judges to heaven
those who have received Divine truth in the heart,
that is, in love;
and it judges to hell
those who have not received Divine truth in the heart,
and who have denied it.
 

The Men of Israel and the Men of Judah Bicker

Soon all the men of Israel were coming to the king
and saying to him,
"Why did our brothers, the men of Judah,
steal the king away
and bring him and his household across the Jordan,
together with all his men?"

All the men of Judah answered the men of Israel,
"We did this because the king is closely related to us.
Why are you angry about it?
Have we eaten any of the king's provisions?
Have we taken anything for ourselves?"

Then the men of Israel answered the men of Judah,
"We have ten shares in the king;
and besides,
we have a greater claim on David than you have.
So why do you treat us with contempt?
Were we not the first to speak of bringing back our king?"

But the men of Judah responded even more harshly
than the men of Israel.

Now a troublemaker
named Sheba son if Bicri, a Benjamite,
happened to be there.
He sounded the trumpet and shouted:

"We have no share in David,
no part in Jesse's son!
Every man to his tent, I Israel!"

So all the men of Israel deserted David
to follow Sheba son of Bicri.
But the men of Judah stayed by their king
all the way from the Jordan to Jerusalem.

David said to Abishai,
"Now Sheba son of Bicri will do more harm
than Absalom did.
Take your master's men and pursue him,
or he will find fortified cities and escape from us.

(II Samuel 19:42-43, 20:1-2,6)