The Whole Region Subdued

So Joshua subdued the whole region,

including the hill country,

the Negev,

the western foothills,

and the mountain slopes,

together with all their kings.

He left no survivors.

He totally destroyed all who breathed,

just as the Lord, the God of Israel,

commanded.

Joshua subdued them

from Kadesh Barnea to Gaza

and from the whole region

of Goshen to Gibeon.

All these kings and their lands

Joshua conquered in one campaign,

because the Lord, the God of Israel,

fought for Israel.

Then Joshua returned with all Israel

to the camp at Gilgal.

(Joshua 10:40-43)

CL 313 - spiritual people, natural people

CL 313 [3]

For spiritual people look to the Lord,

and the Lord oversees and guides

an orderly progression.

But natural people look to themselves,

and so proceed in an inverted progression.

Crossing the Jordan

So when the people broke camp to cross the Jordan,

the priests carrying the ark of the covenant

went ahead of them.

Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest.

Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark

reached the Jordan

that their feet touched the water's edge,

the water from upstream stopped flowing.

It piled up in a heap a great distance away,

at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zarethan,

while the water flowing down

to the Sea of the Arabah (the Salt Sea)

was completely cut off.

So the people crossed over opposite Jericho.

The priests who carried

the ark of the covenant of the Lord

stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan,

while all Israel passed by

until the whole nation

had completed the crossing on dry ground.

That day the Lord exalted Joshua

in the sight of all Israel;

and they revered him all the days of his life,

just as they had revered Moses.

(Joshua 3:14-17; 4:14)

CL 304 - devotion to one

CL 304

With chaste people - who are people

who think of marriage in accordance with religion -

a marriage of the spirit precedes

and one of the body follows after. 

These are also people in whom love ascends

toward the soul

and thus descends from on high . . .. 

Their souls turn away from

an unrestricted love for the opposite sex

and devote themselves to one,

looking to an everlasting and eternal union with him or her

and the growing blessings of that union,

which fuel in them a hope

that continually refreshes their minds.

Be Strong and Courageous

After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord,

the Lord said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses' aide:

"Be strong and very courageous.

Be careful to obey all the law

My servant Moses gave you;

do not turn from it to the right or to the left,

that you may be successful wherever you go.

Do not let this Book of the Law

depart from your mouth;

meditate on it day and night,

so that you may be careful

to do everything written in it.

Then you will be prosperous and successful.

Have I not commanded you?

Be strong and courageous,

for the Lord your God will be with you

wherever you go."

(Joshua 1:1,7-9)

CL 293 - How do you know?

CL 293

So I asked,

"How do you know

that the delights of married love

are at the same time delights of wisdom?"

They then replied,

"We know it from the correspondence that exists

between wisdom in our husbands

and the delights of married love in us.

For the delights of this love in us

heighten or diminish

and take on altogether different qualities

according to the wisdom in our husbands."

The Lord Is Your Life

Now what I am commanding you today

is not too difficult for you

or beyond your reach.

It is not up in heaven,
so that you have to ask,

"Who will ascend into heaven

to get it and proclaim it to us

so that we may obey it?"

Nor is it beyond the sea,

so that you have to ask,

"Who will cross the sea

to get it and proclaim it to us

so that we may obey it?"

No, the word is very near you;

it is in your mouth and in your heart

so that you may obey it.

See, I set before you today

life and prosperity,

death and destruction.

For I command you today

to love the Lord your God,

to walk in His ways,

and to keep His commands, decrees and laws;

then you will live and increase,

and the Lord your God will bless you

in the land you are entering to possess.

But if your heart turns away

and you are not obedient,

and if you are drawn away

to bow down to other gods and worship them,

I declare to you this day

that you will certainly be destroyed.

You will not live long in the land

you are crossing the Jordan 

to enter and possess.

This day I call heaven and earth

as witnesses against you

that I have set before you life and death,

blessings and curses.

Now choose life,

so that you and your children may live

and that you may love the Lord your God,

listen to His voice,

and hold fast to Him.

For the Lord is your life,

and He will give you many years in the land

He swore to give to your fathers,

Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

(Deuteronomy 30:11-20)

CL 282 - a spiritual person

CL 282

. . . a spiritual person's whole intention 
is to amend their life.

From Mount Ebal

Then Moses and the priests,

who are Levites,

said to all Israel,

"Be silent, O Israel, and listen!"

(Deuteronomy 27:9)

CL 276, 280 - appearances in marriage

CL 276

. . . in marriages where married love is not genuine,

it should still be affected or be made to appear

as though it were.
It would be different if marriages once entered into

were not compacts to the end of life,

but could be dissolved at will.

The principle that marriages once contracted

are to continue on to the end of life in the world

is based on Divine law . . ..

CL 280

In a spiritual person joined to a natural one,

these simulations of married love

are a matter of justice and judgment. 

That is because a spiritual person does what he does

in accordance with justice and judgment. 

Therefore he does not see these simulations

as estranged from his inward affections

but as coupled together with them. 

For he is serious in his actions and looks

to amendment as the goal;

and if this is not attained,

he looks to accommodation,

for the sake of order in the home,

for the sake of maintaining their assistance to each other,

for the sake of providing for the care of infants,

for the sake of peace and tranquillity. 

He is led to these intentions by a sense of justice,

and with judgment he carries them into practice.

This is the way a spiritual person lives with a natural one,

because a spiritual person behaves spiritually,

even with one who is natural.

The Lord Moves In Your Camp

For the Lord your God moves about in your camp

to protect you and deliver your enemies to you.

Your camp must be holy,

so that He will not see among you anything indecent

and turn away from you.

(Deuteronomy 23:14)

CL 269 - head, body, feet

CL 269 [2-3]

Every human being is from creation

a combination of three universal loves: 

love of the neighbor,

which is also a love of performing useful services;

love of the world,

which is also a love of possessing riches;

and love of self,

which is also a love of exercising command over others.

Love of the neighbor,

or a love of performing useful services,

is a love of the spirit. 

Love of the world, on the other hand,

or a love of possessing riches,

is a love of material things. 

And love of self,

or a love of exercising command over others,

is a love of one's own person.

A person is a human being as long as

love of the neighbor

or a love of performing useful services

forms the head,

with love of the world forming the body,

and love of self forming the feet. 

Detestable Practices

When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you,

do not learn to imitate the detestable ways

of the nations there.

Let no one be found among you

who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire,

who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens,

engages in witchcraft, or casts spells,

or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead.

Anyone who does these things

is detestable to the Lord . . ..

You must be blameless before the Lord your God.

(Deuteronomy 18:9-13)

CL 266 - useful services

CL 266 [5]

Devils perform useful services

for the sake of themselves and their reputation,

in order to be promoted to positions of honor

or gain wealth. 

Angels, on the other hand,

do not perform useful services on that account,

but for the sake of the services,

from a love of them. 

A person cannot distinguish

the one and the other kinds of service,

but the Lord sees the difference. 

Everyone who believes in the Lord

and refrains from evils as sins

performs useful services from the Lord. 

But everyone who does not believe in the Lord

and does not refrain from evils as sins

performs the services he does

from himself and for the sake of himself.

What Does the Lord Ask?

And now, O Israel,

what does the Lord your God ask of you

but to fear the Lord your God,

to walk in all His ways,

to love Him,

to serve the Lord your God

with all your heart

and with all your soul,

and to observe

the Lord's commandments and decrees

that I am giving you today

for your own good.

(Deuteronomy 10:12-13)

CL 260 - soul, mind and body

CL 260

. . . both soul and mind

are not only in the head

but also in the body;

for the soul and mind are the person,

it being these two that constitute the spirit

which lives after death.

. . . So it is that as soon as a person has a thought,

he can in an instant express it with the body's mouth

and represent it simultaneously in gesture;

and as soon as he wills something,

he can in an instant do it

and accomplish it

by means of the body's appendages.

None of this would be possible

if the soul and mind

were not at the same time

in the body,

constituting the person's spiritual self.

Remember and Know

Be careful to follow every command

I am giving you today,

so that you may live and increase

and may enter and possess

the land that the Lord promised

on oath to your forefathers.

Remember how the Lord your God led you

all the way in the desert these forty years,

to humble you 

and to test you

in order to know what was in your heart,

whether or not you would keep His commands.

He humbled you,

causing you to hunger

and then feeding you with manna,

which neither you nor your fathers had known,

to teach you that man does not live on bread alone

but on every word

that comes from the mouth of the Lord.

Your clothes did not wear out

and your feet did not swell

during these forty years.

Know then in your heart

that as a man disciplines his son,

so the Lord your God disciplines you.

(Deuteronomy 8:1-5)

CL 249 - being useful vs. laziness & sloth

CL 249

Human beings were created to be useful,

because useful service

is the containing vessel of goodness and truth,

and a marriage of good and truth

is the origin both of creation and also of married love.

By pursuit or business

we mean any effort to be useful. 

When . . . a person is engaged in some pursuit

or business or other useful activity,

his mind is fenced around and circumscribed

as though with a circle,

within whose bounds it is progressively ordered

into truly human form. 

Then, from this vantage point,

as though looking out from its house,

it sees various impure passions lurking outside,

and from the sanity of its reason within, 

banishes them,

thus banishing as well

the wild insanities of licentious lust. 

Because of this,

conjugial warmth lasts better and longer in such people

than it does in others.

[2]    The contrary happens in the case of people

who surrender themselves to laziness and sloth. 

Their mind is not fenced around or set within bounds;

a person like that

consequently throws open the whole of it

and lets in every sort of nonsense and foolishness

which flows in from the world and the body

and draws him into a love of them. 

It is apparent that conjugial love is also then

cast out and banished. 

For laziness and sloth 

dull the mind and numb the body,

and the whole person becomes unresponsive

to any vitalizing love - especially conjugial love,

from which, as from a fountain,

spring active and energetic states of life.

Has Anything so Great?

Ask now about the former days,

long before your time,

from the day God created man on the earth;

ask from one end of the heavens to the other.

Has anything so great as this every been heard of?

Has any other people heard the voice of God

speaking out of fire, as you have, and lived?

Has any god ever tried to take for himself

one nation out of another nation,

by testings, by miraculous signs and wonders,

by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm,

or by great and awesome deeds,

like all the things the Lord your God

did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?

You were shown these things

so that you might know

that the Lord is God;

besides Him there is no other.

(Deuteronomy 4:32-35)

CL 246 - similarities and dissimilarities

CL 246

Some similarities and dissimilarities are internal,

and some are external.

Internal ones trace their origin solely from religion;

for religion is implanted in souls . . ..

[2]  In contrast, external similarities and dissimilarities

are qualities not of souls but of dispositions.

By dispositions we mean people's outward affections

and consequent inclinations

which are implanted after birth

chiefly through their upbringings, associations,

and resulting habits.