157. Internal Meaning of Ezekiel, Chapter 34

1-4 Respecting teachers who regard their own good only, and not the good of the church. (2)

5-6 In consequence those who are of the church come into an evil life. (2)

7-10 Being such, everything of the church is taken from them. (3)

11-16 When the Lord comes into the world He will gather the church together, and will teach it Divine truths. (11, 11)

16-17 The evil among them He will separate. (3, 11)

18-20 Evil shepherds destroy everything of the church, (3)

21 and destroy the simple. (3, 6)

22-25 When the Lord comes He will teach and save these. (1, 11)

26-31 He will both teach them and protect them from falsities, and they will acknowledge Him. (11)

3892. I have been told by the most ancient people who were celestial and who more than any others were governed by love to the Lord that they did not have external breathing like those who came after them but internal breathing. They have said that they breathed with angels whose company they shared because they were governed by heavenly love. I have also been told that their state of breathing was determined entirely by their states of love and of faith deriving from it. On these points see what has been related already in 608, 805, 1118-1120.