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Genesis 15

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1 After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, Have no fear, Abram: I will keep you safe, and great will be your reward.

2 And Abram said, What will you give me? for I have no child and this Eliezer of Damascus will have all my wealth after me.

3 And Abram said, You have given me no child, and a servant in my house will get the heritage.

4 Then said the Lord, This man will not get the heritage, but a son of your body will have your property after you.

5 And he took him out into the open air, and said to him, Let your eyes be lifted to heaven, and see if the stars may be numbered; even so will your seed be.

6 And he had faith in the Lord, and it was put to his account as righteousness.

7 And he said to him, I am the Lord, who took you from Ur of the Chaldees, to give you this land for your heritage.

8 And he said, O Lord God, how may I be certain that it will be mine?

9 And he said, Take a young cow of three years old, and a she-goat of three years old, and a sheep of three years old, and a dove and a young pigeon.

10 All these he took, cutting them in two and putting one half opposite the other, but not cutting the birds in two.

11 And evil birds came down on the bodies, but Abram sent them away.

12 Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep came on Abram, and a dark cloud of fear.

13 And he said to Abram, Truly, your seed will be living in a land which is not theirs, as servants to a people who will be cruel to them for four hundred years;

14 But I will be the judge of that nation whose servants they are, and they will come out from among them with great wealth.

15 As for you, you will go to your fathers in peace; at the end of a long life you will be put in your last resting-place.

16 And in the fourth generation they will come back here; for at present the sin of the Amorite is not full.

17 Then when the sun went down and it was dark, he saw a smoking fire and a flaming light which went between the parts of the bodies.

18 In that day the Lord made an agreement with Abram, and said, To your seed have I given this land from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates:

19 The Kenite, the Kenizzite, and the Kadmonite,

20 And the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Rephaim,

21 And the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Girgashite, and the Jebusite.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 1812

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1812. He believed in Jehovah. That this signifies the Lord’s faith at that time, is evident from the very words, and also from the connection of things in the internal sense; which is that while He lived in the world the Lord was in continual combats of temptations, and in continual victories, from a constant inmost confidence and faith that because He was fighting for the salvation of the whole human race from pure love, He could not but conquer; which is here meant by “believing in Jehovah.” From the love from which anyone fights it is known what his faith is. He who fights from any other love than love toward the neighbor and toward the Lord’s kingdom, does not fight from faith, that is, does not “believe in Jehovah,” but in that which he loves, for the love itself for which he fights is his faith. For example: he who fights from the love of becoming the greatest in heaven, does not believe in Jehovah, but rather in himself; for to desire to become the greatest is to desire to command others; thus he fights for command; and so in all other cases. And thus from the love itself from which anyone fights, it may be known what his faith is.

[2] But in all His combats of temptations the Lord never fought from the love of self, or for Himself, but for all in the universe, consequently, not that He might become the greatest in heaven, for this is contrary to the Divine Love, and scarcely even that He might be the least; but only that all others might become something, and be saved. As He also says in Mark:

The two sons of Zebedee said, Grant unto us that we may sit, one on Thy right hand, and the other on Thy left, in Thy glory. Jesus said, Whoever would be great among you shall be your minister; and whoever would be first among you, shall be servant of all. For the Son of man also came not to be ministered onto, but to minister, and to give His soul a ransom for many (Mark 10:37, 43-45).

This is the love, or this is the faith, from which the Lord fought, and which is here meant by “believing in Jehovah.”

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation for the permission to use this translation.