The Word
Consider the beautiful but cryptic statements of John 1:1:
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
God's love has always been and will always be infinite and perfect. That means the expression of God's love -- His truth -- has also always been and will always be infinite and perfect.
The Lord has shared this truth with us in various ways since the beginning of humanity. The earliest people received truth directly, flowing into the inner parts of their minds from heaven. Later, people understood it through nature seeing the Lord's love expressed in mountains, trees, rivers, and the sun, moon and stars. By using natural language as a container for spiritual language, the Lord expressed truth within the Bible inside its stories, laws and prophecies. When humanity reached its lowest point, God took on a human form and walked among us as Jesus. In this way, the Lord brought us Divine truths in an accessible and tangible way. By accepting and loving the Lord as Jesus we can open ourselves to His love.
Finally, the Heavenly Doctrine received through the pen of Emanuel Swedenborg are themselves a container for Divine Truth, both in speaking plainly about heaven and by unlocking the truth as it is contained in the Bible.
The Word itself is Divine Truth; the Lord's expression of love has and never will change.
Exodus 25:8-22
8
Let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them.
9
According to all that I show you, the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all of its furniture, even so you shall make it.
10
"They shall make an ark of acacia wood. Its length shall be two and a half cubits, its breadth a cubit and a half, and a cubit and a half its height.
11
You shall overlay it with pure gold. You shall overlay it inside and outside, and you shall make a gold molding around it.
12
You shall cast four rings of gold for it, and put them in its four feet. Two rings shall be on the one side of it, and Two rings on the other side of it.
13
You shall make poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold.
14
You shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark to carry the ark.
15
The poles shall be in the rings of the ark. They shall not be taken from it.
16
You shall put the testimony which I shall give you into the ark.
17
You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold. Two and a half cubits shall be its length, and a cubit and a half its breadth.
18
You shall make two cherubim of hammered gold. You shall make them at the two ends of the mercy seat.
19
Make one cherub at the one end, and one cherub at the other end. You shall make the cherubim on its two ends of one piece with the mercy seat.
20
The cherubim shall spread out their wings upward, covering the mercy seat with their wings, with their faces toward one another. The faces of the cherubim shall be toward the mercy seat.
21
You shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the testimony that I will give you.
22
There I will meet with you, and I will tell you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the testimony, all that I command you for the children of Israel.
