Joshua 19: The last six tribes receive their territories, and Joshua his inheritance.

This chapter is the last of seven chapters detailing the division of the land of Canaan among the tribes. In this chapter, the remaining six tribes receive their portions.

Simeon received land very much in the south, below that of Judah, and Simeon’s territory was made a part of Judah. Simeon means ‘to hear’. To hear the Lord, and to hear the truth, means wanting to live in obedience with what the Lord teaches. Simeon was important in earlier biblical events, but is rarely mentioned later on; obeying the Lord can and should be a quiet affair (see Swedenborg’s work, Apocalypse Revealed 87).

The area given to Zebulun was modest and towards the north, between the Sea of Galilee and the coast. Zebulun’s name means ‘place of exaltation and honor’, and its spiritual meaning is just as glorious: it refers to honoring the Lord through the way we live our lives, both inwardly and outwardly (see Swedenborg’s Heaven and Hell 390).

Issachar’s territory was a small, fertile area in the north, next to the Jordan. The name “Issachar” means ‘a man of hire’ or ‘a hired man’. Spiritually, this is about wanting to serve the Lord, and dedicating our lives to this. Then we are ‘employed’ as servants of the Lord, and we are rewarded with spiritual strength, joy, and blessings (see Swedenborg’s Arcana Caelestia 6388).

Asher means ‘happy’ - a delightful name - and its territory was along the northern coastline, extending inland. It included Mount Carmel and the Plain of Sharon, which were both beautiful places. Spiritual happiness is quite deep, and is really a feeling of joy, contentment, and well-being. When we are spiritually happy, we feel glad to be alive, to know the Lord, and to do what is good because of God (Arcana Caelestia 6408).

Naphtali had territory going up from the Sea of Galilee to the northern border. Naphtali means ‘crafty and cunning’, which does not sound very heavenly. However, the idea is that we use our intelligence to bring heavenly results from the countless decisions we make each and every day. Earlier in the Bible, Naphtali is blessed and called ‘a deer let loose’, which would then be free to bound away (see Genesis 49:21, Arcana Caelestia 3928).

Dan had two small territories: one in the centre on the coast, and one in the far north near the source of the River Jordan. Dan means ‘to judge well’, and it stands for our need to treat people fairly because of our relationship with the Lord. Perhaps there are two territories because one is our mind (north), and the other is in life (center) (Arcana Caelestia 3923).

Finally, Joshua himself is given his inheritance, a place in Ephraim called Timnath Serah. The name means ‘an extra portion’, and this suggests that beyond everything Joshua has done, he is to be given something further. Spiritually, this could be the unexpected delight we get when we devote ourselves to serving the Lord (Arcana Caelestia 995[3]).

The spiritual meaning of receiving a portion of land is that we are able to experience blessings and goodness from the Lord, but only after we have ‘conquered the land’. This means working through our temptations and overcoming weaknesses during our natural life.

Since the land of Canaan stands for heaven – and also for the growth of heaven in us – each of the twelve tribes represent a part of heavenly life that needs to be active in us. We must learn hear the word of the Lord, judge well in our daily actions, and honor His name by the way we live.

996. 'The edible plant' means very lowly manifestations of delights. This becomes clear from what has been stated. Such delights are called 'edible plants' because they are merely worldly and bodily, that is, external. For, as stated, the pleasures that consist in bodily or most external things have their origins in interior delights ranged in order. Delights that are felt in the most external or bodily things are comparatively lowly. It is true of all delight that the more lowly it is the closer it gets to things that are external, while the nobler it is the closer it gets to those that are internal. Consequently, as has been stated, as in order the external things are rolled away or peeled off, the more pleasant and noble delights become, something which becomes quite clear from the fact that the delight inherent in someone's pleasures during his lifetime is lowly in comparison with the delight that is his subsequently when he enters the world of spirits. Indeed it is so lowly that good spirits reject with utter disdain the delights of the body. Nor do they wish to go back to them even if they were granted all the delights existing in the whole world.

[2] The delight which these spirits enjoy becomes similarly lowly when they are raised up by the Lord into the heaven of angelic spirits, for at that point they cast away those interior delights and take on others more interior still. The same applies to angelic spirits - the delight which these have enjoyed in their heaven likewise becomes a lowly delight when they are taken up by the Lord into the angelic or third heaven. Since internal things in that heaven are living, and nothing else but mutual love reigns, the happiness there is indescribable. For interior delight or happiness, see what has been told from experience in 545.

[3] These considerations show what is meant by the statement 'as the edible plant I have given all this to you.' Because creeping things mean both pleasures of the body and pleasures of the senses, to which 'edible plants' has reference, the expression in the original language is one that means both edible plant and green plant, 'edible plant' in reference to pleasures of the will, which are from celestial affections, and 'green plant' in reference to those of the understanding, which are from spiritual affections. That 'edible plants' and 'green plants' mean things that are lowly is clear from the Word, as in Isaiah,

The waters of Nimrim will be desolations, for the grass has withered away, the herb has been consumed, and there is no green plant. Isaiah 15:6.

In the same prophet,

Their inhabitants were shorn of power, ¹ they were dismayed and filled with shame; they became plants of the field and edible grass plants, hay on the rooftops. Isaiah 37:27.

'Edible grass plants' stands for that which is very lowly. In Moses,

The land, into which you are entering to take possession of it, is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come out; in it you may sow your seed and water it with your foot, like a garden of edible plants. Deuteronomy 11:10.

Here 'garden of edible plants' stands for what is lowly. In David,

The wicked are suddenly cut down like the grass, and destroyed like the edible plant. Psalms 37:2.

Here 'grass' and 'edible plant' stand for what is very lowly.

Poznámky pod čarou: