49. And the [patient] expectation of Jesus Christ, signifies where there is knowledge of the Lord's Divine in His Human. This is evident from the signification of "the expectation of Jesus Christ," as being the coming of the time when the church shall know the Lord; and the church knows the Lord when it acknowledges the Divine in His Human. That by "Jesus Christ" is meant the Lord in respect to the Divine in His Human, see above n. 26. The church of which this is said is the church that is to come after the present one, for it is said "in the expectation. "

The church that is at this day knows, indeed, that the Divine is in the Human of the Lord; for it knows that according to the accepted doctrine, the Divine and the Human are not two but one person; also that they are like soul and body in man (See above, n. 10, 26). And yet it does not know that the Lord's Human is Divine, for it separates the one from the other, as is clear from this, that those who are of the church do not admit the expression "Divine Human;" also that they approach the Father, that He may have compassion for the sake of the Son when yet the Divine Itself in heaven is the Divine Human (See the work on Heaven and Hell 78-86). And because this knowledge and acknowledgment have thus perished, and yet it is the chief thing of all things of the church, as it is the chief thing of all things in heaven, therefore a new church is being established by the Lord among the nations, where this is not only known but also acknowledged. This, then, is what is signified by "the expectation of Jesus Christ."

4316. In the internal historical sense 'even to this day' means that their nature was perpetually so. This is clear from the meaning of 'even to this day', when used in the Word, as that which is perpetual, dealt with in 2838. The fact that the nature of those descendants was such from earliest times becomes clear from Jacob's sons themselves - from Reuben, in that he lay with Bilhah, his father's concubine, Genesis 35:22; from Simeon and Levi, in that they killed Hamor and Shechem and all the men of their city [Genesis 34:25-26]; and from the remaining sons, in that these came on the slain and destroyed the city, Genesis 34:27-29. Because of all this Jacob, who by then was Israel, spoke of them in the following manner before he died: Of Reuben he said,

You shall not be a superior one, for you went up to your father's bed; then you made yourself unworthy. He went up to my couch. Genesis 49:3-4.

And of Simeon and Levi he said,

Into their secret place let my soul not come; with their congregation let not my glory be united; for in their anger they killed a man, and deliberately hamstrung an ox. Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce, and their fury, for it is severe. I will divide them within Jacob, and will scatter them within Israel. Genesis 49:5-7.

[2] What Judah was like becomes additionally clear from his marriage to a Canaanite, Genesis 38:1-2, which was nevertheless contrary to what had been commanded, as may be seen from Abraham's words addressed to the servant who was sent to betroth Rebekah to Isaac his son, Genesis 24:3, 6, and from many places in the Word. A third of that nation belonged to this lineage, that is to say, a third descended from his son Shelah who was born from a Canaanite mother, Genesis 38:11; 46:12. See Numbers 26:20; and 1 Chronicles 4:21-22. Further evidence of what these and the rest of Jacob's sons were like lies in the unspeakable crime which they committed against Joseph, Genesis 37:18-end. What their descendants in Egypt were like is evident from the details which are recorded about them when they were in the desert, where they were rebellious on so many occasions, and after that in the land of Canaan where they became idolaters on so many occasions; and lastly what they were like in the Lord's time is shown just above, in 4314. And what they are like today is well known - they are opposed to the Lord, opposed to the things that constitute the Church, and opposed to charity towards the neighbour, being opposed even to one another. These considerations show that the nature of that nation has been such perpetually. Let no one therefore assume any longer that any Church has existed among them, only that which is a representative of the Church. Still less should anyone assume that they have been chosen in preference to others.