10178. “要用皂荚木来造” 表出于系神性的爱. 这从 “皂荚木” 的含义清楚可知, “皂荚木” 是指唯独属于主的功德和公义的良善 (参看9472, 9486, 9715节). 它之所以也表示爱, 是因为主在世时, 出于神性之爱与所有地狱争战, 并征服它们, 由此拯救人类, 因此唯独祂获得功德, 并变成公义 (9486, 9715, 9809, 10019, 10152节); 所以主的功德之良善是祂的神性之爱. “皂荚木” 之所以如此深远, 重大的意义, 是因为存在于地上的三个国度, 即动物界, 植物界和矿物界中的一切事物都用来表示属灵和属天的事物, 或它们的对立面; 因为整个自然界是代表主国度的一个舞台 (参看9280节提到的地方); “木” 一般表示爱之良善, 尤表功德的良善 (2784, 2812, 3720, 4943, 8354, 8740节). 正因如此, 就至高意义而言, “木” 表示神性良善; 因为在内义上表示诸如属于教会和天堂的那类事物的一切事物, 在至高意义上都表示神性事物.

Father in the Word means what is most interior, and in those things that are following the Lord's order, it means what is good. In the highest sense Father means the Lord Himself, the creator. In the generation of natural children it is the father who provides the soul or the most interior receptacle of life, and an internal heredity, and the mother who provides all of the substance that the soul uses to form its body, plus an external heredity. In this process the soul comes from the Lord through the father, and not from the father, since all life is from the Lord. The wise person calls the Lord his father and the church his mother because his interior loves come from the Lord, but are given form and actuality through the truths taught by the church. Those things thus brought forth are a person's spiritual "children". In the New Testament, when speaking of Jesus and the Father, what is meant is the outward manifestation with the divine itself as the soul inside. Because Jesus was born from a natural mother, He had a natural body and a natural Jewish heredity. Throughout his life as He was tempted by the hells, He slowly put off all he had from His mother and replaced it with what He had from Himself inside, the Father. In doing this he made himself one with the Father that was His inmost so He could truly say, "I and my Father are one".