1186. “亚述” 是指推理. 这从圣言中亚述的含义清楚可知, 它经常用来表示那些属于理性的事物, 具有双重含义, 即表示理性事物和理论 (reasonings). 严格来说, 理智和理性之物用来表真实的事物, 而推理 (reasoning) 和理论 (reasonings) 用来表虚假的事物. 由于 “亚述” 表理性和推理, 故它常与 “埃及” 连起来用, “埃及” 表知识, 因为理性和推理就基于这些知识. “亚述” 表推理, 这一点明显可见于以赛亚书:

有祸呀, 亚述, 我怒气的棍子, 他不思想公义, 他心也不这样打算, 因为他说, 我所成就的事, 是靠我手的能力和我的智慧, 我本有聪明. (以赛亚书 10:5, 7, 13)

此处 “亚述” 表推理, 因此经上指着他说 “他不思想公义, 他心也不这样打算”, 还说他 “靠自己的智慧行事, 因为他本有聪明. ”

以西结书:

有两个女子, 同是一母的女儿, 在埃及行邪淫; 她们在幼年时行邪淫. 阿荷拉行邪淫, 贪恋所爱的人, 就是她的邻邦亚述人, 这些人都穿蓝衣, 作首领和官长, 都骑着马, 是可爱的少年人. 巴比伦人来到她那里, 与她行淫玷污她. (以西结书 23:2-3, 5-6, 17)

此处 “埃及” 表知识, “亚述” 表推理, “巴比伦” 表源于恶欲的虚假.

同一先知书:

耶路撒冷啊, 你也和埃及人行淫, 又与亚述人行淫, 多行淫乱直到那迦南陆地, 就是迦勒底. (以西结书 16:26, 28-29)

此处 “埃及” 同样表知识, “亚述” 表推理. 无论此处还是别处, 基于知识推理属灵和属天的事物都被称为 “行淫”. 谁都能看出, 这不是指与埃及人和亚述人行淫.

耶利米书:

以色列, 现今你为何在埃及路上要喝西曷的水呢? 你为何在亚述路上要喝大河 (幼发拉底河) 的水呢? (耶利米书 2:18, 36)

此处 “埃及” 同样表知识, “亚述” 表推理. 又:

以色列是打散的羊, 是被狮子赶出的. 首先是亚述王将他吞灭, 末后是巴比伦王将他的骨头折断. (耶利米书 50:17-18)

“亚述” 表对属灵事物的推理.

弥迦书:

这位必作平安, 当亚述进入我们的陆地, 践踏我们宫殿的时候, 我们就立起七个牧者, 八个首领攻击他, 他们必用刀剑征服亚述地和宁录地的关口; 亚述人进入我们的陆地践踏的时候, 他必拯救我们. (弥迦书 5:5-6)

这论及以色列, 或属灵教会, 关于它, 经上说 “亚述必不进入”, 即推理必不进入. “宁录地” 表宁录所表示的这类敬拜, 它里面有内在的恶和假.

在圣言中, “亚述” 还表教会成员所具有的理性, 他凭这理性清楚明白何为真, 何为善. 这一事实清楚可见于何西阿书:

他们必如雀鸟从埃及急速而来, 又如鸽子从亚述地来到. (何西阿书 11:11)

此处 “埃及” 表教会成员所具有的知识, “亚述” 表他的理性. 前面说过, “雀鸟” 表所知道和理解的记忆知识 (或科学知识), “鸽子” 表理性的良善.

以赛亚书:

当那日, 必有从埃及通亚述去的大道, 亚述人要进入埃及, 埃及人也进入亚述, 埃及人必服侍亚述人. 当那日, 以色列必与埃及, 亚述三国一律, 使地上的人得福, 因为万军之耶和华赐福给说, 埃及我的百姓, 亚述我手的工作, 以色列我的产业, 都有福了. (以赛亚书 19:23-25)

这论及以色列所表示的属灵教会, “亚述” 是它的理性, “埃及” 是它的知识. 这三者一个接一个依次而来, 构成属灵教会成员的知识力量.

别处所提及的亚述表要么真实要么虚假的理性 (如以赛亚书 20:1至末尾; 23:13; 27:13; 30:31; 31:8, 36, 37; 52:4; 以西结书 27:23-24; 31:3至末尾; 32:22; 弥迦书 7:12; 西番雅书 2:13; 撒迦利亚书 10:11; 诗篇 83:8). “亚述” 表推理 (何西阿书 5:13; 7:11; 10:6; 11:5; 12:1; 14:3; 撒迦利亚书 10:10), 所论及的以法莲表心智的理性部分, 但这里已败坏.

8002. 'A stranger and a hired servant shall not eat it' means that those who are prompted by a merely natural inclination to do good, and those who do it for the sake of gain, shall not be together with them. This is clear from the meaning of 'a stranger' as those who are prompted to do good by a merely natural inclination, dealt with below; from the meaning of 'a hired servant' as those who do good for the sake of gain, also dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'not eating it' as not being together with them, dealt with immediately above in 8001. 'A stranger' means those who are prompted by a merely natural inclination to do good because strangers were newcomers from other peoples. They were inhabitants, dwelling with the Israelites and Jews in one house; and 'dwelling with' means sharing in the same good. But since, as has just been said, they were from peoples outside the Church the good that is meant is not a kind of good that is prominent in the Church but is the kind to be found outside the Church. And this is called natural good because it is a product of the hereditary inclinations that a person is born with. With some people such good may also be the product of poor health or debility of mind. This is what one should understand when the good done by those meant by 'strangers' is mentioned.

[2] This kind of good is completely different from the good prominent in the Church, for by means of the Church's kind of good conscience is established in a person; and conscience is the level on which the angels come in and which brings him into company with them. Natural good cannot provide any such level for angels to enter. Those whose good is natural do good in the dark, led by blind instinct, not in the light of truth, under the influence of heaven. In the next life therefore they are carried away like chaff by the wind, by anyone and everyone, whether evil or good, but especially by an evil person who knows how to add a certain amount of charm and persuasion to his arguments. Nor can angels at this time guide them away, for angels operate through the truths and forms of the good of faith; they enter in on the level formed within a person out of those truths and forms of the good of faith. From all this it is evident that those who are prompted by a merely natural inclination to do good cannot be integrated among angels. Regarding these people and their lot in the next life, see 3470, 3471, 3518, 4988, 4992, 5032, 6208, 7197.

[3] The fact that 'strangers' are those who are not in their own land nor in their own house but are those staying in a foreign land is clear in Moses,

The land shall [not] be sold outright, for the land is Mine; but you are sojourners and strangers with Me. Leviticus 25:23.

In David,

Hear my prayers, O Jehovah; do not be silent at my tears. For I am a sojourner with You, a stranger as all my fathers were. Psalms 39:12.

And in the Book of Genesis,

Abraham said to the sons of Heth, I am a sojourner and a stranger among you; give me possession of a grave. Genesis 13:3-4.

'A sojourner', like 'a stranger', means a newcomer and inhabitant from another land; but 'a sojourner' means those who were taught and accepted the Church's truths, whereas those who were not taught them because they were unwilling to accept them are meant by 'strangers'.

[4] As for hired servants, they were people who worked for wages; they were servants, but not ones who had been bought. The fact that they were called 'hired', see Leviticus 19:13; 25:4-6; Deuteronomy 24:14-15. Because hired servants were those who worked for wages they mean in the internal sense those who do good for the sake of gain in the world, and in a yet more internal sense those who do good for the sake of reward in the next life, thus those who wish to earn merit through works.

[5] Those who do good solely for the sake of gain in the world cannot possibly be integrated among angels, since their final objective for doing it is the world, that is, affluence and prestige, not heaven, that is, the blessedness and happiness of their souls. The final objective is what gives direction to actions and what gives them their specific character. Those who do good solely for the sake of gain are described by the Lord as follows in John,

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life ¹ for the sheep. But a hired servant, he who is not the shepherd, whose sheep are not his own, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf seizes them, and scatters the sheep. But the hired servant flees because he is a hired servant. John 10:11-13.

And in Jeremiah,

A very beautiful heifer was Egypt; destruction has come from the north. Her hired servants are like calves of the stall, ² for they also have turned about, fled away together, and not made a stand, because the day of their ruin has come upon them. Jeremiah 46:20-21.

[6] A law forbidding strangers and hired servants to share in holy things along with those belonging to the Church is stated in Moses as follows,

No outsider shall eat what is holy; a stranger staying with a priest, or a hired servant, shall not eat what is holy. Leviticus 22:10.

And a law which allowed people to buy from the sons of strangers slaves who would serve them for evermore appears in the same book,

You shall buy a male or a female slave from the nations that are around you. And also from the sons of strangers sojourning among you - from them you shall buy, and from their families which are with you, even if they were born in your land, in order that they may be your possession. And you may pass them on as an inheritance to your sons after you to inherit as a possession. Forever you shall be their masters. Leviticus 25:44-46.

'The sons of strangers' means factual knowledge acquired with the aid of merely natural light. The necessity for spiritual truths to dominate that knowledge is meant by the law that slaves should be bought from the sons of strangers as possessions for evermore.

[7] People however who do good for the sake of reward in the next life, people who are also meant by 'hired servants', differ from those spoken about immediately above, in that they have life and happiness in heaven as their final objective. But this objective turns and alters the direction of their Divine worship away from the Lord towards themselves, as a consequence of which they want things to go well only for themselves, not for others except insofar as these want the same for them. When this is so self-love resides in their every desire, not love of the neighbour; that is, they do not have any genuine charity. Nor can these people be integrated among angels, for angels utterly loathe both the word and the notion of reward or repayment. The Lord teaches in Luke that one ought to do what is good without reward as the objective,

Love your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing from it; then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Highest. Luke 6:32-35; 14:12-14.

Regarding the nature of good deeds performed to earn merit, see 1110, 1111, 1774, 1835, 1877, 2027, 2273, 2340, 2373, 2400, 3816, 4007 (end), 4174, 4943, 6388-6390, 6392, 6393, 6478.

[8] The reason why the Lord says so many times that those who do good will have their reward in heaven - as in Matthew 5:11-12; 6:1-2, 26; 10:41-42; 20:1-16; Mark 9:41; Luke 6:23, 35; 14:14; John 4:36 - is that before a person has been regenerated he cannot help thinking about reward. But it is different once he has been regenerated. Then he is indignant if anyone thinks that he does good to his neighbour for the sake of reward; for he feels delight and bliss in the doing of good, but not in repayment. In the internal sense 'reward' is the delight belonging to the affection that goes with charity, see 3816, 3956, 6388, 6478.

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