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.

4727. 'So now come, and let us kill him' means an annihilation of the essential teaching regarding the Lord's Divine Human. This is clear from the meaning of 'killing' as annihilating, and from the representation of 'Joseph', whom they desired to kill, as the Lord's Divine Truth, specifically the teaching regarding His Divine Human, see 4723, where it may be seen that this is the essential truth taught by doctrine. It is well known that the Church acknowledging faith alone has annihilated that essential truth, for who among them believes that the Lord's Human is Divine? Do they not turn away in aversion from the very idea? Yet in the Ancient Churches people believed that the Lord who was to come into the world was a Divine Man, and also when seen by them He was called Jehovah, as is evident from many places in the Word. But for the time being let simply the following in Isaiah be quoted,

The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare the way of Jehovah; make plain in the lonely place a highway for our God. Isaiah 40:3.

It is quite clear from the writers of the Gospels that these words were used to refer to the Lord and that the way was prepared for Him, and the highway made plain, by John the Baptist, Matthew 3:3; Mark 1:3; Luke 3:4; John 1:23. The same is additionally clear from the Lord's own actual words stating that He was one with the Father, that the Father was within Him and He was within the Father; also that all power was given to Him in heaven and on earth, and that judgement was His. Anyone who has but little knowledge about power in heaven and on earth, or about judgement, can see that these words would be meaningless if He were not Divine even as to His Human.

[2] Adherents to faith alone cannot have any knowledge of what makes a human being new, that is, makes him holy, let alone what makes the Lord's Human Divine, since they know nothing about love and charity - it being love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbour that make a human being new and make him holy. It was Divine love itself however that made the Lord Divine. Love constitutes a person's very being (esse), and lies at the root of the life he leads. That Divine love fashions him to be an image of itself, being much like the human soul - a person's inner and essential self - which so to speak creates or moulds the body into an image of itself, so that it uses the body to enable it to act and to discern things exactly as it wills and thinks. The body is then so to speak the effect, and the soul is so to speak the cause that has the end within it, the soul therefore being the all within the body, even as the cause containing the end is the all within the effect. The soul of Divine love was Jehovah Himself, as He was the Lord's soul, since He was conceived from Jehovah; and His Human, once it was glorified, could not be anything else. These considerations show how much those people go astray who make the Lord's Human after it has been glorified like the human of anyone else. In fact it is Divine, and from His Divine Human all wisdom, all intelligence, and also all light go forth in heaven. Whatever goes forth from Him is holy, and anything [regarded as] holy which does not go forth from the Divine is not holy.