309. 'The flame of a sword turning itself this way and that' means self-love together with its insane desires and persuasions, which are such that people do indeed wish to enter in but are in fact led away from there towards bodily and earthly interests. This may be confirmed by so many examples from the Word as to fill up page after page. Take simply the following verses in Ezekiel,

Prophesy and say, Thus said Jehovah, Say: A sword, a sword has been sharpened and also polished for a great slaughter, sharpened to flash like lightning. Let the sword be repeated a third time, the sword of their slain, ¹ the sword of the great slaughter, penetrating the inmost parts of their dwellings that their heart may melt. And it will multiply offences in all their gates; I have given the terror of the sword. Ah! It has become as lightning. Ezekiel 21:9-10, 14-15.

'The sword' here stands for the desolate condition of a person so that he sees no good or truth at all, but sheer falsities and things that are contrary, meant by 'multiplying offences'. And the phrases in Nahum about the horseman mounting, and the flame of a sword, and the lightning-flash of a spear and a multitude of slain, ¹ Nahum 3:3, refer to people who wish to enter into the arcana of faith.

Poznámky pod čarou:

The Bible refers to the Lord in many different ways seemingly interchangeably. Understood in the internal sense, though, there are important differences. To some degree, the meanings all start with "Jehovah," which is the Lord's actual name. It represents the perfect, eternal, infinite love which is the Lord's actual essence. As such it also represents the good will that flows from the Lord to us and His desire for us to be good. "God," meanwhile, represents the wisdom of the Lord and the true knowledge and understanding He offers to us. The term "the Lord" is very close in meaning to "Jehovah," and in many cases is interchangeable (indeed, translators have a tendency to go back and forth). When the two are used together, though, "the Lord" refers to the power of the Lord's goodness, the force it brings, whereas "Jehovah" represents the goodness itself. In the New Testament, the name "Jehovah" is never used; the term "the Lord" replaces it completely. There are two reasons for that. First, the Jews of the day considered the name "Jehovah" too holy to speak or write. Second, they would not have been able to grasp the idea that the Lord -- who was among them in human form at the time -- was in fact Jehovah Himself. This does ultimately lead to a difference in the two terms by the end of the Bible. Thought of as "Jehovah," the Lord is the ultimate human form and has the potential for assuming a physical human body; thought of as "the Lord" He actually has that human body, rendered divine by the events of his physical life.