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Hosea 3

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1 And the Lord said to me: Go yet again, and love a woman beloved of her friend, and an adulteress : as the Lord loveth the children of Israel, and they look to strange gods, and love the husks of the grapes.

2 And I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for a core of barley, and for half a core of barley.

3 And I said to her: Thou shalt wait for me many days: thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou shalt be no man's, and I also will wait for thee.

4 For the children of Israel shall sit many days without king, and without prince, and without sacrifice, and without altar, and without ephod, and without theraphim.

5 And after this the children of Israel shall return, and shall seek the Lord their God, and David their king: and they shall fear the Lord, and his goodness in the last days.

   

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The Lord # 3

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3. I need at this point to say briefly what all the prophets of the Old Testament from Isaiah to Malachi have to say about the Lord, in general and in some detail.

1. The Lord came into the world in the fullness of time [Galatians 4:4], which was when he was no longer recognized by Jews and when for this reason there was no longer anything left of the church; and unless the Lord had come into the world and revealed himself at that time, humankind would have suffered eternal death. He says in John, “If you do not believe that I am, you will die in your sins” (John 8:24).

2. The Lord came into the world to carry out a last judgment, thereby subduing the hells that were then in control, and doing so by means of battles or trials that were permitted to attack the human nature he had received from his mother, and by a constant succession of victories. Unless the hells had been subdued, no one could have been saved.

3. The Lord came into the world to glorify his human nature-that is, to unite it to the divine nature that he had from conception.

4. The Lord came into the world to found a new church that would recognize him as Redeemer and Savior and that would be redeemed and saved through its love for and faith in him.

5. At the same time he was reorganizing heaven and uniting it with the church.

6. The suffering on the cross was the final battle or trial by means of which he completely subdued the hells and completely glorified his human nature.

In my forthcoming booklet on Sacred Scripture it will become evident that these are the sole subjects of the Word.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation for the permission to use this translation.

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Arcana Coelestia # 6637

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6637. 'These are the names of the children of Israel' means the essential nature of the Church. This is clear from the meaning of' the name as the essential nature, dealt with in 144, 145, 1754, 1896, 2009, 2628, 2724, 3006, 3421; from the representation of 'the sons of Israel' as spiritual truths, dealt with in 5414, 5879, 5951; and from the representation of 'Israel' as the good of truth, which is spiritual good, dealt with in 3654, 4598, 5803, 5806, 5812, 5817, 5819, 5826, 5833. Since Israel' represents the good of truth or spiritual good and 'his sons' represent spiritual truths in the natural, 'the sons of Israel' also represent the Church, for what makes it the Church is spiritual good and the truths that spring from that good. A person without spiritual good, that is, the good of charity, and without spiritual truths, that is, the truths of faith, does not belong to the Church in spite of having been born within the Church. The whole of the Lord's heavenly kingdom possesses the good of love and faith, and unless the Church possesses good like that it cannot be the Church since it is not joined to heaven; for the Church is the Lord's kingdom on earth.

[2] The term 'Church' is not used because it is the place where the Word is and teachings drawn from it, or because it is where the Lord is known and the sacraments are celebrated. Rather it is the Church because it lives in accordance with the Word or with teachings drawn from the Word, and seeks to make those teachings its rule of life. People who do not live like this do not belong to the Church but are outside it; and those who lead wicked lives, thus lives contrary to that teaching, are further away outside the Church than gentiles who know nothing whatever about the Word, the Lord, or the sacraments. For since those people are acquainted with the forms of good that the Church fosters and with the truths it teaches they annihilate the Church within themselves, something gentiles cannot do because they are unacquainted with those things. It should also be realized that everyone who leads a good life, in charity and faith, is a Church, and is a kingdom of the Lord. He is for that reason also called a temple, and a house of God too. Those who are Churches individually, no matter how remote from one another they may be, constitute one Church collectively. This then is the Church meant by the expression 'the children of Israel' here and in what follows.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.