2714. That “Paran” is illumination from the Lord’s Divine Human, is evident from the signification of “Paran,” as being the Lord’s Divine Human, which is manifest from the passages in the Word where it is named, as in the prophet Habakkuk:
O Jehovah, I have heard Thy fame, I was afraid; O Jehovah, revive Thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known, in zeal remember mercy. God will come from Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Paran; Selah: His honor covered the heavens, and the earth is full of His praise; and His brightness shall be as the light. He had horns going out from His hand, and there was the hiding of His strength (Hab. 3:2-4); where the Lord’s advent is plainly treated of, which is signified by “reviving in the midst of the years,” and by “making known in the midst of the years.” His Divine Human is described by “God coming from Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Paran.” He is said to “come from Teman” as to celestial love, and “from Mount Paran” as to spiritual love; and that illumination and power are from these is signified by saying that there shall be “brightness and light,” and by His having “horns going out from His hand;” the “brightness and light” are illumination, and the “horns” are power.
[2] In Moses:
Jehovah came from Sinai, and rose from Seir unto them; He shone forth from Mount Paran, and He came from the ten thousands of holiness; from His right hand was a fire of law unto them; yea, He loveth the peoples; all His saints are in thy hand, and they were gathered together at thy foot, and he shall receive of thy words (Deuteronomy 33:2-3).
Here also the Lord is treated of, whose Divine Human is described by His “rising from Seir, and shining forth from Mount Paran”—from “Seir” as to celestial love, and from “Mount Paran” as to spiritual love. The spiritual are signified by the “peoples whom He loves,” and by their being “gathered together at His foot.” The “foot” signifies what is lower, and thus more obscure, in the Lord’s kingdom.
[3] In the same:
Chedorlaomer and the kings that were with him smote the Horites in their Mount Seir, unto El-paran, which is in the wilderness (Genesis 14:5-6).
That the Lord’s Divine Human is here signified by “Mount Seir,” and by “El-paran,” may be seen above (n. 1675, 1676). In the same:
It came to pass in the second year, in the second month, in the twentieth day of the month, that the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle of the testimony and the sons of Israel set forward according to their journeys, out of the wilderness of Sinai; and the cloud abode in the wilderness of Paran (Numbers 10:11-12).
[4] That the journeys of the people in the wilderness all signify the state of a combating church and its temptations, in which man yields but the Lord conquers for him-consequently the very temptations and victories of the Lord-will of the Lord’s Divine mercy be shown elsewhere; and because the Lord from His Divine Human sustained temptations, the Lord’s Divine Human is here signified in like manner by the “wilderness of Paran.” And so again by these words in the same:
The people afterwards journeyed from Hazeroth, and pitched their camp in the wilderness of Paran. And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying, Send thou men, and let them explore the land of Canaan, which I give unto the sons of Israel; and Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran, according to the command of Jehovah. And they returned, and came to Moses, and to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the sons of Israel, unto the wilderness of Paran to Kadesh; and brought back word unto them, and showed them the fruit of the land (Numbers 12:16; 13:1-3, 26).
[5] By their setting out from the wilderness of Paran and exploring the land of Canaan, is signified that through the Lord’s Divine Human the sons of Israel, that is, the spiritual, have the heavenly kingdom, which is signified by the land of Canaan; but their also succumbing at that time signifies their weakness, and that the Lord therefore fulfilled all things in the Law, and endured temptations, and conquered; and that they who are in the faith of charity, as also they who are in temptations in which the Lord conquers, have salvation from His Divine Human. On which account also, when the Lord was tempted, He was in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1; Mark 1:12-13; Luke 4:1; see above, n. 2708).
