863. For they are virgins, signifies for the reason that they are in the affection of truth for the sake of truth. This is evident from the signification of "virgins," as being affections of truth, which are called spiritual affections of truth. For there are natural affections of truth which exist in almost everyone, especially during childhood and youth. But natural affections of truth have reward as an end, at first reputation, and afterwards honor and gain. These are not the affections here meant by "virgins," but spiritual affections of truth are meant, which are such as have for their end eternal life and the uses of that life. Those who are in such affections love truths because they are truths, thus apart from the world's glory, honors, and gains; and those who love truths apart from such considerations love the Lord; for the Lord is with man in the truths that are from good. For that which proceeds from the Lord as a Sun is the Divine truth, and that which proceeds from the Lord is the Lord; consequently he that receives truth from spiritual love because it is truth receives the Lord. Therefore of such it is said "these are they that follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth." Moreover, such are meant by the Lord in these words in Matthew:

The kingdom of the heavens is like unto a treasure hidden in a field, which a man having found hideth, and in his joy goeth and selleth all things whatsoever he hath, and buyeth the field. Again, the kingdom of the heavens is like unto a man, a merchant, seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one precious pearl, went and sold all that he had, and bought it (Matthew 13:44-46).

"The treasure hidden in a field" and "the pearls" signify the truths of heaven and the church; and the "one precious pearl" signifies the acknowledgment of the Lord. The affection of truths because they are truths is meant by "the man went in his joy and sold all that he had, and bought the field" in which the treasure was hidden, also by "the merchant's going and selling all that he had, and buying the precious pearl."

[2] Those who are in the spiritual affection of truth are called "virgins" from the marriage of good and truth from which is conjugial love; for a "wife" is the affection of good, and a "husband" the understanding of truth; moreover, females and males are born such. Now because virgins love to be conjoined to men with whom is the understanding of truth, therefore they signify the affections of truth. (But on this see more fully in the work on Heaven and Hell 366-386, where "Marriages in the Spiritual World" are treated of.) This makes clear what "virgins" signify in the following passages in the Word.

In Lamentations:

The ways of Zion do mourn because they come not to the feast; all her gates are devastated, her priests moan, her virgins are sad, and she herself is in bitterness. The Lord hath cast down all my mighty in the midst of me; He hath proclaimed against me an appointed time for breaking my youths. The Lord hath trodden the wine-press for the virgin daughter of Zion. ¹ Hear, I pray, all ye people, and behold my grief; my virgins and my youths have gone into captivity (Lamentations 1:4, 15, 18).

This describes the devastation of Divine truth in the church, "Zion" of which this is said signifying the church, where the Lord reigns by the Divine truth. "The ways of Zion do mourn" signifies that Divine truths are no longer sought; "no one comes to the feast" signifies that there is at that time no worship; "all her gates are desolated" signifies that there is no approach to truths; "her priests moan, her virgins are sad," signifies that affections of good and affections of truth are destroyed; "He hath cast down all my mighty in the midst of me" signifies that all power of truth against falsities has perished; "He hath proclaimed against me an appointed time" signifies its last state, when the Lord is about to come; "for breaking my youths" signifies when there is no longer any understanding of truth; "the Lord hath trodden the wine-press for the virgin daughter of Zion" ¹ signifies when all the truths of the Word are falsified; "my virgins and my youths have gone into captivity" signifies when all the affection of truth and the understanding of truth have perished by falsities.

[3] In the same:

The elders of the daughter of Zion sit on the earth; they keep silence; they have cast up dust upon their head; they have girded themselves with sackcloth; the virgins of Jerusalem have made their head to go down to the earth. What shall I testify unto thee, to what shall I liken thee, O virgin daughter of Zion? They have lain in the streets, the boy and the old man; my virgins and my youths have fallen by the sword (Lamentations 2:10, 13, 21).

These words, too, describe the devastation of Divine truth in the church, "the daughter of Zion" being the church in which the Lord reigns by Divine truth; grief on account of its devastation is described by "sitting on the earth," "the elders being silent," "casting up dust upon the head," "girding themselves with sackcloth," and "making the head to go down to the earth." "The elders of the daughter of Zion" signify those who have been in Divine truths; "the virgins of Jerusalem" signify those who have taught truths from the affection of truth; "they have lain in the streets, the boy and the old man," signifies that innocence and wisdom have been destroyed, together with Divine truths; "my virgins and my youths have fallen by the sword" signifies that all the affection of truth and all the understanding of truth have perished by falsities, "virgin" being the affection of truth, "youth" the understanding of truth, and "to fall by the sword" is to perish through falsities.

[4] In the same:

Our skins are become black like an oven because of the tempests of famine; the women in Zion have been ravished, the virgins in the cities of Judah; the princes have been hanged up by their hand; the faces of the elders have not been honored (Lamentations 5:10-12).

In this like things are involved. What is signified by "the women in Zion," "the virgins in the cities of Judah," and "the princes and old men," has been explained above (n. 540, 555, 655).

In Amos:

Behold the days shall come in which I will send a famine in the land, not a famine for bread nor a thirst for waters, but for hearing the words of Jehovah. In that day shall the beautiful virgins and the youths faint for thirst (Amos 8:11, 13).

This describes the lack of Divine truth. That lack is meant by "famine" and by "thirst;" therefore it is said, "not a famine for bread nor a thirst for waters, but for hearing the words of Jehovah." That the affection of truth and the understanding of truth will cease because of this lack is signified by "in that day shall the beautiful virgins and the youths faint for thirst."

[5] In Isaiah:

Blush, O Zidon, the sea hath said, the stronghold of the sea, saying, I have not travailed, neither brought forth; I have not trained up youths, I have not brought up virgins (Isaiah 23:4).

"Zidon and Tyre" mean the church as to the knowledges of good and truth; and the "sea" and "the stronghold of the sea" mean the natural where such knowledges are. That none are reformed by those knowledges is signified by "I have not travailed, neither brought forth;" and that consequently there is no understanding of truth and no affection of truth is signified by "I have not trained up youths, I have not brought up virgins."

[6] In David:

God shut up His people to the sword, and was wroth with His inheritance. The fire hath devoured her youths, and her virgins are not wedded. Her priests have fallen by the sword (Psalms 78:62-64).

This, too, treats of the devastation of the church by falsities and evils. "God shut up His people to the sword, and was wroth with His inheritance," signifies that the church perished through falsities and evils, the "sword" signifies the destruction of truth by falsities, "to be wroth" destruction by evils, the "people" those of the church who are in truths, and "inheritance" those who are in goods, but here those who are in falsities and evils. "The fire hath devoured her youths" signifies that the love of self and thence the pride of self-intelligence have destroyed the understanding of truth; "her virgins are not wedded" signifies that the affections of truth have perished through non-understanding of truth; "her priests have fallen by the sword" signifies that the goods of the church, which are the goods of works, of charity, and of life, have been destroyed by falsities.

[7] In Moses:

Without shall the sword bereave, and from the chambers terror, both the youth and the virgin, the suckling with the old man (Deuteronomy 32:25).

"Without shall the sword bereave, and from the chambers terror," signifies that falsity and evil, which are from within, shall devastate both the natural and the rational man; "the youth and the virgin" signify the understanding of truth and the affection of it; "the suckling with the old man" signifies innocence and wisdom.

[8] In Jeremiah:

By thee I will scatter nations, and by thee I will destroy kingdoms; by thee I will scatter the horse and his rider; by thee I will scatter the chariot and him that is carried therein; by thee I will scatter the old man and the boy; by thee I will scatter the youth and the virgin; by thee I will scatter the shepherd and his flock; by thee I will scatter the husbandman and his team; by thee I will scatter the governors and the leaders (Jeremiah 51:20-23).

This is said of Jacob and Israel, by whom is meant in the highest sense the Lord, who was to destroy the evils and falsities that bore rule in the church about the time of His coming; the "nations" and "kingdoms" that He will scatter signify evils and falsities in general; "the horse and his rider" signify reasonings from falsities against truths; "the chariot and him who is carried therein" signify falsities of doctrine; "the old man and the boy" signify falsities confirmed and not confirmed; "the youth and the virgin" signify the understanding of falsity and the affection of it; "the shepherd and his flock" signify those who teach and those who learn; "the husbandman and his team" have a like signification; "governors and leaders" signify the principles of falsity and evil.

[9] In Ezekiel:

Jehovah said, Go through the midst of the city, and through the midst of Jerusalem. Slay to destruction the old man, the youth and the virgin, and the infant and the women; but come not against any man upon whom is the sign (Ezekiel 9:4, 6).

This describes the devastation of all things pertaining to the church; "Jerusalem" signifies the church; "the old man, youth, virgin, infant, and women," signify all things of the church, the "old man" wisdom, the "youth" intelligence, the "virgin" the affection of truth, the "infant" innocence, "women" good conjoined to truths; "to slay to destruction" signifies to destroy utterly. That these things did not happen, but were merely seen by the prophet when he was in the spirit, is evident from the preceding verses, in which the abominations of the house of Israel and Judah are set forth under various forms and objects; and as these things did not happen, but were merely seen, it is clearly evident that "old man, youth, virgin, infant, and women," have this signification. What is signified by "come not against any man upon whom is the sign" may be seen above n. 427.

[10] In Joel:

They have cast lots upon my people, and they have given a boy for a harlot, and have sold a girl for wine which they drank (Joel 3:3).

"To cast lots upon the people" signifies to disperse the truths of the church by falsities; "to give a boy for a harlot" signifies to falsify the truths of the Word; "to sell a girl for wine" signifies to falsify the goods of the Word; "which they drank" signifies becoming imbued with falsity.

[11] In Zechariah:

The streets of the city were filled with boys and girls playing in its ² streets (Zechariah 8:5).

"Boys and girls" signify the truths and goods of innocence, such as are the truths and goods of the Word, which essentially constitute the church; "streets of the city" signify doctrinals, for which reason the ancients taught in the streets; and "to play in the streets" signifies to be glad and rejoice from doctrinals.

[12] In Jeremiah:

Again will I build thee, O virgin Israel; then shall the virgin be glad in her dance, and the young men and old men together (Jeremiah 31:4, 13).

"The virgin Israel" signifies the church from the affection of truth; "then shall the virgin be glad in the dance" signifies the gladness of heart of those who are in the spiritual affection of truth, since all spiritual gladness is from the affection of truth; and this is why the expressions "to play," "to dance," "to sing," and the like, are used in the Word in reference to virgins and girls.

[13] Because the church is a church from the spiritual affection of truth, which is the love of truth for the sake of truth, the following expressions are frequently used in the Word:

The virgin of Israel (Jeremiah 18:13; 31:4, 21; Amos 5:2);

The virgin daughter of Zion (2 Kings 19:21; Isaiah 37:22; Lamentations 1:4; 2:13);

The virgin daughter of my people (Jeremiah 14:17);

The virgin daughter of Zidon (Isaiah 23:12);

The virgin daughter of Egypt (Jeremiah 46:11);

Also the virgin daughter of Babylon (Isaiah 47:1).

In David:

They have seen thy goings, O God, the goings of my God, my King, in the sanctuary. The singers went before, the minstrels after, in the midst of virgins playing on timbrels (Psalms 68:24, 25).

This is said of the Lord, who is here meant by "my God" and "my King," and His coming is meant by "His goings in the sanctuary," "the singers, minstrels, and players on timbrels," signify all who are of the Lord's spiritual and celestial kingdom, "the virgins singing," those who are of His spiritual kingdom, and "the minstrels and players on timbrels" those who are of His celestial kingdom; they are called "virgins" from the affection of truth and good; and "to sing, to play on instruments and on timbrels" describes the gladness and joy of their heart, for instruments played by beating and by blowing depict the joy of those who are of the celestial kingdom; while stringed instruments and singing depict the gladness of those who are of the spiritual kingdom.

[14] In the same:

King's daughters are among thy precious ones; on thy right hand standeth the queen in the best gold of Ophir. Hear, O daughter and see, incline thine ear. Then shall the king delight in thy beauty; for he is thy lord, therefore bow thyself down to him. The daughter of Tyre also with an offering, the rich of the people shall entreat thy faces. The king's daughter is all precious within, her clothing is inwrought with gold; she shall be brought unto the king in broidered work; the virgins that follow her, her companions, shall be brought unto him; with joy and exultation they shall be brought, they shall come into the king's palace (Psalms 45:9-15).

It is evident from the verses that precede (Psalms 45:2-8), and from those that follow (Psalms 45:16, 17), that this is said of the Lord. "King's daughters" signify the affections of Divine truth; "the queen that was at his right hand in the best gold of Ophir" signifies heaven and the church, which are in Divine truths from Divine good; "to hear, to see, and to incline the ear," which is said of the king's daughter, signifies to hearken, to perceive, and to obey, thus to understand, to do, and to be wise, from the Lord. That she will then be acceptable to the Lord is signified by "then shall the king delight in thy beauty," "beauty" is predicated of the affection of truth, for this is what constitutes the beauty of angels; "therefore bow thyself down to him" signifies worship from a humble heart. "And the daughter of Tyre shall send an offering" signifies worship by those who are in the knowledges of truth; "the rich of the people shall entreat thy faces" signifies adoration by those who are in intelligence from these knowledges; "the king's daughter is all glorious within" signifies the spiritual affection of truth, which is called "glorious" from abundance of truth, while "within" signifies what is spiritual; "her clothing is inwrought with gold" signifies investing truths formed from the good of love; "she shall be brought unto the king in broidered work" signifies the appearances of truth, such as are in the sense of the letter of the Word; "the virgins that follow her, her companions," signify the spiritual-natural affections of truth which serve; "with joy and exultation they shall be brought, they shall come into the king's palace," signifies with heavenly joy into heaven, where the Lord is.

[15] Because "king's daughters" signified the spiritual affections of truth, and their "garments" signified truths in the ultimate of order, such as the truths of the Word are in the sense of its letter, therefore:

The king's daughters that were virgins were formerly clothed in robes of diverse colors, as is said of Tamar the daughter of David (2 Samuel 13:18).

In Zechariah:

How great is His goodness, and how great is His beauty! Corn maketh the young men to grow, and new wine the virgins (Zechariah 9:17).

This, too, is said of the Lord; and "His goodness and beauty" mean the Divine good and the Divine truth. "Corn maketh the young men to grow, and new wine the virgins," signifies that the understanding of truth and the affection of truth are formed by good and truth from Him. It is evident from these passages that "virgins" signify in the Word the affections of truth, likewise from other passages (as Isaiah 62:5; Jeremiah 2:32; Joel 1:7, 8; Psalms 148:12; Judges 5:30).

[16] Because a "virgin" signified the affection of the genuine truth of the church, which is wholly in accord with the good of love, it was commanded:

That the high priest should not take to wife a widow, or one divorced, or one polluted, a harlot, but a virgin of his own people, lest he profane his seed (Leviticus 21:13-15; also Ezekiel 44:22).

The particulars of this may be seen explained above n. 768. It was because "virgin" signifies the affection of genuine truth, and her defilement signifies falsification of Divine truth, that to commit whoredom was so severely forbidden, that:

If anyone should entice a virgin and lie with her he should pay her a dowry to be a wife for himself; but if her father should refuse to give her he should weigh him silver according to the dowry of virgins (Exodus 22:16, 17; Deuteronomy 22:28, 29).

This may be seen explained in the Arcana Coelestia 9181-9186.

[17] Because the affection of truth and the understanding of truth constitute a marriage, like that of a virgin espoused and married to a man, and these afterwards make one, like will and understanding, or affection and thought, or good and truth, in every man, and because diverse affections cannot be conjoined to one and the same thought, or diverse wills to one and the same understanding, or diverse truths of the church to one and the same good of love, without causing falsifications and dispersions of truth, so lying with a virgin who was betrothed was made a crime punishable with death, according to this command in Moses:

If a man lie in a city with a damsel that is a virgin betrothed to a man, both shall be stoned; but if in the field the man alone shall die, to the damsel there is no crime of death (Deuteronomy 22:23-27).

"Lying together in the city" signifies the adulteration of the good and truth of doctrine from the Word, for a "city" means doctrine, and "stoning" was a punishment for harm done to the truth of doctrine. But "lying together in the field" signifies the falsification of the truth of the church before it has been accepted as a doctrinal; and this is not the adulteration of its good, since a "field" means the church, in which truth at first is implanted and afterwards grows and at length becomes a matter of doctrine; and for this reason the man only should die. From this it can also be seen that "virginity" signifies the undefiled affection of truth (as in Leviticus 21:13; Deuteronomy 22:13-21; Ezekiel 23:3, 8.

Poznámky pod čarou:

Abyste mohli dál prohlížet obsah při poslouchání nahrávky, pusťte si audio nahrávku novém okně

There’s a saying, “If you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, on where you stop your story.” (Orson Welles).

In part two of this series, we read about Gideon’s miraculous rout of the Midianites. With just 300 men he took on an enemy force of 145,000 and won. We often stop the story there and get our happy ending. But, in the Bible, that’s not where the story of Gideon ends. It carries on, and there’s not such a happy ending. It seems important to look at this and talk about what it means for our efforts at spiritual growth, because if we just read the success stories in the Bible we might get a rather skewed picture of what to expect in our lives.

There are two main sections of this part of the story:

1) Finishing off the Midianites (and dealing with some Israelites along the way), and

2) what happened after the battle.

The first thing that happens in this chapter is that the men of the tribe of Ephraim are angry at Gideon for not involving them in the battle from the beginning. They say, “What is this thing you have done to us by not calling us when you went to fight against the Midianites?” (Judges 8:1). Nothing has been done to them. It’s wasn't about them; it was about beating the enemy, not who about who got to do the beating.

Nonetheless, for the men of Ephraim it really seems to matter who did it. A few chapters later in the Book of Judges, they complain to another judge who just led Israelites to another great victory. They say, “Why did you go to fight the Ammonites without calling us to go with you? We’re going to burn down your house over your head” (Judges 12:1). And in that case they fight against the judge - and the judge wins and kills 42,000 of them.

The teachings of the New Church say that Ephraim represents intelligence (Secrets of Heaven 264). And when intelligence is called in from the mountains to help, by Gideon and the 300 who lapped, it’s a powerful ally. Similarly, when we have a humble desire to seek what the Lord says, then it can be really powerful to use our minds to their full extent and think through all of the ramifications of the truth which helps with capturing the selfishness that might be trying to get away. But, when they’re just the men of Ephraim on their own, they seem to represent intelligence that has a lot of pride in its own power. Watch out for the pride of Ephraim in yourself after you make some progress in your spiritual life — it might just want to destroy the humble desire to learn and follow the truth — the very thing that actually gave you victory in the first place.

Gideon and his men now carry on chasing the Midianites, trying to capture their kings, Zebah and Zalmunnah. They cross the Jordan river and come to Succoth and Penuel - two border towns near the edge of the land of Canaan.

Chasing the Midianites into this region seems to represent really trying to drive the selfish love of pleasure for its own sake (which is what is represented by Midian) right the way out of our lives — even out of our more external thoughts and habits.

Here they encounter resistance. They’re exhausted and they ask for bread to sustain them and the people of Succoth and Penuel mock them, saying, “Oh, so we should give you bread because you’re just about to capture Zebah and Zalmunnah? Right… No — not going to happen.” It’s a picture of cynicism. They’ve got elders and princes - people who’ve been around the block a few times, and a tower with well-established defenses.

There’s part of us that doesn’t believe that we can actually change our external behaviour too. But, “Jehovah said to Gideon, ‘By the three hundred men who lapped I will save you, and give the Midianites into your hand’” (Judges 7:7). They were going to capture the Midianites because Jehovah said so and they didn’t have to have any bread from Succoth and Penuel to do so.

Gideon and his men go on, attack the camp of the Midianites, “while the camp felt secure” (8:11) and capture the kings. Then they go back to Succoth and Penuel, and Gideon does something that to us seems totally brutal and unnecessary: “And he took the elders of the city, and thorns of the wilderness and briers, and with them he made the men of Succoth know. Then he tore down the tower of Penuel and killed the men of the city” (8:16-17).

I think that spiritually this is a picture of actually bringing order to our external life. The power of eagerness for the truth can tear down our cynicism. Using thorns and briers to make “the men of Succoth know” sounds like an echo of the many other times in the Word where Jehovah says, “…and then they shall know that I am Jehovah.” Jehovah is the one with the power, in case that wasn’t already clear.

Once Gideon is done with Succoth and Penuel, he deals with the kings of Midian. As we work on fighting against an evil in our lives, we gradually see more and more of what it has done to us. Gideon talks with them and this is the first time we hear that they had killed Gideon’s brothers. In the Word brothers are a symbol of charity—of love for our fellow man. How many times have we been given an opportunity to help someone and we’ve decided to do something fun instead? And so they need to be killed.

Gideon’s son, Jether, can’t do it—he’s too young— and our younger self can’t quite bring itself to really make an end to the love of pleasure for its own sake. Gideon can, though. His name means hewer or chopper.

In the positive sense this is him living out his potential—chasing the Midianites down and cutting them down. And because of this, a little further on, it says, “Thus Midian was subdued before the children of Israel, so that they lifted their heads no more. And the country was quiet for forty years in the days of Gideon” (Judges 8:28).

Can’t we stop the story there? We have to look at what happened after the battle.

After the Battle They Want Gideon to Rule Over Them

Remind me, who was it that won the battle? Jehovah, using Gideon and the 300 men who lapped. Without Jehovah, Gideon would still be cowering in a winepress somewhere while the Midianites overran the land. Jehovah didn’t need the 32 thousand men. He didn’t need the 10 thousand men. He needed 300 that were eager to follow Him, to listen to Him, to lap up His teachings.

Jehovah in Hebrew means the One who Is. The teachings of the New Church explain the meaning of this name of God in this way (from Secrets of Heaven 1735, from John Elliot's translation):

"Jehovah… [is] Love itself, to which no other attributes are appropriate than those of pure Love and so of pure Mercy towards the whole human race, that Mercy being such that it wills to save all people, to make them eternally happy, and to impart to them all that is its Own—thus out of pure Mercy and by the mighty power of love to draw towards heaven… all who are willing to follow. That Love itself is Jehovah…."

The Lord’s pure love is what won the battle for Gideon, what wins the battle against selfishness in us. It’s the driving force, the motivation, the strength, the endurance. If we didn’t have love from the Lord to want to be a good person, to care about other people, to live for something more than ourselves, we would still be nowhere, having done nothing.

But the people want Gideon to rule over them. And then his son. And then his son’s son. And on forever. Really, Gideon without Jehovah is not something you want to rule over you. To take Gideon and his line of sons after him and ask that to rule over you is to take one thread of the truth and make it everything. A hewing and chopping approach is good for some things, like getting rid of Midianites, but it's not good for everything, especially once it’s been separated from Jehovah.

A branch that abide in the vine bears much fruit but if a branch stops abiding in the vine—no matter how much fruit it bore in the past—it’s going to wither and die because there’s no life in it (John 15:4-6). The people want Gideon to be king because it looks like he’s the one who gave them victory. It looks like what made us successful was a certain approach that we took that worked in that circumstance. Our lazy selves like simple—we like one size fits all solutions.

But that is not the kind of solution that the Word provides. The Word of God is frustratingly complex at times. In one place it says, “Beat your ploughshares into swords….” (Joel 3:10). And we say, “Got it! Take the fighting approach!” But, in other places it talks about people beating their swords into ploughshares (Isaiah 2:4 ; Micah 4:3 ).

It can be hard to keep going back to the Word with eagerness to learn what it has to say. It takes patience. It take intellectual humility to say, “I don’t get it.” It takes a willingness to hear something different than what we might want to hear. When we don’t want to do that work we want Gideon rule over us instead of Jehovah and he makes us an ephod to worship.

Gideon Makes an Ephod

Gideon requests that the people give him the golden earrings from their plunder and he makes some sort of golden ephod out of it. An ephod is a priestly apron and, functionally, in the Bible they were used to get answers from God (1 Samuel 23:9-13; 30:7-8). They are symbolic of the literal sense of the Word where we get answers from God. Gideon's making an ephod for himself means giving people a substitute for the Word to get answers from. This is when we feel like we’ve had some success in becoming a spiritual person and we feel like we’ve got a good enough grasp of the Bible that we don’t actually have to read it.

To get a feel for what this looks like in real life I want to read you something from a fascinating book called Stages of Faith by James W. Fowler in which the author attempts to describe 6 different stages of development that a person’s faith can go through. Here are a few quotes from one of the many interviews that Fowler had conducted as part of his research. This an interview with a teenage girl about her faith that Fowler says is typical of Stage 3—Synthetic-Conventional Faith:

“I feel like I’m not afraid of anything now because I know what I believe in and I know what I want to do in life, and nothing could really set me off course. …. Before, if we moved… I got into people, different people, and I sort of changed as the people went. But I have learned that just the best thing is to be yourself” (p155).

When asked what she thinks God is she says, “God is different to a lot of people….I don’t go exactly by the Bible. I think you should try to make… people happy and at the same time enjoy yourself, you know? In a good kind way….” (pp155-156).

When asked what she thinks will happen to her when she dies she says, “I have this feeling, like, when I die I’m going to go to heaven because I’ve tried on earth to be good to people and I believe in God and I’m a follower” (p156).

When asked what it means to go to heaven she said, “I guess I’ll find out sometime. But, see, I don’t want to ask too many questions like that. …. I never wanted to go that much into it. I just want to do what the Bible says” (p157).

She knows what she believes and that she’s going to heaven and she just wants to do what the Bible says but she also doesn’t “go exactly go by the Bible” or want to really go that much into it. She’s got her ephod - her version of the truth which is “the best thing is to be yourself” and “try to make people happy and at the same time enjoy yourself… In a good kind way.”

That’s pretty much what the Bible says, right? The point of this is not to make fun of this teenage girl but to recognise this exact same tendency in ourselves. Beating the Midianites only gets us this far - that is, not very far at all in the big scheme of things. What about the Philistines, and the Assyrians, and the Babylonians all still to come?

The teachings of the New Church say:

If after temptation a person does not believe that the Lord alone has fought for him and brought him victory, the temptation he has undergone is merely external. Such temptation does not extend into him deeply or cause anything of faith and charity to take root. (Secrets of Heaven 8969)

At this stage, while we think we’re worshipping God, we will also be playing the harlot with this idol at the same time. And it can be a snare to us, just like it was to Gideon and his house. During Gideon’s life, “the country was quiet for forty years” (Judges 8:28) and it sounds like the people were at least still worshipping Jehovah alongside of this ephod. But, we read, “So it was, as soon as Gideon was dead, that the children of Israel turned back and again played the harlot with the Baals, and made Baal-Berith their god” (Judges 8:33).

Worshipping the Baals was the real problem in the first place. If the children of Israel had been worshipping Jehovah, the Midianites never would have been a threat. It was because they were worshipping the Baals that they were vulnerable to attack. The problem with this ephod version of the Word of God is that it can be a stepping stone right back to worshipping Baal again. And worshipping Baal is not just loving pleasure above all else: it’s “worship from the evils of the love of self and of the world” (Apocalypse Explained 160:2). It’s embracing hell, while still thinking that we’re somehow God’s chosen people.

The particular Baal that they made their god was Baal-Berith which means “lord of the covenant.” The covenant was meant to be an agreement between Jehovah and His people that they would follow His commandments and He would bless them. To worship a Baal of the covenant would seem to be a corruption of that idea - to make God and His covenant with us into our own image. To say, “I’m a good Christian and that means that I can live however I want and God is going to look after me and give me whatever I want.”

If we stop the story here with Gideon’s death and the people’s return to idolatry, it’s a pretty depressing picture. But, of course, the bigger story doesn’t stop here, there are more judges to come - more amazing victories over seemingly overwhelming odds and, too, more terrible decisions by the people who are supposed to be following Jehovah.

But the story doesn’t stop with the judges—there are the stories of the kings, good and bad, and prophets, and eventually the story of Jesus Christ and His life and death and resurrection and eventually Him calling us to be with Him in the Holy City New Jerusalem.

As we look across that whole storyline, with a willingness to acknowledge the defeats as well as the victories, one message that seems to come through is, “Don’t stop your story where you are.” Don’t think that you’re done. Keep striving to worship only Jesus Christ (who is Jehovah come down into this world to save us). Remember that is the Lord’s love—and only the Lord’s love—that will give you victory over your enemies. Remember that the Lord will save you, by the 300 men who lapped. Ignore the pride of Ephraim that wants you to think the power is in your intelligence. Destroy the cynicism of Succoth and Penuel who don’t believe change is possible. And keep going back with urgency to the Lord in His Word—stay thirsty for the truth, eager to learn, willing to follow and the Lord will give you victory and keep leading you towards a happy end.

(Odkazy: Arcana Coelestia 3021 [1-8])