117. Internal Meaning of Jeremiah, Chapter 51

Of those who by traditions or reasonings from the natural man have perverted the truths and goods of the church, who are here meant by Babylon. (3)

1-4 All truths of doctrine with them will be destroyed. (3)

5 The Jewish church is such, and is against the Lord. (3)

6 Let them beware of such. (3)

7-10 Those who are there are vastated by such things, and they do not refrain. (3)

11-13 They pervert truths and goods, which they have in abundance. (2, 3)

14-18 They have the Word so that they can be wise, but they falsify it. (2)

19-23 When the judgment overtakes them from the Lord, all things appertaining to them, from firsts to lasts, are to be scattered. (15)

24-26 Their destruction will come, because they have destroyed everything of the church. (15)

27-29 They will seize upon falsities of every kind. (3)

30-32 Hence they will no longer have any power. (2)

33 Her last time is coming. (15, 17)

34-40 They will perish because they have destroyed the church. (15, 2)

41-44 They will be destroyed by mere falsities. (15)

45-50 Let them not come near those who are of the church, lest they perish together with them. (15)

51-53 They cannot resist, however much they trust in themselves. (15, 3)

54-58 Those who trust in their own falsities will come to nothing and will be destroyed. (15)

59-61 This is told to those who in the church have been taken captive by such, and who have become Babylon. 15 (15)

62-64 They are to be cast into hell. (15)

37. The Lord Is God Himself, the Origin of and Subject of the Word

In the first section we began to demonstrate that the Holy Scripture throughout has the Lord as its subject, and that the Lord embodies the Word. Here we will demonstrate it further from passages in the Word in which the Lord is called Jehovah, the God of Israel and of Jacob, the Holy One of Israel, the Lord and God, as well as King, the Anointed of Jehovah, and David.

I may relate to begin with that I have been granted to go through the Prophets and the Psalms of David and to examine each verse and see what the subject is there, and I saw that the subjects were nothing else than the church established by the Lord and the church to be established, the Lord’s advent, His battles, His glorification, redemption and salvation, and the heaven established by Him and to be established, and at the same time their opposites.

Because these are all works of the Lord, it was apparent that the Holy Scripture throughout has the Lord as its subject, and that the Lord therefore embodies the Word.

[2] However, this can only be seen by people who are enlightened by the Lord and who are acquainted as well with the spiritual sense of the Word. Angels in heaven all possess this sense. Consequently, when a person reads the Word, that is the only meaning the angels comprehend. For a person has spirits and angels with him continually, and because they are spiritual, they understand spiritually everything that the person understands naturally.

That the Holy Scripture throughout has the Lord as its subject can be seen dimly, and as though through a screen, from the passages presented from the Word in the first section above, nos. 1-6, and from those we will present now regarding the Lord, showing how often He is called the Lord and God. This may make clear that it is the Lord who spoke through the prophets, in whose books we find everywhere the declarations, “Jehovah spoke, ” “Jehovah said, ” and “the saying of Jehovah.”

[3] That the Lord existed prior to His advent into the world is apparent from the following:

(John the Baptist said of the Lord:) “It is He who, coming after me, is before me, whose shoelace I am not worthy to loosen.... This is He of whom I said, ‘After me comes a Man who was before me, and who was of prior standing to me.’ ” (John 1:27, 30)

In the book of Revelation:

...they...fell (before the throne on which the Lord sat), saying: “We give You thanks, O Lord God Almighty, who are and who were and who are to come....” (Revelation 11:16-17)

And in Micah:

You, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, out of you shall come forth to Me One to be Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from of old, from the days of eternity. (Micah 5:2)

It is apparent in addition from the Lord’s words in the Gospels that He was before Abraham, that He had glory with the Father before the foundation of the world, that He came forth from the Father, and that the Word was from the beginning with God, that God was the Word, and that this became flesh.

That the Lord is called Jehovah, the God of Israel and of Jacob, the Holy One of Israel, God and the Lord, as well as King, the Anointed of Jehovah, and David, can be seen from what follows next.