10132. 'Lambs, the sons of a year, each day' means the good of innocence in every state. This is clear from the meaning of 'lambs' as the good of innocence, dealt with below; from the meaning of 'the sons of a year' as a form of it that is child-like but has truths implanted in it, also dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'each day' as in every state. For 'a day' means a state, and 'the morning' and 'the evening' of a day, when the burnt offerings of lambs were presented, mean every state.

'A day' means a state, see 893, 2788, 3462, 3785, 4850, 7680.

Changes of states are like the changes in a day of morning, midday, evening, night, and morning again, 5672, 5962, 6110, 8426.

[2] The fact that the good of innocence is meant by 'lambs' is clear from places in the Word where 'lambs' are mentioned, as in Isaiah,

The wolf will dwell with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child will lead them. A suckling will play over the viper's hole, and a weaned child will put out his hand onto the basilisk's den. They will not corrupt themselves on all My holy mountain. And it will happen on that day, that the nations will seek the root of Jesse, who is standing as an ensign of the peoples; and His rest will be glory. Isaiah 11:6, 8-10.

These words describe the state of peace and innocence in the heavens and in the Church after the Lord came into the world. And because a state of peace and innocence is being described the lamb, kid, and calf are mentioned, also a little child, suckling, and weaned child, every one of which means the good of innocence. Inmost good of innocence is meant by 'the lamb', interior good of innocence by 'the kid', and exterior good of innocence by 'the calf'; and these three degrees of good are likewise meant by 'a child', 'a suckling', and 'a weaned one'. 'The holy mountain' is heaven and the Church where the good of innocence resides; 'the nations' are those who have that good within them; and 'the root of Jesse' is the Lord, who is the source of that good. For the good of love coming from Him and offered back to Him, also called celestial good, constitutes the good of innocence.

[3] 'The lamb' means the good of innocence in general, and the inmost good of innocence in particular. This is clear from the fact that it is mentioned first, and also from the fact that the Lord Himself is referred to as the Lamb, as will be seen below.

'The kid' means the interior good of innocence, see 3519, 4871.

'The calf (or young bull)' means the exterior good of innocence, 430, 9391.

'A child' means innocence, 5236, as do 'a suckling', 'a weaned child', that is, an infant, 430, 2280, 3183, 3494, 5608.

'The holy mountain' is where the good of love to the Lord resides, 6435, 8758.

'The nations' means those who have that good within them, 1416, 6005.

That the good of love to the Lord, called celestial good, constitutes the good of innocence is clear from those who are in the inmost heaven. Because they have that good within them they appear naked, as young children; they do so because nakedness depicts innocence, as does early childhood, see the places referred to in 9277, and what has been stated in 3887, 9680.

[4] It says that 'the wolf will dwell with the lamb' because 'the wolf' means those who are opposed to innocence, as also in the same prophet,

The wolf and the lamb will feed together. They will not do evil nor destroy on all My holy mountain. Isaiah 65:25.

And in Luke,

Jesus said to the disciples whom He sent out, Behold, I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. Luke 10:3.

[5] Since the Lord when He was in the world was - as to His Human - Innocence itself, and since for this reason innocence emanates wholly from Him, the Lord is called the Lamb, and the Lamb of God, as in Isaiah,

Send the Lamb of the Ruler of the land from the rock towards the wilderness, to the mountain of the daughter of Zion. Isaiah 16:1.

In the same prophet,

He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth. He is led like a lamb to the slaughter. Isaiah 53:7.

In John,

John the Baptist saw Jesus coming; he said, Behold, the Lamb of God who bears away the sin of the world. John 1:29, 36.

In Revelation,

The Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will feed them and will guide them to living springs of water. Revelation 7:17.

And elsewhere in the same book,

These are the ones who were not defiled with women, for they are virgins; these are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These were bought from men (homo), being the firstfruits to God and the Lamb. Revelation 14:4.

And many times elsewhere in Revelation besides these two places, such as Revelation 5:6, 8, 12-13; 6:1, 16; 7:9-10, 14; 12:11; 13:8; 14:1; 15:3; 17:14; 19:7, 9; 21:9, 14, 22-23, 27; 22:1, 3.

[6] It was because those who possess innocence are meant by 'lambs' that the Lord first told Peter Feed My lambs, then afterwards Feed My sheep, and again, Feed My sheep, John 21:15-17. 'Lambs' in this instance are those who are governed by the good of love to the Lord, for they possess the good of innocence more than all others, whereas 'sheep' are those governed by the good of charity towards the neighbour and those governed by the good of faith.

[7] The word 'lambs' is used with a similar meaning in Isaiah,

Behold, the Lord Jehovih comes with might, and His arm exercises dominion for Him. He will pasture His flock like a shepherd, He will gather the lambs into His arm, He will carry them in His bosom, He will gently lead the sucklings ¹ . Isaiah 40:10-11.

These verses refer, it is evident, to the Lord. Since those who are governed by love to Him and who for this reason possess the good of innocence are meant by 'lambs' it is said that 'He will gather them into His arm' and 'He will carry them in His bosom'. For these people are joined to the Lord through love, and love is spiritual togetherness. And this also is why those verses go on to say, 'He will gently lead the sucklings', for sucklings and young children are those who possess the good of innocence, 430, 2280, 3183, 3494.

[8] From all this one may now see what the burnt offerings and sacrifices of lambs mean, why they were offered each day, on each sabbath, at each new moon, at each feast, and every day during the feast of Passover, and why at the feast of Passover the lamb called the Passover lamb was eaten, spoken of as follows in Moses,

This month shall be for you the head of months; the first shall it be for you in respect of months of the year. You shall take a member of the flock, a male, from the lambs or from the kids. And they shall take some of the blood and put it onto the [two] doorposts and onto the lintel, and onto the houses in which they will eat it. They shall not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted with fire. Exodus 12:1ff.

The feast of Passover was a sign of the deliverance from damnation of those who receive the Lord in love and faith, 9286-9292, thus who possess the good of innocence; for the good of innocence is inmostly present in love and faith and is their soul. This is why it says that they were to put the animal's blood onto doorposts, lintel, and houses; for where the good of innocence is, hell cannot come in. The reason why they were to eat it roasted with fire was that this was a sign of the good of celestial love, which is the good of love to the Lord received from the Lord.

[9] Because a lamb was a sign of innocence, when the days [of purification] after giving birth had been fulfilled a lamb, the son of a year ² was offered as a burnt offering, and a young pigeon or else a turtledove was offered as a sacrifice, Leviticus 12:6. The young pigeon or the turtledove was a sign of innocence, just as the lamb was. By 'giving birth' is meant in the spiritual sense the Church's giving birth, giving birth to the good of love; for no other kind of birth is thought of in heaven. And by the burnt offering and sacrifice of those creatures is meant purification from evils by means of the good of innocence; for this good is what the Divine flows into and uses to effect such purification.

[10] The reason why someone who sinned through error had to offer a lamb or a a female kid, or two turtledoves, or two young pigeons as a guilt-offering, Leviticus 5:1-13, was that 'sin through error' is sin owing to lack of knowledge, and if the lack of knowledge has innocence within it purification takes place. Regarding a Nazirite also it says that when he had completed his Naziriteship he had to offer a lamb, the son of a year ² , as a burnt offering, a ewe lamb, the daughter of a year ² , as a sin-sacrifice, and one ram as a eucharistic sacrifice, and also a basket of unleavened bread, cakes mixed with oil, and wafers of unleavened bread anointed with oil, Numbers 6:13-15. All these - the lamb, ewe lamb, ram, unleavened bread, cakes, wafers, and oil - mean celestial things, that is, aspects of love to the Lord received from the Lord. The reason why they were offered as a sacrifice by a Nazirite after the days of his Naziriteship had been fulfilled was that a Nazirite represented the celestial man, or the Lord in respect of the Divine Celestial, 3301, the Divine Celestial being what is Divine and the Lord's in the inmost heaven, and what is Divine there being innocence.

[11] From all this it may be recognized that 'a lamb' means the good of innocence, for all beasts that were sacrificed meant some aspect of the Church. It may be recognized primarily from the fact that the Lord Himself is called the Lamb, as is clear from the places referred to above; also that those people are called 'lambs' who love the Lord, as in Isaiah 40:10-11, and in John 21:15; and in addition that upright people are called 'sheep', for example in Matthew 15:21-29; 25:31-41; 26:31; John 10:7-16, 26-31; 21:16-17, and elsewhere, while bad people are called 'goats', Matthew 25:32; Zechariah 10:3; Daniel 8:5-11, 25. All useful and gentle beasts mean good affections and inclinations, while useless and savage ones mean evil affections and inclinations, see the places referred to in 9280.

[12] The good of innocence is meant not only by 'a lamb' but also by 'a ram' and by 'a young bull'. But the difference is that the inmost good of innocence is meant by 'a lamb', interior or middle good of innocence by 'a ram', and external good of innocence by 'a young bull'; for a person has an external level, an internal level, and an inmost level, on each of which the good of innocence must be present if the person is to be regenerate, the good of innocence being the very essence of all good. Because those three degrees of innocence are meant by a young bull, a ram, and a lamb, these three animals were offered as a sacrifice and a burnt offering whenever purification by means of that good was represented. That is, they were offered at each new moon, at feasts, on the day of firstfruits, and when the altar was consecrated, as is evident in Numbers 7:15, 21, 27, 33ff; 28:1-end; 29:1-end. For the meaning of 'a young bull' as the external good of innocence, 29:see9391, 9990, and that of 'a ram' as the internal good of innocence, 10042. As regards what innocence is, what it is like with young children, what it is like with the simple lacking in knowledge, and what it is like with the wise, see the places referred to in 10021(end).

[13] When it says that the lamb to be offered as a burnt offering had to be 'the son of a year', the meaning was that then it was a lamb; for when it was more than a year old it was a sheep. And since a lamb was so to speak an infant sheep, the kind of good that belongs to infancy or early childhood, which is the good of innocence, was meant by it. This also was why lambs were offered as a burnt offering in the first month of the year, when the Passover was celebrated, Exodus 12:2ff, Numbers 28:16, 19; on the day of firstfruits, Numbers 28:26-27; and on the day on which the sheaf was waved, Leviticus 23:11-12. For by the first month of the year, the day of firstfruits, and the day of waving the sheaf the state of early childhood, and so the state of innocence, was also meant.

Poznámky pod čarou:

5116. 'Its blossom came up' means the state next to regeneration. This is clear from the meaning of 'the blossom' which appears on the tree before the fruit as the state before regeneration. The budding and fruiting of a tree represents, as stated immediately above in 5115, the person's rebirth. Becoming covered with leaves represents the first state, with blossom the second, that is, the one immediately before regeneration, and fruiting the third, which is the actual state of one who has been regenerated. Consequently 'leaves' means the things that belong to intelligence, which are the truths of faith, 885, for these come first in a person's rebirth or regeneration. By 'blossoms' however are meant the things that belong to wisdom, which are the goods of faith, since these come immediately before rebirth or regeneration, while 'fruits' means the things that are matters of life, which are the works of charity, in that these come after rebirth and constitute the actual state of one who is regenerate.

[2] These features of the vegetable kingdom owe their existence to the influx of the spiritual world into it; but people who attribute everything to natural forces and nothing to the Divine are in no way able to believe this. Those however who attribute everything to the Divine and nothing to natural forces have the ability to see that every single thing owes its existence to that influx. Not only that, each individual thing also has a correspondence, and because it has a correspondence it is a representative. In the end such people have the ability to see that the whole natural system is a theatre representative of the Lord's kingdom, thus that the Divine exists within each individual thing, so much so that the whole natural system is a representation of that which is eternal and infinite - eternal because the reproduction of species continues without end, infinite because the multiplication of seeds is unlimited. Such endeavours to reproduce and multiply could not possibly come to exist in each individual thing in the vegetable kingdom if the Divine were not flowing into it unceasingly. This influx is what provides the impulse to reproduce and to multiply; the impulse brings the power to make this a reality, and that power leads to the actual realization of it.

[3] People who attribute everything to natural forces say that such impulses to reproduce and to multiply were introduced into fruits and seeds when things were first created, and because of the power which they have received from those impulses fruits and seeds ever since then are carried spontaneously into such activities. But those people do not take into consideration the fact that continuance in being is constant coming into being, or what is much the same, that reproduction is creation taking place constantly. Nor do they take into consideration the fact that an effect is the continuation of its cause, and that when a cause ceases to exist so does the effect, and consequently that without constant influx from its cause every effect perishes in an instant. Neither do they take into consideration the fact that anything that is not linked to the first being of all, consequently to the Divine, instantly ceases to have any existence; for to have any being, what is posterior must have what is prior existing unceasingly within it.

[4] If those attributing everything to natural forces and little, scarcely anything, to the Divine were to take these facts into consideration they would also be able to acknowledge that every single thing in the natural system represents something akin to it in the spiritual world, and therefore something akin to it in the Lord's kingdom, where the closest representation of the Lord's Divine exists. This is why reference has been made to an influx coming from the spiritual world; but by this is meant an influx from the Lord's Divine coming by way of the spiritual world. The reason adherents to naturalism do not take such facts into consideration is that they are not willing to acknowledge them, since they are immersed in earthly and bodily interests and as a consequence in the life belonging to self-love and love of the world. As a result, so far as things belonging to the spiritual world, that is, to heaven are concerned, the complete reverse of true order exists with them; and to view such matters from within a state in which order is turned around is not possible, since higher things are then seen as lower ones, and lower things as higher ones. This also accounts for the fact that, when persons like these are seen in the next life in the light of heaven, they are seen with their heads pointing downwards and their feet upwards.

[5] Who among these, when he sees blossom on a tree or on anything else that grows, thinks of it as an expression of gladness so to speak that fruit and seeds are now being brought forth? All that such persons see is that blossom comes first and remains until rudimentary forms of the fruit and seeds are formed within it, whereby sap is conveyed into them. If they knew anything about human rebirth or regeneration, or rather if they wanted to know, they would also see in that blossom, because of the similarity there, a representative of a person's state before regeneration. They would see that because of the good which his intelligence and wisdom desires he is in a similar way blooming, that is, he possesses an inner gladness and beauty, because now he is endeavouring to implant these - that is to say, forms of good desired by intelligence and wisdom - in his life; that is, he is endeavouring to bear fruit. Such persons cannot know about the nature of this state because knowledge of what that inner gladness and inner beauty so represented are does not exist at all with people who feel no gladness other than that which accompanies love of the world and no delight other than that connected with self-love. Worldly or selfish feelings of gladness or delight cause inner ones to be seen as the opposite of gladness and delight, so much so that those persons loathe them. In loathing them they also brush them aside as something worthless or as something that has no actual existence. As a consequence they refuse to accept them, and at the same time they refuse to accept that what is spiritual or celestial is really anything at all. This is how the absurd thinking of the present day which is believed to be wisdom comes about.