"In Judah is God known, His name is great in Israel. In Salem also is His tabernacle, and His dwelling place is Zion. There brake He the arrows of the bow, the shield and the sword and the battle." Psalm 76:1-3

Additional readings: Ezekiel 47:1-9, Luke 6:27-49

Judah and Israel, the two great divisions of the Holy Land, represent the two division of the human mind, the will and the understanding.

The Scripture quoted in our text means that the Lord dwells in the wills and minds of those who love, know, and keep the truths of His Word, and protects them from evil and falsity.

The peoples of the world are living under a great strain. There is need of national self-control and self-sacrifice. The conditions which exist in the world today are the result of internal changes that have been going on ever since the Second Coming of the Lord. A new era in the world’s life began with the new revelation of the Lord through Moses and the Prophets. A new era was introduced by the coming of the Lord in the flesh. Every era that is really new has its beginning in a revelation from the Lord. This is true of the era into which the world has now entered. The essence of this new era was the opening of the inner meaning of the Word. The Writings do not indulge in particular prophesies, but in them the statement is made that the results would be endless and incalculable.

We are living in a spiritual and moral atmosphere altogether different from that which prevailed two centuries ago. Less than twenty years after the Second Coming occurred one of the important and decisive events in modern history, namely the American Revolution, whereby the United States were not only freed from their dependence upon Great Britain, but were enabled to establish on a scale previously impracticable a republican form of government. Hard upon this followed the revolution in France, which affected society to its foundations, and overthrew for France and for many other nations all belief in the Divine right of kings.

With the formation of a republic came the idea of universal education. If people are to govern themselves, education becomes a necessity. Emancipated from priestly surveillance, with all the sources of knowledge thrown upon to all men, their souls freed, their heart kindled with new hopes and aspiration, what wonderful progress has been made in the last two hundred years! The conditions of external human life have been revolutionized. With the use of machinery one man can do the work of fifty, or of a thousand in some fields. All these things have been brought about within so short a period, almost within one man’s lifetime, and follow each other with such rapidity, that we can only hold our breath in amazement and ask, "What next?" Thus, so far as external matters are concerned, the prophecy has been fulfilled.

These changes are so familiar that the recital of them would be superfluous. But the transformation does not stop at this point. It is not limited to matters of natural and worldly import. To all who have eyes to see and ears to hear it is obvious that the spiritual beliefs of men have changed. The eighteenth century forms of belief have not been openly repudiated, and their influence is felt in no small degree, but many of the old beliefs excite disquietude, faith in them has been shaken, and new ideas receive more and more favor.

Dishonesty and fraud still exist. Anger, hatred, envy, lust, hypocrisy are enemies to Christian life that have not been overcome, but there is a growing belief that these things, practiced even in secret, are not compatible with salvation or with happiness. The Church is beginning to cultivate a broader charity, and the thoughts of not a few are eagerly turning to some future time of universal Christian love and brotherhood. Yet this time is still a great way off. With all its progress, the world is still far from peace either external or internal.

Then the question is asked, "What is the world’s greatest need?" It would seem that a little reflection would lead all to agree that the only possible answer is the recognition and acknowledgment of the Lord as the one great and only source of life, who creates all men with faculties capable of receiving all the blessings of peace and happiness.

Yet humanity is suffering, suffering from wounds it has inflicted upon itself. It is obvious that something is the matter. Just what that something is it cannot tell, and it will look in vain for guidance to its own intelligence and devices. Many and various remedies are suggested, but few seem to think of the One Divine Physician who alone can heal the wounds.

The Church is at fault here. There is little clear belief about the Lord or in the divinity of the Word. Without much beliefs there are no fixed standards. It is of no use to say, "I believe in the Lord" and not seek to learn and do His will. The Lord is the source of all life. He is the central fact and foundation of all human activities. He must become more to us than a mere name, for if He is not made central in our lives, He will not rule in them. Without the Lord the world would drift on without any guiding principle or power other than the achievement of its own selfish ends, with hopeless confusion and conflict as the result. This is the state in which much of the world finds itself today.

"In Judah is God known, His name in great in Israel." Israel represents intellectual acknowledgment of God: Judah the acknowledgment of God in the heart, the doing of His will. Israel and Judah can exist together, but separated they fall. There may be an intellectual acceptance of Christian truth while in practical life the Lord is to a large extent ruled out of court; hence there is strife and struggle, sorrow and distress, destruction and war.

"In Judah is God known, His name is great in Israel." The Lord has made Himself known to us through the Scriptures. From Israel and Judah came the prophets, through whom the Scriptures were given, and in the Gospels and the Book of Revelation are given the record of the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets.

Toward the close of His life on earth, the Lord said to Philip, "Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me, Philip? He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father" (John 14:9). The Lord has been a long time with us, yet the question, "Hast thou not known Me?" still applies. He reveals Himself to us in the Scriptures, and is present with us as we see Him there and keep His teachings. But we must get the real meaning of the Scriptures to see God, and we cannot know the truth of the Scriptures until we have lived it.

We are living in turbulent times. A new world is slowly and painfully coming into being. Or is the world rushing to destruction? We should be able to give a confident answer because the strength and vitality of the Word have been revealed by the Lord in His Second Advent.

Diplomacy will not bring peace, neither will the mailed fist, nor will rationalism, atheism, or mysticism, nor the worship of men or saints. In this age these will be weighed in the balance and found wanting. Salvation will be found only through the opened Word of our Lord Jesus Christ.

"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and thy neighbor as thyself" (Deuteronomy 6:5, Matthew 22:37, Mark 12:30, Luke 10:27). The observance of outer forms alone will not suffice. Our minds and hearts must worship Him as well as our bodies. There must be knowledge of the Lord in the mind and love of the Lord in the heart.

One of the precepts of the Word is "Love your enemies." This is a searching exposure and a fearful condemnation of modern policy. Our religion is not measured by our conduct toward our friends. The acid test is the spirit in which we deal with the enemy. "For if you love them which love you, what thank have ye, for sinners also love those that love them" (Matthew 5:46, Luke 6:32).

"Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect" (Matthew 5:48). We are not asked to be infinitely perfect, but finitely perfect: that our knowledge and love make one, that we apply to life what we know to be true, and so copy in our finite way the perfection that is in the Lord. That is the way of salvation for the individual and for groups of individuals. The world may reply, "Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel?" (2 Kings 5:12). Cannot the wisdom, the craft, the diplomacy, the power of statesmen and of armies, of economists born, bred, and educated in the problems of the world politics suffice? The Church must surely answer, "They cannot suffice." One thing only has saving power, and that is the knowledge and acknowledgment of the Lord, the truths of the Word made known to the mind and accepted in the heart.

We must not form our principles from our daily papers, or from the books of men. For the folly of selfish interests and worldly wisdom will finally be proved with what suffering and agony we shall not live to know--and in the end the Word of the Lord will be heard. Then, tired of folly and in a humble and contrite spirit, will we come to the sanctity of those laws revealed by the Lord.

130. Verse 12. And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write, signifies for remembrance to those within the church who are in temptations. This is evident from the signification of "writing," as being for remembrance (See Arcana Coelestia 8620); and from the signification of "angel," as being a recipient of Divine truth, and in the highest sense Divine truth itself proceeding from the Lord (of which more in what follows); and from the signification of the "church in Pergamum," as being those within the church who are in temptations.

That these are meant by the "church in Pergamum" is clear from the things written to that church, which follow. From no other source can it be known what is signified by each of the seven churches. For as was shown before, what is meant is not any church in Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, or Laodicea, but all who are of the Lord's church, and by each of these churches something that constitutes the church with man is meant. And as the first things of the church are the knowledges of truth and good, and the affections of spiritual truth, these are first treated of, namely, in what is written to the angel of the Ephesian church and of the Smyrnean church; of the knowledges of truth and good to the angel of the Ephesian church, and of the spiritual affection of truth to the angel of the Smyrnean church. And as no one can be imbued with the knowledges of truth and good in respect to life, and be steadfast in the spiritual affection of truth, unless he undergoes temptations, so temptations are now treated of in what is written to the angel of the church in Pergamum. From this it appears in what order the things follow that are taught under the names of the seven churches.

[2] It is said "To the angel of the church, write," and not, To the church, because by "angel" is signified Divine truth, which makes the church; for Divine truth teaches how man is to live that he may become a church. That "angel" in the Word, in its spiritual sense, does not mean any angel, but in the highest sense, Divine truth proceeding from the Lord, and in a respective sense, he that receives it, can be seen from this, that all the angels are recipients of Divine truth from the Lord, and no angel is of himself an angel; but he is so far an angel as he receives Divine truth; for angels more than men know and perceive that all the good of love and all the truth of faith are from the Lord, not from themselves, and as the good of love and the truth of faith constitute their wisdom and intelligence, and as these constitute the whole angel, they know and say that they are merely recipients of the Divine proceeding from the Lord, and thus are angels in the degree in which they receive it. On this account they desire that the term "angel" should be understood spiritually, that is, in a sense abstracted from persons, and as meaning Divine truths. By Divine truth is meant at the same time Divine good, because these proceed from the Lord united (See in the work on Heaven and Hell, n.

[133-140] ¹ .

[3] And as Divine truth proceeding from the Lord constitutes the angel, by "angel" in the Word in the highest sense is meant the Lord Himself, as in Isaiah:

The angel of the faces of Jehovah delivered them, in His love and His pity He redeemed them, and took them up, and carried them all the days of eternity (Isaiah 63:9).

In Moses:

The angel who hath redeemed me from all evil, bless them (Genesis 48:16).

In the same:

I send an angel before thee to keep thee in the way; take ye heed of His faces, for my name is in the midst of Him (Exodus 23:20-23).

[4] As the Lord in respect to Divine truth is called an "angel," so also Divine truths are meant by "angels" in the spiritual sense, as in the following passages:

The Son of man shall send His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that cause stumbling. In the consummation of the age the angels shall come forth and sever the wicked out of the midst of the just (Matthew 13:41, 49).

In the consummation of the age the Son of man shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and shall gather together the elect from the four winds (Matt. 24:3, 31).

When the Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory (Matthew 25:31).

Jesus said, After this ye shall see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man (John 1:51).

In these passages, in the spiritual sense, by "angels" Divine truths and not angels are meant. So when it is here said that, in the consummation of the age, "the angels are to gather out all things that cause stumbling," "are to sever the wicked from the midst of the just," "are to gather together the elect from the four winds with a great sound of a trumpet," and that "the Son of man with the angels is to sit upon a throne of glory," it is not meant that angels, together with the Lord, are to do these things, but that the Lord alone will do them by means of His Divine truths; for angels have no power of themselves, but all power is the Lord's through His Divine truth (See in the work on Heaven and Hell 230-233). That "ye shall see the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man," means the like, namely, that Divine truths should be in Him and from Him.

[5] Moreover, in other places also "angels" mean Divine truths from the Lord, consequently the Lord in respect to Divine truths, as:

To the seven angels were given seven trumpets, and the angels sounded on the trumpets (Revelation 8:2, 6-8, 10, 12, 13; 9:1, 13, 14).

It is said that to the angels were given trumpets, and that they sounded thereon, because "trumpets" and their "sound" signify Divine truth to be revealed (See above, n. 55). Similar things are also meant:

By the angel warring against the dragon (Revelation 12:7, 9);

By the angel flying in the mid-heaven, having the eternal

gospel (Revelation 14:6);

By the seven angels pouring out the seven bowls (Rev. 16:1-4, 8, 10, 12);

By the twelve angels upon the twelve gates of the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21:12).

That this is so will also be seen in what follows.

[6] That by "angels" are meant Divine truths which are from the Lord is clearly manifest in David:

Jehovah maketh His angels winds, and His ministers a flaming fire (Psalms 104:4);

by which words are signified Divine truth and Divine good; for the "wind" of Jehovah in the Word signifies Divine truth, and His "fire" Divine good (as can be seen from what is shown in the Arcana Coelestia, as that the "wind of the nostrils" of Jehovah is Divine truth, n.8286; that the "four winds" are all things of truth and good, n. 3708, 9642, 9668; consequently "to breathe" in the Word signifies the state of the life of faith, n. 9281; from which it is evident what is signified by Jehovah's "breathing" into the nostrils of Adam (Genesis 2:7); by the Lord's "breathing" upon His disciples (John 20:22); and by these words, "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the voice thereof, but knowest not whence it cometh" (John 3:8); concerning which see n. 96, 97, 9229, 9281 also n. 1119, 3886, 3887, 3889, 3892, 3893; that "flaming fire" is Divine love, and therefore Divine good, see in the work on Heaven and Hell 133-140, 566-568; and above, n. 68).

[7] That "angel" signifies Divine truth proceeding from the Lord is clearly manifest from these words in Revelation:

He measured the wall of the New Jerusalem, a hundred and forty-four cubits, the measure of a man, which is that of an angel (Revelation 21:17).

That the wall of the New Jerusalem is not the measure of an angel anyone can see, but that all protecting truths are there meant by an "angel" is evident from the signification of the "wall of Jerusalem," and of the number "one hundred and forty-four." (That the "wall" signifies all protecting truths, see Arcana Coelestia 6419; that the number "one hundred and forty-four" signifies all things of truth in the complex, n. 7973; that "measure" signifies the quality of a thing in respect to truth and good, n. 3104, 9603, 10262. These things may also be found explained as to the spiritual sense, in The small work on The New Jerusalem and its Doctrine 1.)

[8] Because by "angels" in the Word Divine truths are signified, therefore the men through whom Divine truths are made known are sometimes called "angels" in the Word, as in Malachi:

The priest's lips ought to guard knowledge, and they shall seek the law at his mouth, because he is the angel of Jehovah (Malachi 2:7).

He is said to be the "angel of Jehovah," because he teaches Divine truth; not that he is the angel of Jehovah, but the Divine truth that he teaches is. Moreover, it is known in the church that no one has Divine truth from himself. "Lips" also here signify the doctrine of truth, and "law" Divine truth itself. (That "lips" signify the doctrine of truth, see Arcana Coelestia 1286, 1288; and that "law" signifies Divine truth itself, see n. 3382, 7463)

[9] From this it is that John the Baptist also is called an angel:

Jesus said, This is he of whom it is written, Behold, I send Mine angel before Thy face, who shall prepare Thy way before Thee (Luke 7:27).

John is called an "angel," because by him, in the spiritual sense, is signified the Word, which is Divine truth, in like manner as by Elias (See Arcana Coelestia 7643, 9372, and what is signified; this is what is meant by the persons mentioned in the Word, see n. 665, 1097, 1361, 3147, 3670, 3881, 4208, 4281, 4288, 4292, 4307, 4500, 6304, 7048, 7439, 8588, 8788, 8806, 9229).

[10] It is said that by "angels" in the Word, in its spiritual sense, Divine truths proceeding from the Lord are meant, because these constitute the angels; when angels utter these truths, they speak not from themselves, but from the Lord. The angels not only know that this is so, but they also perceive it. The man who believes that nothing of faith is from himself, but that all faith is from God, also knows this, indeed, but he does not perceive it. That nothing of faith is from man, but all faith is from God, is the same as saying that nothing of truth that has life is from man, but all truth is from God, for truth is of faith and faith is of truth.