Joshua 9: The Gibeonites deceive Israel.

After Israel conquered Jericho and then Ai, the news about the strength of the Children of Israel - and their mighty God, Jehovah - spread quickly among the people of Canaan. In this chapter, the people of Gibeon came up with a plan to trick Joshua and the Israelites into granting them safety.

To preserve themselves, the Gibeonites cooked up a story that they had come from far away. They dressed in old clothing and worn-out sandals, and brought shabby wine-skins and moldy bread as proof of their long journey. After questioning these travelers, Joshua agreed to guarantee their safety, and the Israelites made a covenant to let them live. Note that the Israelites did not consult the Lord.

In the end, the Gibeonites admitted that they lived close by and were neighbors of Israel, just as the Hivites (the Gibeonites' ancestors) had been with Abraham. Joshua, unable to revoke his promise to them, made them wood-cutters and water-carriers for the altars of the Lord.

This chapter offers us several spiritual lessons. The main one is that there is a place for simple, well-intentioned goodness in our spiritual life, along with our love of God and our love for other people (See Swedenborg's exegetical work, Arcana Caelestia 3436, for details). This is what the Gibeonites stand for; they were not warlike but peaceful, content to live usefully day after day. This is an illustration of natural good, which is an important part of life in this world and in heaven (Arcana Caelestia 3167).

On a spiritual level, their story about living in a country far-away means that when we live good, well-intentioned lives, we are ‘far away’ from the evils of the Canaanites. Although the Gibeonites lived among the Canaanites, their higher values were entirely different. So while the Gibeonites deceived Israel to save themselves, they spoke truthfully when they said: “we come from a place a very long way away” (See Swedenborg's work, Heaven and Hell 481).

Their tattered and torn appearance is meant to illustrate the hard work of doing good. It can be quite wearing to continue doing good things, especially when we feel it is all up to us. Acknowledging that all good is from the Lord renews us, and keeps us from the burden of merit.

In the same vein, their worn-out appearance is also about our relationship with the Word. Little children love and delight in the stories of the Word, but as they grow up, this love dwindles (Arcana Caelestia 3690). But as adults, we have the choice to find those guiding principles from the Word, helping us to keep leading good lives.

The fact that Joshua commanded the Gibeonites to cut wood and draw water also holds spiritual significance. The beauty of wood is that it comes from living trees, and can be turned into many, many useful things. It stands for the steady, humble wish to do good each day (See Swedenborg's work, True Christian Religion 374). This must be present in our worship at the altars of the Lord.

Drawing water provides essential, life-giving refreshment for others. Water stands for truth, and our better actions draw the water of life for the sake of others. Truly, acknowledging the goodness in other people is part of our faith in God. This story shows us that we must allow others to live and to serve everything of God, just as Joshua showed mercy toward the Gibeonites.

481. The man whose love is heavenly and spiritual comes into heaven; while the man whose love is corporeal and worldly with no heavenly and spiritual love goes to hell. This has been confirmed for me from all whom I have seen taken up into heaven or cast into hell. The life of those taken up into heaven had been derived from a heavenly and spiritual love, while the life of those cast into hell had been derived from a corporeal and worldly love. Heavenly love consists in loving what is good, honest, and just, because it is good, honest and just, and in doing this from that love; and those who have this love have a life of goodness, honesty, and justice, which is the heavenly life. Those who love these things for their own sake, and who do them or live them, love the Lord above all things, because they are from Him; they also love the neighbour, because these things are the neighbour who is to be loved. ¹ But corporeal love is loving what is good, honest, and just, not for its own sake but for the sake of self, because reputation, honour, and gain can thus be acquired. Such, in what is good, honest, and just, do not look to the Lord and to the neighbour, but to self and the world, and feel delight in fraud; and the goodness, honesty and justice derived from fraud are evil, dishonesty, and injustice, and these are what are loved by such in their practice of goodness, honesty, and justice.

[2] As the life of everyone is determined by these different kinds of love, as soon as men after death enter the world of spirits they are examined to discover their quality, and are joined to those who are in a like love; those in heavenly love to those who are in heaven, and those in corporeal love to those who are in hell. Also after they have passed through the first and second state they are so separated as to see or know each other no longer; for each one becomes his own love, both in respect of his interiors pertaining to his mind, and in respect of his exteriors pertaining to his face, body, and speech; for each becomes an image of his own love, even in externals. Those who are corporeal loves appear gross, dusky, black and misshapen; while those who are heavenly loves appear fresh, bright, fair and beautiful. Also in their minds and thoughts they are wholly unlike, those who are heavenly loves being intelligent and wise, while those who are corporeal loves are stupid and, as it were, foolish.

[3] When it is granted to behold the interiors and exteriors of thought and affection of those who are in heavenly love, their interiors appear like light, and some like a flamy light, while their exteriors appear in various beautiful colours like rainbows. But the interiors of those who are in corporeal love appear as if black, because they are closed up; and the interiors of some who were interiorly in malignant deceit appear like a dusky fire. But their exteriors appear of a dirty colour, and disagreeable to the sight. (The interiors and exteriors of the mind and "animus" are made visible in the spiritual world whenever the Lord pleases.)

[4] Those who are in corporeal love see nothing in the light of heaven; to them the light of heaven is thick darkness; but the light of hell, which is like light from burning coals, is to them as clear light. Moreover, in the light of heaven their interior sight is so darkened that they become insane; consequently, they shun that light and hide themselves in dens and caverns, more or less at a depth in accordance with the falsities with them derived from their evils. On the other hand, those who are in heavenly love, the more interiorly and deeply they come into the light of heaven, see all things more clearly and all things appear more beautiful to them, and they perceive truths more intelligently and wisely.

[5] It is impossible for those who are in corporeal love to live at all in the heat of heaven, for the heat of heaven is heavenly love; but they can live in the heat of hell, which is the love of raging against others who do not favour them. The delights of that love are contempt of others, enmity, hatred and revenge; and when they are in these delights they are in their life, and have no idea what it is to do good to others from good itself and for the sake of good itself, knowing only what it is to do good from evil and for the sake of evil.

[6] Those who are in corporeal love are unable to breathe in heaven. When any evil spirit is brought into heaven he draws his breath like one struggling in combat; while those who are in heavenly love have a freer respiration and a fuller life the more interiorly they are in heaven. From these things it can be confirmed that heaven with man is heavenly and spiritual love, because on that love all things of heaven are inscribed; also that corporeal love and worldly love apart from heavenly and spiritual love, are hell with man, because on such loves all things of hell are inscribed. From these things it is clear that he whose love is heavenly and spiritual comes into heaven, and he whose love is corporeal and worldly apart from heavenly and spiritual love comes into hell.

Poznámky pod čarou: