Title: A Way Forward, Part 3

Topic: Second Coming

Summary: Forward motion, individually and collectively, requires leadership and a degree of unanimity.

References:
Deuteronomy 30:1-6
Psalms 147:1-3
Isaiah 27:12-13; 43:4-7; 56:6-8
Jeremiah 23:1-4; 29:10-14; 31:7-12
Ezekiel 11:16-21; 34:11-16; 37:21-23; 39:25-29
Micah 2:12-13; 4:6-7
Zephaniah 3:18-20
Zechariah 10:8
Mark 13:27
Luke 11:23; 13:34
John 11:49-52

This video is a part of the Spirit and Life Bible Study series, whose purpose is to look at the Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible through a Swedenborgian lens.

4504. 'Because they had defiled their sister' means that they had violated the truth of faith. This is clear from the meaning of 'defiling' as violating, and from the meaning of 'a sister' as truth, dealt with in 1495, 2508, 2524, 2556, 3386, in this case the truth of faith because Dinah, to whom 'their sister' refers here, means the affection for all things of faith, 4427. The reason why Shechem's defilement of their sister means that they befouled the truth of faith is that she represents the affection for all truths, and so means the Church itself, 3963, 3964. And because she was not given by her brothers to Shechem as a wife but remained with them as one defiled, therefore like her brothers she subsequently had a contrary representation. That is to say, she represented the affection for all falsities, and so represented the corrupted Church. Consequently the statement that they defiled their sister means that they had violated the truth of faith.