37. The Lord Is God Himself, the Source and Subject of the Word
In the first chapter I undertook to show that the whole of Sacred Scripture is about the Lord and that the Lord is the Word. At this point I need to set this forth further with passages from the Word where the Lord is called Jehovah, the God of Israel and Jacob, the Holy One of Israel, Lord, and God, as well as King, Jehovah’s Anointed, and David.
By way of preface I may observe that I have been granted the opportunity to read through all the prophets and the Psalms, to reflect on the individual verses and see what they were about; and it became clear that they were about nothing but the church that had been established and was to be established by the Lord, about the Lord’s Coming, his battles, glorification, redemption, and salvation and about the heaven that comes from him, together with their opposites. Since these are all works of the Lord, I could see that the whole of Sacred Scripture is about the Lord and that therefore the Lord is the Word.
[2] The only people who can see this, though, are the ones who enjoy enlightenment from the Lord and who are also acquainted with the Word’s spiritual meaning. All the angels in heaven are aware of this meaning, so when one of us is reading the Word, that and that alone is what they grasp. There are always angels and spirits with us, and since they are spiritual beings, they understand spiritually what we understand in earthly terms.
From the passages cited earlier, in the first chapter (1-6), we can see only dimly, as though through a screen, that the whole of Sacred Scripture is about the Lord. The passages about the Lord now to be cited show that he is often called “Lord” and “God.” It may be very clear from this that he is the one who spoke through the prophets, in whose books it says again and again, “Jehovah spoke, ” “Jehovah said, ” and “the saying of Jehovah.”
[3] We can see that the Lord existed before his coming into the world from the following passages:
John the Baptist said of the Lord, “This is the one who is to come after me, who was before me; I am not worthy to undo the strap of his sandal.” And “This is the one of whom I said, ‘One is coming after me, who was before me and was greater than me.’” (John 1:27, 30)
In the Book of Revelation:
[The elders] fell down before the throne on which the Lord was, saying, “We give you thanks, O Lord God Almighty, who is and who was and who is to come.” (Revelation 11:16-17)
In Micah:
As for you, Bethlehem Ephrata, as little as you are among the thousands of Judah, one will come forth from you for me who will become the ruler in Israel; his coming forth is from ancient times, from the days of eternity. (Micah 5:2)
We can also see from the Lord’s words in the Gospels that he existed before Abraham [John 8:58], that he had glory with the Father before the foundation of the world [John 17:5; 17:24], that he came forth from the Father [John 16:28], that the Word was with God from the beginning and that the Word was God [John 1:1], and that the Word became flesh [John 1:14]. The passages that follow will serve to show 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, Jehovah’s Anointed, and David.
