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.

1895. 'She had an Egyptian servant-girl' means the affection for knowledge. This is clear from the meaning of 'a servant-girl' and from the meaning of 'Egypt'. Sarai, who is the mistress or lady, represents and means truth allied to good, as stated already. Truth allied to good is in the genuine sense intellectual truth, but rational truth comes below this and so is inferior. The latter is born from knowledge and cognitions that have been made living by means of an affection corresponding to them. Because this affection is part of the exterior man, it ought to be subservient to intellectual truth, which resides inmostly, in the way that a servant-girl is subservient to her mistress or a maid to the lady of - the house. That affection therefore is what is represented and meant by 'the servant-girl Hagar'.

[2] No one can have much understanding of anything said about these matters until he knows what intellectual truth is in the genuine sense and also in what way the rational is born, namely from the internal man as the father, and from the exterior or natural man as the mother. Unless the two are joined together nothing rational ever comes into being. The rational is not born from knowledge and cognitions, as people suppose, but from the affection for them, as becomes clear merely from the fact that nobody can possibly become rational unless some delight in or affection for such knowledge and cognitions burns within him. The affection constitutes the maternal life itself, while the celestial and spiritual within that affection constitute the paternal life. Consequently it is the degree and the quality of a person's affection that determine the degree and the quality of the rationality that is developed in him. In themselves facts and cognitions are nothing other than things that are dead, or instrumental causes, which are made alive by the life that belongs to affection. This is how everyone's rational man is conceived. The reason why the servant-girl was Egyptian and why that fact is mentioned is that 'Egypt' means knowledge, as has been shown already in 1164, 1165, 1186, 1462,