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.

3691. 'And went to Haran' means closer to that degree of good and truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'Haran' as external good and truth, for 'Haran' means that which is external, and 'Laban' who lived there means that which is good and true, so that 'Haran' here means external good and truth. That this is what 'Haran' means, see 1430, 3612. From this it is evident that 'Jacob went out from Beersheba and went to Haran' means in the internal sense that he took himself to a position more remote from matters of doctrine that were Divine and so closer to external good and truth.

[2] The reason why the phrase 'that degree of good and truth' is used is that goods and truths are quite distinct and separate from one another according to the degrees they belong to. Interior goods and truths exist in a higher degree, exterior goods and truths in a lower one. In a higher degree are the goods and truths which belong to the rational, in a lower one the goods and truths that belong to the natural, and in the lowest degree are the sensory goods and truths that belong to the body. Interior goods and truths, or those which exist in the higher degree, flow into exterior goods and truths, or those existing in the lower degree, and present an image of themselves there, almost as a person's interior affections present themselves in his face and in the changing expressions seen there. From this it is evident that interior goods and truths are entirely separate from exterior goods and truths, or what amounts to the same, those which exist in the higher degree are entirely separate from those in the lower one, so separate that those which are interior or existing in the higher degree are able to manifest themselves independently of those that are exterior or existing in the lower one. Anyone who does not have a clear-cut idea of degrees cannot have a clear-cut idea of interior and exterior goods and truths, or of how a person's soul or spirit and his body are related to each other, or of how in the next life the heavens are related to one another.

[3] It is well known that there are three heavens, that one heaven is interiorly within another, and that the third heaven is the inmost. These heavens are utterly distinct and separate, each a separate degree from the others. Members of the inmost or third are closer to the Lord; members of the less interior or second are more remote; and members of the exterior or first are more remote still. No communication between those heavens is possible other than a communication like that of the inmost parts of the human being with the exterior parts of him, for anyone who is governed by love to the Lord and by charity towards the neighbour is a miniature heaven, corresponding in image to the three heavens. In addition, he receives from those three heavens an influx, in three similar degrees, of good and truth from the Lord. What each of these is like compared with the other two becomes clear from the two examples introduced above in 3688, 3690.

[4] Those who are governed by true love to the Lord, so much so that they have a perception of that love, are in the higher degree of good and truth. They are in the inmost or third heaven, thus closer to the Lord, and are called celestial angels. Those however who are governed by charity towards the neighbour, so much so that they have a perception of that charity but not so much a perception of love to the Lord, are in a lower degree of good and truth. They are in the interior or second heaven, accordingly more remote from the Lord, and are referred to as spiritual angels. Those however who are governed by charity towards the neighbour that arises solely from an affection for truth, so much so that they do not have any perception of that charity towards the neighbour except from the truth for which they have an affection, are in a still lower degree of good and truth. They are in the exterior or first heaven, accordingly more remote still from the Lord, and are termed good spirits.

[5] This shows to some extent the relationship of these degrees to one another, that is to say, it shows that things existing in a higher degree present an image of themselves that is formed from the things belonging to the degree immediately below them. Love to the Lord contains the closest image of the Lord. That image is called a likeness and therefore people who are governed by true love to the Lord are called likenesses of Him. Charity too contains an image of the Lord, though in a more remote way - for within genuine charity the Lord is present - and therefore people who are governed by such charity are referred to as His images, see 50, 51, 1013. But those who are governed by the affection for truth and consequently by a certain kind of charity towards the neighbour are also images of the Lord, yet in a more remote way still. Into these separate degrees the three heavens are distinguished, and in accordance with those same degrees the Lord flows in with Divine Good and Truth, and so with wisdom and intelligence, together with heavenly joy and happiness.