7668. 'Go now, you young men, and serve Jehovah' means that those guided by truths that have been corroborated will be left alone, in order that they may worship the Lord. This is clear from the meaning of the command 'go' as the intimation that they will be left alone, as above in 7658; from the meaning of 'young men' as corroborated truths, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'serving Jehovah' as worshipping the Lord, as above in 7654, 7664. The reason why 'young men' means those guided by truths that have been corroborated is that by sons, boys, young men, men, and old men' are meant aspects of intelligence and wisdom in their true order. Such aspects instead of those male persons are understood in heaven; for those in heaven possess spiritual ideas which are such that images from the purely natural order or the world cannot enter them without being instantly sloughed off and transformed into the kinds of images that are more in keeping with the wisdom of heaven and with angelic thought. This is why 'sons, boys, young men, men, and old men' cannot in the spiritual sense mean those male persons, only corresponding spiritual realities, which are aspects of intelligence and wisdom. The fact that these are meant is plainly evident from the internal sense of the places in the Word where they are mentioned.

[2] In the Word 'young men' is used to mean those who have intelligence, or - on the level of abstract ideas on which angels think - intelligence itself. And since intelligence is meant by them, so is firmly established truth since this belongs to intelligence. Also the expression which is used here in the original language to denote young men is derived from strength and power, which truth receives from good, and so which firmly established truth receives. And this name is therefore applied to the Lord in Zechariah,

O sword, rise up against My shepherd, and against the (young) man, My neighbour. Strike the shepherd, and the sheep are scattered. Zechariah 13:7.

These words were spoken in reference to the Lord, see Matthew 26:31. And also in Jeremiah,

How long do you wander around, O estranged daughter? Jehovah has created a new thing on the earth, a woman has surrounded a (young) man. Jeremiah 31:22.

[3] Another word for 'young men in the original language stands for intelligence, and so for the truth that belongs to it, in Amos,

I have sent the pestilence upon you in the way of Egypt, I have killed your young men with the sword, along with captured horses. ¹ Amos 4:10.

'The way of Egypt' stands for perverted factual knowledge, young men who have been killed' for truths which have as a result been destroyed, and 'captured horses' for an understanding that has been led into error.

[4] In the same prophet,

They will wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east; they will run to and fro to seek the Word of Jehovah, and will not find it. On that day the beautiful virgins and the young men will faint from thirst. Amos 8:12-13.

'The beautiful virgins' stands for the affection for truth, 'the young men' for intelligence, and 'fainting from thirst' for being deprived of truth; and this is why it says 'they will run to and fro to seek the Word of Jehovah, and will not find it'. The fact that neither beautiful virgins, nor young men, nor fainting because of thirst are meant here is self-evident.

In Jeremiah,

Death has come up through our windows, it has entered our palaces, cutting off the young child from the street, young men from the lanes. Jeremiah 9:11.

In the same prophet,

How is the city of glory not forsaken, the city of My joy? Therefore her young men will fall in her streets. Jeremiah 49:25-26; 50:30.

In the same prophet,

Hear now, all peoples, see my sorrow; my virgins and my young men have gone into captivity. Lamentations 1:18.

In these places 'young men' stands for the truths that belong to intelligence.

Poznámky pod čarou:

10659. 'Because in the month of Abib you came out of Egypt' means because then there was deliverance from hell. This is clear from the meaning of 'the month of Abib' as the beginning of a new state, as immediately above in 10658; and from the meaning of 'coming out of Egypt' as deliverance from molestation by falsities, thus also from hell, dealt with in 9292, and in the places referred to in 8866, 9197. From all this it becomes clear that the feast of Passover, which was also called the feast of unleavened bread, was established for a remembrance of the Lord's deliverance of mankind from hell. This deliverance was accomplished by the Lord's subduing of the hells and glorifying of His Human, see just above in 10655.

[2] The majority of people within the Church believe that the Lord came into the world to reconcile the Father through the passion of the Cross, after which those for whom He interceded would be accepted. They also believe that He released mankind from damnation by the fulfillment - by Himself alone - of the law, which otherwise would have condemned everyone; and thus that all who held to that belief with confidence and assurance would be saved. But those with any enlightenment from heaven can see how wrong it is to think that the Divine, who is Love itself and Mercy itself, could cast the human race away from Himself and condemn them to hell; that He had of necessity to be reconciled by the passion of His Son on the Cross; that His Mercy was not aroused by anything other than this; that afterwards no one would be condemned for the way he lived, provided he held with confidence to belief in that reconciliation; and that all salvation is accomplished through faith or belief instilled out of mercy. Those who think and believe such things cannot see anything at all; they speak but have no understanding of anything. Mysteries therefore is what they call those things which are to be believed but not by any means understood. From this it follows that any enlightenment from the Word showing that the situation is different from what they suppose it to be is rejected; for light from heaven cannot enter where such dimness resulting from contradictory ideas prevails. The word 'dimness' is used to describe that which is not understood at all.

[3] But to those who receive enlightenment the Lord imparts an ability to understand the things they believe. Those who acknowledge the Lord and love to lead a life in keeping with His commandments are the ones who are enlightened when they read the Word and who have an understanding of it, not those who say they believe and do not lead such a life. For the Lord flows into a person's life and from this into his belief, but not into a person's belief separate from his life. What those who are enlightened by the Lord through the Word understand is that the Lord came into the world to subdue the hells and to restore everything there and in the heavens to order, which could not by any means have been accomplished except through His Human; for He was able from the Human, but not from the Divine without the Human, to fight against the hells. Their understanding is that He also came into the world to glorify His Human, in order that through that glorified Human all things restored to order by Him might be maintained forever in that condition. From this comes the salvation of mankind. For every person is surrounded by the hells; each one is born into evils of every kind, and where evils exist, so do the hells. And unless these had been thrown back by the Lord's Divine Power no one at all could have been saved. These are the things which the Word teaches and which are discerned by all who let the Lord into their life, these, as stated above, being people who acknowledge Him and love to lead a life in keeping with His commandments. See what has been quoted and shown from the Word in 9937, 10019, 10152, 10579, and many other places.

[4] Being led away from evils, being regenerated, and so being saved is all an act of Mercy. This Mercy however does not operate by direct intervention, as people believe, but indirectly, that is, in those who depart from evils and so let the truth of faith and the good of love from the Lord into their life. The direct intervention of mercy, which everyone would experience if no more than God's good pleasure were necessary, is contrary to Divine order; and what is contrary to Divine order is contrary to God, since order begins in God and what is Divine and His in heaven constitutes order. When people accept order in themselves they are saved, and this comes about solely as a result of their leading a life in keeping with the Lord's commandments. The regeneration of a person takes place to the end that he may accept the order of heaven within himself; and that regeneration is accomplished by means of faith and the life of faith, which is charity. Anyone who has that order within him is in heaven, and also presents a kind of image of heaven; but anyone who does not have it is in hell and presents a kind of image of hell. One cannot by any means be changed and transformed into the other by any direct intervention of mercy, since they are opposites; for evil is the opposite of good, and good has life and heaven within it, whereas evil has death and hell within it. The impossibility for one to be transformed into the other is the Lord's teaching in Luke,

Abraham said to the rich man in hell, Between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass across from here to you cannot, nor can those who are there pass across to us. Luke 16:26.

Furthermore if the direct intervention of mercy were possible all people in the world, however many, would be saved, and hell would not exist; for the Lord, being Love itself which desires the salvation of all and the death of none, is Mercy itself.