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Genesis 22

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1 And it cometh to pass after these things that God hath tried Abraham, and saith unto him, `Abraham;' and he saith, `Here [am] I.'

2 And He saith, `Take, I pray thee, thy son, thine only one, whom thou hast loved, even Isaac, and go for thyself unto the land of Moriah, and cause him to ascend there for a burnt-offering on one of the mountains of which I speak unto thee.'

3 And Abraham riseth early in the morning, and saddleth his ass, and taketh two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and he cleaveth the wood of the burnt-offering, and riseth and goeth unto the place of which God hath spoken to him.

4 On the third day -- Abraham lifteth up his eyes, and seeth the place from afar;

5 and Abraham saith unto his young men, `Remain by yourselves here with the ass, and I and the youth go yonder and worship, and turn back unto you.'

6 And Abraham taketh the wood of the burnt-offering, and placeth on Isaac his son, and he taketh in his hand the fire, and the knife; and they go on both of them together.

7 And Isaac speaketh unto Abraham his father, and saith, `My father,' and he saith, `Here [am] I, my son.' And he saith, `Lo, the fire and the wood, and where the lamb for a burnt-offering?'

8 and Abraham saith, `God doth provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt-offering, my son;' and they go on both of them together.

9 And they come in unto the place of which God hath spoken to him, and there Abraham buildeth the altar, and arrangeth the wood, and bindeth Isaac his son, and placeth him upon the altar above the wood;

10 and Abraham putteth forth his hand, and taketh the knife -- to slaughter his son.

11 And the messenger of Jehovah calleth unto him from the heavens, and saith, `Abraham, Abraham;' and he saith, `Here [am] I;'

12 and He saith, `Put not forth thine hand unto the youth, nor do anything to him, for now I have known that thou art fearing God, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only one, from Me.'

13 And Abraham lifteth up his eyes, and looketh, and lo, a ram behind, seized in a thicket by its horns; and Abraham goeth, and taketh the ram, and causeth it to ascend for a burnt-offering instead of his son;

14 and Abraham calleth the name of that place `Jehovah-Jireh,' because it is said this day in the mount, `Jehovah doth provide.'

15 And the messenger of Jehovah calleth unto Abraham a second time from the heavens,

16 and saith, `By Myself I have sworn -- the affirmation of Jehovah -- that because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only one --

17 that blessing I bless thee, and multiplying I multiply thy seed as stars of the heavens, and as sand which [is] on the sea-shore; and thy seed doth possess the gate of his enemies;

18 and blessed themselves in thy seed have all nations of the earth, because that thou hast hearkened to My voice.'

19 And Abraham turneth back unto his young men, and they rise and go together unto Beer-Sheba; and Abraham dwelleth in Beer-Sheba.

20 And it cometh to pass after these things that it is declared to Abraham, saying, `Lo, Milcah hath borne, even she, sons to Nahor thy brother:

21 Huz his first-born, and Buz his brother; and Kemuel father of Aram,

22 and Chesed, and Hazo, and Pildash, and Jidlaph, and Bethuel;

23 and Bethuel hath begotten Rebekah;' these eight hath Milcah borne to Nahor, Abraham's brother;

24 and his concubine, whose name [is] Reumah, she also hath borne Tebah, and Gaham, and Tahash, and Maachah.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 3381

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3381. 'Because Abraham hearkened to My voice' means the union of the Lord's Divine Essence with the Human Essence by means of temptations. This is clear from the representation of 'Abraham' as the Lord even as to the Divine Human, dealt with in 2833, 2836, 3251, and from the meaning of 'hearkening to My voice' when it has reference to the Lord, as uniting the Divine Essence to the Human Essence by means of temptations, for it is in connection with temptations that in the Word obedience is attributed to the Lord. The mention of Abraham's hearkening here is a reference to what was said about him in Chapter 22, When God tempted him He told him to take his son and offer him as a burnt offering, verses 1-2. And when he hearkened to His voice it is said,

Now I know that you fear God and have not withheld your only son from Me. By Myself I have sworn, says Jehovah, that because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will certainly bless you, and I will certainly multiply your seed like the stars of the heavens. Genesis 22:12, 16-17.

'Not withholding your only son from Me', which was 'hearkening to His voice', means the union of the Human and the Divine effected by means of the final degree of temptation, see 2827, 2844.

[2] That these considerations are meant by hearkening to the voice of Jehovah, or the Father, is also evident from the Lord's words uttered in Gethsemane, in Matthew,

My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless not as I will but as You will. Again, for the second time, My Father, if this cup cannot pass from Me unless I drink it, Your will he done. Matthew 26:39, 42; Mark 14:36; Luke 22:42.

But because Jehovah or the Father was within Him, that is, He was in the Father and Father in Him - John 14:10-11 - 'hearkening to Jehovah's voice' is used to mean that the Lord through temptations united the Divine to the Human by His own power, as is also clear from the Lord's own words in John,

As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father, and I lay down My life, 1 for the sheep. For this reason the Father loves Me, that I lay down My life, 1 so that I may receive it again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself; I have power to lay it down and I have power to receive it again; this commandment I have received from My Father. John 10:15, 17-18.

Through temptations the Lord united His Divine Essence to His Human Essence by His own power, see 1663, 1668, 1690, 1691 (end), 1725, 1729, 1733, 1737, 1787, 1789, 1812, 1820, 2776, 3318 (end).

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. literally, soul

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.

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Arcana Coelestia # 1820

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1820. 'By what shall I know that I shall inherit it?' means temptation directed against the Lord's love which wished to be made quite certain of the outcome. This becomes clear from the feeling of doubt which the words express. Anyone who is undergoing temptation experiences doubt as regards the end in view. That end is the love against which evil spirits and evil genii fight and in so doing place the end in doubt. And the greater his love is, the more they place it in doubt. Unless the end in view which a person loves is placed in doubt, and even in despair, there would be no temptation. A feeling of certainty about the outcome precedes, and is part of, victory.

[2] Since few people know what temptations really are, let a brief explanation of them be given here. Evil spirits never contend against any other things than those which a person loves, and the more intensely he loves them the more fiercely do those spirits contend. Evil genii are the ones that contend against the things of affection for what is good, and evil spirits are the ones that do so against the affection for what is true. As soon as they detect even the smallest thing that a person loves or get a scent, so to speak, of what is delightful and precious to him, they attack it instantly and try to destroy it, and so the whole person, since his life consists in his loves. Nothing ever gives them greater delight than to destroy a person; nor would they leave off but would continue even for ever, if the Lord did not drive them away. Those who are ill-disposed and deceitful worm their way into those very loves by flattering them, and in this way they bring a person in among themselves. And once they have so brought him in, they very soon try to destroy his loves and so to slay that person, which they do in a thousand unimaginable ways.

[3] Nor are the attacks which they make solely those in which they reason against goods and truths - the making of such attacks being nothing to them, for if they were defeated a thousand times over they would carry on with them because their supply of reasonings against goods and truths can never be exhausted. Rather, in their attacks, they pervert goods and truths, setting these ablaze with a certain kind of evil desire and of persuasion, so that the person himself does not know any other than that similar desire and persuasion reign within him. At the same time they infuse those goods and truths with delight which they seize from the delight which that person has in some other thing. In these ways they infect and infest him most deceitfully, doing it all so skillfully by leading him from the one thing to another that if the Lord did not come to his aid, that person would never know other than that it was indeed so.

[4] They act in similar ways against the affections for truth that constitute conscience. As soon as they become aware of anything, whatever the nature of it, that is a constituent part of that conscience, they mould an affection out of the falsities and weaknesses that exist with that person, and by means of that affection they dim the light of truth and so pervert it, or else they cause him anxiety and torment. In addition to this they keep his thought firmly fixed on one single thing; and they fill that thought with delusions, at the same time secretly incorporating evil desires within those delusions. Besides this they use countless other devices which cannot possibly be described so as to be understood. These are a few of the ways - and only very general ones - by which they are able to get at a person's conscience, which above all else they take the greatest delight in destroying.

[5] These few, indeed very few, observations show the nature of temptations - in general that the nature of a person's temptations is as the nature of his loves. They also show the nature of the Lord's temptations, that these were the most dreadful of all, for as is the intensity of the love so is the dreadfulness of the temptations. The Lord's love - a most ardent love - was the salvation of the whole human race; it was therefore a total affection for good and affection for truth in the highest degree. Against these all the hells contended, employing the most malicious forms of guile and venom, but the Lord nevertheless conquered them all by His own power. Victories have this effect, that after they have been won, wicked genii and spirits do not dare to attempt anything; for their life consists in their being able to destroy, but when they perceive that a person is able to withstand them, they flee even when they are making their first assault, as they usually do when they draw near to merely the threshold of heaven. They are straightaway gripped with horror and dread and hurl themselves back in retreat.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.