In judo, you are trained to take advantage of your opponents' momentum to throw them off balance, and to the ground. You don't have to be bigger or stronger to win a combat.

There's a spiritual judo arena for each of us. When we start to try to shun evils, learn truths, and do good, we're entering the arena. We're going to engage in contests, combats.

We can expect that our opponent (our old, selfish mind/self, which believes false things and loves evil things) will try to use our new momentum to throw us off balance, and down. If we shun an evil successfully, once or twice, it will pull us into the evil of self-congratulation. If we learn some exciting new truths, it will yank us further into a pride in our own intelligence. If we fail a few times, it will throw us into despair or lead us to abandon the whole project.

If we know to expect these judo tactics, can we do better at keeping our balance? Yes, for sure. We can recognize that we're in the spiritual arena, in spiritual combats, or temptations. We can try to keep our balance, keeping the Word as our touchstone, and getting advice and support from people we love and trust. We can move without over-reaching, learning truths to match with new-found loves for doing good things. We can practice, over and over again, and not lose heart.

Judo is not mentioned in the Bible, but when you look, you can see the techniques at work:

Three times in the Old Testament, there are stories of good high priests - Aaron, Eli, and Samuel - who have evil sons that they don't rein in. Initially strong, good efforts get pulled off balance, either by inattention or pride or neglected practice. (See Leviticus 10:1-2, 1 Samuel 2:12-34, and 1 Samuel 8:1-3)

The three most prominent kings of Israel, Saul, David, and Solomon, all start well, but get seduced by their power, pride, or wealth, which seem to corrupt them.

In another case, during the Exodus, Moses has led the Children of Israel out of Egypt, and towards the land of Canaan. He's doing well, obeying the Lord's commands. But at Meribah, he gets impatient, and loses trust in the Lord, and tries to take matters into his own hands. As a result, he's not permitted to enter the Promised Land. (See Numbers 20:6-13)

In Swedenborg's work, "The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine", there's a chapter about temptation that begins in section 196. In section 197 we find this statement:

"Temptation is a combat between the internal or spiritual man, and the external or natural man. (See Arcana Coelestia 2183, 4256)"

When you set out to make spiritual progress, you're entering the judo arena. Your new-forming spiritual self will combat your habitual "natural" self. You'll be fighting to keep your balance, and -- if you stay aware that you're in a spiritual battle -- you'll even be able to see ways to throw evil and falsity off-balance, to the ground.

7186. 'And Jehovah said to Moses' means instruction regarding the law of God. This is clear from the meaning of 'Jehovah said' as instruction from the Divine, dealt with below; and from the representation of 'Moses' as the law of God, dealt with in 6713, 6752, 7014. The reason why 'Jehovah said to Moses' means instruction regarding the law of God is that the end of the previous chapter spoke of Moses' belief gained from the law of God that those belonging to the spiritual Church would be delivered from molestations straightaway. The orderly way however is for the evil who molest to be removed gradually, and those who belong to the spiritual Church to be delivered gradually.

[2] Divine order knows no other way than this, and therefore the law of God too knows no other way, for every law of God is a law of order, so entirely so that whether you say a law of God or a law of Divine order it amounts to the same thing. Those who belong to the spiritual Church now receive instruction regarding this law; from it they learn that they will certainly be delivered when, in keeping with order, the time and state for deliverance has come. The fact that Moses - who represents here the law of God as it exists among those belonging to the spiritual Church when they pass through a state involving molestations - believed from the law of God that they would be delivered from molestations straightaway is evident from the things said by him at the end of the previous chapter. There he says, 'Why have You done ill to this people? Why is this, that You have sent me, and have not delivered Your people at all?' the meaning of which is that they are suffering from excessive molestation by falsities when yet the law emanating from God seems to promise something different, thus that they have not been released from the state of molestations, see 7165, 7166, 7169.

[3] The reason why those who belong to the spiritual Church and are on the lower earth are delivered from molestations gradually, in successive stages and not straightaway, is that there is no other way in which the evils and falsities clinging to them can be removed and forms of good and truth instilled instead. This is effected by very many changes of state, thus gradually, in successive stages. Those who believe that a person can be introduced straightaway into heaven, and that nothing more than the Lord's mercy is necessary for this to be done, are very much mistaken. If that belief were true, then all in hell, however many they may be, would be raised to heaven; for the Lord's mercy reaches out to all. However, the orderly way is for each person to take with him the life he was leading in the world and for that life of his to determine his state in the next life. At the same time the Lord's mercy flows into everyone and is present with all; but it is received in varying ways, and is rejected by those who are governed by evil. And because they have steeped themselves in evil when in the world they also retain it in the next life. Nor is any correction possible in the next life; for where the tree has fallen, there it lies. All this shows how orderly it is that those who have led a good life, yet whose characters also have uncouth and impure elements of self-love and love of the world in them, should be unable to enter into fellowship with those in heaven until such elements have been removed. From these considerations it is evident that deliverance from molestations takes place gradually, in successive stages.