THE NEW JERUSALEM AND ITS HEAVENLY DOCTRINE

ACCORDING TO WHAT HAS BEEN HEARD FROM HEAVEN

WITH AN INTRODUCTION CONCERNING THE NEW HEAVEN AND THE NEW EARTH

"Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all things shall be added unto you." (Matthew 6:33)

2131. People who are admitted are received by angelic communities with inmost charity and its joy, and they are shown all love and friendship. But when they are no longer content to remain in the communities they have come to first, they are received by other communities, and this process is repeated again and again until they reach that community with which they accord so far as the life of mutual love with them is concerned, There they remain until, having become more perfect, they leave, and from there are raised and lifted up into greater happiness, which in the Lord's mercy happens to them to the extent that the life of love and charity which they have received in the world exists with them. But their transference from one community to another is never a matter of their being rejected by the community where they are. It takes place because they themselves wish to go, a wish that is in accordance with an urgent desire instilled in them by the Lord. And because that transference is in keeping with their desires there is nothing which is not done in freedom.

1672. 'And the kings who were with him' means the apparent truth that goes with that good. This is clear from the meaning of 'kings' in the Word. Kings, kingdoms, and peoples in the historical and prophetical sections of the Word mean truths and the things that belong to truths, as may be confirmed from many places. In the Word a careful distinction is made between people and nation, 'people' meaning truths, 'nation' goods, as shown already in 1259, 1260. Kings have reference to peoples, and not so much to nations. The children of Israel, before they sought to have kings, were 'a nation' and represented good, or that which is celestial; but after they desired a king and received one, they became 'a people' and represented not good or that which is celestial, but truth or that which is spiritual, and this was the reason why this was ascribed to them as a fault in 1 Samuel 8:7-end. This, in the Lord's Divine mercy, will be explained elsewhere. In the present verse, since 'Chedorlaomer' is referred to, and then the phrase 'the kings who were with him' is added, both good and truth are meant - good by 'Chedorlaomer' and truth by 'the kings'. But what kind of good and truth it was when the Lord's temptations first began has been stated above.