119. This is why in the Word the Lord is compared to the sun when the focus is on love and to the moon when the focus is on faith. It is also why the sun means a love for the Lord that comes from the Lord, and the moon means a faith in the Lord that comes from the Lord. Compare the following passages.

The light of the moon will be like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, like the light of seven days. (Isaiah 30:26)

When I annihilate you, I will cover the heavens and blacken the stars.

I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon will not make its light. I will blacken all the luminaries in the heavens above you and send darkness over your land. (Ezekiel 32:7-8)

I will darken the sun in its rising, and the moon will not make its light shine. (Isaiah 13:10)

The sun and the moon will be blackened and the stars will withdraw their shining; the sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood. (Joel 2:2, 10, 31, 3:15)

The sun became black as hairy sackcloth, and the moon became like blood, and the stars fell to earth. (Revelation 6:12-13)

Immediately after the affliction of those days, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light and the stars will fall from heaven. (Matthew 24:29)

And elsewhere. In these passages, the sun means love and the moon faith, while the stars mean instances of recognizing what is good and true. ¹ These are said to be darkened, to lose their light, and to fall from heaven when they no longer exist.

The Lord's appearance as a sun in heaven may also be inferred from his transfiguration before Peter, James, and John, when "his face shone like the sun" (Matthew 17:2). This is how the Lord was seen by those disciples when they had been lifted out of their bodies and were in the light of heaven.

For this reason, when the early people (who constituted a representative church) were engaged in their divine worship, they faced the sun in the east. It is why they set their temples to face the east.

Fußnoten:

254. As I also have overcome, and sit with My Father in His throne, signifies comparatively as Divine good is united to Divine truth in heaven. This is evident from the signification of "overcoming," as being in reference to the Lord Himself, to unite Divine good to Divine truth. Because this was effected through temptations and victories, it is said, "as I also have overcome." (That the Lord united Divine good to Divine truth through temptations admitted into His Human, and then through continued victories, see The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem 201, 293, 302.) "To sit with My Father in His throne" signifies Divine good united to Divine truth in heaven, because "Father," when said by the Lord, means the Divine good that was in Him from conception, and "Son" the Divine truth, both in heaven, "throne" meaning heaven (See above). This Divine of the Lord in the heavens is called Divine truth, but it is Divine good united to Divine truth. (That this is so, see in the work on Heaven and Hell 13, 133, 139-140.)

[2] There is a comparison made between the men of the church and the Lord Himself, in His saying, "He that overcometh I will give to him to sit with Me in My throne, as I also have overcome and sit with My Father in His throne," because the Lord's life in the world was an example according to which the men of the church are to live, as the Lord Himself teaches in John:

I have given unto you an example that ye also should do as I have done to you. If ye know these things, blessed are ye if ye do them (John 13:15, 13:17).

So in other places the Lord compares Himself with others; for example, in John:

Jesus said, Even as the Father hath loved Me, so have I loved you; abide ye in My love, as I have kept My Father's commandments, and abide in His love (John 15:9-10).

In the same:

They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. As Thou didst send Me into the world, even so sent I them into the world (John 17:16, 17:18).

In the same:

As the Father hath sent Me, even so send I you (John 20:21).

In the same:

The glory which Thou hast given Me I have given unto them; that they may be one even as We are one, I in them, Thou in Me. Father, those whom Thou hast given Me, I will that where I am they also may be with Me, that they may behold My glory which Thou hast given Me. I have made known unto them Thy name, and will make it known that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them, and I in them (John 17:22-24, 17:26).

The Lord spoke of His conjunction with men in the same way as He spoke of His conjunction with the Father, that is, the conjunction of His Human with the Divine that was in Him, for the reason that the Lord is not conjoined with what is man's own [proprio], but with His own that is with man. The Lord removes what is man's own [proprium], and gives of His own, and dwells in that. That this is so is known in the church, as is clear from the customary prayer and exhortation to those who come to the sacrament of the Supper, in which are these words:

If with a true penitent heart and lively faith we receive that holy sacrament (for then we spiritually eat the flesh of Christ, and drink His blood), then we dwell in Christ, and Christ in us; and we are one with Christ, and Christ with us. (See also John 6:56. But these things may be better understood from what is shown in the work on Heaven and Hell 11-12.) From this it follows that as the Divine of the Lord received by angels and by men makes heaven and the church with them, they are one with the Lord, as He and the Father are one.

[3] That the meaning of these words of the Lord, that "He sitteth with His Father in His throne," may be more clearly seen, it must be known that "God's throne" is heaven (as was shown in the preceding article), and that heaven is heaven from the Divine that proceeds from the Lord, and this Divine is called Divine truth, but is Divine good united to Divine truth (as was said above). The Lord Himself is not in heaven, but is above the heavens, and is seen by those who are in the heavens as a sun. He is seen as a sun because He is Divine love, and Divine love is seen by the angels as solar fire; this is why "sacred fire" in the Word signifies love Divine. From the Lord as a sun light and heat proceed: the light that proceeds, since it is spiritual light, is Divine truth; and the heat, since it is spiritual heat, is Divine good. This, namely, the Divine good, is what is meant by "the Father in the heavens." (That the Lord is the Sun of Heaven, and that the light and heat therefrom are Divine truth united to Divine good, may be seen in the work on Heaven and Hell 116-125, 126-140; and that Heaven is Heaven from the Divine that proceeds from the Lord, n 7-12.) From this what is meant in the Word by "the Father in the heavens" and by "Heavenly Father" can be seen. Thus in Matthew:

Do good to your enemies, that ye may be sons of your Father who is in the heavens (Matthew 5:44, 45).

In the same:

Ye shall be perfect, as your Father in the heavens is perfect (Matthew 5:48).

In the same:

Ye who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children; how much more shall your Father who is in the heavens give good things to them who ask Him (Matthew 7:11).

In the same:

He that doeth the will of the Father who is in the heavens shall enter into the kingdom of the heavens (Matthew 7:21).

In the same:

Every plant which the heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up (Matthew 15:13).

Also in other places (as in Matthew 5:16; 6:1, 6, 8; 12:50; 16:17, 18:14, 19, 35; Mark 11:25, 26; Luke 11:13).

[4] That "Father" means the Divine good can be seen also from this passage in Matthew:

Despise not one of these little ones; for their angels do always behold the face of My Father who is in the heavens (Matthew 18:10);

that "they behold the face of the Father who is in the heavens" signifies that they receive Divine good from the Lord; that they do not see His face is evident from the Lord's words in John:

That no one hath ever seen the Father (John 1:18; 5:37; 6:46).

The same can be seen from this passage in Matthew:

Call no man your Father on the earth, for one is your Father who is in the heavens (Matthew 23:9).

It is plain that no one is forbidden to call his father on the earth "father," nor is this here forbidden by the Lord; but this was said because "Father" means the Divine good, and:

No one is good except the one God (Matthew 19:17).

(The Lord spoke thus because "Father" in the Word of both Testaments means in the spiritual sense good, see Arcana Coelestia 3703[1-23], 5902, 6050, 7833, 7834; and also heaven and the church in respect to good, n. 2691, 2717, 3703, 5581, 8897; and "Father," when said by the Lord, means the Divine good of His Divine love, n. 2803, 3704, 7499, 8328, 8897)

1690. That 'the rest fled to the mountain' means that it did not happen to all of them is clear without explanation from the fact that they had now become 'the rest', who fled away. The subject in the internal sense is the temptations which the Lord underwent in childhood, about which nothing is recorded in the New Testament Word. No temptations are recorded there apart from the temptation in the wilderness, or shortly after He came out of the wilderness, and the last temptation later on in Gethsemane and after that. The fact that the Lord's life from earliest childhood right through to the last hour of His life in the world consisted in constant temptation and constant victory is clear from many places in the Old Testament Word; and the fact that it did not end with His temptation in the wilderness is clear from the following in Luke,

After the devil had ended every temptation he departed from Him for a time. Luke 4:13, as well as from His undergoing temptations right through to His death on the Cross, and so to the last hour of His life in the world. From these considerations it is evident that the whole of the Lord's life in the world from earliest childhood consisted in constant temptation and constant victory. The last was when on the Cross He prayed for His enemies, and so for all people in the whole world.

[2] In the part of the Word where the Lord's life is described - in the Gospels - no other temptation, apart from the last, is mentioned than His temptation in the wilderness. More than this was not disclosed to the disciples; and the things which were disclosed seem in the sense of the letter so slight as to amount to scarcely anything at all. For the things that are said, and the replies that are given, do not seem to constitute any temptation at all; yet in fact His temptation in the wilderness was more severe than the human mind can possibly comprehend and believe. Nobody can know what temptation is except someone who has experienced it. The temptation that is recorded in Matthew 4:1-11; Mark 1:12-13; Luke 4:1-13, incorporates in a summary form all temptations, namely this, that out of His love towards the whole human race He fought against self-love and love of the world, with which the hells were filled completely.

[3] All temptation is an attack against the love present in a person, the degree of temptation depending on the degree of that love. If love is not attacked there is no temptation. Destroying another person's love is destroying his very life, for his love is his life. The Lord's life was love towards the whole human race; indeed it was so great and of such a nature as to be nothing other than pure love. Against this life of His, temptations were directed constantly, and this was happening, as has been stated, from earliest childhood through to His last hour in the world. The love that was the Lord's very life is meant by His being hungry and by the devil's saying,

If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread. And Jesus answered, It is written that man will not live by bread alone but by every word of God. Luke 4:2-4; Matthew 4:2-4.

[4] That He fought against love of the world, or against all that constitutes love of the world, is meant by the devil's taking Him on to a high mountain and showing Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time and saying,

To you I will give all this power and their glory, for it has been given to me, and I give it to whom I will. If you, then, will worship before me, it will all be yours. But answering him Jesus said, Get behind Me, satan! for it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve. Luke 4:5-8; Matthew 4:8-10.

[5] That He fought against self-love, and all that constitutes self-love, is meant by these words,

The devil took Him into the holy city, and set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, He will give His angels charge regarding you, and on their hands they will bear you, lest you strike your foot against a stone. Jesus said to him, Again it is written, You shall not tempt the Lord your God. Matthew 4:5-7; Luke 4:9-12.

Constant victory is meant by the statement that after temptation angels came and ministered to Him, Matthew 4:11; Mark 1:13.

[6] To sum up, the Lord was attacked by all the hells from earliest childhood right through to the last hour of His life in the world. The hells were constantly overpowered, subdued, and vanquished by Him; and this He did solely out of love towards the whole human race. And because this love was not human but Divine, and because the intensity of the love determines that of the temptation, it becomes clear how severe His conflicts were, and on the part of the hells how fierce. That all this was indeed the case I know for sure.