39. We can see that the Lord is called “the God of Israel” and “the God of Jacob” from the following passages:

Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that Jehovah has made with you.” And they saw the God of Israel, under whose feet there was something like a work of sapphire stone and like the substance of heaven. (Exodus 24:8-10)

The crowds were amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the lame walking, and the blind seeing; and they glorified the God of Israel. (Matthew 15:31)

Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, because he has visited and freed his people Israel, when he raised up the horn of our salvation in the house of David. (Luke 1:68-69)

I will give you treasures of darkness and the hidden wealth of secret places so that you may recognize that I, Jehovah, who have called you by your name, am the God of Israel. (Isaiah 45:3)

... the house of Jacob, people who swear by the name of Jehovah and of the God of Israel, for they are called by the name of the holy city and rely on the God of Israel: Jehovah Sabaoth is his name. (Isaiah 48:1-2)

Jacob will see his descendants in his midst. They will sanctify my name and will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob; and they will fear the God of Israel. (Isaiah 29:23)

In the very last of days many people will come and say, “Come, and let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah, to the house of the God of Jacob, who will teach us about his ways so that we may walk in his paths.” (Isaiah 2:3; Micah 4:2)

... so that all flesh may know that I, Jehovah, am your Savior, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob. (Isaiah 49:26)

I, Jehovah, am your Savior and your Redeemer, the Powerful One of Jacob. (Isaiah 60:16)

In the presence of the Lord you give birth, O earth, in the presence of the God of Jacob. (Psalms 114:7)

David swore to Jehovah and made a vow to the Mighty One of Jacob, “[God forbid] that I enter the tent of my home until I have found a place for Jehovah, a dwelling for the Mighty One of Jacob.” We have heard of him in Ephrata [that is, Bethlehem]. (Psalms 132:2-3, 5-6)

Blessed be the God of Israel; the whole earth will be full of his glory. (Psalms 72:18-19)

There are also many other passages where the Lord is called “God of Israel, ” “Redeemer, ” and “Savior, ” such as Luke 1:47; Isaiah 45:15; 54:5; Psalms 78:35; plus many other places where we find only “the God of Israel, ” as in Isaiah 17:6; 21:10, 17; 24:15; 29:23; Jeremiah 7:3; 9:15; 11:3; 13:12; 16:9; 19:3, 15; 23:2; 24:5; 25:15, 27; 29:4, 8, 21, 25; 30:2; 31:23; 32:14-15, 36; 33:4; 34:2, 13; 35:13, 17-19; 37:7; 38:17; 39:16; 42:9, 15, 18; 43:10; 44:2, 7, 11, 25; 48:1; 50:18; 51:33; Ezekiel 8:4; 9:3; 10:19-20; 11:22; 43:2; 44:2; Zephaniah 2:9; Psalms 41:13; 59:5; 68:8.

172. I explained in Teachings for the New Jerusalem on Sacred Scripture that the Lord is the Word and that all the teaching of the church should be based on the Word. Since the Lord is the Word, then, it follows that when we are being taught by the Word we are being taught by the Lord alone. However, since this is hard to grasp, I need to make it clear in the following sequence. (a) The Lord is the Word because it comes from him and is about him. (b) [The Lord is the Word] also because it is divine truth coming from divine good. (c) Being taught from the Word is therefore being taught from him. (d) It does not reduce the immediacy that this happens indirectly, through sermons.

[2] (a) The Lord is the Word because it comes from him and is about him. No one in the church denies that the Word comes from the Lord, but even though no one denies that the Word is about no one but the Lord, no one really knows this. I have, however, explained it in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem respecting the Lord 1-7, 37-44; and Teachings for the New Jerusalem on Sacred Scripture 62-69, 80-90, 98-100. Since the Word comes from the Lord alone and is about the Lord alone, it follows that when we are being taught from the Word we are being taught from the Lord. The Word is actually divine. Who is able to communicate something divine and instill it into our hearts except Divinity itself, the source and the subject? This is why when the Lord talks with his disciples about their union with him he talks about their abiding in him and his words abiding in them (John 15:7), about his words being spirit and life (John 6:63), and about making his dwelling with people who keep his words (John 14:20-24). This means that thinking from the Lord is thinking from the Word, to all appearances thinking by means of the Word.

I have explained throughout Teachings for the New Jerusalem on Sacred Scripture, from beginning to end, that everything in the Word is in touch with heaven; and since the Lord is heaven, this means that everything in the Word is in touch with the Lord himself. Heaven's angels do have access to heaven, but this too is from the Lord.

[3] (b) The Lord is the Word also because it is divine truth coming from divine good. The Lord teaches that he is the Word in John by saying, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word, and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us" (John 1:1, 14). Because until now this has been understood only as saying that the Lord teaches us through the Word, it has been taken as hyperbole with the implication that the Lord is not really the Word. This is because people have not realized that "the Word" means what is divine and true coming from what is divine and good, or in other words, divine wisdom from divine love. I explained that these are the Lord himself in part 1 of Divine Love and Wisdom, and explained that they are the Word in Teachings for the New Jerusalem on Sacred Scripture 1-86 [Teachings for the New Jerusalem on Sacred Scripture 1-26].

[4] Now I need to explain briefly how the Lord is what is divine and true from what is divine and good. We are not human because of our faces and bodies but because of the goodness of our love and the truths of our wisdom; and since this is what makes us human, we are also whatever is true and good about us, our own love and our own wisdom. Apart from these, we are not human. The Lord, though, is what is essentially true and essentially good, or love itself and wisdom itself; and these are the Word that was in the beginning with God, that was God, and that was made flesh.

[5] (c) Being taught from the Word is therefore being taught by the Lord himself because it is being taught from what is essentially good and essentially true, or from the love itself and wisdom itself that are the Word, as just stated. Still, we all learn within the limits of the comprehension of our love. Anything beyond that is transient.

People who are taught by the Lord in the Word learn a few truths in this world, but they learn a great many when they become angels. The deeper levels of the Word, the divine spiritual and divine heavenly contents, are being instilled at the same time. However, these are not opened up until after our death, in heaven, where we come into an angelic wisdom that in comparison to our earlier human wisdom is simply indescribable. You may see in Teachings for the New Jerusalem on Sacred Scripture 5-26 that the divine spiritual and divine heavenly contents that constitute the wisdom of angels are present throughout the Word, in its every detail.

[6] (d) It does not reduce the immediacy that this happens indirectly, through sermons. The only way the Word can be taught is indirectly, through our parents, teachers, preachers, and books, and especially by our reading it. Still, these are not our teachers: the Lord is, using them as means. This is derived from what preachers know, too. They say that they are not talking from their own resources but from the spirit of God and that everything true, like everything good, comes from God. They can talk and can convey things to the minds of many, but not to anyone's heart; and anything that does not enter the heart dies in the mind. "The heart" means our love.

We can see from this that we are led and taught by the Lord alone and that this happens directly from him when it happens from the Word. This is a most treasured secret of angelic wisdom.