Finding Jesus in the Life of Abraham, Part 1: Beginnings

A Sermon by Pastor Joel Christian Glenn

30 April 2017

We all know that the Word, or the Bible, is about God. That’s not hard to believe. But shortly after His resurrection Jesus pushed this idea to another level. When He appeared to two disciples on the way to Emmaus, it says, “Beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself” (Luke 24:27). From this we can gather that all of the Scriptures are not just about God, but are about Jesus Himself. That’s a concept that is harder to grasp. Yes, there are the prophecies that are clearly about Jesus. But what about, say the story of Creation? Or the Exodus from slavery in Egypt? The many kings of Israel, both good and evil? Or all the many lists of laws and genealogies, are even those about Jesus?

The truth of the matter is that the whole of the Word is not just about Jesus, it is Jesus. Listen to these verses from the opening of the Gospel of John:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men…. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:1-4, 14)

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. That is a clear reference to Jesus Christ. Jesus is the eternal Word, the Word that is also embodied in the Word of God, our Old and New Testaments.

If you feel that it is hard to grasp how Jesus and the Word are one and the same, you are not alone. It is difficult to comprehend how a living, breathing, person and an apparently lifeless slab of paper can be one and the same. The Writings for the New Church acknowledge this difficulty and offer a way around it. This is from the Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture:

Few understand how the Lord is the Word, for it is generally supposed that the Lord, by means of the Word, can enlighten and teach people, and yet He cannot, on this account, be called the Word.

So as we’ve said, it makes sense that the Word is about the Lord, and it is the Lord’s way of teaching us, but that doesn’t mean He is the Word. The passage however continues:

It should be known, however, that every person is his own love, and consequently his own good and his own truth. A person is a person for no other reason than this, and there is nothing else in him that is a person. For the same reason that a person is his own good and his own truth, angels and spirits also are people; and for all good and truth proceeding from the Lord, is in its own form, a person. But the Lord is Divine Good itself and Divine Truth itself; thus He is Personhood Itself, from whom every person is a person. (Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture 100)

There is a lot going on in that passage. What it all boils down to is a definition of humanity that transcends having a physical body, a definition that helps us see how a book and a person can be one and the same. As the passage said, a person is a person because of his loves, and therefore because of all his good and truth that stem from that love. In short, you are what you love, and what you love makes you human. Think of it this way: if we were to transplant your brain from your body into someone else’s, and this new person loved the same things you love and in the exact same way, and so behaved as you would behave, wouldn’t we say that it is still you, even though the body is completely different? Take that a step further and think of death. Even your brain will die, but your spirit, your spirit in which resides everything of your love, will carry on. Even though there will no longer be a shred of “you” left on this earth, you will still live on. So that’s what makes a person a person: the mind, especially the love within the mind.

If a person is a person because of what he or she loves and so thinks from that love, then anything that reveals our love or our thought reveals us. We know this instinctively from other books we encounter. Have you ever read a book that you loved immensely, and felt that in some way you were connected to the author, as if you understood each other even though you’d never met? I’m not just talking about biographies either. You can read a book that never once refers directly to its author and yet still feel connected. That can happen because the book is a kind of extension of the author, since it reveals the authors loves and ideas.

We now come to the Word. The Word, more than any other book on earth, reveals the mind of its Author. This is so deeply the case that we say that the Word is one and the same with its author, the Lord. Yet unlike with some books that engross us, the Word can feel like a tangled mess that reveals little about the true character of God, much less the inner workings of the mind of Jesus. I have here two images that can help us understand this. On one side there is a brain scan. On the other, an open copy of the Word. At first glance these pictures have little to do with each other. But think about what this brain scan really is. To you and I and most other people it reveals little. But to a trained doctor it would reveal a great deal about what is going on in a person’s mind at a given time. It is a snapshot into someone’s inner life, but one that we can only read if we have the proper training to understand it.

On the other hand we have a copy of the Word. As with the brain scan it reveals what is going on in someone’s mind at a given point. In this case it is the mind of the Lord that is being revealed. And like the brain scan, even though any particular story we might open up to reveals the Lord’s mind, we need the proper training to understand it. If we read this document correctly than we will discover the loving mind of the Lord, Jesus Christ. Every page, every sentence, contains insight into how He thinks and what it is that He loves and cares about. The purpose then of exploring the stories of the Word in light of how they reflect the life and mind of Jesus Christ is that we will then be better equipped to follow His example, not only following the path He set with His words and actions, but going deeper to follow the path He set in His mind.

With this in mind, over the next three weeks we will be looking to the story of Abraham. Even though Abraham lived thousands of years before Jesus was even born, his life perfectly reflects the inner life that Jesus experienced. When we can see this connection we will be better able to not only understand the Lord, but to understand how to model our lives on His. This week we will spend a short time getting a glimpse of how this works. Over the next two weeks we will go deeper into the story of Abraham and into the mind of Jesus. We begin with the first inkling that Abraham had that God had chosen him for a special purpose. As a side note, early on Abraham was known as Abram:

Now the LORD had said to Abram:

“Get out of your country,

From your family

And from your father’s house,

To a land that I will show you.

I will make you a great nation;

I will bless you

And make your name great;

And you shall be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you,

And I will curse him who curses you;

And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

So Abram departed as the LORD had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran….

Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” And there he built an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him. And he moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; there he built an altar to the LORD and called on the name of the LORD. So Abram journeyed, going on still toward the South. (Genesis 12:1-4, 7-9)

Prior to the moment described here Abraham did not know of Jehovah in the slightest. He was in fact an idol-worshipper like most people of His day. Yet when he heard the call from the Lord he responded and moved with his family and everything he owned into a new land. This moment may not seem significant but it is the beginning of the epic saga of the Children of Israel, and the land to which the Lord sent Abraham would one day become the Kingdom of Israel. What began as the simple travels of one man from a faraway country into the heart of the Holy Land would lead to momentous things in the future. What we see here is simply the seed being planted, but a seed that would grow to become a great nation, a nation of which the Lord said it would become a blessing for all the nations of the earth. That is the reason that God called Abraham in the first place.

What can this simple beginning tell us about the mind of Jesus? Like the Kingdom of Israel, the great works that Jesus would do needed a beginning: a seed had to be planted that would grow into something greater. That seed was planted in Jesus early childhood. Just as Abraham was called to enter into the heart of what would become the earthly Kingdom of Israel, Jesus from the very beginning was brought to the heart of His own heavenly Kingdom. That heart, the heart and soul of heaven, is childlike innocence and love. Now as with Abraham, the journey does not end there: for Abraham, many centuries would pass before his people were a great nation. And for the Lord it would take years of temptation and struggle before He could fulfill His mission. But all of it, every last bit, stemmed from that first seed planted in childhood.

It might seem odd to think that everything the Lord needed to face the hells, to put them in their place, and to conquer them was established while He was still a little boy, but it is so. It is in fact the case for each of us that something essential to our life is planted within before we are even aware. Listen to this passage from the Teachings of the New Church that speaks to how powerful our childhoods are for our later lives:

The Lord had first of all to be endowed from infancy with the heavenly things of love - the heavenly things of love consisting in love towards Jehovah and love towards the neighbour, and in innocence itself present in those loves. From these, as from the very sources of life, flows every single thing, for all other things are simply derivatives. These heavenly things are implanted in a person primarily in the state of infancy through to childhood. (Secrets of Heaven 1450)

As a child Jesus received deep stores of love and innocence. This took place before He could even talk or conceptualize these things in His mind. They were simply blessings of love that would remain with Him for the rest of His life, and indeed, to eternity.

This stage of the Lord’s life was not trivial. Without these perfectly innocent and heavenly remains sitting at the core of His being He never would have been able to face the onslaught of hell later in life. That which would later give Him strength in temptation, even on the Cross itself, had been received in childhood innocence and stored away, hidden, until such time as it would be needed. Every loving word and parable, every miracle, every demon cast out and every sickness made well, all flowed from the fountain of love, a fountain established in His youth. We all know the power of little children and their heavenly innocence. There was never a moment that that innocence of infancy dissipated. We don’t often think of the fact that while that innocence recedes and is hidden, it never leaves us.

We all have those same heavenly remnants left over from our childhood. Before we were born the Lord was with us in the womb. He has blessed us, as Jesus was blessed, so that now we have all the innocence and power of a child. As does every human being you will meet. The boss who frustrates you to no end, the spouse that drives you crazy, the acquaintance you can’t stand, all were once little children that would have been beautiful to hold and love, that were beautiful and were held and were loved. None of that goes away. It is always there, part of you, making you who you are. And any time you make an effort to show true love, you are only able to do so because love was once the only thing you knew.

So what do we do with this information? Abraham heard the call of God and left his home to dwell in a new land. Jesus felt a call from deep within His soul and left his own desires to accept the heavenly love that was welling like a fountain within Him. Can we follow the example of both Abraham and Jesus? Will you answer the call? Will you remember when times are hard that once in this life all you knew was love? That deep within your heart beats the love and innocence of childhood? That every human you ever meet has that same source of love and innocence within them? And finally will you use that love to become a blessing to those around you? Jesus answered this call. He continues to answer this call. And He calls on us to do the same. Will you answer? Amen.
(Read the next sermon in this 3-part series, about Bargaining)

2832. 'By its horns' means with all its power as regards the truths of faith. This is clear from the meaning of 'horns'. Horns are mentioned in various places in the Word, in which places they mean the power of truth which springs from good, and in the contrary sense the power of falsity which springs from evil. In this place the meaning is that those who are spiritual, meant by 'the ram', were entangled in natural knowledge with all their power as regards truth, and that as a consequence they were bereft of the power to perceive truths. For the more anyone relies on natural facts and keeps his mind (animus et mens) fixed on these where truths of faith are concerned, the more he loses the light of truth; and when he loses this light he loses the life of truth as well. Anyone may recognize this, if he stops to reflect, from his experience of people who say they are unable to believe anything unless they grasp that it is so through sensory evidence or through factual knowledge. If you probe into what they are really like you will discover that they believe nothing at all, and what is more that to them nothing seems wiser than to ascribe every single thing to natural forces. There are also many who say that they believe even though they do not apprehend. But secretly within themselves these reason no less than others from sensory evidence and factual knowledge regarding the truths of faith whether the thing is so. These either possess a kind of persuasive belief infused into them from self-love and love of the world, or else they do not have any belief at all. Their true nature is evident from their life. Both groups of people are indeed within the Lord's spiritual Church, yet they are not of the Church. They are of the Church however when the life of good is present in them and they have faith in truths. But spiritual people have faith in no other truths than those which have been impressed on them from early childhood and which after that they have confirmed for themselves from doctrine or some other source. Such is the state of those who are spiritual, a state which is described here by 'a ram caught in the thicket by its horns' - see immediately above in 2831.

[2] A horn means the power of truth that springs from good.

This is clear from the following places: In David,

You are the splendour of their strength, and in Your good pleasure You will exalt our horn. For our shield belongs to Jehovah, and our king to the Holy One of Israel. My truth and My mercy will be with him, and in My name his horn will be exalted. And I will set his hand on the sea, and his right hand on the rivers. Psalms 89:17-18, 24-25.

Here 'our horn' and 'his horn' plainly stand for the power of truth. The subject is the Lord's spiritual kingdom. 'Our king belongs to the Holy One of Israel' stands for the fact that Divine Truth is the Lord's 'a king' being truth, and the Lord's kingship Divine Truth, see 1672, 1728, 2015, 2069. 'Setting his hand on the sea, and his right hand on the rivers' stands for the fact that strength resides in knowledge and in cognitions of truth - 'hand' and 'right hand' being strength, 878, and 'sea' and 'river' knowledge and cognitions, 28, 2702. In the same author,

I will love You, O Jehovah, my strength. Jehovah is my rock (petra), and my fortress, and my deliverer, my God, my rock (rupee) in which I trust, a shield and the horn of salvation. Psalms 18:1-2; 2 Samuel 22:2-3.

'The horn of salvation' stands for truth as regards its power, and here 'strength', 'rock' (petra), 'fortress', 'God', 'rock' (rupee), and 'shield' all mean spiritually the power of truth.

[3] In the same author,

In Zion I will make the horn of David to spring forth, I will make ready a lamp for My anointed. His enemies I will clothe with shame. Psalms 132:17-18.

This refers to the Lord, who is 'David', 1888. 'Horn' stands for the power of truth, 'a lamp' for the light of truth. In Samuel,

My heart has exulted in Jehovah, my horn has exalted itself in Jehovah. My mouth has been enlarged against my enemies because I have rejoiced in Your salvation. Jehovah will give strength to His king, and will exalt the horn of His anointed. 1 Samuel 2:1, 10.

In this prophecy of Hannah 'horn' stands for the power of truth.

[4] In Moses,

The firstborn of his cattle has honour, and his horns are unicorn horns. ¹ With them he will thrust ² the peoples together to the ends of the earth. Deuteronomy 33:17.

In this prophecy of Moses concerning Joseph 'unicorn horns' stands for the mighty power of truth, as is also evident from the statement that 'with them he will thrust the peoples to the ends of the earth'. Similarly in David,

You will exalt my horn like that of a unicorn. Psalms 92:10.

And in the same author,

O Jehovah, save me from the mouth of the lion, and from the unicorn horns ¹ answer me. Psalms 22:21.

Divine truths, on account of their height, are called 'unicorn horns'. It is for this reason that mention is made so many times of a horn being exalted, for exaltation means power derived from what is interior. As regards what is internal being expressed as that which is high, see 1735, 2148.

[5] In Jeremiah,

The Lord has cut down in fierce anger the whole horn of Israel, He has drawn back His right hand from before the enemy. Lamentations 2:3.

'Cutting down the whole horn of Israel' stands for deprivation of truth which possesses power. This is also the meaning of 'drawing back the right hand from before the enemy'. In Ezekiel,

On that day I will make a horn grow up for the house of Israel, and I will give you an opening of the mouth in the midst of them. Ezekiel 29:21.

'Making a horn grow up for the house of Israel' stands for multiplying the truths of the spiritual Church, meant by Israel, 'an opening of the mouth' for the confession of those truths.

[6] In Habakkuk,

God will come out of Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Paran. His fame has covered the heavens, and the earth has been filled with His praise. And His brightness will be as the light; He has horns going out of His hand, and there the hiding-place of His strength will be. Habakkuk 3:3-4.

This refers to the Lord. 'Horns going out of His hand' and 'there the hiding-place of His strength will be', it is plain, stands for the power of truth. 'Mount Paran' is the Divine spiritual or Divine Truth of the Lord's Human - see 2714 - which is also 'the brightness' and 'the light'.

[7] The Divine Truth of the Lord's Human is described in John as follows,

I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, a Lamb standing as though it had been slain, having seven horns, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. Revelation 5:6.

'Seven horns' stands for holy, or Divine, truths - 'seven' meaning that which is holy, see 716, 881. 'The seven spirits sent out into all the earth' are the holy proclaimings of those same truths.

[8] The horns of altars meant nothing other than truth which possessed power, being spoken of in Moses as follows,

You shall make horns on the four corners of the altar; its horns shall be of one piece with it. Exodus 27:2; 38:2.

In a similar way the altar of incense was to have them on it; and it is said that the horns were to be of one piece with it, Exodus 30:2; 37:25. For the altar was the chief representative of the Lord, and of worship of Him, see 921. 'The altar' was a representative of His Divine Good, 'the horns' representatives of His Divine Truth. The derivation of truth from good was represented by the horns being protrusions from it, that is, from the altar. For the consideration that no other truth exists except that which is derived from good, see 654, 1068, ³ 1162, 1176, 2063, 2261, 2417. From all this it is evident that 'horns' in the genuine sense means the power of truth that springs from good.

[9] Truths springing from good were meant in the following instances:

When Aaron and his sons were being admitted into their function, they were to take some of the blood of the young bull and place it with their finger on the horns of the altar. Exodus 29:12; Leviticus 8:15.

Aaron was to make atonement once a year on the horns of the altar. Exodus 30:10.

When a priest sinned he was to offer a young bull, and to place some of the blood on the horns of the altar of incense. Leviticus 4:3, 7.

Also, when a prince sinned he was to offer a burnt offering, and the blood was to be sprinkled over the horns of the altar of burnt offering. Leviticus 4:22, 25.

The same had to be done if a person ⁴ sinned - Leviticus 4:27, 30, 34 - and also when the altar was to be ritually cleansed. Leviticus 16:18-19.

Truths springing from good were meant, for all consecrations, inaugurations, and cleansings were effected by means of truths, because truths lead towards good, 2830. That 'the horns of the altar' meant truths springing from good may also be seen in John,

The sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar, which stood before God. Revelation 9:13.

'The horns of the golden altar' plainly stands for truths that spring from good, for it was from the horns that the voice came. 'Gold' means good, 113, 1551, 1552, and 'the golden altar' more especially so.

[10] In Amos,

On the day I visit Israel for his transgressions, I will visit the altars of Bethel; and the horns of the altar will be cut away and fall to the ground. Amos 3:14.

'The horns of the altar will be cut away' meant that in that place the representation of truth springing from good would remain no longer. 'Bethel' is Divine good, and is therefore called 'the king's sanctuary' and 'a house of the kingdom' in Amos 7:13. The practice of anointing kings with oil from a horn, 1 Samuel 16:1, 13; 1 Kings 1:39, in a similar way represented truth springing from good - 'oil' being the good, 886, 'horn' however the truth; the kingly office itself in the internal sense means truth such as this, 1782, 2015, which possesses power.

[11] A horn in the contrary sense means the power of falsity that springs from evil

This is clear from the following places: In Amos,

O you who rejoice in a thing of nought, saying, Have we not by our own strength acquired horns for ourselves? Amos 6:13.

'Home' here stands for the power of falsity. In Zechariah,

I lifted up my eyes and saw, and behold, four horns! And I said to the angel who talked to me, What are these? And he said to me, These are the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem. And Jehovah showed me four smiths, and I said, What are these coming to do? And He said, These are the horns which have scattered Judah so that no man raised his head, and these have come to terrify, to cast down the horns of the nations lifting up their horn against the land of Judah to scatter it. Zechariah 1:18-21.

'Horns' stands for the power of falsity that lays waste the Church. In Ezekiel,

You push with side and shoulder, and butt with your horns all the weak [sheep] until you have scattered them abroad. Ezekiel 34:21.

This refers to shepherds who mislead by means of falsities. 'Horns' stands for the power of falsity, 'shoulder' for all the power they had, 1085. In Jeremiah,

Jehovah has destroyed and not spared; and He has caused the enemy to rejoice over you. He has exalted the horn of your foes. Lamentations 2:17.

In the same prophet,

The horn of Moab has been cut off and his arm broken. Jeremiah 48:25.

'Horn' here stands for powerful falsity.

[12] In David,

I said to the boastful, Do not boast; and to the wicked, Do not lift up the horn, do not lift up your horn on high, do not speak with a stiff neck. All the horns of the wicked I will cut away; the horns of the righteous will be exalted. Psalms 75:4-5, 10.

'The horns of the wicked' stands for the power of falsity that springs from evil, 'the horns of the righteous' for the power of truth that springs from good.

[13] In Daniel,

A fourth beast appeared, terrible and dreadful, exceedingly strong, which had iron teeth. It devoured, and broke in pieces, and trampled on the residue with its feet. It had ten horns. I was considering the horns, and behold, another little horn came up among them and three of the first horns were plucked up from before it. And behold, there were eyes in this horn like the eyes of a man (homo), and a mouth speaking great things. I looked then because of the sound of the great words that the horn was speaking. I desired to know the truth about the fourth beast, and about the ten horns that were on its head, and about the other one that came up, and before which three of them fell, and about the same horn which had eyes, and a mouth speaking great things. As I looked this same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed over them until the Ancient of Days came and judgement was given to the saints. And he said, As for the fourth beast, it will be a fourth kingdom on the earth, which will be different from all the kingdoms and will devour the whole earth, and trample it down, and break it in pieces. As for the ten horns, out of that same kingdom ten kings will arise, and another will arise after them, who will be different from the previous ones, and he will put down three kings. He will speak words against the Most High, and wear out the saints. After this the judgement will sit. Daniel 7:7-8, 11, 19-26.

This refers in the internal sense to the perverted state of the Church. The things mentioned here which Daniel saw - such as the beast, the iron teeth, the horn with eyes in it, and the horns that spoke; also the war these made with the saints, and [the king] speaking against the Most High - mean a state of falsity and of heresies inside the Church. For 'horns' means powerful and prevalent falsity, as may be seen merely from the consideration that 'eyes' - that is, the power of understanding, 2701 - are attributed to them, and that they spoke even against the Most High. By 'kingdoms' and 'kings' are not meant kingdoms and kings but doctrines that teach what is false, as may be seen from the meaning of them in the Word as doctrines teaching what is true, and in the contrary sense doctrines teaching what is false, see 1672, 2015, 2069, 2547.

[14] Elsewhere in Daniel when he saw a ram standing before the river, which had two horns, horns however which were high, yet one higher than the other, though the higher one had come up last,

I saw the ram butting ⁵ towards the west, and towards the north, and towards the south, so that no wild beast could stand before him, nor was there anyone to deliver out of his hand; therefore he did as he pleased and magnified himself. As I was considering, behold, a he-goat came from the west across the surface of the whole earth. This he-goat had a horn between his two eyes. He came to the two-horned ram ⁶ and ran at him in the fury of his might. He struck him and broke his two horns, and there was no strength in the ram to stand before him. After that the he-goat magnified himself exceedingly, but when he was strong, the great horn was broken, and there came up four horns in its place. Shortly after, out of one of them there came forth a little horn, and it grew exceedingly towards the south, and towards the east, and towards the glorious [land]. And it grew even towards the host of heaven, and cast down to earth some of the host, and of the stars, and trampled on them. The ram with the two horns is the kings of Media and Persia, the he-goat the king of Greece. The four horns in place of the one are four kingdoms from that nation. Daniel 8:1-end.

This refers in the internal sense to the state of the spiritual Church, meant by 'the ram', 2830; it describes how the state of that Church gradually deteriorated and was perverted. 'The he-goat' is those who have faith separated from charity, or truth separated from good, who start to raise themselves up against what is good and at length against the Lord. 'The horns of the ram' are the truths, internal and external, of the spiritual Church, 'the horns of the he-goat' truths which degenerate gradually into falsities. By 'kingdoms' and 'kings' here are not meant kingdoms and kings but truths and falsities, as stated just above. For essentially the Word of the Lord does not have to do with worldly and earthly matters but with spiritual and celestial.

[15] In John,

Another sign appeared in heaven, for behold, a great fiery-red dragon having seven heads, and ten horns, and on his heads seven jewels. With his tail he drew a third part of the stars of heaven and cast them down to the earth. Revelation 12:3-4.

And elsewhere in the same book,

I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, which had seven heads, and ten horns, and on its horns ten jewels, and on its heads a blasphemous name. It was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them. Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, which had two horns like a lamb. Revelation 13:1-2, 7, 11.

Yet again in the same book,

I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast, full of blasphemous names. It had seven heads and ten horns. She was Babylon the great. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated, and they are seven kings. The ten horns are ten kings. Revelation 17:3, 5, 7, 9-10, 12-13.

Here as in Daniel 'horns' clearly means the powers of falsity.

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