6371. 'The sceptre will not be removed from Judah' means that power and control will not depart from the celestial kingdom. This is clear from the meaning of 'being removed' as departing; from the meaning of 'the sceptre' as power and control, in particular the power and control of truth from good, dealt with in 4876 (end), for the sceptre is an emblem of royal power and control, and truth is meant by royal power, 1672, 1728, 2015, 2069, 3009, 4575, 6148; and from the representation of' Judah' as the celestial kingdom, dealt with above in 6363. From all this it is evident that 'the sceptre will not be removed from Judah' means that power and control will not depart from the celestial kingdom.

[2] Viewed from the sense of the letter the contents of this verse will be seen to mean that the kingdom was not going to be removed from the Jewish people before the Lord came. That understanding of the verse is quite correct; but even so, this historical consideration, like every other, has an inner meaning. For the removal of the kingdom from the Jewish people when the Lord came is a worldly matter; but the spiritual content that belongs to the inner meaning is evident when one understands power and control by 'the sceptre' and the celestial kingdom by 'Judah'. Yet the notion that power and control would depart from the celestial kingdom when the Lord came is an arcanum that no one can know unless it is revealed to him. And what that arcanum entails is this: Prior to the Lord's Coming into the world there was among men and among spirits an influx of life from Jehovah or the Lord which came by way of the celestial kingdom, that is, through the angels who were in that kingdom. This was the source of their power at that time. But when the Lord came into the world, and by so doing made the Human within Himself Divine, He took to Himself what had rested with angels of the celestial kingdom, namely that power and control. For what flowed from God and passed through that heaven had until then been the Divine human. ¹ That influx was also the Divine Person who presented Himself, when Jehovah revealed Himself in this way. But this Divine human came to an end when the Lord made the Human within Himself Divine. From this one may now see what this arcanum entails. Angels of that kingdom do, it is true, still exercise great power and control, but only in the measure that the Lord's Divine Human resides in them through their love for Him. See what has been stated and shown already on these matters in 1990, 2803, 3061, 4180, 4687, 5110, 6280.

फुटनोट:

1990. 'Jehovah appeared to Abram' means manifestation. This is clear without explanation, for, as has been stated, Abram represents the Lord. No human being at all in the whole world has seen Jehovah, the Lord's Father; the Lord alone has done that, as He Himself has stated in John,

Nobody has ever seen God; the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He has made Him known. John 1:18.

In the same gospel,

You have never heard His voice nor seen His shape. John 1:37.

And again in the same gospel,

No one has seen the Father except Him who is with the Father, He has seen the Father. John 6:46.

[2] The Infinite itself which stands above all the heavens and above man's inmost being cannot be manifested except by means of the Divine Human, which exists solely with the Lord. Communication of the Infinite with finite beings is not possible at all from any other source. This also explains why, when Jehovah appeared to members of the Most Ancient Church and subsequently to members of the Ancient Church which existed after the Flood, and also after that to Abraham and the prophets, He was manifested to them as a human being. That it was indeed the Lord, He Himself openly teaches in John,

Abraham your father rejoiced to see My day, and saw it and was glad. Truly, truly, I say to you, Before Abraham was, I am. John 8:56, 58.

This is also taught in the Prophets, for example in Daniel who saw Him as 'a son of man', Daniel 7:13.

[3] From these quotations it becomes clear that the Infinite Being (Esse), which is Jehovah, could not possibly be manifested to man except through the Human Essence, that is, through the Lord, and so has not been manifested to anyone except the Lord alone. So that He could be present with and be joined to mankind, after mankind had removed itself entirely from the Divine and had immersed itself in foul desires and so in merely bodily and earthly things, He adopted the Human Essence itself by being born. He did so in order that the Infinite Divine could be joined to man even though man was so remote. Otherwise mankind would have died the death of those for ever damned. As for all the other arcana concerning the manifestation of Jehovah in the Lord's Human, when His state was a state of humiliation, before He had fully united the Human Essence to the Divine Essence and glorified it, these will in the Lord's Divine mercy be explained later on, to the extent that they are capable of being understood.