Joel Chapter 1, the Internal Sense.

(From Swedenborg's work, "The Inner Meaning of the Prophets and Psalms")

(Verse 1) The Word has been perverted by false worship,

(2) when instead the Word should have been obeyed by everyone in the Church,

(3) and communicated to everyone who holds false beliefs that arise from evil loves.

(4) Instead, the spiritual things of the Church have been destroyed by sensualism.

(5) Now, remorse should be awakened, because of this loss of faith,

(6) a faith which has been destroyed by the lust of worshipping false gods,

(7) depriving the Church of spiritual truth and good.

(8) The Church should return to the Lord

(9) with inward mourning and contrition

(10) over the loss of good and truth in the natural and spiritual man -

(11) especially people who seek the good of the Church and who desire its genuine doctrine: for the Church is about to perish.

(12) Spiritual truth, its good, its knowledge, and its delights, which constitute the Church, are perverted.

(13) Only by repentance can communion with the Lord be renewed.

(14) The Church can only remove the evil and falsity by acknowledging and worshipping the Lord,

(15) for the end of the Church is near, when it will be judged.

(16) Good works are not being done, nor are there any people who delight in spiritual things.

(17) Natural good has been subordinated to evil, and the truth and good of the Word are rejected.

(18) Wherefore there is no good in the Church,

(19) and our hearts must be turned again to the Lord: for the love of self has corrupted all things in the church.

(20) Although truth is desired, it has been misappropriated to ourselves.

3313. 'And Isaac loved Esau because of the venison he had in his mouth' means that the Divine Good of the Divine Rational loved the good of truth. This is clear from the representation of 'Isaac' as the Lord's Divine Rational as regards Divine Good, dealt with in 3012, 3013, 3194, 3210, from the representation of 'Esau' as the Lord's Divine Natural as regards the good there, dealt with in 3300, 3302, and later on where Edom is referred to; and from the meaning of 'venison' as the good of life arising out of natural truths, dealt with in 3309. 'In his mouth' means within his natural affection, for in the Word that which is interior and stems from good is referred to as being 'in the heart', and that which is exterior and stems from truth as being 'in the mouth'. And since the good of truth, which is here represented by Esau and is meant by 'hunting', is exterior, that is to say, within natural affection and stemming from truth, it is spoken of as being 'in Isaac's mouth'.