3128. And told her mother’s house according to these words. That this signifies toward natural good of every kind whithersoever enlightenment could reach, is evident from the signification of the “mother’s house,” as being the good of the external man, that is, natural good. (That a “house” denotes good may be seen above, n. 2233, 2234, 2559; also that man’s external or natural is from the mother, but the internal from the father, n. 1815.) The good with man is compared in the Word to a “house,” and on this account a man who is in good is called a “house of God;” but internal good is called the “father’s house,” and the good that is in the same degree is called the “house of the brethren;” but external good, which is the same as natural good, is called the “mother’s house.” Moreover all good and truth are born in this manner, namely, by the influx of internal good as of a father into external good as of a mother.

[2] As this verse treats of the origin of the truth which is to be conjoined with good in the rational, it is therefore said that Rebekah (by whom this truth is represented) ran to the house of her mother, for that was the origin of this truth. For as before said and shown, all good flows in by an internal way (that is, by the way of the soul) into man’s rational, and through this into his faculty of knowing, even into that which is of the senses; and by enlightenment there it causes truths to be seen. Truths are called forth thence, and are divested of their natural form, and are conjoined with good in the midway, that is, in the rational, and at the same time they make the man rational, and at last spiritual. But how these things are accomplished is utterly unknown to man; because at this day it is scarcely known what good is, and that it is distinct from truth; still less that man is reformed by means of the influx of good into truth, and by the conjunction of the two; neither is it known that the rational is distinct from the natural. And when these things, which are most general, are not known, it cannot possibly be known how the initiation of truth into good, and the conjunction of the two, is effected-which are the subjects treated of in this chapter in its internal sense. But whereas these arcana have been revealed, and are manifest to those who are in good, that is, who are angelic minds, therefore however obscure they may appear to others, they nevertheless are to be set forth, because they are in the internal sense.

[3] Concerning the enlightenment from good through truth in the natural man, which is here called the “mother’s house,” the case is this: Divine good with man inflows into his rational, and through the rational into his natural, and indeed into its memory-knowledges, that is, into the knowledges and doctrinal things therein, as before said; and there by a fitting of itself in, it forms truths for itself, through which it then enlightens all things that are in the natural man. But if the life of the natural man is such that it does not receive the Divine good, but either repels it, or perverts it, or suffocates it, then the Divine good cannot be fitted in, thus it cannot form for itself truths; and consequently the natural can no longer be enlightened; for enlightenment in the natural man is effected from good through truths; and when there is no longer enlightenment, there can be no reformation. This is the reason why in the internal sense the natural man also is much treated of in regard to its quality; thus whence truth is, namely, that it is from good there.

4535. Genesis 35

THE LAST JUDGMENT

Preliminary to the foregoing chapters, from chapter 26, an explication has been given of what the Lord foretold about His advent, or the CONSUMMATION OF THE AGE; and it has been repeatedly shown that by His advent or the consummation of the age is signified the last time of the church, which is called in the Word the Last Judgment. They who do not see beyond the literal sense must suppose that the Last Judgment is the destruction of the world, and this especially from the Revelation, where it is said:

I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the former heaven and the former earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city New Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven (Revelation 21:1-2.

And also from the prophecies of Isaiah, where are similar words:

Behold I create new heavens and a new earth; therefore the former things shall not be remembered, nor come up upon the heart; but be ye glad and rejoice forever in that which I create, for behold I create Jerusalem an exultation, and her people a gladness (Isaiah 65:17-18; 66:22).

[2] They who do not see beyond the literal sense must infer that the universal heaven together with this earth will be annihilated, and that the dead will then for the first time rise again, and dwell in a new heaven and upon a new earth. But that the Word is not to be so understood may be seen from many other passages where the heavens and the earth are mentioned. They who have any faith in an internal sense can plainly see that by “a new heaven and a new earth” is meant a new church, which shall succeed when the former church passes away (see n. 1733, 1850, 3355); and that the “heaven” is its internal and the “earth” its external.

[3] This last time of a former church and first time of a new church are what is called the “consummation of the age” of which the Lord spoke in Matthew 24, and also are His advent, for the Lord then leaves the former church and comes to the new church. That this is the “consummation of the age” may be seen also from other passages in the Word, as in Isaiah:

In that day the remains shall return, the remains of Jacob, unto the mighty God; for although Thy people Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, remains of it shall return; a consummation is determined, inundated is righteousness; for a consummation and a determination doth the Lord Jehovih Zebaoth make in the whole earth (Isaiah 10:21-23).

In the same:

Now be ye not scorners, lest your punishments be strengthened; for a consummation and a decision have I heard from-with the Lord Jehovih Zebaoth upon the whole earth (Isaiah 28:22).

In Jeremiah:

Thus said Jehovah, The whole earth shall be a waste, yet will I not make a consummation (Jeremiah 4:27).

In Zephaniah:

I will bring men into distresses, and they shall go like the blind, because they have sinned against Jehovah; and their blood shall be poured out like dust, and their flesh like dung, for Jehovah shall make a consummation, yea, a speedy one, with all them that dwell in the land (Zeph. 1:17-18).

That the “consummation” here mentioned is the last time of the church, and that the “earth” is the church, is manifest from the particulars.

[4] That “earth” or “land” denotes the church, comes from the fact that the land of Canaan was the land where the church had been from the most ancient times, and where afterwards there was the representative of a church among the descendants of Jacob. When this land is said to be “consummated,” it is not the nation in it that is meant, but it is the holy of worship that exists with the nation where the church is. For the Word is spiritual, and the land itself is not spiritual, nor the nation therein, but that which is of the church. (That the land of Canaan was the land where the church had been from the most ancient times, may be seen above, n. 567, 3686, 4447, 4454, 4516, 4517; and that for this reason by “land” in the Word is signified the church, n. 566, 662, 1066, 1067, 1262, 3355, 4447.) From this it is manifest what is meant in Isaiah by “making a consummation in the whole land,” or “earth,” and in Zephaniah by the “speedy consummation of all that dwell in the land.” That the Jewish nation which dwelt in that land was not consummated, but the holy of worship with them, is well known.

[5] That this is the “consummation” appears still more plainly in Daniel:

Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people, and upon thy city of holiness, to consummate the transgression, and to seal up sins, and to expiate iniquity, and to bring in the righteousness of an age, and to seal up vision and prophet, and to anoint the holy of holies; in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease; at last upon the bird of abominations shall be desolation; and even to the consummation and the determination shall it drop upon the devastation (Daniel 9:24, 27).

[6] From all this it may now be seen that by the “consummation of the age,” respecting which the disciples said to the Lord, “What shall be the sign of Thy coming and of the consummation of the age?” (Matthew 24:3) nothing else is signified than the last time of the church; and also by these words of the Lord, which are the last in the same evangelist: “Jesus said to the disciples, Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you all the days even unto the consummation of the age” (Matthew 28:20). It was said by the Lord that He would be with the disciples even to the consummation of the age, because by the Lord’s twelve disciples the like is signified as by the twelve tribes of Israel, namely, all things of love and faith, consequently all things of the church (see n. 3354, 3488, 3858); which is the same as is meant by the twelve tribes (n. 3858, 3926, 3939, 4060). That it is the consummation of the church when there is no longer any charity and therefore no faith, has been repeatedly shown above. That in this church which is called Christian scarcely anything of charity and its derivative faith survives, thus that the consummation of its age is now at hand, will of the Lord’s Divine mercy be shown in the following pages.