1. Dat het Woord van het Oude Testament verborgenheden van de hemel bevat, en dat zowel het geheel als elke bijzonderheid daarvan op de Heer betrekking heeft, op Zijn hemel, op de Kerk, op het geloof en de dingen van het geloof, kan geen sterveling uit de letter opmaken. Uit de letter of uit de letterlijke zin ziet niemand iets anders, dan dat het in het algemeen gaat over de uiterlijke dingen van de Joodse Kerk, terwijl er overal een innerlijke zin is, dat nergens in het uiterlijke aan het licht komt, behalve dan het zeer weinige dat de Heer onthuld heeft en aan de apostelen heeft ontvouwd; zo bijvoorbeeld, dat de offeranden de Heer betekenen, het land Kanaän en Jeruzalem en ook het Paradijs, de hemel betekenen, waarom dan ook van het hemelse Kanaän en Jeruzalem gesproken wordt.

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This week we introduce a new filter into the program which is, "Is it useful?" Something can be true, and can even be kind, but not actually useful to say. That's the focus - can we refrain from saying things that aren't actually useful? This filter is important as we try to bring heaven to earth because the Lord's kingdom is a kingdom of uses. Things only exist if they have a use. There are no frivolous creations! When we speak, we too create, so let's make sure the things we create have a purpose.

(Riferimenti: Arcana Coelestia 1, 4730; Ephesians 4:22-29; James 3:1-12; Matthew 12:33-37)

8862. The reason why 'the words which God spoke' means God's truths for those in heaven and for those on earth is that the Ten Commandments or Decalogue, and then the statutes, declared and commanded from Mount Sinai, are truths such as are intended not only for those who are on earth but also for those who are in heaven. All the words, that is, all the truths that come from the Lord are not merely for people in the world but also at the same time for angels; for they pass through heaven and thereby to earth. But they do not sound the same in heaven as they do on earth, because there they exist in a spiritual form, whereas on earth they exist in natural form. What they are like in their spiritual form compared with what they are in their natural form is clear from the internal sense and the external sense of the particular things in the Word. In the internal sense they are spiritual matters, but in the external sense, which is the sense of the letter, they are natural ones. The latter have been made suitable for those on earth, but the former for those in heaven.

[2] The truth of this may be seen from the consideration that the Word, sent by the Divine Himself, has passed from Him through heaven to earth. When it reaches earth it is truth made suitable for the human race, which lives amid earthly and bodily things. But as it exists in heaven it is made suitable for angels, who live amid spiritual and celestial things. Because it is like this the Word is in itself holy; for it contains what is heavenly and Divine within it. This is perfectly clear from the Ten Commandments. Anyone can see that those commandments are the kind of laws that are well known everywhere on earth - that one should honour parents, that one should not kill, commit adultery, or steal, and that people should not answer as false witnesses. Consequently the Israelite nation could have known these laws from natural enlightenment alone; for is there any nation that does not know them? And yet Jehovah Himself came down to declare them; and He declared them out of fire that was burning 'even to the heart of heaven'. ¹ From this it becomes clear that those commandments contain more within them than is apparent in the letter; that is to say, they contain truths such as are intended at the same time for heaven and which fill heaven. Everything in the Word is like this since it comes from the Divine. All this shows why the Word is holy and what should be understood by statements about the inspiration of the Word even to every jot and tattle, and to every small part of a letter, Matthew 5:18; Luke 16:17. The nature therefore of the Ten Commandments in the spiritual sense, that is, as they exist in heaven, will be seen in what is to follow.

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