Apocalypse Revealed # 200
200. "'The beginning of the workmanship of God.'" This symbolically means the Word.
That the Word is the beginning of the workmanship of God is something not yet known in the church, because it has not understood these words in John:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was 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... He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, but the world did not know Him... And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father... (John 1:1-14)
Someone who understands these words in respect to their inner meaning, and at the same time compares them with what we wrote in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Sacred Scripture, as well as with some sections in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Lord, can see that the Word which was in the beginning with God, and which was God, means the underlying Divine truth in the Word that previously existed in this world (as reported in no. 11), and that which is present in the Word that we have today. It does not mean the Word viewed in respect to the words and letters of its languages, but viewed in terms of its essence and life which is inmostly present in the meanings of its words and letters. By this life the Word animates the will's affections of the person who reads it reverently, and by the light of this life it enlightens the thoughts of his intellect. Therefore we are told in John, "In the Word was life, and the life was the light of men." (John 1:4) The Word does this because the Word comes from the Lord and has the Lord as its subject and so is the Lord.
All thought, speech, or writing takes its essence and life from the one doing the thinking, speaking, or writing. It has the person in it, along with his character. And the Word has in it the Lord alone.
Still, no one senses or perceives the Divine life in the Word but one who, when reading it, is impelled by a spiritual affection for truth, for through the Word he is conjoined with the Lord. He experiences something inmostly affecting his heart and spirit, which flows with enlightenment into in his intellect and testifies.
[2] The following words in the first chapter of Genesis have a similar symbolic meaning to those in John:
In the beginning God created heaven and earth... And the spirit of God moved over the face of the waters. And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. (Genesis 1:1-3)
The spirit of God is Divine truth, and also light, the Divine truth being the Word; and therefore in John 1:4, 8-9 the Lord calls Himself the Word, and also the light.
A similar meaning is found in this declaration in the book of Psalms:
By the word of Jehovah the heavens were made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth. (Psalms 33:6)
In short, without the Divine truth of the Word, which in its essence is the Divine goodness of the Lord's Divine love and the Divine truth of His Divine wisdom, no mortal could have life. The Word is the means of the Lord's conjunction with a person, and of the person with the Lord, and through that conjunction comes life. There must be something from the Lord that a person can receive which makes possible that conjunction and so eternal life.
[3] It can be seen from this that "the beginning of the workmanship of God" means the Word, and if you would believe it, the Word such as it is in the sense of its letter, for this sense embraces the inner, holy levels, as we showed many times in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Sacred Scripture.
Moreover, wonderful to say, the Word has been so written that it communicates with the whole of heaven, and every particular with some society there, as I have been given to know through personal experience, of which more elsewhere.
That the Word in its essence is such as described is still more apparent from these words of the Lord:
The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. (John 6:63)
Luke 17
1
Then said he unto the disciples, It is impossible but that offences will come: but woe unto him, through whom they come!
2
It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.
3
Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him.
4
And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him.
5
And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith.
6
And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.
7
But which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, when he is come from the field, Go and sit down to meat?
8
And will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken; and afterward thou shalt eat and drink?
9
Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow not.
10
So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.
11
And it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee.
12
And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off:
13
And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.
14
And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go shew yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed.
15
And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God,
16
And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan.
17
And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine?
18
There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger.
19
And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole.
20
And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:
21
Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.
22
And he said unto the disciples, The days will come, when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, and ye shall not see it.
23
And they shall say to you, See here; or, see there: go not after them, nor follow them.
24
For as the lightning, that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven, shineth unto the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in his day.
25
But first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation.
26
And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.
27
They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.
28
Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded;
29
But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all.
30
Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.
31
In that day, he which shall be upon the housetop, and his stuff in the house, let him not come down to take it away: and he that is in the field, let him likewise not return back.
33
Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.
34
I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left.
35
Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
36
Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
37
And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together.
