293. (Verse 11) Saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power. That this signifies merit and justice pertaining to the Divine Human of the Lord, and that from it is all Divine truth, Divine good and salvation, is evident from the signification of thou art worthy, O Lord, as being the merit and justice pertaining to the Lord's Divine Human, concerning which we shall speak presently; and from the signification of glory and honour, when said of the Lord, as being Divine truth and Divine good which are from Him (concerning which see above, n. 288); and from the signification of power as being salvation. The reason why power here signifies salvation is that all Divine power respects salvation as an end; for a man is reformed, and afterwards introduced into heaven, and is there withheld from evil and falsity and held in good and truth, from the Divine power; and this no one can do but the Lord alone. Those who claim that power to themselves, are entirely ignorant of what salvation means, for they do not know what reformation is, nor what constitutes heaven with man; and to claim to themselves the Lord's power, is to claim power over the Lord Himself, which power is called the power of darkness (Luke 22:53).

[2] That power, when said of the Lord, has chiefly respect to salvation, is evident from the following passages, as in John:

Jesus said, "Father thou hast given" to the Son "power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him" (17:2).

Again:

"As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name" (1:12).

Again:

"I am the vine, ye are the branches; he that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without me ye can do nothing" (15:5).

In Mark:

"They were astonished at his doctrine; for he taught them as one having authority" (1:22).

And in Luke:

"With authority and power he commandeth the unclean Spirits, and they come out" (4:36).

The same may be seen in many other passages.

The Lord also has power over all things, because He is God alone; but the salvation of the human race is the principal object of power, because for the sake of that the heavens and all worlds were created, and salvation is the reception of the Divine proceeding.

[3] The reason why by thou art worthy, O Lord, is signified the merit and justice which pertain to the Lord's Divine Human is that the words signify that He merited; and the merit of the Lord consists in the circumstance that when He was in the world He subjugated the hells and reduced to order all things in the heavens, and that He glorified His Human, and this from His own power, and thus saved all the human race who believe in Him, that is, who love to do His precepts (see John 1:12, 13). This merit is also called justice in the Word, and the Lord as to His Divine Human is thence called Jehovah our Justice (Jeremiah 23:5, 6; 33:15, 16). (Concerning this merit, or this justice of the Lord, more may be seen in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem 293, 294; and in the references to Arcana Coelestia there, n. 300-306).

4281. 'The hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint as he wrestled with him' means that in the descendants of Jacob that conjunction had been thoroughly damaged and the two loves pulled apart. This becomes clear from the meaning of 'wrestling' in this sense as being pulled apart and so suffering damage. It is evident from what has been stated above in 4280 that 'the hollow of the thigh' means a joining together; and that 'Jacob' in the Word means not only Jacob but also all his descendants is clear from very many places, such as Numbers 23:7, 10, 21, 23; 24:5, 17, 19; Deuteronomy 33:10; Isaiah 40:27; 43:1, 22; 44:1-2, 21; 48:12; 59:20; Jeremiah 10:16, 25; 30:7, 10, 18; 31:7, 11; 46:27-28; Hosea 10:11; Amos 7:2; Micah 2:12; 3:8; Psalms 14:7; 24:6; 59:13; 78:5; 99:4; and in other places.

[2] Jacob and his descendants were by nature such that with them celestial and spiritual love could not be joined to natural good, that is, the internal or spiritual man could not be joined to the external or natural man. This is evident from the details told in the Word concerning that nation. For they neither knew nor wished to know what the internal or spiritual man was, and therefore that matter was not revealed to them. In fact it was their belief that nothing existed with man apart from the external and natural. Nor in all their worship did they have anything else in mind, so that Divine worship with them was wholly idolatrous; for once internal worship is separated from external, it is nothing but idolatrous. The Church which was established among them was not in fact a Church but only a representative of the Church, for which reason that Church is called a representative Church. For it was possible for a representative of the Church to exist among such people, see 1361, 3670, 4208.

[3] Indeed in representations no attention is paid to the person who represents, only to the thing represented by him. Consequently not only persons represented Divine, celestial, or spiritual things, but also inanimate objects, such as Aaron's garments, the ark, the altar, the oxen and sheep which used to be sacrificed, the lampstand with its lamps, the bread of the presence on the table of gold, the oil with which they were anointed, the frankincense, and other objects like these. This was why their kings, bad ones no less than the good, represented the Lord's kingship, and why their high priests, bad ones no less than the good, represented the things that belong to the Lord's Divine priesthood, when they performed their own function in external form according to the prescribed rules and commands. In order therefore that among them a representative of the Church might come into existence they were provided through plainly visible revelation with such prescribed rules and such laws as would be entirely representative. Therefore as long as they kept to them and strictly complied with them, those people were able to play a representative role. But when they deviated from them into the prescribed rules and laws of other nations, and in particular to the worship of another god, they deprived themselves of their ability to play that representative role. For this reason they were coerced by external means - which were captivities, calamities, threats, and miracles - into obeying laws and prescribed rules that were truly representative, not by internal means, as those people are whose external worship has internal within it. These are the considerations that are meant in the internal historical sense by the words 'the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint', which sense has regard to Jacob and his descendants.