Apocalypse Revealed #940
940. 22:5 There shall be no night there: They have no need of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. This symbolically means that in the New Jerusalem there will be no falsity in its faith, and the people in that church will not acquire their concepts of God from any natural sight, namely from their own intelligence, or out of a desire for glory springing from conceit, but they will acquire those concepts from the Lord alone in a state of spiritual light from the Word.
There being no night there has the same symbolic meaning as verse 25 in chapter 21, which says, "Its gates shall not be shut by day, for there shall be no night there," which symbolically means that the New Jerusalem continually receives into it people who possess truths that spring from the goodness of love from the Lord, because it has no falsity in its faith (no. 922).
The people's having no need of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light, has the same symbolic meaning as verse 23 in chapter 21, which says, "The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it, and the Lamb is its lamp," which symbolically means that people of the New Church will not be caught up in self-love and their own intelligence so as to possess a natural sight only, but from the Word's Divine truth will possess a spiritual light from the Lord alone (no. 919). Only instead of the moon there, the verse here says a lamp, and instead of the sun there, the verse here says the light of the sun, and a lamp, like the moon, symbolizes the natural sight of one's own intelligence, and the light of the sun symbolizes a natural sight out of a desire for glory springing from conceit.
[2] But we must briefly explain what we mean by a natural sight out of a desire for glory springing from conceit:
A natural sight may be due to a desire for glory springing from conceit, or it may be due to a desire for glory that does not spring from conceit. A sight out of a desire for glory springing from conceit is found in people caught up in a love of self and so in evils of every kind. If they do not do those evils for fear of losing their good name, and if they also condemn them as being destructive of morality and the public good, still they do not regard them as sins. Such people possess a natural sight due to a desire for glory springing from conceit; for a love of self in the will becomes conceit in the intellect, and this conceit, owing to that love, is capable of raising the intellect even into the light of heaven. Such a capability is granted to a person in order for him to be human and to be capable of being reformed.
I have seen and heard many absolute devils who, when they heard them or read them, understood secrets of angelic wisdom as well angels themselves. Yet as soon as they returned to their self-love and their accompanying conceit, not only did they not understand any of those secrets, but they had the opposite sight in the light of the affirmation of falsity in them.
On the other hand, a natural sight due to a desire for glory that does not spring from conceit is present in people who find a delight in useful endeavors out of a genuine love for the neighbor. Their natural sight is also a rational sight that has inwardly in it a spiritual light from the Lord. The desire for glory in them comes from the brilliance of the light flowing in from heaven, where everything is radiant and harmonious, for all useful endeavors in heaven shine. From them arises a gratification in the ideas of their thoughts which they perceive as a glorious one. The glory enters through the will and its goods into the intellect and its truths and presents itself in them.
Genesis 32
1
Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him.
2
When he saw them, Jacob said, "This is God's army." He called the name of that place Mahanaim.
3
Jacob sent messengers in front of him to Esau, his brother, to the land of Seir, the field of Edom.
4
He commanded them, saying, "This is what you shall tell my lord, Esau: 'This is what your servant, Jacob, says. I have lived as a foreigner with Laban, and stayed until now.
5
I have cattle, donkeys, flocks, male servants, and female servants. I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find favor in your sight.'"
6
The messengers returned to Jacob, saying, "We came to your brother Esau. Not only that, but he comes to meet you, and four hundred men with him."
7
Then Jacob was greatly afraid and was distressed. He divided the people who were with him, and the flocks, and the herds, and the camels, into two companies;
8
and he said, "If Esau comes to the one company, and strikes it, then the company which is left will escape."
9
Jacob said, "God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, Yahweh, who said to me, 'Return to your country, and to your relatives, and I will do you good,'
10
I am not worthy of the least of all the loving kindnesses, and of all the truth, which you have shown to your servant; for with just my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I have become two companies.
11
Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau: for I fear him, lest he come and strike me, and the mothers with the children.
12
You said, 'I will surely do you good, and make your seed as the sand of the sea, which can't be numbered because there are so many.'"
13
He lodged there that night, and took from that which he had with him, a present for Esau, his brother:
14
two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams,
15
thirty milk camels and their colts, forty cows, ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten foals.
16
He delivered them into the hands of his servants, every herd by itself, and said to his servants, "Pass over before me, and put a space between herd and herd."
17
He commanded the foremost, saying, "When Esau, my brother, meets you, and asks you, saying, 'Whose are you? Where are you going? Whose are these before you?'
18
Then you shall say, 'They are your servant, Jacob's. It is a present sent to my lord, Esau. Behold, he also is behind us.'"
19
He commanded also the second, and the third, and all that followed the herds, saying, "This is how you shall speak to Esau, when you find him.
20
You shall say, 'Not only that, but behold, your servant, Jacob, is behind us.'" For, he said, "I will appease him with the present that goes before me, and afterward I will see his face. Perhaps he will accept me."
21
So the present passed over before him, and he himself lodged that night in the camp.
22
He rose up that night, and took his two wives, and his two handmaids, and his eleven sons, and passed over the ford of the Jabbok.
23
He took them, and sent them over the stream, and sent over that which he had.
24
Jacob was left alone, and wrestled with a man there until the breaking of the day.
25
When he saw that he didn't prevail against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh, and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was strained, as he wrestled.
26
The man said, "Let me go, for the day breaks." Jacob said, "I won't let you go, unless you bless me."
27
He said to him, "What is your name?" He said, "Jacob."
28
He said, "Your name will no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have fought with God and with men, and have prevailed."
29
Jacob asked him, "Please tell me your name." He said, "Why is it that you ask what my name is?" He blessed him there.
30
Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for, he said, "I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved."
31
The sun rose on him as he passed over Peniel, and he limped because of his thigh.
32
Therefore the children of Israel don't eat the sinew of the hip, which is on the hollow of the thigh, to this day, because he touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh in the sinew of the hip.
