Heaven and Hell #25
25. The angels in the Lord's heavenly kingdom far surpass the angels of the spiritual kingdom in regard to wisdom and splendor because they accept the Lord's divine nature on a deeper level. They live in love for him, and are therefore more intimately united to him. 1 The reason for their excellence is that they have accepted divine truths directly into their lives and continue to do so, rather than taking them into memory and thought first, the way spiritual angels do. This means they have them engraved on their hearts and grasp them, virtually see them, within themselves. They never calculate whether or not they are true. 2 They are like the people described in Jeremiah,
I will put my law in their mind and engrave it on their heart: no longer will one person teach a friend or a brother, saying, "Know Jehovah;" from the smallest to the greatest, they will know me. (Jeremiah 31:33-34)
In Isaiah, they are called "the people who have been taught by Jehovah" (Isaiah 54:13). In John 6:45-46, the Lord himself teaches that those who are taught by Jehovah are the ones who are taught by the Lord.
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1. [Swedenborg's footnote] Heavenly angels are far wiser than spiritual angels: 2718, 9995. On the nature of the difference between heavenly angels and spiritual angels: 2088, 2669, 2708, 2715, 3235, 3240, 4788, 7068, 8121 [8521?], 9277, 10295.
2. [Swedenborg's footnote] Heavenly angels do not reason about truths of faith because they grasp them within themselves, while spiritual angels do reason about whether they are true or not: 202, 337, 597, 607, 784, 1121, 1387 [1384?], 1398 [1385, 1394], 1919, 3246, 4448, 7680, 7877, 8780, 9277, 10786.
Arcana Coelestia #6266
6266. 'And bowed down, his face to the earth' means an expression of humility by them. This is clear from the meaning of 'bowing down, face to the earth' as an expression of interior humility, dealt with in 5682. For that kind of bowing down is an action performed by the body corresponding to humility of mind; and it explains why people who worship God in their hearts bow down in that manner. It is said that Joseph 'bowed down' because he was acting in place of them; yet he did not bow down before Israel but before the Lord, from whom the blessing came through Israel.
[2] Joseph did it in place of them because of the situation in spiritual things. Good belonging to the will and truth belonging to the understanding within the natural possess no ability on their own to humble themselves before the Lord; they can possess it only if it flows in from the internal. In fact without an inflow through the internal into the natural, nothing at all of the powers of will and understanding are present there, nor indeed any life since the internal is the means through which life from the Lord comes to be there.
