185. Internal Meaning of Hosea, Chapter 2

1-4 Exhortation to abstain from the falsifications of the Word, otherwise there will be no church, but it will be without goods and truths, as before. (11, 2)

5-7 They will become as before when they loved evil and falsity, but they will be withheld. (11, 2)

8 They will return to God whom they worshipped at that time, and from whom they received good, not knowing that this was from the Lord;, (11, 2)

9-13 but because they still did not worship Him, but another god, goods and truths will be vastated. (11, 2)

14-17 Those who will be of the new church, are to be purified by temptations, and prepared, (11)

18-20 and a new church constituted of such will come into existence, which will acknowledge the Lord. (11)

21-23 Then they will receive all things of heaven and the church. (11)

2373. 'Now we will do more harm to you than to them' means that they would reject the good of charity even more than they rejected the Lord's Divine Human and His Holy proceeding. This becomes clear from the meaning of 'Lot' as good that flows from charity, for Lot represents those with whom the good of charity is present, 2324, 2351, 2371; and from the meaning of 'the men', who were angels, as the Lord as regards the Divine Human and His Holy proceeding, dealt with above. From this it is evident that 'doing more harm to you than to them' has this meaning. Those inside the Church who are immersed in evil reject charity even more than they deny the Lord, the reason being that in so doing they can look favourably upon their own lusts through a semblance of religion and engage in external worship which has no internal, that is, a worship of the lips and not of the heart; and the more they regard this worship to be Divine and Holy, the greater the positions and wealth they attain. And in addition to this there are many other hidden yet manifest reasons. For the fact of the matter is that the person who rejects charity, that is to say, rejects it in doctrine and at the same time in life, also rejects the Lord. Though he does not dare to do so with the lips he nevertheless does so in his heart, a fact which is expressed even in the sense of the letter by the statement 'they came near to break down the door' which means that they went so far as to try and destroy them both. But what prevents the actual realization of the attempt is no hidden matter.