Apocalypse Explained #445
445. Of the tribe of Issachar twelve thousand sealed, signifies faith and salvation. This is evident from the representation and consequent signification of "Issachar" and his tribe, as being that which makes heaven and salvation with man, for "Issachar" in the original means reward, and love and faith are what make heaven and salvation with man, consequently both are signified by "the tribe of Issachar." "Reward" is frequently spoken of in the Word, as "that reward is to be received," and by it is understood eternal life, salvation, and by many, heavenly joy; and in the nearest sense this is the signification of "reward." If a man is living according to the Lord's commandments, it is permissible for him to think of eternal life, salvation, and heavenly joy; but it is not permissible for him to keep his mind intent upon reward, for if he does so he has reward as an end, and easily falls into the thought that by his life he deserves heaven and salvation, and this thought causes him to have regard to self in every particular, and such regard to self removes him from heaven; for so far as man looks to self in what he does, he does not look to heaven. Because of this, "reward" signifies in the Word that in which heaven and salvation are, that is, in general, love and faith, and thence intelligence and wisdom, for in these are salvation and heaven, and consequently heavenly joy, so far as man does not think about reward. From this the signification of "Issachar" and his tribe can be seen.
[2] Here faith is signified, because "the tribe of Simeon" signifies obedience, and "the tribe of Levi" signifies good works, and they who are in good works from obedience are in faith; while such as are in the goods of life from the spiritual affection of truth and good are in charity, and they who are in the goods of life from celestial affection are in love to the Lord. This, too, is the way in which angels are distinguished in the heavens: those who are in the goods of life from a celestial affection are in the inmost or third heaven; those who are in the goods of life from a spiritual affection are in the middle or second heaven; and those who are in good works from obedience are in the lowest or first heaven, and these also are said to have faith, for the things they hear from the sense of the letter of the Word and from preachers they believe according to their apprehension, but they neither see nor perceive whether they are true, therefore their thought about what is to be believed is called faith; for that is properly called faith which is believed without intellectual sight and perception as to its being so, consequently such persons can believe falsity equally with truth. But when what is believed is seen and perceived this is not called faith, but apperception and perception; for the understanding illustrated by the Lord sees, and the will is affected, and action flows from the two.
[3] "Issachar" and his tribe here signify faith, because these three tribes, from each of which were twelve thousand sealed, mean all who are in the lowest or first heaven; and they who are in that heaven are said to be in good works from obedience, and in faith. Moreover, many of these call faith alone the essential of salvation, and yet do not separate faith from good works, for they say that faith is bestowed upon them by the Lord because they are in good works, and that if they were not in good works faith would not be given. But those who separate faith from good works, and declare it to be the sole means of salvation, and that they are saved by it howsoever they live, confirming this by their life, such are not in the lowest heaven but are in hell.
[4] Those who have regard to reward on account of the good works they do, and thus place merit in works, are meant by "Issachar" in the prophecy of Israel respecting his sons:
Issachar is a bony ass couching down between the burdens. And he shall see rest that it is good, and the land that it is pleasant; and he shall bow his shoulder to bear burdens, [and shall be one who serves for hire] (Genesis 49:14, 15).
Here "Issachar" signifies reward or recompense on account of works; "a bony ass" signifies the lowest servitude; "couching down between the burdens" signifies life among works; "and he shall see rest that it is good" signifies works of good without recompense full of felicity; "and the land that it is pleasant" signifies that those who are in the Lord's kingdom are in such felicity; "and he shall bow his shoulder to bear burdens" signifies that they, nevertheless, labor in every work; "and shall be one who serves for hire" signifies with a view to merit. (For further explanation of this see Arcana Coelestia 6387-6394.)
[5] But those who do not place merit in the good works they perform, by having regard for reward, but place heaven and the felicity of eternal life in thinking and willing well, and thence in acting well, and are in the spiritual affection of truth and good, which is with those who are in the heavenly marriage, that is, in the marriage of good and truth; such are meant by these words in Moses:
Of Zebulun he said, Be glad, Zebulun, in thy going out; and Issachar in thy tents. They shall call the people unto the mountain; there they shall sacrifice sacrifices of righteousness; for they shall suck the abundance of the seas, and the hidden things of the secret things of the sand (Deuteronomy 33:18, 19).
This is said of those who are in the marriage of good and truth, that is, in truths in respect to the understanding and thought, and in goods in respect to the will and affection. "Zebulun" signifies that marriage, and "Issachar" the affection of truth and good; "to be glad in thy going out" signifies to have delight in all genuine truths and goods, "going out" signifying all things, because it signifies the ultimate, the effect, and the conclusion; "to be glad in the tents" signifies in all worship; "to call the peoples unto the mountain" signifies, because such are in heaven, where there is the good of love; "to sacrifice the sacrifices of righteousness" signifies worship from truths that are from good; "to suck the abundance of the sea" signifies to imbibe the truths of doctrine from the Word, and thus intelligence; and "to suck the hidden things of the secret things of the sand" signifies the spiritual things that lie concealed in the sense of the letter of the Word.
[6] Because "the tribes of Judah, of Issachar, and of Zebulun," signified the heaven where the good of love is, "the tribe of Judah" that good itself, "the tribe of Issachar" its affection, and "Zebulun" its conjunction with truths:
These three tribes pitched to the east of the tent of meeting (Numbers 2:3-9);
for in heaven those dwell to the east who are in the good of love and thus in the affection of good and truth, and in the marriage or conjunction of these, that is, in truths in respect to doctrine and in goods in respect to life.
The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Teachings #37
37. Each one of us has an inner level and an outer level, but they are not the same for good people as they are for evil ones. For good people, their inner level is in heaven and in its light, while their outer level is in the world and in its light. Further, for good people this latter light is brightened by heaven's light, so their inner and outer levels act in unison like an efficient cause 1 and its effect, or like what is prior and what is subsequent. For evil people, though, their inner level is in this world and its light, and the same holds true for their outer level as well. This means that they cannot see anything in heaven's light, only in this world's light, which they call " the light of nature. " 2 That is why heavenly matters are in darkness for them and worldly matters are in the light.
We can see from this that good people have an inner self and an outer self, while [in effect] evil people have no inner self, only an outer one. 3
Footnotes:
1. The term "efficient cause" (Latin causa efficiens) here represents one of the four main categories of cause introduced by the Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322 B. C. E.) and adopted by Scholastic philosophers; see Physics 193b21-195b30 (= Aristotle 1984, 330-334). Aristotle's "efficient cause" generally corresponds to what people today think of simply as "cause. " Specifically, the efficient cause of an effect is the force or agent that brings the effect about, as when a fire (the effect) is started by a lit match (the efficient cause). The other three main Aristotelian causes correspond to what are now generally considered purposes or conditions; they are material cause, formal cause, and final cause. [JSR, RS]
2. The idea of an informative "light" that is associated with nature or the material world has been a commonplace in Western theology and philosophy for millennia. One prominent example is attested in the writings of Augustine (354-430); see his On Two Souls: Against the Manichaeans (written in 391), chapters 2-5, a passage that is in fact cited by Swedenborg in this connection in Quotations on Various Philosophical and Theological Topics (= Swedenborg 1976b), 26. Though the specific term the light of nature itself has been put to various uses over the centuries, it is often contrasted to knowledge that stems from religious faith. In the current passage it refers metaphorically to human reason unassisted by the Divine (compare the phrase "light of reason" in True Christianity 473). In short, it is the very sort of "light" that many thinkers of Swedenborg's day considered to be indicated by the term Enlightenment. This is the meaning in which the term was utilized in such philosophical and theological works as Novum Organum (1620; see book 1, aphorism 42 there), by Francis Bacon (1561-1626); An Elegant and Learned Discourse of the Light of Nature (1652), by the Cambridge Platonist Nathaniel Culverwell (1619-1651); and The Light of Nature Pursued (1768-1778), by the English utilitarian Abraham Tucker (1705-1774). Generally Swedenborg expresses this idea with the term "this world's light"; for examples of this use and further references to the symbolism of light in Swedenborg's theology, see New Jerusalem 48[3], 49. For examples of Swedenborg's use of the contrasting term "heaven's light," or "the light of heaven," in specific, see the notes in New Jerusalem 24[4] and Last Judgment 38:2. For an overview of the process of being raised from one form of light to a higher form, see Secrets of Heaven 6310-6313, 6315. [SS]
3. The statement that "evil people have no inner self" must be read functionally rather than literally. As pointed out in New Jerusalem 43-44, in evil people the inner self is closed off and therefore undeveloped and largely nonfunctional rather than being literally nonexistent. For further references on this subject, see New Jerusalem 47[11-15]. See also note 1 in New Jerusalem 33, on will and understanding in good and evil people. [LSW]
