2966. Four hundred shekels of silver. That this signifies the price of redemption, was shown above (n. 2959); but what the price of redemption is shall now be told. Redemption is of the Lord alone, and so too is the price of redemption; and this price is also predicated of the reception by man, with whom the price is great according to the reception. The price of redemption is the Lord’s merit and righteousness through the most grievous temptations, whereby He united the Human Essence to the Divine, and the Divine Essence to the Human, and this by His own power; and by this unition saved the human race, and especially those who are of the spiritual church. (That the Lord was made righteousness through the most grievous temptations, may be seen above, n. 1813, 2025-2027; also that He united the Human Essence to the Divine Essence, and the Divine to the Human, n. 1725, 1729, 1733, 1737, 1813, 2083; and that He did this from His own power, n. 1616, 1921, 2025, 2026, 2083, 2500, 2523, 2632; and by this unition saved the human race, and especially those who are of the spiritual church, n. 2661, 2716.) These are the things which are signified by the “price of redemption.”

[2] That this price is also predicated of the reception with man, with whom it is great in proportion to his reception, is evident from the fact that it is the Lord’s Divine which makes the church with man; for nothing is called the church that is not the Lord’s own; for it is the good which is of love and charity, and it is the truth which is of faith, which make that which is called the church. That all good is from the Lord, and that all truth is from Him, is well known; good and truth that are from man are not good and truth; and from this it is plain that the price of redemption with a man is great in proportion to his reception.

[3] As with the Jews the Lord’s redemption was so little esteemed as to be scarcely anything, it is said in Zechariah:

I said unto them, If it be good in your eyes, give me my hire, and if not, forbear. And they weighed my hire, thirty pieces of silver. And Jehovah said unto me, Cast it unto the potter, the goodly price that I was priced at of them (Zech. 11:12-13).

And in Matthew:

They took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of Him that was priced, whom they had bought from the sons of Israel, and gave them for the potter’s field, as the Lord appointed me (Matthew 27:9-10).

That “thirty” denotes what is so little as to be scarcely anything, may be seen above (n. 2276); thus this passage denotes that the Jews placed no value on the merit and redemption of the Lord. But with those who believe all good and all truth to be from the Lord, the price of redemption is signified by “forty,” and in a higher degree by “four hundred.”

1733. Possessor of the heavens and the earth. This signifies the conjunction of the internal man or Jehovah with the interior and the exterior man, as appears from the signification of “heaven and earth.” That which is interior in man is called “heaven;” and that which is exterior is called “earth.” The reason why “heaven” signifies that which is interior in man, is that a man as to his interiors is an image of heaven, and so is a kind of little heaven. Primarily the Lord’s interior man is heaven, because the Lord is the all in all of heaven, and thus is heaven itself. It follows from this that the exterior man is called the earth. For the same reason also, by the “new heavens” and the “new earth,” spoken of in the Prophets and in Revelation, nothing else is meant than the Lord’s kingdom, and everyone who is a kingdom of the Lord, or in whom the Lord’s kingdom is. That “heaven and earth” signify these things may be seen, as to “heaven,” n. 82, 911; and as to “earth,” n. 82, 620, 636, 913.

[2] That here “God Most High, Possessor of the heavens and earth,” signifies the conjunction in the Lord of the internal man with the interior and exterior man, may be seen from the fact that as to His internal man the Lord was Jehovah Himself; and because the internal man or Jehovah led and instructed the external, as a father his son, therefore relatively to Jehovah He is called, as to the external man, the “Son of God;” but relatively to the mother, He is called the “Son of Man.” The Lord’s internal man, which is Jehovah Himself, is what is here called “God Most High;” and before plenary conjunction or union was effected, it is called “Possessor of the heavens and earth,” that is, Possessor of all things which are in the interior and the exterior man; for these, as before said, are here meant by “the heavens and the earth.”