The Bible

 

Genesis 1

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1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first Day.

6 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.

7 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.

8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

9 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.

10 And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.

11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.

12 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

13 And the evening and the morning were the third day.

14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:

15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.

16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.

17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,

18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.

19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

20 And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.

21 And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.

23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.

25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.

31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

Commentary

 

God Will Comfort You

By Bill Woofenden

"As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem." Isaiah 66:13

Additional Readings: Isaiah 66, Psalm 86, Psalm 87, John 14:15-31

The Lord said, "All power is given unto me in heaven and on earth" (Matthew 28:18). All things are in His hand, and the means for accomplishing all things are in His hand. All nature speaks of the wisdom and power which the Almighty God displays in His control of things material. He holds the stars in their courses; He provides for every created thing. The whole universe is created that it may meet every possible need of man.

There is also the spiritual world. "In the beginning God. created the heaven and the earth" (Genesis 1:1). The spiritual world is a much vaster realm established by the Lord for man, to meet his higher needs. In the beginning men were in close connection with the Lord and with the heavens, but in process of time they departed from the laws established by the Lord, and so they are not in the condition in which the Lord first created them.

The Lord always provides for all things in His universe. When men departed from the way of life He provided that there should be the means whereby His laws might be reestablished among them. When the first spiritual development—the Adamic Church 1 —came to its end, a change was made in the mental structure of man and a written Word was given him, that he might again order his life according to Divine laws. This is the forerunner of many provisions that the Lord has made to meet the needs of His children. He continually provides distinct means for salvation, for "comfort" in every possible state in the life of man.

Were man in mental and spiritual integrity, as in the most ancient times, enlightenment and power from the Lord could flow directly into him without restraint, blessing him in every way, both naturally and spiritually. But as it is, man is weakened by evil and is under its influence. So life from the Lord has to come to him hedged in by precautionary measures, lest it slay him. The way to the tree of life is guarded by the letter of the Word, through the marvelous care and mercy of the Lord.

In that wonderful work The Divine Providence the laws by which the Lord secretly operates are revealed to us. We must be led in freedom to learn of the Lord and to follow Him. There is no experience through which we may pass which is not provided for. Belief in God is inseparable from a belief in His providence. But a correct understanding of His nature is needed. For by His providence is meant the influence which He exerts over the affairs of men—His active government of the universe.

To feel that the Lord is merely a Creator, One who originally made the world and then ceased to have anything to do with it, is to deny Him all participation in human affairs and all interest in those whom He has created. Such a denial removes Him so far off as to make any personal relationship with Him impossible. If He does not watch over and provide for us, our prayers and praises amount to nothing and might as well cease altogether. To come into a living relationship with the Lord we need to have a true understanding of Him. We cannot worship one about whom we know nothing, and a wrong idea of God is destructive of any intelligent or helpful relationship with Him.

Our text begins "As one whom his mother comforteth." The picture is one of a child who is sick or in distress. As the child is shielded from responsibilities too heavy for him, so the Lord in His tender mercy adapts His truth to the minds of His children. To those who are not far advanced He gives the lower truths, clothing them with such appearances as they need, while to those who have gone further He gives knowledge of Himself in more definite outlines and in larger measure. So it is in all things.

The latter part of our text reads "Ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem." It is in the New Church, which is here called Jerusalem, that the Lord has gathered together all the means of comfort. It is in the doctrine of the New Church that the Lord comforteth man as a mother comforteth.

Sometimes adversities overtake us, and life seems bitter, and the question arises "What are we living for?" This is an age old question. Philosophers beginning with Socrates have tried to answer it. Stoic and Epicurean have given their answers. Nirvana is the answer of the Hindu. All these, though they have afforded some comfort, are in reality but idle dreams. It is in the doctrines of the New Jerusalem that we find the reality. "What are we living for" is a question which finds its answer in the teachings of the New Church and in them only.

When disaster or bereavement comes, none of the systems of philosophy devised by men, with their glittering phrases and mental gymnastics, give any real comfort. But in Jerusalem ye shall be comforted.

If one has lost a little child the Lord says, "Let the little ones come unto me and forbid them not" (Matthew 19:14) To those who are strong and prosperous He says, "Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it: except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain" (Psalms 127:1). To the student the Lord says, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" (Psalm 111:10). Whatever be our state or station, the Lord will comfort us in Jerusalem.

And it is written, "In that day shall Jehovah be one, and his name one in all the earth" (Zechariah 14:9). In Jerusalem we are taught to see the Lord as the center of all things, in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, the center for every variety of character, for the seven candlesticks are the seven churches.

From Divine love through Divine wisdom the universe was made and all that is therein. We live because God loves us and desires objects on whom His love can be bestowed and who can know the happiness of loving Him in return. From and by His love and wisdom he always cares for us, for no event or circumstance can be overlooked by Him. To the merely natural man the world may at times seem harsh and cruel and God a hard taskmaster. But the truth is that "the Lord, is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works." Not a sparrow can fall to the ground without His knowledge. Even the hairs of our heads are numbered. Nothing can take place without Divine permission: "the wrath of man shall praise thee; the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain" (Psalm 76:10).

The Lord looks beyond the things of time to eternity. The one great fact of our existence which no one can deny is that sooner or later the earthly life of every man comes to an end. This is part of the Divine plan. When we know that the Lord is Love and Wisdom itself and trust Him, we are enabled to see that all untoward and unwelcome events come to us only for the purpose of furthering our eternal happiness. Then all sickness, sorrow, and disappointment, from whatever cause they may arise, are fully accounted for by the knowledge that the Lord’s providence in all that it does looks to the infinite and eternal. We may not clearly perceive the reasons for our particular trials and afflictions, but there is comfort in the certainty that we should never have been subjected to them unless our Heavenly Father saw that they could contribute something toward making us better and happier to eternity.

The Divine omnipotence—the power of infinite love and wisdom—is always about us. It can never fail us in least things or greatest. Knowledge and acknowledgment of this fact is a part of genuine belief. And wherever true knowledge of the Lord exists, it serves as the basis for a living trust, bringing us into that vital relation to the Lord which is the purpose of our creation. Of this new light which has been given us for our salvation the prophet writes: "Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem: for the Lord hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem" (Isaiah 52:9).

Footnotes:

1. The Adamic church (the church that Adam stands for, in Genesis) is also called the Most Ancient Church; Swedenborg describes it as the first real church on this earth -- not a church in the sense of a building or an organized congregation, but a church in the sense of a group of people with a commonly held set of spiritual beliefs and practices.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Explained #725

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725. The reason why a male child signifies the doctrine of truth for the church which is called the New Jerusalem, is, that son signifies truth as we have just shown above, and a male child truth of doctrine from the Word, consequently the doctrine of genuine truth which is for the church. It means doctrine for the church which is called the New Jerusalem, because the woman who brought forth the male child, means that church, as also shown above. The doctrine of truth which is for the church, is also signified by male in the following passages.

In Moses:

"God created man into his image; into the image of God created he him, male and female created he them" (Genesis 1:27):

"Male and female created he them, and blessed them, and called their name man (homo), in the day in which they were created" (Genesis 5:2).

What is involved in the things that are related in the first chapter of Genesis concerning the creation of heaven and earth, paradise, and the eating of the tree of knowledge (scientia), no one can know except from the spiritual sense, for these particulars are in the form of history; still they are holy, because all the particulars contained in them are interiorly, and in their bosom, spiritual.

[2] The subject there described is the establishment of the Most Ancient Church, which was the most excellent of all the churches on this earth; its establishment is meant by the creation of heaven and earth, its intelligence and wisdom are meant by the garden of Eden, and its decline and fall by eating of the tree of knowledge. It is therefore evident that man, who is called Adam and Eve, means that church, for it is said, Male and female created He them, and called their name Man; and as that church is meant by both, it follows that male means its truth, and female its good. So also male means doctrine, and female life, since the doctrine of truth is also the doctrine of love and of charity, thus the doctrine of life; and the life of good is also the life of love and of charity, thus a life of doctrine, that is, a life according to doctrine. These two are meant by male [and female], and, taken together and conjoined in marriage, they are called Man, and they also make the church, which, as said above, is meant by man. Again, Adam was so called from a word that means ground, and ground, from its reception of seeds, signifies the church as to truths of doctrine, for in the Word seeds signify truths; while Eve is from a word that means life, "Because she was to be the mother of all living" (Genesis 3:20). These two, doctrine and life, taken together and conjoined as it were in marriage, are called Man (homo), and also make the church, because man is man from the understanding of truth and from the will of good, consequently from the doctrine of life, since this is of the understanding and from the life of doctrine, because this is of the will. The case is similar with the church, for the church is in man, and is the man himself.

[3] That these two, which are signified by male and female, are not to be two but one, the Lord teaches in the Evangelists;

"Jesus said, Have ye not read, that He who made them from the beginning of creation made them male and female, and they two shall be one flesh? Therefore, they are no more two but one flesh" (Matthew 19:4-6; Mark 10:6-8).

This also, as is the case with every part of the Word, is to be understood not only naturally, but also spiritually; and unless it is understood spiritually no one can know what is signified by male and female, or husband and wife, being no more two but one flesh, as is also said in Genesis 2:24. Here, as above, male and female signify, in the spiritual sense, truth and good, consequently also the doctrine of truth, which is the doctrine of life, and the life of truth, which is the life of doctrine. These must not be two but one, since truth does not become truth in man without the good of life, nor does good become good with any one without the truth of doctrine; for good becomes spiritual good only by means of truths, and spiritual good is good, but not natural good, without it. When these are one, then truth is of good and good is of truth, and this oneness is meant by one flesh. The case is similar with doctrine and life; these also make a man of the church one, when the doctrine of life and the life of doctrine are conjoined in him, for doctrine teaches how he must live and act, and the life lives it and does it. From these things also it is evident, that a male child signifies the doctrine of love and of charity, consequently, the doctrine of life.

[4] Since the truth of doctrine, or the doctrine of truth, is signified by a male, therefore a law was made that every male opening the womb should be holy to Jehovah (Exodus 13:12, 15; Deuteronomy 15:19; Luke 2:23). For from the marriage of truth and good, meant in the spiritual sense by the marriage of man and woman, as said above, truths and goods are born, and these are consequently signified in that sense by sons and daughters, truths by sons, and goods by daughters. And as every man is reformed and regenerated by means of truths - for without truths man does not know what good is, and what its nature is, nor, consequently, the way to heaven - this is the reason why the truth which is born first from the marriage of truth and good was sanctified to Jehovah. This truth which is first born is also the doctrine of truth, for that which is first is the all in what follows, thus it is all truth, and all truth is doctrine. But it must be carefully observed that the first-born signifies truth that belongs to the good of charity, it therefore signifies the good of charity in its own form and in its own quality, therefore truth; for the form of good and the quality of good are truth. The reason why this is signified by the first-born, is, that from the good of love, which is signified by the womb and the child therein, nothing else can be born but the good of charity; and this good does not become good until it is formed and qualified, that is until it is in the form in which its quality resides, and its form is called truth, but still is good in form.

[5] From what has been said above, it is evident why it was that every male should appear three times in the year before the face of the Lord Jehovah (Exodus 23:17; 34:23; Deuteronomy 16:16), namely, at the three feasts, which signified everything of regeneration from first to last. And as everything of regeneration is effected by means of truths of doctrine that become those of life from the Lord, therefore all the males, by whom truths were signified, had to present themselves before the Lord, that they might be cleansed by Him and afterwards led by Him. By three times in the year, is also signified continually, and by the face of Jehovah, the Divine Love by which man is led. And this was done because Jerusalem signified the church as to doctrine, and thus also the doctrine of the church.

[6] Since burnt-offerings and sacrifices signified celestial and spiritual things, burnt-offerings celestial things, and sacrifices spiritual things; therefore the law was given, that burnt-offerings should be of males that were without blemish, either from the flock or from the herd; but sacrifices might be either of males or females (Leviticus 1:2, 3; 3:1, 6). The reasons were, that celestial things are those that pertain to love to the Lord, thus to the marriage of good and truth, but spiritual things are those that pertain to charity towards the neighbour, thus not to the marriage but to the consanguinity of truth with good; and truths and goods in consanguinity are like sisters and brothers, but in marriage truths and goods are like husband and wife. This is why burnt-offerings were of males that were without blemish, which signify genuine truths from the Word, or from doctrine from the Word, which have been conjoined to the good of love to the Lord, this good being signified by the altar and its fire. The sacrifices were either of males or females, because males signify truths, and females goods, not conjoined by marriage but by consanguinity; and as both of these, like brothers and sisters, are from one parent, worship from truths was accepted equally as from goods, that is, from males equally as from females.

[7] Since all spiritual nourishment is from truths that are from good, therefore there was a law that a male among the priests should eat the holy things (Leviticus 6:18, 29; 7:6). The reason of this statute was, that males signify truths of doctrine, which are doctrinals (as above) and priests the goods of love, which are goods of the life; and their eating of the holy things that belonged to Aaron and his sons, signified spiritual nourishment.

[8] In Moses:

When they draw near "unto a city to fight against it, thou shalt invite it to peace"; if it accept not, "thou shalt smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword, but the women, the little ones, the beasts, and the booty, thou shalt take" (Deuteronomy 20:10-14).

Every male in a city that did not accept peace was to be smitten with the edge of the sword, but not the women, the little ones, and beasts, because a city signifies doctrine, and a city of the Gentiles in the land of Canaan, doctrine of falsity, similarly the males of that city; and not to accept peace signifies not to agree with the truths and goods of the church, which were signified by the sons of Israel. The edge of the sword, with which the males were to be smitten, signifies truth destroying falsity. And because falsities alone fight against truths and goods, and destroy them, but not evils without falsities; therefore the women, the little ones, and the beasts, which as belonging to the Gentiles signified evils, were not smitten, since evils can be subdued, amended, and reformed by means of truths.

[9] In Jeremiah:

"Cursed be the man who brought glad tidings to his father, saying, A male child is born to thee, in gladdening he hath made him glad; let that man be as the cities that Jehovah overthrew" (20:15, 16).

This is said of those who are in a devastated church, in which nothing but falsities are accepted and rule; therefore Cursed be the man who brought glad tidings to his father, saying, A male child is born to thee, signifies he who acknowledges falsity and proclaims it as truth, thus the doctrine of falsity in place of the doctrine of truth; in gladdening he made him glad, signifies acceptance from affection for falsity. Let that man be as the cities that Jehovah overthrew, signifies that it shall be with the doctrines that are from mere falsities, which the Lord exterminated from the church, and destroyed as it was with the cities of the Canaanitish race which He destroyed; comparison is made with cities, because cities also signify doctrines.

[10] In Ezekiel:

"Thou didst take the vessels of thine adorning, of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest thee images of a male with which thou hast committed whoredom" (16:17).

This treats of the abominations of Jerusalem, which signify falsifications and adulterations of the Word, resulting from the application of it to the desires of corporeal and worldly loves. Vessels of adorning from the gold and silver of the Lord, signify knowledges of good and truth, which are the goods and truths of the sense of the letter of the Word. These are called vessels, because they contain in themselves spiritual truths and goods, and vessels of adorning, because they are the manifestations (apparentiae), and thus the forms of interior things; those things which are of gold signify those that are from good, and those of silver those that are from truth. Thou madest to thee images of a male with which thou hast committed whoredom, signifies falsities appearing as truths of doctrine, which are falsified, images of a male denoting appearances of truth which are nevertheless falsities, and to commit whoredom denoting to falsify.

[11] In Malachi:

"Cursed be the defrauder in whose flock is a male, and he voweth and sacrificeth unto the Lord a blemished thing" (1:14).

A male in the flock signifies genuine truth of doctrine from the Word; a blemished thing signifies what is falsified; and to vow and sacrifice signifies to worship, thus from things falsified when the truth is known; that such a worship, being fraudulent worship, is infernal, is signified by Cursed be the defrauder. From what has been now shown from the Word concerning the signification of a male, and concerning the signification of a son, it is evident that the male child, which the woman encompassed with the sun, and upon whose head was a crown of twelve stars, brought forth, signifies the doctrine of truth, thus the doctrine of love and charity for the church which is called the New Jerusalem, and which is treated of in the twenty-first chapter of this book.

  
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Translation by Isaiah Tansley. Many thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.