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

 

The Most Important Teachings About Order

By Rev. Prescott A. Rogers

Christ driving the money-changers from the temple

And God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. (Genesis 1:31).

1. All order is from the Lord.

2. It exists in all of creation, spiritual and natural.

3. Disorder is the perversion of order, and it exists in hell and in the world.

4. Order is a matter of essence, having to do with love and wisdom, and of form.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #2363

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2363. 'Let me now bring them out to you' means blessedness from these, that is to say, from the affections for good and for truth. This is clear from the meaning of these words when they have reference to the affections meant here by 'daughters'. As regards what is actually involved in all this - that is to say, in the reality that blessedness and happiness lie solely within the affection for good and for truth - all are completely ignorant who are immersed in and take delight in evil. The blessedness lying within the affection for good and for truth is seen by them either as something that does not exist, or as something dreary. By some it is seen to be something painful, or even deadly. This is so with the genii and spirits in hell. They imagine and believe that if the joy belonging to self-love and love of the world were withdrawn from them, and consequently the joy belonging to evils resulting from those loves, no life would be left to them. But when they are shown that such a withdrawal is the starting-point to life itself, bringing blessedness and happiness within, they experience a certain sadness at the loss of their own joy. And when they are brought into the company of others whose lives are such, pain and torment take hold of them. In addition they also start to feel at the same time within themselves something death-like and dreadfully hellish. For this reason they refer to heaven, where that blessedness and happiness reside, as their hell, and insofar as they are able to remove and hide themselves from the Lord's face they go as far away as they can.

[2] Nevertheless everything that is blessed and happy lies in the affection for the good which flows from love and charity, and in the affection for truth that constitutes faith, insofar as such truth leads on to that good. This becomes clear from the fact that heaven, that is, angelic life, lies in everything blessed and happy and also from the fact that its influence is felt from things that are inmost, since it flows in from the Lord by way of inmost things, see 540, 541, 545. At the same time wisdom and intelligence enter in and fill the inner recesses of the mind itself, kindling good with heavenly flame and truth with heavenly light. And this is accompanied by a perception of blessing and happiness which can only be called indescribable. People who have entered this state perceive how empty, how dreary, and how deplorable the life is of those who are subject to evils resulting from self-love and love of the world.

[3] So that anyone may recognize the nature of this life, that is to say, the life of self-love and love of the world, or what amounts to the same, the life that goes with arrogance, greed, envy, hatred, revenge, ruthlessness, and adultery, let him who has the ability to do so caricature for himself some of these evils. Or if he is able, let him paint a picture that accords with the ideas he can get of it from experience, knowledge, and reason. He will in that case see, insofar as his drawing or painting of it is accurate, how shocking those evils are and that they are devilish forms with nothing human in them. After death all who perceive joy in such evils become devilish forms such as these. And the greater their joy the more dreadful those forms are.

[4] But on the other hand if he caricatures love and charity for himself or also finds an expression of it for himself in some outward form, he will see, insofar as his drawing or portrayal is accurate, that it is an angelic form full of blessed and beautiful things, which has what is heavenly and Divine within it. Can anyone believe that those two forms are able to exist side by side, or that the devilish form can be thrown off and transformed into one of charity, and that this can be achieved by means of faith to which the life is contrary? For after death everyone's life, or what amounts to the same, his affection, remains. At that time the nature of affection determines the nature of all his thought, and consequently his faith, which manifests itself as it had existed in his heart.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.