358. Angelic Wisdom about Divine Love

Part 5

The Lord has created and formed within us two vessels and dwellings for himself called volition and discernment. Volition is for his divine love and discernment for his divine wisdom. I have already discussed the divine love and wisdom of God the Creator, who is the Lord from eternity, and I have discussed the creation of the universe. Now I need to say something about our own creation.

We read that we were created in the image of God and according to his likeness (Genesis 1:26). In this passage "the image of God" means divine wisdom and "the likeness of God" means divine love, since wisdom is nothing more than the image of love. Love actually presents itself to view and to recognition in wisdom, and since that is where we see and recognize it, wisdom is its image. Then too, love is the reality of life and wisdom is its consequent manifestation. This "image and likeness" of God is strikingly visible in angels. Love shining from within is their faces and wisdom in their beauty, with beauty as the form of their love. I have seen this, and I have come to know it.

8049. 'Remember this day on which you came out of Egypt, out of the house of slaves' means that especially should they call to mind that state which was theirs when they were delivered from spiritual captivity by the Lord. This is clear from the meaning of 'remember' as that they should call to mind; from the meaning of 'day' as state, dealt with in 23, 487, 488, 493, 893, 2788, 3462, 3785, 4850, 5672, 5962, 7680; from the meaning of 'coming out' as being delivered, for the exodus of the children of Israel means the deliverance by the Lord of those belonging to the spiritual Church, regarding which deliverance see 6854, 6914, 7091 (end), 7828, 7932, 8018; and from the meaning of 'Egypt' and 'the house of slaves' as spiritual captivity. For 'Pharaoh' and 'the Egyptians' mean those in the next life who molested spiritual people by means of falsities, 7097, 7107, 7110, 7126, 7142, 7220, 7228, 7317, and therefore 'the land of Egypt' means molestation, 7278. Molestation by means of falsities is nothing else than spiritual captivity, for when people suffer molestation they are held captive so to speak in falsities from which they constantly strive to be delivered. This also explains why they are called in the Word 'the bound in the pit', 6854. That spiritual captivity is what is also meant by 'the house of slaves (or servants)'. 'Slavery' (or service) means being under attack from falsities, which is molestation, see 7120, 7129.