293. Verse 11. Saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive the glory, and the honor, and the power, signifies merit and righteousness belonging to the Lord's Divine Human, that from it is all Divine truth and Divine good and salvation. This is evident from the signification of "Thou art worthy, O Lord," as being merit and righteousness belonging to the Lord's Divine Human (of which presently); also from the signification of "glory and honor," as being in reference to the Lord's Divine truth and Divine good which are from Him, see above, n. 288, also from the signification of "power," as being salvation. "Power" here signifies salvation because all Divine power looks to salvation as an end; for by Divine power man is reformed, and afterwards introduced into heaven, and there withheld from evil and falsity and held in good and truth; and this the Lord only can effect. Those who claim for themselves the power to effect this are wholly ignorant of what salvation is, for they do not know what reformation is, nor what heaven with man is. To claim to oneself the Lord's power is to claim power over the Lord Himself, which power is called "the power of darkness" (Luke 22:53).

[2] That the power predicated of the Lord has regard chiefly to salvation is evident from the following passages. In John:

Jesus said, Father, Thou hast given (to the Son) power over all flesh, that to all whom Thou hast given Him to them He should give eternal life (John 17:2).

In the same:

As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become sons of God, to them that believe in His name (John 1:12).

In the same:

I am the vine, ye are the branches; he that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit; for apart from Me ye cannot do anything (John 15:5).

In Mark:

They were astonished at His doctrine; for He was teaching them as having authority (Mark 1:22).

In Luke:

With authority and power He commands unclean spirits and they go forth (Luke 4:36);

besides other passages. Moreover, the Lord has power over all things because He is God alone; but the salvation of the human race is the principal object of power, since for the sake of that the heavens and the worlds were created; and salvation is the reception of the proceeding Divine.

[3] "Thou art worthy, O Lord," signifies the merit and righteousness pertaining to the Lord's Divine Human, because "Thou art worthy" signifies that He had merit. The Lord's merit is that when He was in the world He subjugated the hells, and brought into order all things in the heavens, and glorified His Human, and this from His own power. By this means He saved all of the human race who believe in Him, that is, who love to do His precepts (John 1:12, 13). Moreover, this merit is called in the Word "righteousness," (justice) and the Lord in respect to His Divine Human is called from this:

Jehovah our Righteousness (Jeremiah 23:5-6; 33:15-16).

(Of this merit, or this righteousness of the Lord, see further in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem 293, 294; and in the quotations there from Arcana Coelestia 300-306.)

3416. 'And Isaac went away from there' means that the Lord abandoned interior truths. This is clear from the meaning of 'going away from there' as abandoning, here abandoning interior truths since these are the subject; and from the representation of 'Isaac' as the Lord's Divine Rational. The Lord's abandonment of interior truths means that He does not expose these to such persons. Every part of the Word contains internal truths, but when such people read the Word as possess a knowledge of cognitions but are not at the same time concerned with life they do not even notice those truths, as becomes clear from the fact that those who make the essential thing of salvation to reside in faith pay no attention at all to those things which the Lord spoke of so many times regarding love and charity, 1017, 2371. And those who do pay any attention to them call them the fruits of faith, which they distinguish and indeed separate from charity, the nature of which is not known to them. Thus the things of the Word that are secondary are seen by them but not those that are primary, that is, its exterior features are seen but not the interior ones. And seeing the things that are secondary or exterior without those that are primary or interior amounts to seeing nothing Divine at all. These are the implications of the explanation that the Lord abandoned interior truths, meant by 'Isaac went away from there'. Not that the Lord abandons, but that those people remove themselves from the Lord by removing themselves from matters of life.