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.

4516. 'You have brought trouble on me, by making me stink to the inhabitant of the land' means that those who belonged to the Ancient Church abominated them. This is clear from the meaning of 'bringing trouble on me, by making me stink' as causing them to abominate, and from the meaning of 'the inhabitant of the land' here as those who belonged to the Ancient Church. For 'the land' means the Church, 566, 662, 1066, 1067, 1262, 1733, 1850, 2117, 2118 (end), 2928, 3355, 4447, and so 'the inhabitant of the land' those who belong to the Church, which in this case is the Ancient Church since that Church continued to exist among some nations in the land of Canaan. But that which was a representative of the Church was not established among the people descended from Jacob until that Ancient Church had completely come to an end. This fact is also meant by those descended from Jacob not being allowed into the land of Canaan until the iniquity of the inhabitants of the land had come to a close, as stated in Genesis 15:16. For no new Church is ever established until the previous one has been laid waste.