Christmas Gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh
By New Christian Bible Study Staff
In the Christmas story, the wise men bring gifts to the Lord: gold, frankincense and myrrh.
The gold is listed first, because it is the inmost - signifying good, e.g. the good that we do when we love the Lord and the neighbor.
The frankincense is next. It signifies rational truth, which is the set of true ideas that we know, not about external things like cars or cooking, but about what is really good, and what is really true.
These rational truths are built on earlier knowledges that we learn, before we have really made them our own. Those early knowledges about spiritual things - often learned in childhood - are represented by the myrrh.
In a way, these gifts are really a reciprocation. We can't actually give them to the Lord until the Lord has given them to us. We necessarily start out by learning and doing the Lord's law (myrrh). The Lord can then call up those memories to become rational truths (frankincense). Then, over time, and with effort, those truths can be transformed into good (gold). The wise men from the East had gone through this process of learning and becoming vessels that could receive truths and goods. They were able to perceive the Lord's birth, and find him, and bring gifts to him.
Arcana Coelestia #9963
9963. 'When they go into the tent of meeting' means in worship representative of all things of heaven and the Church. This is clear from the meaning of 'going into the tent of meeting' as worship representative of all things of heaven and the Church. For 'the tent' represented heaven where the Lord was, 9457, 9481, 9485, 9784, so that 'going into it', when it refers to Aaron and his sons, means worship of the Lord. Furthermore all the worship at that time took place within the tent and at the altar; for within the tent the loaves of the presence were laid out, the lamps were lit, and incense was offered, and at the altar sacrifice took place. These things primarily were the ones in which representative worship consisted. Representative worship is the outward performance of worship representing the inward virtues of love derived from the Lord and offered back to Him, thus all things of heaven and the Church; for in heaven and in the Church everything has connection with the good belonging to love and the truth belonging to faith which are derived from the Lord and offered to Him.