Title: Father Abraham

Topic: The Word

Summary: The true, spiritual meaning why many people in the Old and New Testaments are said to refer to Abraham as their father is that both "Abraham" and "father" mean love. A state of love is the "land of Abraham" that has been promised to us all, if we want it.

Use the reference links below to follow along in the Bible as you watch.

References:
Genesis 11:27-32; 12:1-3; 17:1-5; 26:3-5, 15, 18, 24; 28:4, 10-13; 32:9; 48:15-16
Exodus 2:1; 3:6, 15
Joshua 24:1-3
Isaiah 51:1-3; 63:16
Matthew 3:2, 9-11
Luke 1:67-75; 16:22-31
John 8:33, 37-39, 52-58
James 2:21-23
Matthew 23:9
Genesis 27:9, 14; 44:20
Deuteronomy 7:8; 30:19-20
1 Kings 3:3
Proverbs 3:11-12; 29:3
John 3:35; 5:20; 8:42; 13:1; 14:21

This video is a part of the Spirit and Life Bible Study series, whose purpose is to look at the Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible through a Swedenborgian lens.

1450. 'He removed from there to the mountain on the east of Bethel' means the Lord's fourth state when He was a boy. This becomes clear from what comes before and after, thus also from the train of thought itself, namely this: The Lord had first of all to be endowed from infancy with the celestial things of love - the celestial things of love consisting in love towards Jehovah and love towards the neighbour, and in innocence itself present in those loves. From these, as from the very sources of life, flows every single thing, for all other things are simply derivatives. These celestial things are implanted in a person chiefly in the state of infancy through to childhood, and in fact independently of cognitions; for they flow in from the Lord and stir that person with affection before he knows what love is or what affection is, as the infant state shows, and after that the state of early childhood. Those things with man are the 'remnants' that have been referred to several times which are implanted by the Lord and stored away for use in his later life. For these matters, see 468, 530, 560, 561, 660, 661. Since the Lord was born as any other is born, He too was introduced according to order into celestial things, step by step from infancy on into childhood, and after that into cognitions. These things as experienced by the Lord are described in the present verse, and represented in those that follow by Abram's sojourning in Egypt.