"Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not." So says Jacob, after his dream, in Genesis chapter 28:16.

Fear is an emotion. Like all emotions it can be best understood as a passive experience - it's something that happens to you. We are not our emotions. We might feel joy, or anger, or sadness, or fear, but those are experiences that we feel. It's like feeling something rough or soft or painful or hot or cold. We're not cold or hot or painful. Those are things we feel. All of our feelings are passive in that way. This is an important thing to remember because too often we can identify ourselves as our emotions.

Fear is that kind of passive emotion. It's something we experience. And the Heavenly Doctrine, in Arcana Coelestia 3718, tells us about different kinds of fear and why we experience what we experience. Think about any emotion for a moment. Any emotion is experienced of some affection that we have for something or someone being stimulated or stirred in a particular way.

If you love a child, for example, and that child is given something wonderful and they laugh, you experience the emotion of joy. If that child is harmed then you experience the emotion of sadness or anger. And when a child is threatened -- a child that you love -- you might experience the emotions of fear and anger.

Fear is when something that we love or have an affection for is threatened, is in danger -- that's when we experience fear. A simple illustration of this is why people are afraid of heights. They have an affection for their own health, and for their own life. And when they're at the top of a height, look down, think they might slip and fall, then naturally they think, I could lose this thing that I love -- me! It's a normal thing. They are not their fear. But they are their affection behind that fear. They do genuinely love themselves. And they are that love. It's an appropriate love that they have for themselves. This is why so often our fear does tell us about who and what we are. We are not our emotions, but our emotions tell us who we can or can't be.

In our reading we heard about two kinds of fear, holy fear and un-holy or natural fear. Natural fear is like the fear we just talked about, the fear that you have that you might be harmed. It's the fear that keeps most people in line. It's the fear that you might get a ticket if you speed. It's the fear that any kind of punishment or harm might come to you or to those you love, and it's felt as fear. The Writings say it's felt primarily in the body and in the natural man. You can imagine this fear; it's an unpleasant, physical feeling. It can tighten your stomach and send chills up your spine. We have physical things that we identify with fear, such as darkness, cold, screeching noises, a note out of key. These are the things that trigger the physical feeling of fear. They are all natural feelings of fear.

Holy fear, we're told, doesn't feel the same as natural fear. It doesn't feel physical in that way. We're also told that holy fear is when we have a fear of harm coming to something good or true outside of oneself. Returning to the example of a child: If you love a child and you're afraid for that child to be hurt, that's a kind of holy fear, and you might feel that fear as a knot in your stomach. But this is still a natural sort of holy fear and is not true spiritual holy fear.

We're told that good holy fear, spiritual holy fear, is felt as awe. In a moment we'll discuss love to the neighbor as it relates to holy fear. But first think about times when you have experienced awe or wonder -- Divine awe -- maybe you've been up early in the morning and you saw a sunrise and you thought, My God! What a beautiful sunrise! Literally thinking, Wow! The Lord made this amazing thing! And I've been given the blessing and the opportunity to see it. You are awed by that creation. That sense of awe is the feeling that accompanies holy fear.

But it's even more than that. A breathtaking sunrise is an example of a natural experience, a trick of aesthetics. Think to the moments in your life when real spiritual experience (not something visual) brought you awe. Maybe at your wedding. Or at the birth of your child. Or the death of a loved one, if you were there at their side. In these moments of real spiritual meaning when we experience a sense of awe and wonder, we think My God! We know that something more than our life has occurred here. We are struck by that wonder. Jacob experiences in his dream. That awe is what he's feeling when he wakes up. He realizes that the Lord is in this place. And he had not known it.

Often in our lives we'll have a sense of clarity, a moment where we truly understand that the Lord is God of Creation and is behind all the most meaningful moments of our lives. Maybe it is one of those important life experiences mentioned earlier -- your wedding or the birth of a loved one or the death of a loved one -- or maybe it's another important event, where acknowledgment and recognition of the Lord becomes clear and powerful, almost overwhelming.

We all acknowledge that on the average Tuesday morning, for example, when we wake up, awe is not the feeling we have. What should we do in those moments? How do we capture that sense of awe and clarity?

What does Jacob do? He sets up an alter. As we discussed with the children, you can set up an alter to the Lord in those moments of clarity and awe, when you feel a spiritual holy fear. You can do this with a mind meld, with your imagination, building literally an alter in your mind, setting up a stone and pouring oil on it. These images from the Word have powerful correspondential spiritual truth behind them. And your application of these kinds of images in your imagination can help order your mind.

The Heavenly Doctrine tells us time and again that we should meditate on the Word. This process applied to the story of Jacob's dream is the kind of thing that the Word is talking about: meditate on it. Really think about it.

If you're sitting there in front of a beautiful sunrise and you suddenly realize truly what it means for the Lord to be guiding you and your life, pause, close your eyes, set up an alter and pour oil on that alter, and pray to the Lord. Realize that He is with you.

These images have even more power when they are physical and tangible. This is why it is so useful to come to church. It's why we have an alter with the Word on it. It's why it's useful in your home to have an alter with the Word, a place set aside to remind you of the awe and wonder of the Lord.

Think back now to our original example of our love for a child. People love putting photos up of their children on Facebook. And when you go into a retired person's home, one of the things you may see are pictures everywhere, in the bathroom, in the bedroom, in the living room, on the refrigerator, why? These are physical reminders of the things that are important to that person. They are like alters to the objects of their affections. We put up pictures because we want to be reminded of the things that mean the most to us, and because we want to be reminded of those people for whom we have great affection and love.

Because we're natural, because we're here on earth and we're not perfect, often we'll experience a fear for the well being of those people. We feel this as worry in our stomach or chills up our spine. We might think, Oh, no, what could happen to my son or my daughter or my husband or my wife or my cousin? That fear can happen.

There is another fear. It is the spiritual holy fear of awe and wonder, for instance, when we can look at a picture of a loved one and we can say, My God! He has given them into my life. They are the son or daughter of the Lord, and they've been put into my life. This is like the true holy fear of angels. Angels do not worry about bad things that happen to other people. Their stomachs do not knot up and chills do not come up their spines, because they have faith and confidence in the Lord. And what's more, they know where their power lies.

We too can have that faith and confidence in the Lord, and that feeling the angels have, if we remember where our power lies.

We do not have the power to prevent terrible things from happening to the people we love. We cannot prevent terrorist attacks, or firebombings, or accidents or serious illnesses. We cannot. We can only do our best to mitigate against them.

Where then does your true power lie?

The answer to that question has to do with fear. True holy fear -- the fear that we as individuals might cause harm to those we love -- the fear that a parent has, the terrible fear, that maybe they are parenting poorly, that maybe they've done something wrong. It's the fear that we can have at work when we worry, "Maybe I've offended one of my colleagues." Or it's the fear we can have in our relationships and friendships when we think maybe we have offended someone or caused someone harm, or maybe we might. That is true holy fear, because in that we can trust the Lord. We can ask the Lord for help in being a good friend and worker and parent and spouse. We can know and have confidence that shunning evils as sins and loving the neighbor is in our control and within our grasp. That's where we can have awe and wonder at the gift the Lord has given us.

Remember the Lord told Jacob that he would be a blessing to all nations. Remember we, each of us, can be a blessing to everyone in our lives.

In keeping holy fear, we acknowledge that we are the one who has power over our own sins. That is where our true power lies. We can shun sins. We can do better. The Lord has given us this power. This is the blessing we can be: we can treat our neighbor with love and kindness and honesty and faith. When we love the neighbor, we love God.

Have confidence. Set up an altar to the Lord in your mind, and the Lord will make you a blessing to all nations.

675. And the tenth part of the city fell, signifies that no truths of doctrine any longer existed with those who remained. This is evident from the signification of "ten," as being all persons and all things, also many persons and many things, and of "the tenth part," as being all and much (of which presently); also from the signification of "city," as being doctrine and also the truth of doctrine, for a doctrine, that it may be a doctrine of the church, must consist of truths from the Word (that a "city" signifies doctrine see above, n. 223. It is evident also from the signification of "to fall," as being to be separated, consequently to have no existence; to be separated and to have no existence is predicated of truths of doctrine when "to fall" is predicated of a city.

[2] For every particular thing has allotted to it its analogous and proper expression, according to the correspondence of the subject in the natural sense with the subject in the spiritual sense; and here the subject in the natural sense is a city, while the subject in the spiritual sense is the truth of doctrine. That no truths existed with those that remained follows from what has been said in the preceding article, namely, that when the good are taken away from a society in which the good and the evil have been together, and are carried up into heaven, no truths of doctrine any longer remain with the evil, because they are then deprived of their communication with the good which enabled them as to the external to be as it were in truths, and thence to speak about truths from doctrine.

[3] For in the spiritual world there is a communication of the affections and thence of the thoughts, and from such communication one is held by another, thus all in the same society mutually, in a like affection and accordingly in a like good; thus are the evil also held by the good. But these evil were such as were able in external form to put on an appearance of sanctity, of piety, of intelligence, of zeal for the church and its doctrine, also in the life an appearance of being just and sincere from the heart, and yet interiorly in themselves they possessed nothing of such good. Such were the evil, with whom there could no longer exist any truths of doctrine, after the good were taken away, who are meant by "the two witnesses" that went up by command into heaven.

[4] It is to be known that there were in the spiritual world many societies formed of such, and that these societies taken together are meant by "the first heaven" which passed away (Revelation 21:1). (Respecting these societies or that heaven, many things are related in the small work on The Last Judgment.) In these societies were such evil persons as have been described, and the good associated with them; and so long as these were conjoined in one society the evil appeared in externals like the good; but when they had been separated, then the external good in them, which was only simulated and hypocritical, was separated, and their interiors were laid open, which were infernal, filled with mere evils and falsities therefrom. Such a separation and such a consequent state existed in the spiritual world a little before the Last Judgment; this, therefore, is the state that is here described; for the last time of the church, when the universal judgment is at hand, is here treated of.

[5] That "ten" signifies all persons and all things, also many persons and many things, can be seen from the passages in the Word where that number occurs. As in Moses:

Jehovah hath commanded unto you His covenant which He covenanted ¹ you to do, the ten words which He wrote upon two tables of stone (Deuteronomy 4:13).

And again:

Jehovah wrote upon the tables according to the former writing, the ten words which Jehovah spake unto you in the mount out of the midst of the fire (Deuteronomy 10:4).

There were "ten words" or "ten commandments" constituting the Decalogue, because "ten" signifies all things, therefore "the ten words" mean the law in its whole complex.

[6] As "ten" signifies all persons:

The Lord compared the kingdom of the heavens to ten virgins having lamps with which to go forth to meet the bridegroom, of whom five were prudent and five foolish (Matthew 25:1, 2, et seq.). "The ten virgins" to whom the kingdom of the heavens is likened signify all who are of the church, for "ten" signifies all, and "virgins" the church; but "five" signifies some, or some part, for some of the church were prudent and some foolish. Such is the signification of the number "five" in the Word. "Lamps" signify the knowledges of truth and good, here from the Word, also the truths of doctrine and of faith; "oil" signifies the good of love and of charity; the "bridegroom" means the Lord, and the "wedding" means heaven and the church, which are called a "wedding" from the marriage of good and truth; and as where there is not this marriage there is neither heaven nor the church, therefore those are called "foolish" who know the truths of faith and have no good of love, while those who have the good of love are called "prudent;" for, as has been said, "lamps" here mean the truths of faith, and "oil" the good of love. "Virgins" signify the church, because "virgin" and "daughter" in the Word signify the affection of good and truth, and it is because of that affection that the church is a church. This is why "the virgin and daughter of Zion," "the virgin and daughter of Jerusalem," "the virgin and daughter of Israel" and "of Judah," are mentioned in so many passages, these everywhere meaning the church.

[7] As "ten" signifies all as also many:

The Lord said of the nobleman who went into a far country, that he called his ten servants and gave them ten pounds [minas] to trade with; and after they had traded, one said that his pound had gained ten pounds; to him he said, Thou shalt have authority over ten cities; and the second said, Thy pound hath made five pounds; to him he said, Be thou over five cities; and of the third, who laid up his pound in a napkin, and did not trade, he said, Take from him the pound, and give it to him that hath ten pounds (Luke 19:12-14, 16-20, 24).

Here, too, the numbers "ten" and "five" are employed because "ten" signifies all persons and all things, and "five" some persons and some things. "The ten servants" whom the nobleman going into a far country called to him, mean all who are in the world, and in particular, all who are of the church; for the "nobleman" means the Lord, and "going into a far country" means the Lord's departure out of the world and His then seeming to be absent; "the ten pounds that he gave to the ten servants to trade with" signify all the knowledges of truth and good from the Word, with the ability to perceive them; for a "pound" [mina], which was silver and was money, signifies the knowledges of truth and the ability to perceive; and "to trade" signifies by means of these to acquire intelligence and wisdom; those who acquire much are meant by the servant who from a pound gained ten pounds; and those who acquire some are meant by him who from a pound gained five pounds; the "cities which are said to be given them" signify the truths of doctrine, and "to possess them" signifies intelligence and wisdom, and life and happiness therefrom. Thence it is clear what is signified by "ten cities" and by "five cities." As those who acquire nothing of intelligence are like the "foolish virgins" (of whom just above), and as these possess truths in the memory only and not in the life, after their departure from this world they are deprived of truths, while those who possess truths both in the memory and in the life enrich themselves in intelligence to eternity, so it is said that "they should take away the pound from him who gained nothing with it, and should give it to him who had ten pounds."

[8] It is similar with those:

To whom talents were given, to one five, to another two, and to a third one; the first of whom from his five talents gained another five; and the second from two talents gained other two; and the third laid away his talent in the earth, of whom the Lord said, Take from him that hath not traded and gained, and give to him that hath ten talents, for unto everyone that hath shall be given that he may abound, and from him that hath not even that which he hath shall be taken away (Matthew 25:14-30).

Here, too, "five" and "ten" also signify something and much; thus, that the first from some knowledges of truth and good acquired much wisdom. It is taken away from him who has acquired nothing of intelligence and is given to him who has much, because when man after death becomes a spirit he carries with him all things, and every single thing that he has drawn from the Word and from the doctrine of the church. But those who through these have acquired nothing of intelligence are interiorly evil, and therefore misuse the truths and goods of heaven and the church, which they possess in the memory only, in exercising dominion over the simple good who are in the lowest heaven, and in doing evil to them. This is why these truths and goods are taken away from them and are given to those who have many, since these do not misuse them, but from them perform uses.

[9] Those who do not acquire spiritual intelligence in the world through the knowledges of truth and good from the Word are evil, as can be seen from this, that all are born into evils of every kind, and these evils are removed only by means of Divine truths from the Word, that is, by applying truths to uses, and thus receiving them in the life. So to those who have gained it is said:

Good and faithful servants, ye have been faithful over a few things, I will set you over many things; enter ye into the joy of your Lord (verses Matthew 25:21, 23);

and to him who had gained nothing:

Cast ye out the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness, there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth (verse 30).

[10] Because "ten" signifies all and much, therefore that number is used by the Lord also in other passages, where all and much must be understood.

As in Luke:

Of the woman having ten drachmas, if she lose one, doth she not light a candle and sweep the house and seek carefully till she find it? (Luke 15:8)

"Ten" here signifies much. This is said of a "woman," and that "she would light a candle and sweep the house" because of the spiritual sense in every particular of the Word. In that sense a "woman" signifies the church in respect to the affection of truth, thus also the affection of truth itself which belongs to the church; the "drachma" signifies truth; "to lose the drachma" signifies to lose one of the truths or the knowledges of truth; "to light a candle" signifies self-examination from affection; "to sweep the house" signifies to traverse the whole mind and to examine every particular where the truth lies hidden. This is the spiritual sense of these words. "A hundred" has the same signification as "ten," namely, much; therefore a similar parable speaks of:

A hundred sheep, if one is lost (Matthew 18:12, 13; Luke 15:3-7).

[11] "Ten" signifies all and much also in the following passages.

In Isaiah:

Many houses great and fair ² shall become a waste without inhabitant; for ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath (Isaiah 5:9, 10).

This is said of the desolation of truth with those who are of the church. "Many houses which shall become a waste" signify the men of the church, and in particular, such in respect to truths from good; "great and fair," that is, houses, signifies the affection of good and the understanding of truth, for "great" is predicated of good and its affection, and "fair" is predicated of truth and its intelligence; "ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath" signifies that in all things of the church with man there is scarcely any truth from good, for a "bath" has also a similar signification as wine, namely, truth from good; therefore "ten acres of vineyard" signify all things of the church with man.

[12] In Moses:

If ye will go contrary to Me I will break for you the staff of bread, that ten women may bake your bread in one oven, and I will bring back your bread by weight (Leviticus 26:23, 26).

"To break the staff of bread" signifies to deprive of spiritual food, and thus of spiritual nourishment, for "bread" means everything that nourishes the soul, and in particular the good of love; therefore "ten women shall bake your bread in one oven" signifies that in all things of the church with man there is so little of good and truth as to be scarcely anything; "ten women" signify all things of the church; "bread" signifies good and truth that nourish the soul; and "oven" signifies where spiritual food is prepared, thus the man with whom it is; "to bring back the bread by weight" signifies the lack and want of such things as spiritually nourish.

[13] In Zechariah:

Many peoples and numerous nations shall come to seek Jehovah of Hosts in Jerusalem, and to entreat the faces of Jehovah. In those days ten men out of all the tongues of the nations shall take hold of the skirt of a man, a Jew, saying, We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you (Zechariah 8:22, 23).

This is said of the calling together of the Gentiles and their admission to the church by the Lord; and "ten men out of all tongues" signify all from whatever religion, namely those "who come to seek Jehovah of Hosts in Jerusalem," that is, who wish to be admitted to the church and to confess the Lord, therefore "ten men" mean all such, and "the tongues of the nations" mean their religious principles. But this with the rest of the passage may be seen explained above n. 433, where it is shown that "Jerusalem" does not mean Jerusalem, nor "Jew" any Jew.

[14] In Amos:

Jehovah said, I hate the pride of Jacob and his palaces; therefore I will shut up the city and the fullness thereof; if there remain ten men in one house they shall die (Amos 6:8, 9).

"The pride of Jacob and his palaces which Jehovah hates," signify the love of falsity and belief in it with those who are of the church, "pride" meaning the love of falsity, and "palaces" the falsities themselves, which are called "palaces" because they belong to the proud, and because the falsities of such are embellished in external form so as to appear magnificent, although they are most vile, like huts full of rubbish and filth; "to shut up the city and the fullness thereof" signifies to condemn the doctrine, because it is full of the falsities of evil, and is possessed by them, "city" meaning doctrine, and "fullness" the falsities of evil; therefore "if there remain ten men in one house they shall die" signifies that all the truths of good with everyone shall perish, "ten men" meaning all truths, "house" man in respect to good, and "to die" to perish.

[15] In Zechariah:

The prophet saw a flying roll, the length thereof twenty cubits, and the breadth thereof ten cubits; this is the malediction that goeth forth over the faces of the whole land (Zechariah 5:2, 3).

"The flying roll," which meant "the malediction that goeth forth over the faces of the whole land," was twenty cubits in length and ten in breadth because "twenty" and "ten" signify all, here all good changed into evil and all truth into falsity; "twenty" is predicated of good and everything of it, and "ten" of truth and everything of it; moreover, "length" also signifies good, and "breadth" truth (See above, n. 355, 627, 629, and in the work on Heaven and Hell 197).

[16] As "ten" signifies all things and many things, so "ten times" signifies so many times and always, in the following passages.

In Daniel:

Among them all was found none like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah; ³ in every word of the wisdom of intelligence which the king sought of them, he found them ten times better than all the astrologers and diviners that were in all his kingdom (Daniel 1:19, 20).

In Moses:

All the men who have seen My glory and My signs which I wrought in Egypt and in the wilderness, and who have tempted Me these ten times, they shall not see the land (Numbers 14:21-23).

And in Job:

Ten times ye have dishonored Me, ye are not ashamed, ye harden yourselves (Job 19:3).

"Ten times" in these passages signifies at all times or always, and so many times.

[17] In Daniel and in Revelation horns are attributed to the beasts, to some ten, to some seven, and to some three, and the "horns" of these beasts signify the power of falsity against truth, and of evil against good, and "ten horns," the highest power.

In Daniel:

The fourth beast coming up out of the sea had ten horns; as to the ten horns out of this kingdom shall ten kings arise (Daniel 7:7, 20, 24).

"The ten horns" of the beast here signify the highest power of falsity against truth; "ten kings" signify falsities in the whole complex, and "kingdom" signifies that church perverted. In Revelation:

The dragon had seven heads and ten horns, and upon the heads seven diadems (Revelation 12:3).

Again:

The beast coming up out of the sea had seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten diadems (Revelation 13:1).

And again:

The woman sitting upon the scarlet beast, full of names of blasphemy, had seven heads and ten horns; the ten horns that thou sawest are ten kings which have not yet received a kingdom; yet they shall receive power as kings one hour with the beast (Revelation 17:3, 7, 12).

What is signified there in particular will be seen in the explanations further on.

[18] As "ten" signifies all persons and all things, it follows that "the tenth part" signifies everything. It is from this that "tenths" and "tithings" derived their origin, and these signified that everything was holy and blessed when the tenth part of the threshing floor and of the wine press, or of the corn and wine, was given to the Levites; likewise for the Levites when the tenth part was again tithed and given to Aaron. Of these it is thus written in the Word:

Tithing thou shalt tithe all the increase of thy seed that is brought forth in the field year by year (Deuteronomy 14:22).

Say unto the Levites, that the tenths must be given to them for an inheritance, and that they must offer up a heave offering of them to Jehovah, a tenth of the tenths, and this from the corn of the threshing floor and from the fullness of the wine vat; and the tenth of the tenth they must give to Aaron the priest (Numbers 18:24-28).

[19] That the "tenth" signified a blessing in all things, thus that everything was holy and blessed, is evident in Malachi:

Bring ye all the tithes to the house of treasure, that there may be food in My house; then prove ye Me in this, if I will not open you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing until there be no room for more (Malachi 3:10).

"To open the windows and pour out a blessing" signifies the inflowing Divine from which is intelligence and life eternal; the like as is signified by "rain" above n. 644; and this also is properly meant by the "blessing" that would be given if the tithes were brought; so "tithes" here signify that everything was thus blest. That all things might be blest that Abraham took from his enemies, it is said:

That he gave to Melchizedek, who was king in Salem and at the same time priest to God Most High, tithes of all (Genesis 14:18, 19).

Jacob likewise promised and vowed:

That if he returned in peace unto his father's house everything that Jehovah gave him tithing should be tithed (Genesis 28:21, 22).

From these passages, as well as others, it can be seen what is signified in the Word by "ten" and "the tenth part."

[20] The reason that "ten" signifies all things is derived from heaven itself; for heaven in the whole and every part answers to a man, and is therefore called the Greatest Man. All the forces of life of this Greatest Man or heaven close in the two hands and the two feet, and the hands close in ten fingers, and the feet in ten toes; for this reason, all things of man in respect to power and support are lastly gathered into ten fingers and toes, so these signify all things of man; moreover, ultimates signify in the Word all.

Footnotes: