"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.

3704. And the God of Isaac. That this signifies the Lord as to the Divine Human, is evident from the representation of Isaac, as being the Lord’s Divine rational; and as the rational is that in which the human begins (see n. 2194), and thus from which and by which the human is; therefore here by the “God of Isaac” is signified the Divine Human of the Lord. As in heaven, and with man, and even in universal nature, all things both in general and in particular have relation to good and truth, therefore also the Lord’s Divine is distinguished into Divine good and Divine truth, and the Lord’s Divine good is called “father,” and his Divine truth “son”; but the Lord’s Divine is nothing else than good; yea, good itself; and Divine truth is the Lord’s Divine good so appearing in heaven; that is, before the angels. The case herein is the same as with the sun; in its essence the sun itself is nothing but fire, and the light which is thence seen is not in the sun, but from the sun. (That the Lord as to Divine good is represented by the sun, and also that in the other life He is a sun to the universal heaven, may be seen above, n. 1053, 1521, 1529-1531, 2495, 3636, 3643; and that the Lord as to Divine truth is represented by light, and also is light in the other life to the universal heaven, see n. 1053, 1521, 1529-1530, 2776, 3138, 3195, 3222-3223, 3339, 3341, 3636, 3643)

[2] Thus the Lord in His essence is nothing else than Divine good, and this as to both the Divine Itself and the Divine Human; but Divine truth is not in Divine good, but from Divine good, for as before said so does Divine good appear in heaven. And as Divine good comes to appearance as Divine truth, therefore for the sake of man’s apprehension the Lord’s Divine is distinguished into Divine good and Divine truth, and Divine good is that which in the Word is called “Father,” and Divine truth is that which is called “Son.” This is the arcanum which lies concealed in the fact that the Lord Himself so often speaks of His Father as distinct, and as if another than Himself; and yet in other places asserts that He is one with Himself. (That in the internal sense “Father” signifies good; and in the supreme sense, the Lord as to Divine good, has been shown above, n. 3703; and also that “Son” signifies truth, and the “Son of God,” and the “Son of man,” the Lord as to Divine truth, n. 1729, 1730, 2159, 2803, 2813.) And the same is evident from all those passages where the Lord makes mention of His “Father,” and calls Himself the “Son.”

[3] That it is the Lord who in the Word of the Old Testament is called “Jehovah,” may be seen above (n. 1343, 1736, 2921); and that He is there also called “Father” is evident from the following passages.

In Isaiah:

Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder; and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, God, Hero, Father of Eternity, Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6); where it is very evident that the “Child born” and the “Son given unto us” is the Lord; thus it is the Lord who is called the “Father of Eternity.”

In Jeremiah:

I will be a Father to Israel, and Ephraim shall be My firstborn (Jeremiah 31:9);

speaking of the Lord, who is “the God of Israel” and “the Holy One of Israel,” as may be seen above (n. 3305); and here a “Father to Israel.”

In Malachi:

Have we not all one Father? Hath not one God created us? (Malachi 2:10); where in the internal sense “to create” signifies to regenerate; as also in other passages of the Word (see n. 16, 88, 472); and as the Lord is the only Regenerator and Redeemer, it is He who is here called “Father” and “God.” As also in Isaiah:

Thou art our Father, for Abraham knoweth us not, and Israel doth not acknowledge us; thou Jehovah art our Father, our Redeemer, Thy name is from everlasting (Isaiah 63:16).

[4] Again:

I will clothe Him with thy tunic, and strengthen Him with thy girdle, and I will commit thy government into His hand; that He may be a Father to the inhabitant of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah; and the key of the house of David will I lay upon His shoulder; and He shall open and none shall shut, and He shall shut and none shall open; and I will fasten Him as a nail in a sure place, and He may be for a throne of glory of His Father; and they shall hang upon Him all the glory of His Father’s house, of sons and grandsons, every small vessel, from the vessels of cups even to all the vessels of psalteries (Isaiah 22:21-24).

That it is the Lord who in the internal sense is here represented and signified, and is called a “Father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah,” is very evident; for it is He upon whose shoulder is the key of the house of David, who openeth and none shutteth, and who shutteth and none openeth (see preface to chapter 22); and He has the throne of His Father’s glory, and upon Him and from Him are all holy things, which are here called “vessels”; celestial things, “vessels of cups”; and holy spiritual things, “vessels of psalteries.”

[5] As kings and priests represented the Lord; kings, by their royalty, the Lord as to Divine truth; and priests the Lord as to Divine good (n. 3670), therefore priests were called “fathers,” as may be seen in the book of Judges:

Micah said to the Levite, Dwell with me, and be unto me a father and a priest (Judg. 17:10).

In like manner said to him the sons of Dan:

Hold thy peace, lay thy hand upon thy mouth, and go with us, and be to us a father and a priest (Judg. 18:19).

That kings themselves also so called them is evident in the second book of Kings:

The king of Israel said unto Elisha, My father, shall I smite them? And he answered, Thou shalt not smite (2 Kings 6:21-22);

and Joash the king so addressed Elisha when Elisha died:

He wept over his face, and said, my father, my father, the chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof (2 Kings 13:14).

The reason why kings so called them was that the kings represented the Lord as to Divine truth; and the priests represented Him as to Divine good; and also because truth in respect to good is as a son to a father, for truth is from good.

[6] This is well known in the other life, and therefore in heaven they call no other Father than the Lord, and perceive no other as meant by “Father” in the Word of the Evangelists (see n. 15, 1729). When being initiated into the good of love and its truth, all little children are there taught to acknowledge the Lord alone as their Father; nay, even novitiates who come into heaven are taught with solicitous care that there is one God; and they who have been born within the church are taught that the whole Trinity is in the Lord; for almost all who come from the Christian world bring with them an idea of three gods, although with their lips they had said that there is but one God; for to think of one, when the idea of three has before entered, and when each of these is called God, and also is distinguished from the others as to attributes and offices, and likewise is separately worshiped, is humanly impossible; consequently the worship of three gods is in the heart, while the worship of one only is in the mouth.

[7] That the whole Trinity is in the Lord is known in the Christian world, and yet among these in the other life the Lord is little thought of; nay, His Human is a stumbling-block to many, because they distinguish the Human from the Divine, neither do they believe it to be Divine; and a man will call himself justified, and thus made pure and almost holy; but these people do not think that the Lord was glorified, that is, that His Human was made Divine; when yet He was conceived from Jehovah Himself; and moreover no one can be justified, much less sanctified, except from the Divine, and indeed from the Lord’s Divine Human, which is represented and signified in the Holy Supper, where it is expressly said that the bread is His body and the wine His blood. That the Lord is one with the Father, and that He is from eternity, and that He rules the universe, consequently that He is Divine good and Divine truth itself, is very evident from the Word.

[8] That HE IS ONE WITH THE FATHER, is evident from these words in John:

No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father (John 1:18).

The Jews sought the more to kill Jesus because He had also said that God was His own Father, making Himself equal with God. Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do; for what things soever He doeth, these doeth the Son likewise. As the Father raiseth the dead and quickeneth them, even so the Son also quickeneth whom He will. Neither doth the Father judge any man, but He hath given all judgment unto the Son; that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. For as the Father hath life in Himself, even so hath He given to the Son also to have life in Himself. The Father who hath sent Me hath Himself borne witness of Me; ye have neither heard His voice at any time nor seen His shape. Search the Scriptures, for these are they which bear witness of Me (John 5:18, etc.).

By “Father” is here meant, as was said, Divine good; and by “Son,” Divine truth, both in the Lord. From Divine good which is the “Father,” nothing can proceed or go forth but what is Divine, and that which proceeds or goes forth is Divine truth, which is the “Son.”

[9] Again:

Everyone that hath heard from the Father, and hath learned, cometh unto Me. Not that any man hath seen the Father, save He that is with the Father, He hath seen the Father (John 6:45-46).

They said therefore unto Him, Where is thy Father? Jesus answered, Ye neither know Me nor My Father; if ye knew Me ye would know My Father also (John 8:19).

I and the Father are one: though ye believe not Me, believe the works; that ye may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father (John 10:30, 38).

Jesus said, He that believeth in Me, believeth not in Me, but in Him that sent Me; and he that seeth Me, seeth Him that sent Me. I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth in Me may not abide in darkness (John 12:44-46).

By “the Father sending Him” is signified, in the internal sense, that He proceeds from the Father; and the same is signified in other passages where the Lord says that the Father “sent” Him. That the “light” is Divine truth may be seen above.

[10] Again:

I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one cometh unto the Father but by Me. If ye had known Me ye would have known My Father also; and from henceforth ye know Him, and have seen Him. Philip saith unto Him, Lord, show us the Father. Jesus saith unto him, Am I so long time with you, and hast thou not known Me, Philip? He that seeth Me, seeth the Father; how then sayest thou, Show us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak unto you, I speak not from Myself; but the Father that abideth in Me, He doeth the works. Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me. And whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son (John 14:6-13).

He that hath My commandments, and doeth them, he it is that loveth Me; and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself unto him. If a man love Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him and make Our abode with him (John 14:21, 23).

[11] They who are in Divine truth are they who “have His commandments and do them”; and they who are in Divine good are they who “love Him;” of whom it is therefore said that He “shall be loved of the Father,” and “We will come unto him and make Our abode with him”; that is, Divine good and Divine truth will do so; and therefore it is said in the same Evangelist:

In that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me (John 14:20).

Holy Father, keep them in Thy name; that they may be one, even as We are (John 17:11).

From these passages it is evident that the Lord speaks of the “Father” from the Divine good that He Himself had, and of the “Son” from the Divine truth which is from the Divine good; thus that the “Father” and “Son” are not two, but one. The reason why the Lord so spoke, was that the Word might be received as well on earth as in heaven; and also because, before the Lord was glorified, He was the Divine truth that is from Divine good; but when He had been glorified, He was Divine good itself as to each essence, and from Him is all Divine good and Divine truth.

[12] THAT THE LORD WAS FROM ETERNITY may be seen from the fact that it is the Lord who spoke by the Prophets; and that for this reason, and also because from Him was Divine truth, He was called the “Word”; concerning which in John:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made.

In Him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we held His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father (John 1:1-4, 14).

The “Word” denotes all truth in the heavens and on earth that is from the Divine.

[13] That the Lord was from eternity He plainly teaches elsewhere in John:

John said, This was He of whom I said, He that cometh after me was before me, for He was prior to me. In the midst of you there standeth One whom ye know not; He it is who is to come after me, who was before me (John 1:15, 26-27, 30).

If ye should see the Son of man ascending where He was before (John 6:62).

Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am (John 8:58).

Jesus knowing that He came forth from God, and went to God (John 13:3).

The Father Himself loveth you, because ye have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from the Father. I came out from the Father, and came into the world; again I leave the world, and go unto the Father (John 16:27-28).

I have glorified Thee on the earth, I have accomplished the work which Thou gavest Me to do. And now O Father glorify Me with Thine own self, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was; that they may behold My glory which Thou hast given Me, for Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world (John 17:4-5, 24).

In Isaiah:

Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, God, Hero, Father of Eternity, Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6).

[14] THAT THE LORD RULES THE UNIVERSE is evident in Matthew:

All things have been delivered unto Me of My Father (Matthew 11:27).

Jesus said to His disciples, All power is given unto Me in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18).

In John:

The Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into His hand; he that believeth in the Son hath eternal life (John 3:35-36).

The Father judgeth no man, but hath given all judgment unto the Son (John 5:22).

Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into His hand (John 13:3).

All things whatsoever that the Father hath are Mine (John 16:15).

Jesus said, Glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee; even as Thou hast given Him authority over all flesh (John 17:1-2).

All things that are Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine; and I am glorified in them. And I am no more in the world, for I come to Thee (John 17:10-11).

In Luke:

All things have been delivered unto Me of My Father (Luke 10:22).

[15] From the above passages it is therefore evident that Divine good is that which is called the “Father”; and Divine truth that which is called the “Son”; and that the Lord from Divine good by Divine truth rules all things in the universe, in both general and particular. This being so, and it being so evident from the Word, it is astonishing that in the Christian world, men do not, as in heaven, acknowledge and adore the Lord alone, and thus the one God; for they know and teach that the whole Trinity is in the Lord. That the Holy Spirit, who also is worshiped as a God distinct from the Son and the Father, is the Holy of the spirit, or the Holy which through spirits or angels proceeds from the Lord, that is, from His Divine good through His Divine truth, will of the Lord’s Divine mercy be shown elsewhere.