Finding Jesus in the Life of Abraham, Part 1: Beginnings

A Sermon by Pastor Joel Christian Glenn

30 April 2017

We all know that the Word, or the Bible, is about God. That’s not hard to believe. But shortly after His resurrection Jesus pushed this idea to another level. When He appeared to two disciples on the way to Emmaus, it says, “Beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself” (Luke 24:27). From this we can gather that all of the Scriptures are not just about God, but are about Jesus Himself. That’s a concept that is harder to grasp. Yes, there are the prophecies that are clearly about Jesus. But what about, say the story of Creation? Or the Exodus from slavery in Egypt? The many kings of Israel, both good and evil? Or all the many lists of laws and genealogies, are even those about Jesus?

The truth of the matter is that the whole of the Word is not just about Jesus, it is Jesus. Listen to these verses from the opening of the Gospel of John:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men…. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:1-4, 14)

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. That is a clear reference to Jesus Christ. Jesus is the eternal Word, the Word that is also embodied in the Word of God, our Old and New Testaments.

If you feel that it is hard to grasp how Jesus and the Word are one and the same, you are not alone. It is difficult to comprehend how a living, breathing, person and an apparently lifeless slab of paper can be one and the same. The Writings for the New Church acknowledge this difficulty and offer a way around it. This is from the Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture:

Few understand how the Lord is the Word, for it is generally supposed that the Lord, by means of the Word, can enlighten and teach people, and yet He cannot, on this account, be called the Word.

So as we’ve said, it makes sense that the Word is about the Lord, and it is the Lord’s way of teaching us, but that doesn’t mean He is the Word. The passage however continues:

It should be known, however, that every person is his own love, and consequently his own good and his own truth. A person is a person for no other reason than this, and there is nothing else in him that is a person. For the same reason that a person is his own good and his own truth, angels and spirits also are people; and for all good and truth proceeding from the Lord, is in its own form, a person. But the Lord is Divine Good itself and Divine Truth itself; thus He is Personhood Itself, from whom every person is a person. (Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture 100)

There is a lot going on in that passage. What it all boils down to is a definition of humanity that transcends having a physical body, a definition that helps us see how a book and a person can be one and the same. As the passage said, a person is a person because of his loves, and therefore because of all his good and truth that stem from that love. In short, you are what you love, and what you love makes you human. Think of it this way: if we were to transplant your brain from your body into someone else’s, and this new person loved the same things you love and in the exact same way, and so behaved as you would behave, wouldn’t we say that it is still you, even though the body is completely different? Take that a step further and think of death. Even your brain will die, but your spirit, your spirit in which resides everything of your love, will carry on. Even though there will no longer be a shred of “you” left on this earth, you will still live on. So that’s what makes a person a person: the mind, especially the love within the mind.

If a person is a person because of what he or she loves and so thinks from that love, then anything that reveals our love or our thought reveals us. We know this instinctively from other books we encounter. Have you ever read a book that you loved immensely, and felt that in some way you were connected to the author, as if you understood each other even though you’d never met? I’m not just talking about biographies either. You can read a book that never once refers directly to its author and yet still feel connected. That can happen because the book is a kind of extension of the author, since it reveals the authors loves and ideas.

We now come to the Word. The Word, more than any other book on earth, reveals the mind of its Author. This is so deeply the case that we say that the Word is one and the same with its author, the Lord. Yet unlike with some books that engross us, the Word can feel like a tangled mess that reveals little about the true character of God, much less the inner workings of the mind of Jesus. I have here two images that can help us understand this. On one side there is a brain scan. On the other, an open copy of the Word. At first glance these pictures have little to do with each other. But think about what this brain scan really is. To you and I and most other people it reveals little. But to a trained doctor it would reveal a great deal about what is going on in a person’s mind at a given time. It is a snapshot into someone’s inner life, but one that we can only read if we have the proper training to understand it.

On the other hand we have a copy of the Word. As with the brain scan it reveals what is going on in someone’s mind at a given point. In this case it is the mind of the Lord that is being revealed. And like the brain scan, even though any particular story we might open up to reveals the Lord’s mind, we need the proper training to understand it. If we read this document correctly than we will discover the loving mind of the Lord, Jesus Christ. Every page, every sentence, contains insight into how He thinks and what it is that He loves and cares about. The purpose then of exploring the stories of the Word in light of how they reflect the life and mind of Jesus Christ is that we will then be better equipped to follow His example, not only following the path He set with His words and actions, but going deeper to follow the path He set in His mind.

With this in mind, over the next three weeks we will be looking to the story of Abraham. Even though Abraham lived thousands of years before Jesus was even born, his life perfectly reflects the inner life that Jesus experienced. When we can see this connection we will be better able to not only understand the Lord, but to understand how to model our lives on His. This week we will spend a short time getting a glimpse of how this works. Over the next two weeks we will go deeper into the story of Abraham and into the mind of Jesus. We begin with the first inkling that Abraham had that God had chosen him for a special purpose. As a side note, early on Abraham was known as Abram:

Now the LORD had said to Abram:

“Get out of your country,

From your family

And from your father’s house,

To a land that I will show you.

I will make you a great nation;

I will bless you

And make your name great;

And you shall be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you,

And I will curse him who curses you;

And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

So Abram departed as the LORD had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran….

Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” And there he built an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him. And he moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; there he built an altar to the LORD and called on the name of the LORD. So Abram journeyed, going on still toward the South. (Genesis 12:1-4, 7-9)

Prior to the moment described here Abraham did not know of Jehovah in the slightest. He was in fact an idol-worshipper like most people of His day. Yet when he heard the call from the Lord he responded and moved with his family and everything he owned into a new land. This moment may not seem significant but it is the beginning of the epic saga of the Children of Israel, and the land to which the Lord sent Abraham would one day become the Kingdom of Israel. What began as the simple travels of one man from a faraway country into the heart of the Holy Land would lead to momentous things in the future. What we see here is simply the seed being planted, but a seed that would grow to become a great nation, a nation of which the Lord said it would become a blessing for all the nations of the earth. That is the reason that God called Abraham in the first place.

What can this simple beginning tell us about the mind of Jesus? Like the Kingdom of Israel, the great works that Jesus would do needed a beginning: a seed had to be planted that would grow into something greater. That seed was planted in Jesus early childhood. Just as Abraham was called to enter into the heart of what would become the earthly Kingdom of Israel, Jesus from the very beginning was brought to the heart of His own heavenly Kingdom. That heart, the heart and soul of heaven, is childlike innocence and love. Now as with Abraham, the journey does not end there: for Abraham, many centuries would pass before his people were a great nation. And for the Lord it would take years of temptation and struggle before He could fulfill His mission. But all of it, every last bit, stemmed from that first seed planted in childhood.

It might seem odd to think that everything the Lord needed to face the hells, to put them in their place, and to conquer them was established while He was still a little boy, but it is so. It is in fact the case for each of us that something essential to our life is planted within before we are even aware. Listen to this passage from the Teachings of the New Church that speaks to how powerful our childhoods are for our later lives:

The Lord had first of all to be endowed from infancy with the heavenly things of love - the heavenly 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 heavenly things are implanted in a person primarily in the state of infancy through to childhood. (Secrets of Heaven 1450)

As a child Jesus received deep stores of love and innocence. This took place before He could even talk or conceptualize these things in His mind. They were simply blessings of love that would remain with Him for the rest of His life, and indeed, to eternity.

This stage of the Lord’s life was not trivial. Without these perfectly innocent and heavenly remains sitting at the core of His being He never would have been able to face the onslaught of hell later in life. That which would later give Him strength in temptation, even on the Cross itself, had been received in childhood innocence and stored away, hidden, until such time as it would be needed. Every loving word and parable, every miracle, every demon cast out and every sickness made well, all flowed from the fountain of love, a fountain established in His youth. We all know the power of little children and their heavenly innocence. There was never a moment that that innocence of infancy dissipated. We don’t often think of the fact that while that innocence recedes and is hidden, it never leaves us.

We all have those same heavenly remnants left over from our childhood. Before we were born the Lord was with us in the womb. He has blessed us, as Jesus was blessed, so that now we have all the innocence and power of a child. As does every human being you will meet. The boss who frustrates you to no end, the spouse that drives you crazy, the acquaintance you can’t stand, all were once little children that would have been beautiful to hold and love, that were beautiful and were held and were loved. None of that goes away. It is always there, part of you, making you who you are. And any time you make an effort to show true love, you are only able to do so because love was once the only thing you knew.

So what do we do with this information? Abraham heard the call of God and left his home to dwell in a new land. Jesus felt a call from deep within His soul and left his own desires to accept the heavenly love that was welling like a fountain within Him. Can we follow the example of both Abraham and Jesus? Will you answer the call? Will you remember when times are hard that once in this life all you knew was love? That deep within your heart beats the love and innocence of childhood? That every human you ever meet has that same source of love and innocence within them? And finally will you use that love to become a blessing to those around you? Jesus answered this call. He continues to answer this call. And He calls on us to do the same. Will you answer? Amen.
(Read the next sermon in this 3-part series, about Bargaining)

532. Since all numbers in the Word signify things and states, and the compound numbers derive their significations from the simple numbers of which they are compounded, and since the simple numbers are principally two, three, five, and seven, it is important to point out their signification in the Word, and at present, that of the number three, because it is said; "Woe, woe, woe, to them that dwell on the earth by reason of the voices of the trumpet of the three angels which are yet to sound!" That all numbers, in the Word, signify something pertaining to a thing and to state, may be seen above (n. 203, 429); and that the greater and complex numbers signify the same as the simple numbers from which they arise by multiplication, and that the simple numbers are two, three, five, and seven, may also be seen above (n. 430).

[2] That by three in the Word is signified what is full and complete, and hence an entire period, greater or less, from beginning to end, is evident from the following passages; thus in Isaiah:

"Within three years, as the years of an hireling, the glory of Moab shall be contemned, with all that great multitude; and the remnant shall be very small and feeble" (16:14).

Here by Moab are meant those who are in falsities from evil. His glory, and that great multitude, mean those falsities themselves. By the three years within which his glory shall be contemned, is signified that which is complete and consummated; it is therefore said, "then the remnant shall be very small," which signifies that it shall be no more. Three years are spoken of, which means consummation, thus, from beginning to end. It must be observed, that the same is signified by three years, as by three months, three weeks, three days, and three hours, for times, in the spiritual sense, signify states, and three times, whether greater or less, a full state.

[3] Again, in the same prophet:

"Like as my servant Isaiah hath walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and wonder upon Egypt and upon Cush; so shall the king of Assyria lead the captivity of Egypt, and the multitude of Cush that is to be carried away; boys and old men, naked and barefoot" (20:3, 4).

Egypt and Cush do not mean Egypt and Cush, but Egypt means the External or Natural as to the Scientific, and Cush the External or Natural as to worship. When these are without an internal spiritual, they are also without truth and good, for all the truth, and all the good in the natural or external man, is from influx from the Lord through the spiritual man; and when it is destitute of truth and good, then the natural or external man, as to the things therein, is like a man naked and barefoot. That there will be only reasonings from falsities, and that these things will destroy, is signified by the king of Assyria leading the captivity of Egypt, and by the multitude of Cush, that is to be carried away naked and barefoot. By the boys and old men, whom the king of Assyria shall lead away, naked and barefoot, is signified that all innocence and all wisdom would perish. Their total and complete destruction was represented by the prophet going three years naked and barefoot; three years signifying an entire period from beginning to end, and therefore, total destruction.

[4] So in Hosea:

Jehovah "after two days will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up" (6:2).

To revive after two days, and to raise up the third day, signifies to reform and restore the church, the third day denoting full reformation and restoration, wherefore it is said, that Jehovah shall then raise them up; that neither two days are meant nor the third day is evident.

[5] Since the number three signified completeness even to the end, therefore that number was adopted in the representative church, and used as often as completeness was represented, as is evident from these things in the Word. They were to go a three days' journey, and sacrifice (Exodus 3:18; 5:3); in the third month after their departure from Egypt, they came to mount Sinai (Exodus 19:1); they were commanded to prepare themselves against the third day, because on the third day Jehovah would descend upon mount Sinai (Exodus 19:11, 15, 16, 18). For three days there was darkness in the land of Egypt (Exodus 10:22, 23). During three years the fruits of the trees planted in the land of Canaan were to be uncircumcised (Leviticus 19:23-25). No part of the flesh of the sacrifice was to be left till the third day (Leviticus 7:16, 17, 18; 19:6, 7). The water of separation was to be sprinkled upon the unclean on the third day, and on the seventh day (Num. 19:11-22). Those who touched what was slain, were to be cleansed the third day, and the seventh day (Num. 31:19-25). Joshua commanded the people, that within three days they should pass over Jordan (Joshua 1:11; 3:2). Jehovah called Samuel three times, and three times Samuel ran to Eli, and the third time Eli understood that Jehovah called Samuel (1 Samuel 3:1-8). Jonathan told David to hide himself in a field until the third evening, and afterwards Jonathan threw three arrows to the side of the stone, and David bowed himself three times to the earth before Jonathan (1 Sam. 20:5, 12, 19, 20, 35, 36, 41). Three things were proposed to David, of which he was to choose one, a famine of seven years, or he should flee three months before his enemies, or a pestilence should be in the land three days (2 Sam. 24:11-13). Elijah stretched himself upon the son of the widow three times (1 Kings 17:21). Elijah commanded them to pour water upon the burnt-offering, and upon the wood three times, and they poured it three times (1 Kings 18:34). Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights (Jonah 1:17; Matthew 12:40). Daniel mourned three weeks (Dan. 10:2, 3, 4). The third year was the year of tenths (Deuteronomy 26:12). The Lord said of the man who planted a vineyard, that he sent his servants three times, and afterwards his son (Mark 12:2-6; Luke 20:12, 13). The Lord said to Peter, that before the cock should crow twice, he would deny him thrice (Matthew 26:34, 69, to the end; Luke 22:34, 57-61; John 13:38). The Lord said three times to Peter, Lovest thou me? and feed my lambs and my sheep; and the third time Peter was grieved (John 21:15, 16, 17). The Lord said, that the kingdom of heaven was like to leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, until the whole was leavened (Matthew 13:33; Luke 13:21). The Lord said, I do cures to-day and to-morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected (Luke 13:32, 33). The Lord said that He should be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights (Matthew 12:40). He said that He should rise again the third day (Matthew 16:21; 17:22, 23; 20:18, 19; Luke 18:32, 33; 24:46). He said that He was able to destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days (Matthew 26:61; 27:40; John 2:19, 20). He prayed three times in Gethsemane (Matthew 26:39, 42, 44); He was crucified at the third hour (Mark 15:25); and then there was darkness over the whole land for three hours, from the sixth hour to the ninth, when He said, it is finished, and expired (Matthew 27:45; Mark 15:33, 37; John 19:30). The Lord rose again the third day (Matthew 28:1; Mark 16:2; Luke 24:1; John 20:1).

[6] It is evident from these references that the number three signified what was consummated or complete to the end, and therefore an entire period, greater or less, from beginning to end. From this simple number many compound numbers derive their significations, as 6, 9, 12, 60, 72, which consequently signify all truths and goods in the aggregate. Similarly the numbers 30, 300, 3000; for, as shown above, the compound numbers derive their significations from the simple numbers of which they are compounded. Moreover, it is to be observed, that the number three, in the Word, is used in reference to truths, and two and four, to goods. The reason of this is that two and four signify conjunction, while three signifies fulness; and spiritual conjunction is love, and all good is of love, and spiritual fulness is formed by means of truths. Those who do not know that all numbers in the Word are significative, think and believe that nothing more is meant when the numbers two and three, also three and four, are mentioned, than two and three, or a few, whereas they denote all who are in good and truth, as in the following passages.

[7] Thus, in Isaiah:

"Gleaming grapes shall be left in it, as in the shaking of an olive tree, two-three berries in the top of the bough, four-five in the branches of the fruit-bearing [olive]" (17:6).

The subject here is the vastation of the church, and these words are said of the remaining few who are in good and truth. Comparison is made with the shaking of an olive tree, because the olive tree signifies the church as to the good of love, and the branches the truths therefrom. Two-three signify the few who are in good, and thence in truths, two denoting good, and three denoting truths; and four-five signify the few who are in good, four denoting those who are in good, and five denoting few. And because four-five signify the few who are in good, therefore it is said, four-five, in the branches of the fruit-bearing [olive], the fruit-bearing olive signifying those in the church who are in good as to life; and in consequence of this signification of those numbers, it is said two-three, four-five, and not two and three, four and five.

[8] So in Amos:

"Two-three cities wandered into one city, to drink waters, but yet they were not satisfied" (4:8).

This is said respecting the defect of truth at the end of the church, and means that they who then desire truth from a spiritual affection will not find any in doctrines, wherever they may enquire. It is therefore said, "two-three cities wandered into one city, to drink waters, but yet they were not satisfied." By two-three cities are signified those who are in the affection of truth from good. City signifies the truth of doctrine. By drinking waters is signified to learn truths; by wandering is signified to enquire; and by not being satisfied is signified not to find truth which in itself is truth. Two-three cities are mentioned, because by two-three are signified those who are in good and thence in truths.

[9] So in Zechariah:

"It shall come to pass, that in all the earth, two parts therein shall be cut off, they shall expire; but the third shall be left therein. Yet I will bring the third part through the fire, and will try them" (13:8, 9).

Here also the subject is the vastation of the church as to good. That all good is about to perish is signified by its being said, "In all the earth two parts therein shall be cut off, and they shall expire," in the whole earth denoting the church universal, and two parts all good. That something of truth would remain, but scarcely any genuine truth, is signified by, "The third part shall be left therein, yet I will bring the third part through the fire, and will prove them." By the third part are meant the remaining truths; proving the genuineness of these is signified by bringing them through the fire. To prove by fire is to prove by the affection of love, with which if the truth does not agree it is not genuine truth, for fire, in the Word, signifies love; when the good of love perishes, the truth also becomes not truth, because all truth derives its essence from good.

[10] The signification of these words of the Lord in Matthew is therefore evident:

"Where two and three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them" (18:20).

Here, two and three do not mean two and three, but they who are in good and in truths thence; neither by the name of the Lord is meant His name, but all the good of love and the truth of faith by which He is worshipped (see above, n. 102, 135).

[11] From this also the signification of the words of the Lord in Luke is evident:

"From henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three" (12:52).

These words mean, that after the coming of the Lord, when He Himself has become known, and the interior things of the Word have been revealed by Him, and with Him, then both in the church in general, and with the man of the church in particular, there will be dissension between good and truth, and between truth and good. This is understood by five being divided in one house, three against two, and two against three; house denoting the church in general, and with the man of the church in particular, and three denoting truths, and two denoting goods. The statement that five shall be divided, signifies that such dissension shall exist with those who are reformed; therefore, it follows also that "the father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother" (ver. 53). For father signifies the good of the church, son the truth of the church, mother the truth of the church, and daughter its good. Who cannot see that the numbers five, two, and three, would not be mentioned here unless they were significative? Five, in the Word, when two and three follow, signifies all those; but when preceded or followed by the numbers ten or twenty, five then signifies some and few.

[12] Similar things are meant in the precept of the decalogue by "the third and fourth generation," or by "the third and fourth sons," upon whom Jehovah will visit the iniquity of the parents (Exodus 20:5; Num. 14:18; Deuteronomy 5:9, 10). By the third and fourth generation are signified all who are in falsities from evil. The third generation signifies those who are in falsities of evil, and the fourth generation those who are in evils of falsity; for, in the opposite sense, three signifies falsities, and four evils. Who does not see that it would be contrary to the Divine justice to visit the iniquity of the parents upon the sons, even to the third and fourth generation? For the Lord teaches that "The soul that sinneth, it shall die; the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son; the justice of the just shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him" (Ezekiel 18:20; Deuteronomy 24:16; 2 Kings 14:6). It is evident therefore, that the expression third and fourth generation does not mean third and fourth generation, but that which those numbers signify. Similar things are signified by "For three and four transgressions" (Amos 1:3, 6, 9, 11, 13; 2:1, 4, 6). From this it is evident how great are the interior things contained merely in numbers in the Word, and these things no one can know without the spiritual sense.