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)

768. And went away to make war with the remnant of her seed, signifies and an ardent effort, springing from a life of evil, to assault the truths of doctrine of that church. This is evident from the signification of "going away," as being an ardent effort from a life of evil (of which presently); also from the signification of "making war," as being to assault and to wish to destroy (of which above n. 573, 734); also from the signification of "her seed," as being the truths of doctrine of the church (of which also presently). It is said "the remnant of her seed" because it means those who are in these truths, and in an abstract sense the truths of that church, which they believe themselves capable of assaulting and destroying. "To go away" signifies an ardent effort from a life of evil, because "to go" signifies in the spiritual sense to live, therefore in the Word the expressions "going with the Lord," and "walking with Him" and "after Him," are used, and these signify to live from the Lord; but when "going" is predicated of the dragon, whose life is a life of evil, it signifies to make an effort from that life; and because that effort is an effort from hatred, which is signified by "his anger" (See above, n. 754, 758), so an ardent effort is signified because he who makes an effort from hatred makes an ardent effort.

[2] As the hatred of those who are meant by "the dragon" is a hatred against those who are in the truths of doctrine of the church which is the New Jerusalem, therefore it is a hatred against the truths of doctrine that such have. For those who are in love towards anyone, as also those who are in hatred against anyone, are indeed in love towards a person or in hatred against a person with whom those things are which they either love or hate, and these are the truths of doctrine with them, therefore the truths of doctrine are signified by "the remnant of her seed." This shows that in the spiritual sense of the Word person is not regarded, but a thing abstracted from person, as here a thing that is with the person. This may be further illustrated by the saying in the Word that the neighbor must be loved as one loves himself, but in the spiritual sense this does not mean that the neighbor is thus to be loved in respect to person, but those things are to be loved which are from the Lord with the person; for a person is not actually loved because of his being a person or a man, but because of his being such as he is; thus the person is loved because of his quality, consequently that quality is meant by "neighbor," and that is the spiritual neighbor or the neighbor in the spiritual sense that must be loved; and this with those who are of the Lord's church is everything that proceeds from the Lord; and this in general refers to all good, spiritual, moral, and civil; therefore those who are in these goods love those who are in the same goods; and this therefore is to love one's neighbor as oneself.

[3] From this it can be seen that "the remnant of her seed," namely, of the woman who signifies the church, means those who are in the truths of doctrine of that church; and in a sense abstracted from persons which is the genuine spiritual sense, the truths of the doctrine of that church are meant.

Likewise elsewhere in the Word, as in the following passages. In Moses:

I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and the woman's seed. He shall trample on thy head and thou shalt wound his heel (Genesis 3:15).

This is a prophecy respecting the Lord. The "serpent" here signifies the sensual of man, where what is man's own has its seat, which in itself is nothing but evil; and the "woman" signifies the spiritual church, or the church which is in Divine truths. And as the sensual of man has been destroyed, and when the man of the church becomes spiritual he is elevated out of the sensual, it is said, "there shall be enmity between thee and the woman." "The seed of the serpent" signifies all falsity from evil, and "the seed of the woman" all truth from good, and in the highest degree Divine truth; and as all Divine truth is from the Lord, and as by it the Lord destroys falsity from evil, it is said "He shall trample on thy head, "He" meaning the Lord, and "head" all falsity from evil. That the sensual would still do injury to Divine truth in its ultimates, which is the Word in the sense of the letter, is signified by "He shall wound the heel;" "the heel" signifying that ultimate and that sense. That the ultimate of truth and the sense of the letter have suffered and do still suffer hurt from the sensual, can be seen from this single example, that the papists understand the woman here to mean Mary and the worship of her; therefore in their Bibles the reading is not "He," but "it" and "she." So in a thousand other passages.

[4] In Jeremiah:

Behold the days shall come in which I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and with the seed of beast (Jeremiah 31:27).

This is said of the Lord, and of the New Church from Him. His coming is signified by "Behold the days shall come;" "to sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah" signifies to reform those who will be of that church, "the house of Israel" signifying the spiritual church, and "the house of Judah" the celestial church; and as reformation is effected by means of spiritual truths and by means of natural truths therefrom, it is said "with the seed of man and with the seed of beast;" "the seed of man" signifying spiritual truth from which man has intelligence, and "the seed of beast" signifying natural truth from which man has knowledge, also life according to it, both of these from the affection of good. That "man" signifies the affection of spiritual truth and good may be seen above (n. 280); and "beast" natural affection (n. 650); thus "the seed of man and the seed of beast" signify the truths of those affections.

In Malachi:

There is not one who doeth this who hath the spirit; is there one that seeketh the seed of God? (Malachi 2:15)

"Is there one that seeketh the seed of God?" signifies that no one seeks Divine truth; evidently "the seed of God" here signifies Divine truth; so "the born of God" mean those who are regenerated by the Lord by means of Divine truth, and a life according thereto.

[5] In Isaiah:

Jehovah willed to bruise Him, He hath weakened Him; if Thou shalt make His soul a guilt offering, He shall see seed, He shall prolong days, and the will of Jehovah shall prosper by His hand (Isaiah 53:10).

This is said of the Lord, and the whole of this chapter treats of His temptations, by means of which He subjugated the hells. The increasing grievousness of His temptations is described by "Jehovah willed to bruise Him, and to weaken Him;" the most grievous temptation, which was the passion of the cross, is signified by "if Thou shalt make His soul a guilt offering;" "to make His soul a guilt offering" signifies the last temptation, by which He fully subjugated the hells and fully glorified His Human, which is the means of redemption. The Divine truth that afterwards proceeded from His Divine Human, and the salvation of all who receive Divine truth from Him, is signified by "He shall see seed;" that this will continue forever is signified by "He shall prolong days;" "to prolong" signifying in reference to the Lord to continue forever, and "days" signifying states of light, which are states of the enlightenment of all by Divine truth; that this is from His Divine for the salvation of the human race is signified by "the will of Jehovah shall prosper by His hand."

[6] In the same:

Fear not, for I am with thee; I will bring thy seed from the sunrise, and I will bring thee together from the west; I will say to the north, Give, and to the south, Hold not back; bring my sons from afar, and my daughters from the end of the earth (Isaiah 43:5, 6).

This is supposed to refer to the bringing back of the sons of Israel into the land of Canaan; but this is not the meaning here; but it means the salvation by the Lord of all who receive Divine truth from Him; and of whom the New Church consists; this is what is signified by "His seed which shall be brought from the sunrise, and brought together from the west, and which the north shall give and the south ¹ shall not hold back," therefore it also follows: "Bring My sons from afar, and My daughters from the end of the earth;" "sons" signifying those who are in the truths of the church, and "daughters" those who are in its goods. (But these words may be seen explained above, n. 422, 724)

[7] In the same:

On the right hand and on the left thou shalt break forth, and thy seed shall inherit the nations and make the desolate cities to be inhabited (Isaiah 54:3).

This is said of the church from the Lord with the Gentiles, which church is here meant by "the barren woman that did not bear," who should have many sons (verse 1). "The seed that shall inherit the nations" signifies the Divine truth that shall be given to the Gentiles; "to break forth on the right hand and on the left" signifies extension and multiplication; the "right hand" signifying truth in light, and the "left hand" truth in the shade, for the reason that in the spiritual world to the right hand is the south where those are who are in the clear light of truth, and to the left is the north where those are who are in an obscure light of truth. "To make the desolate cities to be inhabited" signifies their life according to Divine truths, which before this had been lost; "cities" meaning the truths of doctrine from the Word; "to be inhabited" signifying to live according to truths, and "desolate cities" those truths heretofore lost, that is, with the Jewish nation.

[8] In the same:

Their seed shall become known among the nations and their offspring in the midst of the peoples; all that see them shall acknowledge them that they are the seed that Jehovah hath blessed (Isaiah 61:9).

This, too, is said of the church to be established by the Lord. "The seed that shall become known among the nations" signifies Divine truth that will be received by those who are in the good of life; "and the offspring in the midst of the peoples" signifies life according to Divine truth; "those that see them and shall acknowledge that they are the seed" signifies enlightenment, that it is the genuine truth that they receive; "that Jehovah hath blessed" signifies that it is from the Lord. But such is the signification of these words in a sense abstracted from persons, but in a strict sense those are meant who will receive Divine truth from the Lord.

[9] In the same:

They are the seed of the blessed of Jehovah, and their offspring with them (Isaiah 65:23).

This, also, is said of the church from the Lord; and "the seed of the blessed of Jehovah" means those who will receive Divine truth from the Lord; and "their offspring," those who live according to it; but in the sense abstracted from persons, which is the genuine spiritual sense, "seed" means Divine truth, and "offspring," a life according to it (as just above). "Offspring" mean those who live according to Divine truth, and in an abstract sense life according to it, because the word in the original rendered "offspring" means going out or proceeding, and that which goes out or proceeds from Divine truth received is a life according to Divine truth.

[10] In the same:

As the new heavens and the new earth which I am about to make shall stand before Me, so shall your seed and your name stand (Isaiah 66:22).

This, too, is said of the Lord, and of the salvation of the faithful by Him; the New Church from Him is meant by "new heavens and a new earth;" by "new heavens" an internal church, and by "a new earth" an external church; that Divine truth and its quality shall endure is signified by "your seed and your name shall stand;" "seed" signifying Divine truth, which also is the truth of doctrine from the Word, and "name" signifying its quality. (That "name" signifies the quality of a thing and of a state, may be seen above, n. 148)

[11] In David:

Thou hast founded the earth, and the heavens are the work of Thy hands; they shall perish, and Thou shalt stand; they shall all wax old like garments, like a vesture shalt Thou change them, and they shall be changed; but Thou art the same, and Thy years shall have no end; the sons of Thy servants shall dwell, and their seed shall be established before Thee (Psalms 102:25-28).

"The earth" which God formed, and "the heavens the work of His hands," which shall perish, have a similar signification as "the former earth and the former heaven" that passed away (in Revelation 21:1; about which, see there); and as the face of the earth and heavens in the spiritual world will be altogether changed at the day of the Last Judgment, and there will be a new earth and new heavens in place of the former, it is said "they shall all wax old like garments, like a vesture shalt Thou change them, and they shall be changed;" they are likened to garments because garments signify external truths, such as those had who were in the former heavens and the former earth, which were not permanent because they were not in internal truths. The state of Divine truth that shall endure from the Lord to eternity is signified by "Thou shalt stand," and "Thou art the same, and Thy years shall have no end;" "the years of God" signifying the states of Divine truth. "The sons of Thy servants shall dwell, and their seed shall be established before Thee," signifies that angels and men, who are recipients of Divine truth, shall have eternal life, and that truths of doctrine shall endure with them to eternity; "the sons of the servants of God" meaning angels and men who are recipients of Divine truth, and "their seed" meaning truths of doctrine.

[12] In the same:

A seed that shall serve Him shall be counted to the Lord for a generation (Psalms 22:30).

This also is said of the Lord; and "the seed that shall serve Him" means those who are in the truths of doctrine from the Word; and "it shall be counted to the Lord for a generation" signifies that they shall be His to eternity; "to be counted" signifying to be arranged and disposed in order, here to be numbered with or added to, thus to be His.

[13] In many passages in the Word mention is made of "the seed of Abraham," "of Isaac," and "of Jacob," likewise of "the seed of Israel," and in the historical sense of the letter their posterity is meant; but in the spiritual sense Divine truth and the truth of doctrine from the Word are meant, for the reason that Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Israel, mean in that sense the Lord, as can be seen from passages in the Word where they are mentioned; as where it is said:

That they shall come from the east and from the west, and shall recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of the heavens (Matthew 8:11);

which means the enjoyment of celestial good from the Lord. So also elsewhere. And as the Lord is meant by them in the internal sense, "their seed" signifies Divine truth which is from the Lord, and thus also the truth of doctrine from the Word; as in these passages. In Moses:

Jehovah said to Abram, All the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it and to thy seed forever; and I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth (Genesis 13:15, 16).

Look up towards the heavens and number the stars, so shall thy seed be (Genesis 15:5).

In thy seed shall all the nations be blessed (Genesis 22:18).

To Isaac:

To thee and to thy seed will I give all these lands; and I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed (Genesis 26:3-5).

To Jacob:

Unto thy seed after thee will I give this land (Genesis 35:12).

The land given to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, and to their seed after them (Deuteronomy 1:8).

The seed of your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Deuteronomy 4:37; 10:15; 11:9).

Since, as has been said, the Lord is meant by "Abraham," "Isaac," and "Jacob;" by "Abraham" the Lord in reference to the celestial Divine of the church; by "Isaac" in reference to the spiritual Divine of the church, and by "Jacob" in reference to the natural Divine of the church, so their "seed" signifies Divine truth proceeding from the Lord; "the seed of Abraham" signifying celestial Divine truth; "the seed of Isaac" spiritual Divine truth, and "the seed of Jacob" natural Divine truth; consequently those also are meant who are in Divine truth from the Lord. But the "land which the Lord will give to them" means the church which is in Divine truth from Him; and thence it may be known what is signified by "in their seed shall all nations be blessed;" for they could not be blessed in their posterity, namely, in the Jewish and Israelitish nation, but they were to be blessed in the Lord and from the Lord by the reception of Divine truth from Him.

[14] That "the seed of Abraham" does not mean the Jews is evident from the Lord's words in John:

The Jews answered, We are Abraham's seed, and have never been servants to any man. Jesus answered, I know that ye are Abraham's seed; yet ye seek to kill Me, because My word hath no place in you; ye are of your father the devil (John 8:33, 34, 37, 44).

From this it is evident that the Jews are not meant by "the seed of Abraham," but that "Abraham" means the Lord, and "the seed of Abraham" Divine truth from the Lord, which is the Word; for it is said, "I know that ye are Abraham's seed; yet ye seek to kill Me, because My word hath no place in you." The Lord's saying "I know that ye are Abraham's seed" signifies that He knew that the truth of the church, which is the Word, was with them; but that they nevertheless rejected the Lord is signified by "ye seek to kill Me;" and that they were not in Divine truths from the Lord is signified by "because My word hath no place in you;" that there was with them nothing but evil and falsity therefrom is signified by "ye are of your father the devil, and the truth is not in him;" and afterwards, "when he speaketh a lie he speaketh from his own;" "lie" signifying Divine truth, or the Word, adulterated. The Lord said "I know that ye are Abraham's seed" for the further reason that "Judah" signifies the Lord in reference to the Word (as may be seen above, n. 119, 433).

[15] In David:

He will make them to fall in the wilderness, and will make their seed to fall among the nations and will scatter them in the lands (Psalms 106:26, 27).

"To make their seed to fall among the nations and to scatter them in the lands" signifies that Divine truth would perish with them by evils and falsities. "The seed of Israel" has a similar signification in these passages:

Thou Israel My servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham My friend, whom I have taken hold of from the ends of the earth (Isaiah 41:8, 9).

I will pour out My spirit upon the seed of Israel and Jacob, and My blessing upon their offspring (Isaiah 44:3).

In Jehovah all the seed of Israel shall be justified, and shall glory (Isaiah 45:25).

Jehovah who brought up and who brought back the seed of the house of Israel out of the land ² towards the north, and out of all the lands whither I have driven them, that they may dwell upon their own land (Jeremiah 23:8).

In the highest sense "Israel" means the Lord in relation to the internal of the church, therefore "his seed" similarly signifies the Divine truth that is with those who are of the church that is signified by "Israel." "Israel" means the church with those who are interiorly natural, and have truths therein from a spiritual origin. For this reason "Israel" signifies the church that is spiritual-natural.

[16] Since "David" in the Word means the Lord in reference to royalty, and the Lord's royalty means Divine truth in the church, so his "seed" means those who are in the truths of the church from the Word, who are called "the sons of the king" and "the sons of the kingdom;" it means also that Divine truth is with them, as in the following passages:

As the host of the heavens shall not be numbered, nor the sand of the sea measured, so will I multiply the seed of David and the Levites My ministers (Jeremiah 33:22).

I have made a covenant with My chosen, I have sworn to David My servant, Even to eternity will I establish thy seed, and will build up thy throne to generation and generation. I will set his seed forever, and his throne as the days of the heavens. His seed shall be to eternity, and his throne as the sun before Me (Psalms 89:3, 4, 29, 36).

That "David" means in the Word the Lord in reference to royalty, which is Divine truth in the Lord's spiritual kingdom, may be seen above (n. 205); therefore "his seed" signifies that Divine truth with those who are in truths from good, thus also who are in the truths of doctrine from the Word; for truths of doctrine from the Word, or the truths of the Word, are all from good; and as these are meant by "the seed of David," so in an abstract sense the truth of the Word or the truth of the doctrine from the Word is meant by it. That "the seed of David" does not mean his posterity anyone can see, for it is said that "his seed shall be multiplied as the host of the heavens and the sand of the sea," and that "it shall be established and set to eternity," also that "his throne shall be built up to generation and generation," and "shall be as the days of the heavens," and "as the sun," which cannot at all be said of the seed of David, that is, of his posterity and of his throne, for where now are his seed and throne to be found? But all these things harmonize when "David" is taken to mean the Lord, "his throne" heaven and the church, and "his seed" the truth of heaven and of the church.

[17] In Jeremiah:

If I shall not have set My covenant of day and night, the statutes of heaven and of earth, I will also reject the seed of Jacob and of David My servant, that I will not take of his seed to be rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and I will cause their captivity to return, and will have compassion on them (Jeremiah 33:25, 26).

In the same:

Jehovah said, who giveth the sun for a light by day, the statutes of the moon and stars for a light by night. If these statutes shall remove from before Me, the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before Me all the days (Jeremiah 31:35, 36).

In these passages, again, "the seed of Jacob" and of "David," likewise "the seed of Israel," mean those who are in Divine truths; but "the seed of Jacob" means those who are in natural Divine truth, "David" those who are in spiritual Divine truth, and "Israel" those who are in natural-spiritual Divine truth, which is mediate between natural Divine truth and spiritual Divine truth. For there are degrees of Divine truth, as there are degrees of its reception in the three heavens by the angels and in the church. "The covenant of day and night, and the statutes of heaven and earth," signifying the conjunction of the Lord with those who are in Divine truths in the heavens, and with those who are in Divine truths on the earth, "covenant" signifying conjunction, and "statutes" the laws of conjunction, which are also the laws of order, and the laws of order are Divine truths; while "day" signifies such light of truth as the angels in the heavens have; and "night" such light of truth as men on the earth have, likewise such light of truth as those have who are in the heavens and on the earth under the Lord as a moon; therefore it is added, "who giveth the sun for a light by day, and the statutes of the moon and stars for a light by night." But here "the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob," mean all who are of the Lord's church, in every degree; of these and of the seed of Jacob and David it is said that if they acknowledge not the Lord, and receive not Divine truth from Him, the Lord will not reign over them.

[18] In the same:

No one of his seed shall prosper who sitteth upon the throne of David and ruleth anymore in Judah (Jeremiah 22:30).

This is said of Coniah, king of Judah, who is here called "a despised and worthless idol," and it is said of him:

That he and his seed shall be taken away and cast unto the earth (verse 28).

This king has a similar signification as Satan, and "his seed" signifies infernal falsity; that this shall not rule in the Lord's church, in which is celestial Divine truth, is signified by "no one of his seed shall sit upon the throne of David or shall rule anymore in Judah;" "Judah" here meaning the celestial church in which the Lord reigns.

[19] As "David" represented the Lord's royalty, so "Aaron" represented his priesthood; therefore "the seed of Aaron" means those who are in the affection of genuine truth which is from celestial good. Because of this representation this statute was given for Aaron:

The high priest shall not take a widow, or one divorced, or one polluted, a harlot, but he shall take a virgin of his own people to wife, lest he profane his seed among his people; I Jehovah do sanctify him (Leviticus 21:14, 15).

As "man and wife" in the Word in its spiritual sense signify the understanding of truth and the will of good, and as thought is of the understanding and affection is of the will, so "man and wife" also signify the thought of truth and the affection of good, likewise truth and good. Thence it is clear what is signified by a "widow," by "one divorced," and by "one polluted" and "a harlot;" "a widow" signifies good without truth, because left by truth, which is the man; "one divorced" signifies good rejected by truth, thus discordant good; and "one polluted, a harlot," signifies good adulterated by falsities, which is no longer good but evil. Because of this signification of these women the high priest was forbidden to take any of them to wife, because he represented the Lord in reference to the priesthood, which signified the Divine good. And as a "virgin" signifies the will or affection of genuine truth, and genuine truth makes one with and is in harmony with Divine good, and these two are conjoined in heaven and in the church, and their conjunction is called the heavenly marriage, therefore it was required that the high priest should take a virgin to wife. And as the truth of doctrine is born of this marriage, while the falsity of doctrine is born of a marriage with such as are signified by "a widow," "one divorced," and "one polluted, a harlot," it is said, "lest he profane his seed among his peoples," "seed" signifying the genuine truth of doctrine, and thus also the doctrine of genuine truth from the good of celestial love, and "his peoples" signifying those who are of the church in which there is the doctrine of genuine truth from the Word. Also as this was a representative of the heavenly marriage, which is the marriage of the Lord with the church, therefore it is said, "I Jehovah do sanctify him."

[20] Since the high priest represented the Lord in reference to Divine good, and his "seed" signified Divine truth, which is the same as the genuine truth of doctrine, it was also made a statute:

That no man a stranger, who was not of the seed of Aaron, shall come near to burn incense before Jehovah (Numbers 16:40).

"A man a stranger" signifies the falsity of doctrine, and "burning incense" signifies worship from spiritual good, which in its essence is genuine truth; and "the seed of the high priest" signifies Divine truth from a celestial origin; therefore it was decreed by law that no stranger who was not of the seed of Aaron should burn incense in the Tent of meeting before Jehovah.

[21] When it is known what of heaven and the church was represented also by other persons mentioned in the Word, what is signified by "their seed" will also be known, as by the seed of Noah, Ephraim, and Caleb, in the following passages. Of Noah:

I establish My covenant with you and with your seed after you (Genesis 9:9).

Israel said of Ephraim:

His seed shall be the fullness of the earth ³ (Genesis 48:19).

And Jehovah said of Caleb:

His seed shall inherit the earth (Numbers 14:24).

What "Noah" and "Ephraim" represented and signified has been explained in the Arcana Coelestia. But "Caleb" represented those who are to be introduced into the church; therefore their "seed" signifies the truth of the doctrine of the church.

[22] The "seed of the field" has a similar signification as the "seed of man," because a "field," the same as "man," signifies the church; for this reason the terms "seed" and also "sowing" are in some passages applied to the people of the earth the same as they are applied to a field, as in the following. In Jeremiah:

I had planted thee a noble vine, a seed of truth; how art thou turned into branches of a strange vine unto Me! (Jeremiah 2:21).

In David:

Their fruit will I ⁴ destroy from the earth, and their seed from the sons of man (Psalms 21:10).

In Hosea:

I will sow Israel unto Me in the earth (Hosea 2:23).

In Zechariah:

I will sow Judah and Joseph among the peoples, and they shall remember Me in remote places (Zechariah 10:9).

In Ezekiel:

I will look again to you, that ye may be tilled and sown; then will I multiply man upon you, all the house of Israel, the whole of it (Ezekiel 36:9).

In Jeremiah:

Behold the days shall come in which I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and with the seed of beast (Jeremiah 31:27).

In Matthew:

The seed sown are the sons of the kingdom (Matthew 13:38).

But it is not necessary to show here that the seed of the field has a similar meaning as the seed of man, for here only what is signified by "the seed of the woman" is what is to be explained and confirmed from the Word.

[23] Since "seed" signifies the truth of doctrine from the Word, and in the highest sense Divine truth, so in the contrary sense "seed" signifies the falsity of doctrine and infernal falsity. As in Isaiah:

Draw near hither, ye sons of the sorceress, ye seed of the adulterer, and thou that hast ⁵ committed whoredom. Against whom do ye sport yourselves, against whom do ye make wide the mouth and lengthen the tongue? Are ye not children of transgression, the seed of a lie? (Isaiah 57:3, 4)

"The sons of the sorceress and the seed of an adulterer" signify falsities from the Word when it has been falsified and adulterated, "the sons of the sorceress" meaning the falsities from the Word falsified, and "the seed of an adulterer," falsities from the Word adulterated. The Word is said to be falsified when its truths are perverted, and to be adulterated when its goods are perverted, as also when truths are applied to the loves of self. "Children of transgression and seed of a lie" signify falsities flowing from such prior falsities. "To sport themselves" signifies to take delight in things falsified; "to make wide the mouth" signifies delight in the thought therefrom; and "to lengthen the tongue" delight in teaching and propagating such falsities.

[24] In Isaiah:

Woe to the sinful nation, a people heavy with iniquity, a seed of evil-doers, sons that are corrupters; they have forsaken Jehovah, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel, they have estranged themselves backwards (Isaiah 1:4).

"The sinful nation" signifies those who are in evils, and "a people heavy with iniquity" those who are in the falsities therefrom, for "nation" is predicated in the Word of evils, and "people" of falsities (See above, 331, 625). The falsity of those who are in evils is signified by "a seed of evildoers," and the falsities of those who are in the falsities from that evil are signified by "sons that are corrupters." (That "sons" signify those who are in truths, and in the contrary sense those who are in falsities, and in an abstract sense truths and falsities, may be seen above, n. 724 "They have forsaken Jehovah and have provoked the Holy One of Israel" signifies that they have rejected Divine good and Divine truth; "Jehovah" meaning the Lord in relation to Divine good, and "the Holy One of Israel," the Lord in relation to Divine truth; "their estranging themselves backwards" signifies that they wholly departed from good and truth, and went away to infernal evil and falsity, for those in the spiritual world who are in evils and falsities turn themselves backward from the Lord (See in the work on Heaven and Hell, n. 123). In the same:

Thou shalt not be joined with them in the sepulcher, for thou hast corrupted thy land, thou hast slain thy people; the seed of the evil shall not be named forever (Isaiah 14:20).

This is said of Lucifer, by whom Babylon is meant; and "the seed of the evil which shall not be named forever" signifies the direful falsity of evil which is from hell. (The rest may be seen explained above, n. 589, 659, 697)

[25] In Moses:

He that hath given of his seed to Molech dying shall die, the people of the land shall stone him with stones. I will set My faces against that man, and I will cut him off from the midst of his people, because he hath given of his seed to Molech, to defile My sanctuary and to profane the name of My holiness (Leviticus 20:3; Leviticus 18:21).

"To give of his seed to Molech" signifies to destroy the truth of the Word and of the doctrine of the church therefrom, by application to the filthy loves of the body, as murders, hatreds, revenges, adulteries, and the like, which leads to the acceptance of infernal falsities instead of things Divine; such falsities are signified by "the seed given to Molech." Molech was the god of the sons of Ammon (1 Kings 11:7); and was set up in the valley of Hinnom, which was called Topheth, where they burned up their sons and daughters (2 Kings 23:10); the above mentioned loves are signified by that fire; and as "seed given to Molech" signifies such infernal falsity, and stoning was the punishment of death for the injury and destruction of the truth of the Word and of doctrine therefrom, it is said that the man that "hath given of his seed to Molech dying shall die, and the people of the land shall stone him with stones." (That stoning was the punishment for injuring or destroying truth may be seen above, n. 655.) That such falsity is destructive of every good of the Word and of the church is signified by "I will set My faces against that man, and I will cut him off from the midst of his people, because he hath defiled My sanctuary and profaned the name of My holiness," "sanctuary" signifying the truth of heaven and the church, and "the name of holiness" all that it is. From the passages quoted it can now be seen that "seed" means in the highest sense Divine truth which is from the Lord, and thence the truth of the Word and of the doctrine of the church which is from the Word; while in the evil sense it means infernal falsity which is the opposite of that truth.

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