From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #3795

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3795. 'For she was a shepherdess' or one who feeds the flock means that the affection for interior truth contained in the Word is that which teaches. This is clear from the meaning of 'a shepherd' or one who feeds the flock 1 as one who leads and teaches, dealt with in 343, and from the representation of Rachel, to whom 'she' refers here, as the affection for interior truth, dealt with just above in 3793. The reason why interior truth is said to come from the Word is that it was the well to which Rachel came with the flock - 'a well' meaning the Word, see 3765. What is more, it is the affection for interior truth that teaches, for it is by virtue of that affection that the Church is the Church and a shepherd or pastor is a pastor. The reason 'a shepherd' and one who feeds the flock means in the Word those who lead and teach is that 'the flock' means those who are led and taught, and therefore means Churches and also the doctrines which a Church teaches, 3767, 3768, 3783. The fact that shepherd or pastor and flock have these meanings is very well known in the Christian world, for these are the terms used for those who teach and those who learn. It is therefore superfluous to confirm these points from the Word.

Footnotes:

1. The Latin word pastor, translated shepherdess above, is used of anyone - male or female - who tends a flock or herd. But in the original Hebrew the word is taken to be feminine.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.

The Bible

 

Genesis 29:12

Study

       

12 And Jacob told Rachel that he was her father's brother, and that he was Rebekah's son: and she ran and told her father.

Commentary

 

Love correspondence

  
tiny hand my love, by Jenny Stein

To some degree, there really is no spiritual meaning to the word “love” in the Bible. Why? Because if you truly love another, that is already a spiritual state. To put it simply, the Lord is Love Itself, a perfect and infinite love that is the source of all actual life and substance in the universe. Thus everything we are and everything we experience is a product of the Lord's love; there is no way for us to have any love from ourselves that is not ultimately the Lord's love, because the Lord's love is everything. When we feel love, what we're really doing is opening ourselves to be a conduit for the Lord's love -- truly a spiritual state. This also means that the more we can align our love with the Lord's love, the stronger our experience of love will be. The Lord's love is a constant desire to be conjoined with us, to be able to love us fully while protecting our right to choose. So the more we try to love that way, the more in harmony with Him we will be and the more powerful our feelings of love will be. In a general sense, then, most uses of “love” in the Bible represent a desire for union, connection, powered, and enriched by the Lord.

In Matthew 6:24, this signifies celestial of love. (Arcana Coelestia 3875[3])

In Malachi 2:11, this signifies to conjoin oneself with falsity. (Arcana Coelestia 4434[3])