1. Angelic Wisdom about Divine Providence

Divine Providence Is the Form of Government Exercised by the Lord's Divine Love and Wisdom

To understand what divine providence is--that it is the way the Lord's divine love and wisdom govern us--it is important to be aware of the following things, which were presented in my book on the subject.

In the Lord, divine love is a property of divine wisdom and divine wisdom is a property of divine love (Divine Love and Wisdom 34-39).

Divine love and wisdom cannot fail to be and to be manifested in others that it has created (Divine Love and Wisdom 47-51).

Everything in the universe was created by divine love and wisdom (Divine Love and Wisdom 52, 53, 151-156).

Everything in the created universe is a vessel of divine love and wisdom (54-60 [55-60]).

The Lord looks like the sun to angels; its radiating warmth is love and its radiating light is wisdom (Divine Love and Wisdom 83-88, 89-92, 93-98, 296-301).

The divine love and wisdom that emanate from the Lord constitute a single whole (Divine Love and Wisdom 99-102).

The Lord from eternity, who is Jehovah, created the universe and everything in it from himself and not from nothing (Divine Love and Wisdom 282-284, 290-295). These propositions may be found in the work titled Angelic Wisdom about Divine Love and Wisdom.

89. Warmth and light emanates from the sun that arises from divine love and wisdom. In the spiritual world where angels and spirits live, there is just as much warmth and light as there is in the physical world where we live. The warmth feels just like warmth and the light looks just like light, as well. Still, the warmth and light of the spiritual world and the warmth and light of the physical world are so different that they have nothing in common, as I have already mentioned [83]. They are as different as life and death. The warmth of the spiritual world is essentially alive, and so is the light; while the warmth of the physical world is essentially dead, and so is the light. The warmth and the light of the spiritual world come from a sun that is nothing but love, while the warmth and light of the physical world come from a sun that is nothing but fire. Love is alive, and divine love is life itself. Fire is dead, and solar fire is death itself. We may call it that because it has absolutely no life in it.

290. The Lord from eternity, or Jehovah, produced from Himself the sun of the spiritual world, and out of it created the universe and all of its constituents. We discussed the sun of the spiritual world in Part Two of this work, and in it we showed the following:

That Divine love and wisdom appear in the spiritual world as the sun (nos. 83-88). That from that sun emanate spiritual heat and light (nos. 89-92). That that sun is not God, but that it is an emanation of the Divine love and wisdom of the human God; so, too, the heat and light from that sun (nos. 93-98). That the sun in the spiritual world is at a middle height and appears as distant from the angels as the sun in the natural world does from people (nos. 103-107). That in the spiritual world, the east is where the Lord appears as the sun, and the other points of the compass are determined in relation to it (nos. 119-128). That angels turn their faces continually to the Lord as the sun (nos. 129-139). That the Lord created the universe and everything in it by means of that sun, which is the first emanation of His Divine love and wisdom (nos. 151-156). That the sun in the natural world is nothing but fire, and that nature, which takes its origin from that sun, is consequently lifeless; moreover, that the sun in the natural world was created in order that the work of creation might be completed and concluded (nos. 157-162). That without the two suns, one alive and the other lifeless, creation would not exist (nos. 163-166).