1. Teachings for the New Jerusalem on the Lord

The Entire Sacred Scripture Is about the Lord, and the Lord Is the Word

WE read in 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 nothing that was made came about without him. In him there was life, and that life was the light for humankind. And the light shines in the darkness, but the darkness did not grasp it. And the Word became flesh and lived among us; and we saw his glory, glory like that of the only-begotten child of the Father. He was full of grace and truth. (John 1:1-3, 5, 14)

In the same Gospel,

Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. (John 3:19)

And elsewhere in the same Gospel,

While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of the light. I have come into the world as a light so that anyone who believes in me will not remain in darkness. (John 12:36, 46)

We can see from this that the Lord is God from eternity and that he himself is that Lord who was born into the world. It actually says that the Word was with God and that the Word was God, as well as that nothing that was made came about without him, and then that the Word became flesh and that they saw him.

There is little understanding in the church of what it means to call the Lord “the Word.” He is called the Word because the Word means divine truth or divine wisdom and the Lord is divine truth itself or divine wisdom itself. That is why he is also called the light that is said to have come into the world.

Since divine wisdom and divine love are one with each other and have been one in the Lord from eternity, it also says “in him there was life, and that life was the light for humankind.” The life is divine love, and the light is divine wisdom.

This oneness is what is meant by saying both that “in the beginning the Word was with God” and that “the Word was God.” “With God” is in God, since wisdom is in love and love is in wisdom. This is like the statement elsewhere in John, “Glorify me, Father, together with yourself, with the glory I had with you before the world existed” (John 17:5). “With yourself” is “in yourself.” This is why it adds “and the Word was God.” It says elsewhere that the Lord is in the Father and the Father is in him [John 14:10], and that the Father and he are one [John 10:30].

Since the Word is the divine wisdom of the divine love, it follows that it is Jehovah himself and therefore the Lord, the one by whom all things were made that were made, since everything was created out of divine love by means of divine wisdom.

3245. 'Abraham gave all that he had to Isaac' in the highest sense means all the Divine things within the Divine Rational, and in the relative sense the celestial things of love imparted to the Lord's celestial kingdom. This is clear from the representation of 'Abraham' as the Lord as regards the Divine itself, dealt with already, and from the representation of 'Isaac' as the Lord as regards the Divine Rational, also dealt with already. Now because in the internal sense the Lord is represented by both Abraham and Isaac, and the Lord made His Rational Divine from His own Divine, 'Abraham gave all that he had to Isaac' therefore means all the Divine things within the Divine Rational. All that precedes and follows has regard to this, that is to say, to the consideration that everything in the Lord's Rational was made Divine. Indeed in the places where Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are the subject, the Lord's Human, how it was made Divine, is dealt with in the internal sense.

[2] There are two components which strictly speaking make up the human - the rational and the natural. The Lord's Rational is represented by 'Isaac', but His Natural by 'Jacob'. The Lord made both of these Divine. How He made the Rational Divine is contained in what is stated regarding Isaac, but how He made the Natural so in what is stated later on regarding Jacob. But the latter - the Natural - could not be made Divine before the Rational was made Divine, for it was by means of the Rational that the Natural became Divine. This explains why the words that are being explained here mean all the Divine things within the Divine Rational.

[3] Furthermore every single detail which in the internal sense has reference to the Lord also has reference to His kingdom and Church, the reason being that the Lord's Divine constitutes His kingdom. Consequently when the Lord is the subject so also is His kingdom the subject; see 1965. However when the internal sense has reference to the Lord it is the highest sense, but when it has reference to His kingdom it is the relative sense. The relative sense of these words - 'Abraham gave all to Isaac' - is that the celestial things of love were imparted to the Lord's celestial kingdom. Indeed in the relative sense 'Isaac' means the celestial kingdom, for the rest of Abraham's sons, that is to say, those he had by Keturah, mean the Lord's spiritual kingdom, as shown above, as also does Ishmael, who is dealt with below.