1. The Holy Scripture Throughout Has the Lord As Its Subject, and the Lord Embodies the Word

We read in John:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. This was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of people. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.... And the Word moreover became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as though of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:1-5, 14)

Again in the same Gospel:

...the light came into the world, but people loved darkness more than light, for their deeds were evil. (John 3:19)

And elsewhere in it:

While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may be children of light.... I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness. (John 12:36, 46)

It is apparent from this that the Lord is, from eternity, God, and that God Himself is the Lord who was born in the world. For we are told that the Word was with God, and that the Word was God. Also that without Him nothing was made that was made. And later we are told that the Word became flesh, and people beheld Him.

[2] Why the Lord is called the Word is little understood in the church. However, He is called the Word because the term “Word” symbolizes Divine truth itself or Divine wisdom itself, and the Lord embodies Divine truth itself or Divine wisdom itself. That, too, is why He is called the light, which is also said to have come into the world.

Because Divine wisdom and Divine love are united, and were united in the Lord from eternity, therefore we are told as well that “In Him was life, and the life was the light of people.” Life means Divine love, and light Divine wisdom.

This is the union meant by the statement that the Word was in the beginning with God and that God was the Word. With God means in God, for wisdom is present in love, and love in wisdom.

So, too, we find elsewhere in John:

...Father, glorify Me with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was. (John 17:5)

“With Yourself” means in Yourself. That, too, is why we are told, “And God was the Word.” And elsewhere that the Lord is in the Father, and the Father in Him, and that He and the Father are one.

Now because the Word is the Divine wisdom accompanying Divine love, it follows that it is Jehovah Himself, thus the Lord, by whom all things were made that were made, inasmuch as they were all created out of Divine love by means of Divine wisdom.

7236. 'According to their armies' means in accordance with the genera and species of good within truths. This is clear from the meaning of 'an army' as the truths that constitute faith, dealt with in 3448. But forms of good in the spiritual Church are essentially nothing other than truths, since truths are called forms of good when people lead their lives in accordance with those truths. When therefore the word 'army' is used to refer to those within the spiritual Church who have been regenerated, forms of the good of truth or forms of good within truths are meant. The reason why it says that the children of Israel were to be led out 'according to their armies' is that it is speaking about the time when they will come out of Egypt - in the internal sense when they will come out of conflicts with falsities, thus after they have performed spiritual military service. The proper way to understand the command that they were to be led out 'according to their armies' is that they were to be distinguished in keeping with forms of good within truths, thus were to be divided into groups according to different kinds of good. And this was done in order that they might represent the Lord's kingdom in the heavens. There all have been divided up and allotted a place in the Grand Man in accordance with both the genus and the species of each one's good.

[2] The fact that all in heaven are divided up in accordance with their different kinds of good shows how manifold and how varied good is; it is so varied that good is never the same with one person as it is with another. Indeed if millions of people went on being multiplied forever, one person's good would still not be like another's, just as one person's face is not like another's; and in heaven furthermore good is what shapes angels' faces. The reason for the unending variety is that every form has distinct and varied constituent parts; for if two were exactly alike they could not be two but a single unit. This also explains why in the natural order no one thing ever exists which is like another in every respect.

[3] What makes good so varied is truth; when this is joined to good it gives the good specific character. One reason why truth is so manifold and varied that it can make good so greatly varied is that truths are countless, and interior truths take on a different form from exterior ones. Another reason is that false impressions gained by the outward senses attach themselves, and also false ideas that are products of evil desires. Since therefore truths are so countless one can see that when they are joined to good just as many variations are produced, so many that one form of good can never be the same as another. This is plain to anyone who knows that from merely twenty-three letters joined together in different combinations the words contained in all languages can be produced; indeed even if there were thousands of languages, an unending variety of combinations could be produced. So what will be the product of varieties numbering thousands and millions, as truths do? Confirmation of the existence of those varieties is also contained in the proverb in general use in the world that there are as many opinions as there are heads, that is, ideas are as varied as the number of people there are.