1023. The symbolism of And I — yes, I — am setting up my pact as the presence of the Lord in charity can be seen from the symbolism of a pact, given in §§ [665,] 666. That section showed that a pact symbolizes rebirth, and more especially the Lord's close connection with a regenerate person through love. It also showed that the heavenly marriage is the most genuine compact, and in consequence that the heavenly marriage inside everyone who has regenerated is such a covenant too.

The nature of this marriage — this covenant — has also been shown before [§§155, 162, 252].

[2] For the people of the earliest church, the heavenly marriage existed within the sensation that they had their own power of will. For the people of the ancient church, however, the heavenly marriage developed within the sensation that their power of understanding was their own. When the human race's willpower had become thoroughly corrupt, you see, the Lord split our intellectual sense of self off from that corrupted voluntary sense of self in a miraculous way. Within our intellectual selfhood he formed a new will, which is conscience, and into conscience he injected charity, and into charity innocence. In this way he joined himself to us or, to put it another way, entered into a compact with us.

[3] To the extent that our self-will can be detached from this sense of intellectual autonomy, the Lord can be present with us, or bind himself to us, or enter into a pact with us.

Times of trial and other similar means of regeneration suppress our self-will to the point where it seems to disappear and almost die out. To the extent that this happens, the Lord can work through the conscience implanted in charity within our intellectual selfhood. This, then, is what is being called a pact in the present verse.

252. The meaning of the woman as the church can be seen from the heavenly marriage described above in §155. The heavenly marriage is a relationship in which heaven (and so the church) is united to the Lord through its sense of self. In fact heaven and the church are to be found in the feeling of independent existence, because without it there could never be union. When the Lord in his mercy infuses our selfhood with innocence, peace, and goodness, it still seems to be our own, but it becomes heavenly and full of the greatest blessings, as you may see above at §164.

I cannot yet say, though, what a heavenly, angelic identity received from the Lord is like, nor a hellish, diabolical identity generated by ourselves. ¹ The difference between them is like the difference between heaven and hell.

Footnotes:

3994. And every black animal among the lambs symbolizes an innocent sense of autonomy—a mark of the goodness symbolized by Laban. This can be seen from the symbolism of black as selfhood [or autonomy] (discussed just above in §3993) and from that of a lamb as innocence (discussed below).

To comment on the innocent sense of self symbolized by the black among the lambs: Goodness has to contain innocence in order to be good. Charity is not charity without innocence, still less is love for the Lord really love for the Lord, so innocence is the actual essence of love and charity and consequently of goodness.

Innocent selfhood is the awareness, acknowledgment, and belief—not on the lips but in the heart—that all we produce is evil and that everything good comes from the Lord. So an innocent sense of self is the awareness, acknowledgment, and belief that our insistence on self-direction is totally black, whether it is self-direction of our will (evil) or of our intellect (falsity). When we confess and believe this from the heart, the Lord flows in with goodness and truth and instills in us a heavenly autonomy, which is a bright, shining white. We cannot possess true humility until we acknowledge and believe this at heart, because that is when we become self-effacing, self-averse, and in the process, self-forgetful. So that is when we have a welcoming attitude toward the Lord in his divinity.

Accordingly, the Lord brings goodness to a heart that is humble and contrite.

[2] Such is the innocent selfhood symbolized by the black among the lambs, which Jacob chose for himself. The white among the lambs symbolizes the merit equated with good deeds. The meaning of white as merit was given above at §3993. Jacob declined it because it goes against innocence. People who take credit for their virtues acknowledge and believe that everything good comes from themselves, because they focus on themselves rather than the Lord in the good they do, so they self-righteously demand a reward. As a result they also despise and even condemn others in comparison with themselves, and to the extent they do so, they stray from the heavenly pattern—in other words, from what is good and true.

These considerations show that charity for one’s neighbor and love for the Lord can exist only if they have innocence in them and therefore that no one can go to heaven without possessing some share of innocence. In the Lord’s words:

Truly, I say to you: anyone who does not accept the kingdom of God like a little child will not enter it. (Mark 10:15; Luke 18:17)

A little child here and elsewhere in the Word symbolizes innocence. See previous remarks on the subject: Childhood is not innocence; rather, innocence resides in wisdom (2305, 3494); the nature of childhood’s innocence and the nature of wisdom’s innocence (2306, 3183); the nature of human selfhood when it is enlivened by the Lord with innocence and charity (154); innocence makes goodness good (2526, 2780).

[3] The symbolism of lambs as innocence becomes clear from many passages in the Word. Let me quote the following examples as proof. In Isaiah:

The wolf will stay with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and the ox [will live] together, and a little child will lead them. (Isaiah 11:6)

This is about the Lord’s kingdom and the state of peace and innocence there. The wolf stands for people who oppose innocence and the lamb for those who possess innocence. Likewise elsewhere in the same prophet:

The wolf and the lamb will pasture together, and the lion like the ox will eat hay, and the snake will have dust as its bread. They will not do evil or cause destruction anywhere on my holy mountain. (Isaiah 65:25)

As above, the wolf stands for people who oppose innocence and the lamb for those who possess innocence. Since a wolf and a lamb are opposites, when the Lord was sending out the seventy [disciples] he said to them (in Luke):

Here, I am sending you as lambs in the midst of wolves. (Luke 10:3)

In Moses:

He makes them suck honey from a crag, and oil from a boulder of rock, the butter of the herd and the milk of the flock, together with the fat of lambs and of rams—the sons of Bashan. (Deuteronomy 32:13, 14)

In an inner sense this is about the heavenly qualities of the ancient church. The fat of lambs stands for innocent charity.

[4] The original language has a variety of words for lambs, symbolizing different levels of innocence. To repeat, goodness has to contain innocence in order to be good, so truth also has to contain innocence. The word for lambs here is the same one used for sheep in such places as Leviticus 1:10; 3:7; 5:6; 17:3; 22:19; Numbers 18:17; and it symbolizes the innocence in faith, which is the innocence in charity. Other words are used elsewhere, as in Isaiah:

Send the lamb of the land’s ruler from the rock by the wilderness to the mountain of Zion’s daughter. (Isaiah 16:1)

Yet another word is used in the same author:

The Lord Jehovih comes in strength, and his arm will rule for him. He will pasture his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs into his arm and carry them in his embrace; he will lead the unweaned. (Isaiah 40:9, 10,[11])

The lambs being gathered into his arm and carried in his embrace stand for people who have charity imbued with innocence.

[5] In John:

After revealing himself, Jesus said to Peter, “Simon of Jonah, do you love me more than you love these?” [Peter] says to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” [Jesus] says to him, “Pasture my lambs.” He says to him again, “Simon of Jonah, do you love me?” [Peter] says to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” [Jesus] says to him, “Pasture my sheep.” (John 21:15, 16)

Here as elsewhere, Peter symbolizes faith; see the prefaces to Genesis 18 and 22, and §3750. Faith is not faith unless it comes from charity for one’s neighbor and therefore from love for the Lord, and charity and love are not charity and love unless they stem from innocence. That is why the Lord first asks whether Peter loves him (whether faith contains love) and says, “Pasture my lambs” (people who have innocence). Then after the same question he says, “Pasture my sheep” (people who have charity).

[6] The Lord is innocence itself—the innocence in his kingdom—because every trace of innocence comes from him, which is why he is called the Lamb, as in John:

The next day John the Baptist saw Jesus coming to him and said, “Look! The Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29, 36)

And in Revelation:

They will fight with the Lamb, but the Lamb will defeat them, because he is Lord of Lords and King of Kings; and those with him are the called and chosen. (Revelation 17:14)

There are other passages in Revelation as well, such as 5:6; 6:1, 16; 7:9, 14, 17; 12:11; 13:8; 14:1, 4; 19:7, 9; 21:22, 23, 27; 22:1, 3.

In the highest sense, the Passover lamb is the Lord (as is known), because the Passover symbolized the Lord’s glorification, or the robing of his human part in divinity. In a representative sense it symbolizes human rebirth, and the Passover lamb symbolizes the vital element in rebirth, which is innocence. No one can be regenerated except by charity that contains innocence.

[7] Innocence is the primary feature of the Lord’s kingdom and is what makes it heavenly. Since sacrifices and burnt offerings represented spiritual and heavenly qualities of the Lord’s kingdom, innocence, the most essential feature of that kingdom, was represented by lambs. Accordingly lambs were used for the perpetual or daily burnt offering—one in the morning and the other between the evenings (Exodus 29:37, 38, 39; Numbers 28:3, 4). Two were offered on Sabbath days (Numbers 28:9, 10), and even more on appointed feasts (Leviticus 23:12; Numbers 28:11, 17, 19, 27; 29:1–end).

A woman who had just given birth and completed the days of cleansing was to offer a lamb and a pigeon chick or turtledove as a burnt offering (Leviticus 12:6) for two reasons. One was to symbolize the results of marriage love—and marriage love is innocence (see §2736). The other was that babies symbolize innocence.