1444. The symbolism of and the Canaanite was then in the land as the evil in his outer self that he inherited from his mother can be seen from statements already made about the Lord's heredity [§1414]. He was born like the rest of us and carried with him different kinds of evil that he had received from his mother, which he fought against and completely overcame. As people generally realize, the Lord underwent and endured heavy spiritual trials. (With the Lord's divine mercy, these will be discussed later [§§1573:4, 1659:2, 1661, 1663, 1668, 1690, 1692, 1787, 1812-1813, 1820:5].) In fact he fought alone, with his own might, against all of hell; that is how severe his trials were.

No one can undergo spiritual crisis unless something bad clings to the person. No one devoid of evil can suffer the least tribulation. Evil is what hellish spirits stir up.

[2] The Lord had no actual evil, no evil of his own, as all the rest of us do. What he had was evil inherited from his mother, which in the present verse is called the Canaanite then in the land. For more on this, see the remarks above at verse 1, §1414. To review, we are born with two heredities, one from our father and the other from our mother. Our heredity from our father lasts forever; that from our mother is dissolved by the Lord when we are being reborn. The Lord's heredity from his father, though, was divine, while his heredity from his mother was evil. The latter is the subject of the current verse and is what enabled him to be put to the test. (For mention of his trials, see Mark 1:12-13; Matthew 4:1; Luke 4:1-2.) But again, he had no actual evil, no evil of his own. Nor did any of his mother's evil heredity remain after he had overthrown hell through his trials, which is why it says here that it was then, that is, that the Canaanite was then in the land.

[3] The Canaanites were people who lived along the sea ¹ and the shores of the Jordan, as is evident in Moses:

When the scouts returned, they said, "We came into the land to which you sent us, and in fact it was flowing with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. But a strong people is living in the land, and the cities are fortified and very big, and we saw the offspring of Anak there. Amalek lives in the south; and the Hittite and the Jebusite and the Amorite live on the mountain, and the Canaanite lives along the sea and along the shores of the Jordan." (Numbers 13:27, 28, 29)

The fact that the Canaanites lived along the sea and the shores of the Jordan consequently symbolized evil in a person's outer self — the kind of evil we inherit from our mother — since the sea and the Jordan were outer borders.

[4] Zechariah also yields evidence that a Canaanite symbolizes this kind of evil:

No longer will there be a Canaanite in the house of Jehovah Sabaoth on that day. (Zechariah 14:21)

This refers to the Lord's kingdom and symbolizes the fact that the Lord has completely conquered the evil meant by a Canaanite and banished it from his kingdom.

All types of evil are symbolized by the idolatrous nations in the land of Canaan, including the Canaanites proper, in such places as Genesis 15:19-20, 21; Exodus 3:8, 17; 23:23, 28; 33:2; 34:11; Deuteronomy 7:1; 20:17; Joshua 3:10; 24:11; Judges 3:5. What particular evil each nation symbolizes will be told elsewhere, by the Lord's divine mercy. ²

Footnotes:

1690. The rest fled into the mountain means that not all of them were conquered, as can be seen without explanation from the fact that the ones who escaped survived.

The inner meaning speaks of the trials the Lord endured when he was young. Not a word is said about them in the New Testament Scriptures but only about his crisis in the wilderness (or just after he came out of the wilderness) and finally about his last crisis, which began in Gethsemane.

From his early youth up to the last hour of his life in the world, the Lord's life was one continuous struggle and one continuous victory, as many passages in the Old Testament Word indicate. The Lord's trials did not end with the test he faced in the wilderness, as these words in Luke show:

After the Devil had finished all his testing [of Jesus], he left Jesus alone for a while. (Luke 4:13)

The same thing can be seen from the consideration that the Lord was tested up till his death on the cross and so till the last hour of his life in the world. This evidence makes it clear that the Lord's whole life in the world, from early youth on, consisted of constant trials and constant victories, the last of which occurred on the cross when he prayed for his enemies and so for everyone everywhere in the world.

[2] The Word's description of the Lord's life in the Gospels mentions none of his trials outside his final crisis, except for the one he faced in the wilderness. No more was revealed to the disciples. What was revealed seems so mild that it hardly amounts to anything, as far as the literal story goes; to speak and answer in that way is no trial. ¹ The fact is, though, that he was tested more severely than any human mind could ever grasp or believe. No one can know what a spiritual crisis is like except the person who has lived through one. The trial mentioned in Matthew 4:1-11; Mark 1:12-13; and Luke 4:1-13 sums up all the Lord's trials, which consisted in his battling the self-love and materialism that filled the hells, out of love for the entire human race.

[3] All trials target the love we feel. The severity of the trial matches the nobility of the love. If love is not the target, there is no trial. To destroy a person's love is to destroy the core of that person's life, since love is life. The Lord's life was love for the whole human race, a love so great and good that it was pure, unalloyed love. He allowed this life of his to be attacked continuously, as noted [§§1661:5, 1676], from the dawn of his youth until his final moments in the world.

Love, which was the absolute core of the Lord's life, is symbolized by this:

He was hungry, and the Devil said, "If you are the Son of God, say to this stone that it should become bread." And Jesus answered, "It is written, ‘Humankind is not to live by bread alone but by every word of God.'" (Luke 4:2-3, 4; Matthew 4:2, 3, 4)

[4] He fought against materialism and everything bearing its stamp, as symbolized by these words:

The Devil led him up onto a tall mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the inhabited world in a moment of time and said, "I will give you all this authority and the glory of these kingdoms, because it has been given to me, and I give it to anyone I want. If you will worship before me, then, they will all be yours." But answering him Jesus said, "Go back behind me, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him alone you shall serve.'" (Luke 4:5, 6, 7, 8; Matthew 4:8, 9, 10)

[5] He fought against self-love and everything bearing its stamp, as symbolized by these words:

The Devil took him into the Holy City and stood him on a pinnacle of the Temple and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you, and on their hands they will carry you, to keep you from stubbing your foot against a stone.'" Jesus said to him, "Again it is written, ‘You shall not test the Lord your God.'" (Matthew 4:5-6, 7; Luke 4:9, 10, 11, 12)

His constant victory is symbolized by the statement that after his trial, "angels came close and tended to him" (Matthew 4:11; Mark 1:13).

[6] In short, the Lord was attacked by all the hells from early in his youth up to the very end of his life in the world, while he was continually routing, subduing, and vanquishing them. This he did purely out of love for the entire human race. Since his love was not human but divine, and the greater the love the harder the struggle, you can see how fierce his battles were and how savage on the part of the hells.

This is how it was, as I know for certain.

Footnotes: