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Secrets of Heaven #1745

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1745. I have lifted my hand to Jehovah symbolizes the mind the Lord had, as can be seen from the symbolism of lifting one's hands. Lifting one's hand to Jehovah is a physical gesture corresponding to a state of mind, as everyone knows. The literal meaning is expressing intermediate characteristics (that is, characteristics of the mind) through external images that correspond to them, but it is inner things that are meant in the inner sense. The lifting of Abram's hand, then, is a mindset or state of mind.

[2] As long as the Lord was being tested, he talked to Jehovah as a separate person, but so far as his human quality became one with his divine quality, he talked to Jehovah as identical with himself. Many passages in the Gospels and many passages in the prophets and David offer evidence for this. 1 The reason for it stands out clearly from previous remarks about the Lord's heredity from his mother [§§1414, 1444:1-2, 1573]. To the extent that any of that heredity remained, he felt absent from Jehovah; but to the extent that it was rooted out, he was present with and was himself Jehovah.

[3] This can be illustrated by the bond between the Lord and the angels. Sometimes angels speak not for themselves but for the Lord. When they do, they have no idea they are not the Lord; but their superficial traits are being suppressed. It is different when their outward traits are active. Their inner self is the Lord's possession, and so far as anything of their own does not get in the way in such a situation, their inner self belongs to the Lord and in fact is the Lord.

The Lord, however, achieved full union or eternal oneness with Jehovah, so that his human nature itself is also Jehovah.

Footnotes:

1. Passages from the Gospels, the prophets, and Psalms that might be seen as prayers expressing Jesus' distress are Matthew 26:39, 42; 27:46; Mark 14:36; 15:34; Luke 22:42; 23:46; Jeremiah 15:15-18; Lamentations 3:55-56; Jonah 2:2-9; Habakkuk 1:2-4; 1:12-2:1; 3:2; and in Psalms, chapters 6; 22; 38; 69; 88. Passages that might be seen as prayers expressing oneness are Matthew 11:25-26; Luke 10:21; John 11:41-42; 17:1-26; Isaiah 38:15-20; Jeremiah 17:14-16; and in Psalms, chapters 104, 116, 145. [LHC]

  
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Many thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation and its New Century Edition team.

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Psalms 22

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1 My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?

2 O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent.

3 But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.

4 Our fathers trusted in thee: they trusted, and thou didst deliver them.

5 They cried unto thee, and were delivered: they trusted in thee, and were not confounded.

6 But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.

7 All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head saying,

8 He trusted on the LORD that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.

9 But thou art he that took me out of the womb: thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother's breasts.

10 I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou art my God from my mother's belly.

11 Be not far from me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help.

12 Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round.

13 They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion.

14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.

15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death.

16 For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.

17 I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me.

18 They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.

19 But be not thou far from me, O LORD: O my strength, haste thee to help me.

20 Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog.

21 Save me from the lion's mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns.

22 I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee.

23 Ye that fear the LORD, praise him; all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him; and fear him, all ye the seed of Israel.

24 For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; neither hath he hid his face from him; but when he cried unto him, he heard.

25 My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation: I will pay my vows before them that fear him.

26 The meek shall eat and be satisfied: they shall praise the LORD that seek him: your heart shall live for ever.

27 All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the LORD: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee.

28 For the kingdom is the LORD's: and he is the governor among the nations.

29 All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship: all they that go down to the dust shall bow before him: and none can keep alive his own soul.

30 A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation.

31 They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this.

   

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