Preface

THE first two volumes explained [the first] fifteen chapters of Genesis and said what is contained in their inner meaning. Attached to each chapter [in those volumes] was a record of what the Lord in his divine mercy has given me the opportunity to see and hear in the world of spirits and the heaven of angels. Now comes the third volume, which includes similar reports likewise attached to each chapter. The article appended to the present chapter, Genesis 16 [§§1966–1983], concerns visions and dreams (including prophetic dreams) in the Word.

I know few will believe that anyone can see into the other world or report from there on the state of souls after death, because few believe in the resurrection, and even fewer of the well-educated than of the naive. It is true that they say with their lips that they will rise again, because this accords with official theology, but they deny it at heart.

[2] Some even confess openly that they would believe it if someone were to rise from the dead and they were to see, hear, and touch the person. If this happened, though, it would be an isolated experience and would fail to convince those who at heart deny the resurrection. A thousand objections would occur to them and harden them in their negative frame of mind.

Some do claim to believe they will rise again, but on the day of the Last Judgment. The picture they have formed of this is that everything in the visible world will cease to exist on that day; and since they have been awaiting it in vain for so many centuries, they too are dubious. What is meant by the Last Judgment mentioned in the Word, however, will be summarized at the end of the next chapter, Genesis 17, the Lord in his divine mercy willing [§§2117–2133].

[3] These attitudes indicate what kind of people make up the Christian world today. The Sadducees told of in Matthew 22:23 and the verses that follow openly denied the resurrection, but they acted better than people today who deny it at heart but claim they do not (since it is the official teaching, as noted) Their words contradict their beliefs, and their beliefs contradict their words.

To prevent them from growing even more firmly entrenched in this misguided opinion, the Lord in his divine mercy has given me the privilege of experiencing the next world in spirit while bodily present in this world (since a human being is a spirit clothed with a body). There I have spoken with souls recently revived after death, and in fact with almost everyone I knew during physical life who had since died. Every day now for several years I have also talked with spirits and angels and seen astounding sights that it has never occurred to anyone to imagine. No illusion of any kind was involved.

[4] Many people say that if someone comes to them from the other life, they will believe, so we shall see now whether they can be persuaded despite their hard hearts.

This I can assert positively: People who come into the next life from the Christian world are the worst of all. They hate their neighbor, they hate the religion, they deny the Lord (since it is the heart rather than the mouth that does the talking in the other world), not to mention the fact that they are more adulterous than anyone else. Because heaven is starting to move away from people inside the church, then, clearly the last days are at hand, as I have learned for certain.

To learn about the identity and nature of the Word’s inner meaning, see the statements and illustrations in the first two volumes, §§1–5, 64, 65, 66, 167, 605, 920, 937, 1143, 1224, 1404, 1405, 1408, 1409, 1502 at the end, 1540, 1659, 1756, 1767–1777 and 1869–1879 (particularly), 1783, 1807; and in the present volume, §§1886–1889.

1886. Genesis 16

THIS chapter has to do with Hagar and Ishmael, but until now no one has recognized what they represent and symbolize on an inner level. No one could have recognized it, because so far the world (even the scholarly world) has supposed that the stories of the Word are mere narratives, with no deeper implications. They have said that every jot is divinely inspired, but they do not mean much by it. All they mean is that the contents have been revealed [by God] and that some amount of doctrine relevant to their theology can be drawn from it and used by teachers and students. Because the stories have been divinely inspired (the world reasons), they have divine force in people's minds and do them more good than any other history.

Taken at face value, however, the narratives do little to improve us. They have no effect at all on our eternal life, because in the other world historical detail is obliterated from memory. What good would it do us there to know about Hagar the slave, about the fact that Sarai gave her to Abram, about Ishmael, or even about Abram? In order to go to heaven and partake of its joy (that is, of eternal life), our souls need only what belongs to and comes from the Lord. This is what his Word is for, and this is what it contains in its depths.

1807. He said, "Look, please, toward the sky," symbolizes a representation of the Lord's kingdom when one is gazing at the universe, as can be seen from the symbolism of the sky. In the Word, on an inner level, the sky means not the heaven that we see with our eyes but the Lord's kingdom as a whole and in each part. When people who see deeper meaning in external objects look at the sky, they do not think about the starry heaven at all but about the angels' heaven. When they see the sun, they do not think about the sun but about the Lord as heaven's sun. Likewise when they see the moon and also the stars. In fact when they see how vast the sky is, they do not think about its immense size but about the Lord's vast, infinite power. The same holds true for all other sights, because each one of them represents something.

[2] The same is true for sights on the earth. When such people see the sun rise, for example, they do not think about the dawn but about the way everything rises out of the Lord, and the way wisdom advances day to day. Again, when they look at gardens, orchards, and flower beds, their eye does not cling to any tree, or to its blossom, leaf, or fruit, but to the heavenly attributes these represent. Their attention is absorbed not by the loveliness or charm of any flower but by what it represents in the other life. Nothing beautiful or enjoyable can possibly exist in the heavens or on earth that does not in some measure represent the Lord's kingdom. (On this subject, see what was said at §1632.) That is what is meant by looking toward the sky, symbolizing a representation of the Lord's kingdom when one is gazing at the universe.

[3] The reason each and every thing in the sky and on earth represents something is that a stream of influence from the Lord through heaven brought it into existence, and continues to do so, in order to keep it in existence.

The situation is like that with the human body. It is through our soul that our body comes into existence and remains in existence, so our whole body and everything in it represents something about our soul. The soul concerns itself with purposes and goals; the body, with executing them.

All effects of whatever kind likewise represent the purposes that caused them, and the purposes represent the ultimate goals that form their origins.

[4] People who think divine thoughts never restrict themselves to the objects of outward sight but are always seeing inner depths in those objects and from those objects. The very innermost depths have to do with the Lord's kingdom, so these people concern themselves with the very ultimate goal.

It is the same with the Lord's Word. People who care about divine concerns never view the Lord's Word in terms of the letter but view the letter and the literal meaning as representing and symbolizing the heavenly and spiritual attributes of the church and the Lord's kingdom. In their eyes, the literal sense merely serves as a vehicle for thinking about those subjects.

That is how the Lord looked at things.