122. In addition to the reasons already noted, the inhabitants and spirits of our world answer in the Grand Man to the natural and external sense. This sense is the ultimate point at which the interiors of life come to an end, and in which they come to rest as on their common base. Divine truth in the letter, which we call the Word, is similar; and it was for this reason that it was given in this world and not in another. ¹ And because the Lord is the Word, and its First and Last, it was so that everything should come into being in proper order that He chose to be born in this world, and to become the Word. This is in agreement with John's words:

In the beginning there 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 His means, and nothing that was made was made without Him. And the Word was made flesh, and lived among us, and we saw His glory, the glory as of the only son of the Father. No one has ever seen God, but the only son, who is in the Father's bosom, He has explained Him. John 1:1-4, 14, 18.

The Word is the Lord in respect of Divine truth, and so Divine truth coming from the Lord. ² But this is a mystery which few can understand.

Fotnoter:

5272. 'This is the word which I have spoken to Pharaoh' means what the natural was led to think by the celestial of the spiritual. This is clear from the meaning of 'the word' as the real thing, dealt with below; from the meaning of 'speaking' as thinking, dealt with in 2271, 2287, 2619, 5259; from the representation of 'Joseph', who is the speaker here, as the celestial of the spiritual, and from the representation of 'Pharaoh' as the natural, both of whom are dealt with above. From all this it is evident that 'this is the word which I have spoken to Pharaoh' means the real thing, or what the natural was led to think by the celestial of the spiritual; see also 5262. Regarding the term 'the word', this is used in the original language to express the idea of the real thing. This also explains why Divine revelation is called the Word, and why too in the highest sense the Lord Himself is called such. And when 'the Word' is used to refer to the Lord, as also when it is used to refer to revelation received from Him, Divine Truth - the source of every real thing that comes into being - is meant in the proximate sense.

[2] This idea that all real things have been brought and are being brought into being by means of Divine Truth going forth from the Lord, thus by means of the Word, is an arcanum which has yet to be disclosed. People's belief and understanding of this is that all things have been created because God has spoken and issued His command, as a king does in his kingdom. But that is not what is meant by saying that all things have been made and created by the Word. Rather, the meaning is that Divine Truth which goes forth from Divine Good, that is, which goes forth from the Lord, is the originator of all things that have been brought and are being brought into being. Divine Truth going forth from Divine Good is the ultimate reality and the essential being within all creation; and this Divine Truth is what makes and creates all things. But scarcely anyone has any other idea of Divine Truth than this - a word or utterance issuing from a speaker's mouth and transmitted into the air. This idea about Divine Truth leads to the notion that 'the Word' means simply a command, so that all things that have been made exist solely because a command has been delivered, not because of some reality that has come forth from the Lord's Divine. But as has been stated, the Divine Truth going forth from the Lord is the ultimate reality and essential being from which all things derive their existence. Every form of what is good and true owes its existence to this. But in the Lord's Divine mercy more will be said later on regarding this arcanum.