8906. 'You shall not steal' means that no one's spiritual goods or possessions must be taken away from him, and that things which are the Lord's must not be attributed to self. This is clear from the meaning of 'stealing' as taking spiritual goods or possessions away from someone. The reason why 'stealing' has these meanings is that wealth and riches in the spiritual sense are cognitions or knowledge of goodness and truth, in general everything that composes the faith and charity, that is, the spiritual life a person has. Therefore taking these away from someone is what 'stealing' means in the spiritual sense. And since all spiritual goods or possessions, that is, everything composing faith and charity, come wholly from the Lord and not at all from man, 'stealing' also means attributing to self things which are the Lord's. People who do this are also called 'thieves' and 'robbers' in John,

Truly I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the sheepfold but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. But he who is entering by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. I am the door of the sheep. All who were before Me were thieves and were robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door; if anyone enters through Me he will be saved, and will go in and out, and find pasture. The thief does not come except to steal and to kill and to destroy. I have come in order that they may have life, and may have it abundantly. John 10:1-13.

'Entering by the door into the sheepfold' doing so through the Lord, for the Lord is 'the door', as He Himself says. 'The sheep' are those who have charity and consequently faith, and they enter the fold through the Lord when they acknowledge that He is the source of everything composing faith and charity; for then these flow in from Him. But to attribute them to others, especially to self, is to take them away, which is 'to kill and destroy' them. People who attribute entirely to themselves those things which are the Lord's also assume that merit lies in works and consider themselves righteous; such people are dealt with in 1110, 1877, 2027, 2273, 2340, 2373, 2400, 3816, 4007 (end), 4174, 4943, 6388-6390, 6392, 6393, 6478. This then is 'stealing' in the spiritual sense, and it is what comes to mind with angels in heaven when a person reads in the Word about 'stealing'; for angels understand the Word wholly on a spiritual level.

[2] 'Stealing' has a like meaning in Hosea,

When I healed Israel the iniquity of Ephraim was revealed, and the evils of Samaria; for they practiced a lie, and a thief came, a band [of robbers] encircles the house. ¹ Now their own works surround them before My face; they make a king glad through their wickedness, and princes through their lies. Hosea 7:1-3.

And in Joel,

The day of Jehovah comes. Fire devours before him, and behind him a flame burns; like the garden of Eden is the land before him, but behind him there is a desert waste. Its appearance is like the appearance of horses, and like horsemen, so they run. Like the noise of chariots over the peaks of mountains [they leap]. They run about the city, they run on the wall, they climb up into the houses, they go in through the windows like a thief. The earth quaked before him, the heavens trembled. The sun and the moon were darkened, and the stars withdrew their shining. Joel 2:1-10.

This refers to the desolation of the Church, when falsities break in and destroy truths. These falsities are 'the thieves that climb up houses and go in through the windows'. Will anyone fail to wonder why it says that the day of Jehovah will be 'like the appearance of horses', and that at this time 'like horsemen, so they will run', 'they will run about the city, run on the wall, climb up into the houses, and go in through the windows', and 'the earth will quake, the heavens will tremble, the sun and moon will be darkened, and the stars will withdraw their shining'? The person who does not know anything about the internal sense and in his heart calls into doubt the holiness of the Word will say that these are simply words without anything of God concealed in them; and he will perhaps call the sayings meaningless. But the person who believes that the Word is most holy because it is Divine, and furthermore knows that there is an internal sense, in which the Church, heaven, and the Lord Himself are the subject, will profess that every word there carries weight. Therefore let a brief explanation be given of what the words and sayings there mean.

[3] 'The day of Jehovah' is the final state or final period of the Church, when there is no longer truth but falsity instead. 'The fire' which devours before him is the desire for evil, and 'the fire' which burns after him is the resulting desire for falsity. 'The appearance of horses' is intellectual powers that reason from falsity as if from truth; 'the horsemen' who run are reasoners; 'chariots' are matters of doctrine that uphold falsity; 'the city' is doctrine itself; 'the wall' on which they run is a false essential; 'the houses' which they will climb up are a person's will; 'the windows' which they will go in through are intellectual concepts; 'a thief' is falsity which takes away truth; 'the earth' which will quake before him is the Church, and so are 'the heavens' which will tremble; 'the sun' is love to the Lord, 'the moon' faith in Him, which are said 'to be darkened' when they are no longer apparent; 'the stars' are cognitions or knowledge of goodness and truth which will no longer possess light from faith and love, thus from heaven, meant by 'withdrawing their shining'. From all this one may recognize what these words in general imply, and also in what sense that day or final state of the Church is called 'a thief' who will climb up houses and go in through the windows - falsity which will at that time take possession of the entire person, of both his will and his understanding, and so will take away all truth and goodness. 'A thief' has a like meaning in Obadiah,

The Lord Jehovih said to Edom, If thieves come to you, if those who overturn in the night - how you will have been cut off! - will they not steal that which is enough for themselves? Obad. verses 1, 5.

'A thief' or 'one who steals' has a like meaning in Zechariah 5:1-4; Psalms 50:18-20; Matthew 6:19-20.

[4] As all the regulations which the Lord commanded the children of Israel were founded on the laws of order which exist in heaven, that is, they sprang from the spiritual world and derived their essential nature from there, this was no less so with the laws laid down regarding thefts, such as the law,

Anyone who has stolen an ox and sells it shall repay five, or four if one of the flock. Exodus 21:37. ²

Also these laws,

If a thief has been struck while breaking in, no blood [is required] for him; but if the sun has risen, blood [is required]. A thief must pay compensation or be sold. If [what he has stolen] is found in his hand he shall restore double. Exodus 22:2-4.

Anyone who steals a man and sells him - and he is found in his hand - shall surely die. Exodus 21:16.

If there is found a man who has stolen a soul from his brothers, from the children of Israel, and has made profit on him, when he has sold him, that thief shall be killed, so that you remove evil from the midst of you. Deuteronomy 24:7.

'Men from the children of Israel' in the internal sense are those who are governed by the truths and forms of the good of faith. Accordingly in the abstract sense they are the truths and forms of good themselves, 5414, 5879, 5951, so that 'stealing a man from the children of Israel' means taking these away, and 'selling him' means alienating them and also reducing them to a state of servitude. For since truths and forms of the good of faith come from the Lord they exist in a state of freedom, and are subservient to none except the Lord alone; but when they are alienated they come into a state of servitude since they are subservient to some evil of self-love or love of the world, thus to some bodily desire. This is how that law [in Deuteronomy 24:7] was derived and what it corresponds to; and since from being in freedom the Church's truth and good is reduced to subservience, and so from being living is made dead, the punishment, which is the outcome, is death.

Mga talababa:

6391. 'And he will see rest that it is good' means that works of goodness done without thought of recompense are filled with happiness. This is clear from the meaning of 'rest' as the things which are of heaven, thus those who ¹ have the good of charity in them, that is, who perform works of goodness without thought of recompense, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'that it is good' as the fact that they are filled with happiness. The reason 'rest' means works of goodness done without thought of recompense is that 'rest' or peace in the highest sense means the Lord, and in the relative sense heaven and thus good which comes from the Lord, see 3780, 4681, 5662. And since the things meant by 'rest' or peace reside with none but those who have the good of charity in them and so perform works of goodness without thought of recompense, these works are meant by 'rest'; for this meaning is what follows from the train of thought in the internal sense.

[2] The fact of the matter is that people who perform good deeds with no other end in view than recompense cannot possibly know that the performance of good deeds without thought of recompense holds happiness so great that it is the happiness of heaven. The reason why they cannot know is that happiness is seen by them to reside in the delight of self-love; and insofar as a person sees delight within this love he sees no delight within heavenly love, since the two are opposites. The delight which comes out of self-love entirely destroys that which comes out of heavenly love. It destroys it so completely that there is plainly no knowledge of what heavenly delight may be; or if mention is made of what it is like, this is met with unbelief and even rejection.

[3] I have been allowed to know about this from evil spirits in the next life who, when they lived in the world, performed no good deed for others or for their country except for selfish reasons. They do not believe that any delight can exist in the performance of good deeds without recompense as the end in view; for they imagine that without recompense as the end in view all delight ceases to exist. And if they are told nevertheless that when that delight ceases to exist heavenly delight starts to do so, they are dumbfounded on hearing it. And especially when they hear that that heavenly delight flows into a person by way of his inmost being and fills him interiorly with indescribable happiness, they are all the more dumbfounded, saying they cannot take it in. Indeed they say they do not want that delight, for they think that if they lose the delight of self-love their condition is utterly wretched because all the joy of life is in that case missing; and they also call those people naive whose state is different from one of self-love. Not unlike them are those whose works are performed with a view to recompense, for they do good works for their own benefit and not that of others, that is, they regard themselves in those works, not their neighbour, nor their country, nor heaven, nor the Lord, except as those who have a duty to be of benefit to them. These are the kinds of matters that this verse dealing with Issachar describes in the internal sense.

Mga talababa: