1. Angelic Wisdom about Divine Providence

Divine Providence Is the Form of Government Exercised by the Lord's Divine Love and Wisdom

To understand what divine providence is--that it is the way the Lord's divine love and wisdom govern us--it is important to be aware of the following things, which were presented in my book on the subject.

In the Lord, divine love is a property of divine wisdom and divine wisdom is a property of divine love (Divine Love and Wisdom 34-39).

Divine love and wisdom cannot fail to be and to be manifested in others that it has created (Divine Love and Wisdom 47-51).

Everything in the universe was created by divine love and wisdom (Divine Love and Wisdom 52, 53, 151-156).

Everything in the created universe is a vessel of divine love and wisdom (54-60 [55-60]).

The Lord looks like the sun to angels; its radiating warmth is love and its radiating light is wisdom (Divine Love and Wisdom 83-88, 89-92, 93-98, 296-301).

The divine love and wisdom that emanate from the Lord constitute a single whole (Divine Love and Wisdom 99-102).

The Lord from eternity, who is Jehovah, created the universe and everything in it from himself and not from nothing (Divine Love and Wisdom 282-284, 290-295). These propositions may be found in the work titled Angelic Wisdom about Divine Love and Wisdom.

82. I need to say something about vacuum at this point. I once heard some angels talking with Newton about vacuum, saying that they could not stand the notion of vacuum. This was because in their world, which is a spiritual one, within or above the space and time of our earthly world, they were still feeling, thinking, being moved, loving, intending, and breathing, and still talking and acting, which could not possibly happen in a vacuum that was "nothing" because nothing is nothing, and we cannot attribute anything to nothing.

Newton said he knew that Divinity, the One who is, fills everything, and that he was aghast at the notion of a vacuum as nothing because this was a totally destructive notion. He urged the angels who were discussing vacuum with him to beware the notion of nothing, calling it a fantasy because there is no mental activity in nothing.

34. Divine love is a property of Divine wisdom, and Divine wisdom is a property of Divine love. The Divine being and Divine expression in the human God are in a distinct combination one (see nos. 14-16 above); and because the Divine being is Divine love, and the Divine expression is Divine wisdom, therefore these, too, are in a distinct combination one.

We say that they are in a distinct combination one because love and wisdom are two distinct attributes, but so united that love is a property of wisdom and wisdom a property of love. For love has its being in wisdom, and wisdom has its expression in love.

Moreover, because wisdom takes its expression from love (as said in no. 15 above), therefore Divine wisdom also is being; and it follows from this that love and wisdom taken together are the Divine being, whereas in considering them in distinction from each other we call love the Divine being, and wisdom the Divine expression.

Such is the angelic idea of Divine love and wisdom.