1. The Holy Scripture Throughout Has the Lord As Its Subject, and the Lord Embodies the Word

We read in John:

In the beginning 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 Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of people. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.... And the Word moreover became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as though of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:1-5, 14)

Again in the same Gospel:

...the light came into the world, but people loved darkness more than light, for their deeds were evil. (John 3:19)

And elsewhere in it:

While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may be children of light.... I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness. (John 12:36, 46)

It is apparent from this that the Lord is, from eternity, God, and that God Himself is the Lord who was born in the world. For we are told that the Word was with God, and that the Word was God. Also that without Him nothing was made that was made. And later we are told that the Word became flesh, and people beheld Him.

[2] Why the Lord is called the Word is little understood in the church. However, He is called the Word because the term “Word” symbolizes Divine truth itself or Divine wisdom itself, and the Lord embodies Divine truth itself or Divine wisdom itself. That, too, is why He is called the light, which is also said to have come into the world.

Because Divine wisdom and Divine love are united, and were united in the Lord from eternity, therefore we are told as well that “In Him was life, and the life was the light of people.” Life means Divine love, and light Divine wisdom.

This is the union meant by the statement that the Word was in the beginning with God and that God was the Word. With God means in God, for wisdom is present in love, and love in wisdom.

So, too, we find elsewhere in John:

...Father, glorify Me with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was. (John 17:5)

“With Yourself” means in Yourself. That, too, is why we are told, “And God was the Word.” And elsewhere that the Lord is in the Father, and the Father in Him, and that He and the Father are one.

Now because the Word is the Divine wisdom accompanying Divine love, it follows that it is Jehovah Himself, thus the Lord, by whom all things were made that were made, inasmuch as they were all created out of Divine love by means of Divine wisdom.

1659. THE INTERNAL SENSE

The details contained in this chapter appear as if they were not representative, for the subject is merely the wars between a number of kings, and Lot's reclamation by Abram, and, towards the end, Melchizedek; so that these details do not seem to possess a single heavenly arcanum within them. Yet like all such details, these conceal very deep arcana in the internal sense which follow in a continuous sequence from the things preceding them, and also link themselves in a similar sequence to those that follow.

[2] The descriptions which precede have dealt with the Lord and the instruction He received, and also with His External Man which was to be joined to the internal by means of knowledge and cognitions. But because His external Man was such, as has been stated, that from what was inherited from the mother it had within it things which prevented their becoming joined together, things which had first to be cast out by means of conflicts and temptations before His external Man could be united to the Internal - that is, His Human Essence to the Divine Essence - this chapter therefore deals with those conflicts themselves. The latter in the internal sense are represented and meant by the wars which it describes. Within the Church it is well known that Melchizedek represented the Lord, and that the Lord is thus meant in the internal sense when Melchizedek is spoken of. From this one may also conclude that not only such details regarding Melchizedek but all others are indeed representative, for not one small word can have been written in the Word that has not been sent down from heaven and consequently in which angels do not see heavenly things.

[3] In most ancient times furthermore many things were represented by wars, which people called 'The Wars of Jehovah'. The latter meant nothing other than the conflicts fought by the Church and by those who belonged to the Church, that is, their temptations, which are nothing else than battles and wars against the evils present within themselves and so against the devil's crew who activate evils and endeavour to destroy the Church and the member of the Church. That wars in the Word have no other meaning becomes quite clear from the fact that the Word cannot have as its subject anything other than the Lord, His kingdom, and the Church, since it is Divine, not human, and consequently heavenly, not worldly. This being so the wars described in the sense of the letter cannot have any other meaning in the internal sense. This may become clearer still from what follows.