9528. 'Of shittim wood' means out of mercy. This is clear from the meaning of 'shittim wood' as the good of merit which is the Lord's alone, dealt with in 9472, 9486; and since the good of merit is mercy, 'shittim wood' also means mercy. For out of pure love, thus out of pure mercy, the Lord assumed the Human, and underwent the severest temptations, finally the passion on the Cross, that He might save the human race; and therefore merit and righteousness are His. From all this it is evident that the good of merit consists in mercy, mercy (misericordia) being Divine Love directed towards those trapped in misery (miseriae).

The Lord underwent the severest temptations and thereby set heaven and hell in order; and He fought out of Divine Love, to save those who receive Him in love and faith, see 1266, 1663, 1668, 1676, 1690, 1691 (end), 1737, 1787, 1789, 1812, 1813, 1820, 1921, 2083, 2159, 2574, 2649, 2776, 2795, 2813, 2816, 3318 (end), 4180, 4286, 4295, 5078.

2816. That 'Abraham put forth his hand' means temptation even to the final degree of power is clear from the train of thought, for the subject is the Lord's severest and inmost temptations. The verses preceding this have dealt with the preparation of the Divine human for admission into and endurance of those temptations, the present verse with the actual occurrence of them, which is expressed in the sense of the letter by the words 'Abraham put forth his hand'. By 'hand' is meant power, see 878, here the final degree of power, for nothing was absent apart from the actual experience. The teaching of the internal sense is that the Lord's Divine led the human into the severest temptations, for 'Abraham' is used to mean the Lord as regards the Divine; and this was done by the Divine even to the final degree of power. The truth of the matter is that the Lord allowed temptations into Himself in order that He might cast out from Himself everything that was merely human, doing so until nothing except what was Divine was left.

[2] The fact that the Lord allowed temptations into Himself, even the last which was that of the Cross, becomes clear from the Lord's own words, in Matthew,

Jesus began to show the disciples that He must suffer many things and be killed. At that point Peter took Him and began to rebuke Him, saying, Spare Yourself, Lord; let this not happen to You. But He turned and said to Peter, Go away behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling-block to Me, for you do not savour the things of God but those of men. Matthew 16:21-23.

And more explicitly in John,

No one takes My life ¹ from Me, but I lay it down of Myself; I have power to lay it down and I have power to receive it again. John 10:18.

And in Luke,

Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory? Luke 24:26.

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