1. Teachings for the New Jerusalem on the Lord

The Entire Sacred Scripture Is about the Lord, and the Lord Is the Word

WE read in John,

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and nothing that was made came about without him. In him there was life, and that life was the light for humankind. And the light shines in the darkness, but the darkness did not grasp it. And the Word became flesh and lived among us; and we saw his glory, glory like that of the only-begotten child of the Father. He was full of grace and truth. (John 1:1-3, 5, 14)

In the same Gospel,

Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. (John 3:19)

And elsewhere in the same Gospel,

While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of the light. I have come into the world as a light so that anyone who believes in me will not remain in darkness. (John 12:36, 46)

We can see from this that the Lord is God from eternity and that he himself is that Lord who was born into the world. It actually says that the Word was with God and that the Word was God, as well as that nothing that was made came about without him, and then that the Word became flesh and that they saw him.

There is little understanding in the church of what it means to call the Lord “the Word.” He is called the Word because the Word means divine truth or divine wisdom and the Lord is divine truth itself or divine wisdom itself. That is why he is also called the light that is said to have come into the world.

Since divine wisdom and divine love are one with each other and have been one in the Lord from eternity, it also says “in him there was life, and that life was the light for humankind.” The life is divine love, and the light is divine wisdom.

This oneness is what is meant by saying both that “in the beginning the Word was with God” and that “the Word was God.” “With God” is in God, since wisdom is in love and love is in wisdom. This is like the statement elsewhere in John, “Glorify me, Father, together with yourself, with the glory I had with you before the world existed” (John 17:5). “With yourself” is “in yourself.” This is why it adds “and the Word was God.” It says elsewhere that the Lord is in the Father and the Father is in him [John 14:10], and that the Father and he are one [John 10:30].

Since the Word is the divine wisdom of the divine love, it follows that it is Jehovah himself and therefore the Lord, the one by whom all things were made that were made, since everything was created out of divine love by means of divine wisdom.

5215. And parched with the east wind. That this signifies full of cupidities, is evident from the signification of “parched with the east wind,” as being to be consumed by the fire of cupidities. For the “east wind” and the “east,” in the genuine sense, are love to the Lord and love toward the neighbor (see n. 101, 1250, 3249, 3708, 3762); hence in the opposite sense they are love of self and love of the world, consequently evil desires and cupidities; for these belong to the loves referred to. “Fire” is predicated of these things for the reason spoken of above (see n. 5071), and consequently “to be parched” is predicated of them.

[2] For there are two sources of heat, as also of light; one source of heat is the sun of the world, and the other source is the sun of heaven, which is the Lord. It is known that the sun of the world pours forth heat into its world, and into all the things therein; but that the sun of heaven pours heat into the whole heaven is not so well known. And yet this may be known, if anyone will reflect upon the heat that is within man, and that has nothing in common with the heat of this world, that is, the heat called vital heat. From this it might be known that this heat is of a different nature from that of the heat of this world; and this true heat is living, while that of this world is not living; and that because spiritual heat is living, it kindles man’s interiors, of his will and understanding, and gives him to desire and to love and also to be affected. For this reason also desires, loves, and affections are spiritual heat, and are so called. That they are heat is very manifest, for heat is exhaled on all sides from living bodies, even in the greatest cold; and also when the desires and affections, that is, the loves, grow warmer, the body also grows warm in the same degree. This is the heat that is meant in the Word by “burning,” “fire,” and “flame”; and in the genuine sense it is heavenly and spiritual love, but in the opposite sense bodily and earthly love. From this it is evident that here by being “parched with the east wind” is signified being consumed by the fire of cupidities, and when predicated of memory-knowledges, which are the “thin ears” of corn, there is signified that they are full of cupidities.

[3] That by the “east wind” is signified what is of cupidites and the derivative phantasies is evident from the passages in the Word where it is mentioned, as in David:

He made the east wind to go forth in the heavens, and by His power He brought forth the south wind, and He made it rain down flesh upon them as dust, and winged fowl as the sand of the sea (Psalms 78:26-27).

That by the “flesh” which that wind brought are signified evil desires, and by the “winged fowl” the derivative phantasies, is plain in Moses (Numbers 11:31-35), where it is said that the name of the place in which the people were smitten with a plague because of their eating flesh was called “The graves of lust, because there they buried the people that lusted.”

[4] In Ezekiel:

Behold the vine that has been planted, shall it prosper? Shall it not utterly wither, when the east wind toucheth it? Upon the beds of its shoots it shall wither (Ezekiel 17:10).

The vine was plucked up in anger, it hath been cast forth to the earth, and the east wind hath withered its fruit; all the rods of its strength have been plucked off and withered; the fire hath devoured everyone, for fire hath gone forth from a rod of its branches, it hath devoured its fruit, so that there is not in it a rod of strength, a scepter for ruling (Ezekiel 19:12, 14); where the “east wind” denotes what belongs to cupidities.

In Isaiah:

He meditated upon His rough wind, in the day of the east wind (Isaiah 27:8).

[5] In Hosea:

The east wind shall come, the wind of Jehovah coming up from the wilderness; and its spring shall become dry, and its fountain shall be dried up; it shall make a prey of the treasure of all vessels of desire (Hos. 13:15); where also the “east wind” denotes what belongs to cupidities. Likewise in Jeremiah:

As the east wind I will scatter them before the enemy (Jeremiah 18:17).

[6] In David:

With the east wind thou wilt break the ships of Tarshish (Psalms 48:7).

In Isaiah:

Thou hast forsaken Thy people, the house of Jacob, because they are filled with the east wind, and the soothsayers are Philistines (Isaiah 2:6).

In Hosea:

Ephraim feedeth on wind, and followeth after the east wind; every day he multiplieth a lie and a wasting (Hos. 12:1);

“wind” here denotes phantasies, and the “east wind,” cupidities. Similar also is the meaning in the internal sense of the “east wind” by which locusts were produced, and by which they were driven into the sea (Exodus 10:13, 19); and also by which the waters of the sea Suph were divided (Exodus 14:21).