Late on the first Easter Sunday, after the Lord had risen from the sepulcher, ten of the disciples gathered for the evening in the upper room of a house in Jerusalem (John 20). They were afraid and probably confused. Since their leader had been crucified by the Roman power, as organized by their own Jewish leaders, they feared that now his followers might also be hunted down and punished. They closed and locked the doors. Were any of the women there? The story does not say, but Peter and John were, who saw and talked with the angels that morning, and the stories of the women were known. Some time must have been spent wondering and perhaps arguing - was He really alive? How could they know it was really Him? This kind of thing, coming back to life after you’re dead, this doesn’t happen in this real world, there must be some mistake!

Then two of the followers, not of the twelve, but the two that had gone to the village of Emmaus, came in, excited and bursting with their news. They had seen Him! They had walked with Him for seven miles and He had told them wondrous things! They had only recognized Him when He broke bread and ate with them. "Don’t doubt us, it really was Jesus!"

And then as they all talked and argued, there He was, standing with them in the room. "Peace be unto you," He said, and He showed them His hands and feet and His side, where he was wounded. He calmed them, and told them that just as he had come down to mankind, so they must go out and teach to all people all the true things that He had taught in the years He was with them.

It was these truths about how to live one’s life that were saving, not the disciples themselves. These saving truths have the power to remit or retain sins, because they were from the Lord, the disciples only transmitted them from the Lord to those who would listen and take them to heart. Then He breathed on them - representing His holy spirit - so that they would not only want to pass these truths on to people, but would also be given the words to say whenever the times came. And then He was gone again.

Thomas was not there that night. We don’t know why. And Thomas, when he heard the story, just could not swallow it. "Except I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into His side, I will not believe", he said. (John 20:25.)

The next verse tells us that the next Sunday they gathered again, and that Thomas was present this time. As before, the Lord was suddenly there, saying again, "Peace be unto you", and then directly to Thomas, "Reach hither thy finger… and reach hither thy hand… and be not faithless but believing". Now Thomas's response was, "my Lord and my God". It seems as if the Lord came this time just to convince Thomas, because it was Thomas who needed Him.

I think He does work this way. I am reminded of another story, from the gospel of Mark (Mark 9:17-27) where a father comes to Jesus with a young son who is possessed by a devil, and asks Jesus to cure him, and is asked in turn: "Do you believe I can do this?" In Mark 9:24 the father responds. Crying out, he said with tears, "I believe, help thou my unbelief."

I think many people have this conflict between lingering doubts and a desire to have the doubts taken away. If we carry on and make our decisions in life as if the doubts were indeed gone, then indeed they will lose their strength and actually will be gone.

These are the only details given of these two meetings in Jerusalem. Chronologically the next post-Easter stories are the ones that take place in Galilee.

John does go on to say at the end of his gospel "...many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of His disciples which are not written in this book. But these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God...." (John 20:30-31). Perhaps there were more post-Easter stories that weren't written down, but the ones we do have are strong. For the disciples who were involved, there was an unstoppable impact from the life and teachings of the Lord, and His crucifixion, and physical death, and now - in these stories - His resurrection. Hearing the Lord's charges to them, these Galilean fishermen and their colleagues launch out into the wide world, and work to achieve the Great Commission, enduring hardships and persecution, and succeeding - probably beyond their wildest dreams!

9093. 'And divide the silver from it' means that its truth will be dispersed. This is clear from the meaning of 'dividing' as banishing and dispersing, dealt with in 6360, 6361; and from the meaning of 'silver' as truth, dealt with in 1551, 2048, 5658, 6112, 6914, 6917, 7999. The reason why 'dividing' means dispersing is that if things existing in association are divided they are also scattered, as when a person destroys his mind by dividing it. For the human mind consists of two parts existing in association; one part is called the understanding, the other part is called the will. A person who divides these two parts scatters what belongs to each part individually; for one part must receive its life from the other, and therefore when one perishes, so does the other. It is similar when someone divides truth from good, or what amounts to the same thing, faith from charity; when anyone does this he destroys both. In short, all the things which ought to be a single whole perish if they are divided.

[2] This division is meant by the Lord's words in Luke,

No one can serve two masters; either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will prefer the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Luke 16:13.

That is, it is not possible to serve the Lord through belief in Him and at the same time serve the world by loving it, thus to acknowledge truth and at the same time to do evil. Anyone who behaves in this way has his mind divided, as a result of which it is destroyed. From all this it is evident why it is that 'dividing' means dispersing; and the same is clearly the meaning in Matthew also,

The master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and in an hour he does not know. And he will divide him and assign him his part with the hypocrites. Matthew 24:50-51.

'Dividing' here means separating and removing from forms of good and truths, 4424, thus dispersing them.

[3] In Moses,

Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce, and their wrath, for it is hard. ¹ I will divide them in Jacob, and will scatter them in Israel. Genesis 49:7.

These words occur in Israel's prophetic utterance regarding Simeon and Levi. 'Simeon' and 'Levi' here represent those steeped in faith separated from charity, 6352; and 'Jacob' and 'Israel' represent the external and the internal Church, also the external and the internal man, 4286, 4598, 5973, 6360, 6361. 'Dividing them in Jacob' means banishing them from the external Church, and 'scattering them in Israel' from the internal Church, thus dispersing the Church's forms of good and its truths residing with them.

[4] It is also evident that 'dividing' has this meaning from the words written on the wall when Belshazzar king of Babel, together with his nobles, wives, and concubines, drank wine out of the vessels of gold and of silver that had belonged to the Temple in Jerusalem, Daniel 5:2-4, 25, 28. What was written said, 'Numbered, numbered, weighed, and divided,' 'divided' here meaning separated from the kingdom. Those verses show how all things at that time were representative. They describe the profanation of goodness and truth, which is meant by 'Babel'. Profanation is meant by 'Babel', see 1182, 1283, 1295, 1304-1308, 1321, 1322, 1326. Forms of the good of love, also the truths of faith, received from the Lord, are meant by 'the vessels of gold and silver', 1551, 1552, 5658, 6914, 6917. Profanation is meant by drinking out of them, and by praising then the gods of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone (as verse 4 says there), which are a string of evils and falsities, 4402 (end), 4544, 7873, 8941. 'The Temple in Jerusalem' from which the vessels had come means in the highest sense the Lord, and in the representative sense His kingdom and Church, 3720. Belshazzar's kingdom when it had been divided was a sign of the dispersion of goodness and truth, and his being killed that very night a sign of deprivation of the life of truth and good, which is damnation. For 'being divided' is being dispersed; 'king' is the truth of good, 1672, 2015, 2069, 3009, 3670, 4575, 4581, 4966, 5044, 5068, 6148, the same thing being meant by 'kingdom', 1672, 2547, 4691; 'being killed' means being deprived of the life of truth and good, 3607, 6767, 8902; and 'the night' in which he was killed is a state of evil and falsity, 2353, 7776, 7851, 7870, 7947. From this it is evident that all things there were representative.

[5] It says in David,

They divided my garments among them, and for my clothing cast lots. Psalms 22:18.

And in Matthew,

They divided the garments (the Lord's), casting lots, that it might be fulfilled which was said by the prophet. Matthew 27:35.

Also in John,

The soldiers took the garments and made four parts; and the tunic. The tunic was without seam, woven from the top throughout. They said regarding it Let us not divide it, but cast lots for it, whose it may be - so that the Scripture might be fulfilled. John 19:23-24.

The person who reads these things, knowing nothing about the internal sense of the Word, is unaware of any arcanum that lies concealed within them, when in fact every detail holds a Divine arcanum. The arcanum was that Divine Truths had been dispersed by the Jews. For the Lord was Divine Truth, which is why He is called the Word in John 1:1 and the following verses, 'the Word' being Divine Truth. His garments represented truths in the outward form they take, His tunic truths in their inward form; and the dividing of the garments represented the dispersing of the truths of faith by the Jews. For the meaning of 'garments' as truths in the outward form they take, see 2576, 5248, 5954, 6918, and for that of 'tunic' as truth in its inward form, 4677. Truths in their outward form are truths as they exist in the literal sense of the Word, but truths in their inward form are truths as they exist in the spiritual sense of the Word. 'Dividing the garments into four parts' meant total dispersion, in the same way that dividing does in Zechariah 14:4, and elsewhere. Dividing into two parts - as it says in Matthew 27:51; Mark 15:38, regarding the veil of the Temple - has a like meaning. The splitting apart of the rocks also at that time, Matthew 27:51, represented the dispersing of all matters of faith; for 'rock' means the Lord in respect of faith, and therefore means faith received from the Lord, 8581.

Imibhalo yaphansi:

8581. 'behold, I [will be] standing before you there on the rock in Horeb' means the Lord in respect of the truths of faith. This is clear from the meaning of 'the rock' as faith, in this instance faith received from the Lord, or the Lord in respect of faith, for Jehovah - that is, the Lord - says 'Behold, I [will be] standing on the rock'; and from the meaning of 'Horeb' as God's law. Consequently the words used here mean the Lord in respect of the truths of faith, which come from His law or the Word. The fact that 'the rock' means the Lord in respect of faith, and on man's side the faith he receives from the Lord, is clear from very many places in the Word, as in Moses,

Ascribe ¹ greatness to our God, the Rock, whose work is perfect. He caused him to ride on ² the heights of the land, and fed him with the produce of the fields; He caused him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock. But when Jeshurun became fat he kicked; he forsook God who made Him, and despised the Rock of his salvation. You have been unmindful of ³ the Rock who begot you, and have forgotten the God who formed you. Their Rock sold them, and Jehovah shut them up. For their rock is not like our Rock. When it is said, Where are their gods, the rock in which they trusted? ... Deuteronomy 32:3-4, 13, 15, 18, 30-31, 37.

From these verses it is evident that Jehovah, that is, the Lord, is the One who is called 'the Rock'. The fact that 'the Rock' is Jehovah or the Lord in respect of faith is made plain by every detail there in the internal sense.

[2] In Daniel,

You were watching, until a stone was cut out, not by means of hands; and it struck the statue on its feet, which were iron and clay, and smashed them to pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold together were smashed to pieces, and became like chaff from the summer threshing-floors; so that the wind carried them away, and no place was found for them. But the stone that struck the statue became a great rock and filled the whole earth. The God of heaven will cause a kingdom to arise that will never be destroyed, and also His kingdom will not be left to other people; it will crush and consume all those kingdoms, but will itself stand for ever. Inasmuch as you saw that the stone was cut out of the rock, not by means of hands, and it smashed the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold... Daniel 2:34-35, 44-45.

The subject here is the Lord and His kingdom, 'a stone' being used to mean faith, and 'a rock' the Lord in respect of faith. The fact that these things are meant by 'a stone' and 'a rock' is evident to anyone who gives thought to the matter. 'A stone' also means in the Word the truth that composes faith, see 643, 1298, 3720, 3769, 3771, 3773, 3789, 3798, 6426; therefore also the Lord in respect of Divine Truth is called 'the stone of Israel', 6426. The reason why 'a rock' means the Lord in respect of the truth of faith is that 'a rock' is also used to mean a fortress that withstands falsities. The actual fortress is the truth of faith, for this is what the battle against both falsities and evils is waged from.

[3] All this also makes it clear that in the following words in Matthew which the Lord addressed to Peter 'rock' is used to mean the Lord in respect of faith, and also faith received from the Lord,

I tell you, You Are Peter, and on this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Matthew 16:18-19.

As regards 'rock' here, that it means the Lord in respect of faith, and faith received from the Lord, and that 'Peter' represents that faith, see Preface to Genesis 22, and also 3750, 4738, 6000, 6073 (end), 6344 (end). It is also evident to anyone who thinks properly that the power to open heaven and close hell for the good, and to open hell and close heaven for the wicked, is the Lord's alone, and that the reason why such power accompanies faith is that faith comes from the Lord, and so likewise is the Lord's; that is, the Lord Himself is within faith. All power in the next life too comes through the truth of faith springing from good, 4931, 6344, 6423, 8200, 8304. One who thinks properly may also conclude that the Lord's Church has not been built on some person, thus not on Peter, but on the Lord Himself, that is, on faith in Him.

[4] From all this one can see what kind of errors they are, and how great, which those people slip into who adhere strictly to the sense of the letter of the Word. One can see why leaders of the Church are all too ready to seize on the idea that such power was given to Peter and consequently to those who call themselves his successors, for that idea lends support to what is in their heart. One can see how difficult it is for them to let themselves be convinced that this passage has any other meaning, for each wishes to gain supreme power. All this also shows how vital it is to know what 'rock', 'the keys', 'the gates of hell', and very many other things mean in the internal sense.

[5] The fact that Jehovah is called 'the Rock', and that when He is called this the Lord in respect of faith is meant, many other places in the Word also go to prove, such as the following, which will be quoted without further explanation. In Isaiah,

Send the lamb of the ruler of the land from the Rock towards the wilderness, to the mountain [of the daughter] of Zion. Isaiah 16:1.

In the same prophet,

You have forgotten [the God] of your salvation, and have not called to mind the Rock of your refuge. Isaiah 17:10.

In the same prophet,

Asshur will fall by the sword, not of man (vir). Also his rock will pass away by reason of terror. Isaiah 31:8-9.

In the same prophet,

Let the inhabitants of the Rock sing, let them shout from the top of the mountains. Isaiah 42:11.

In the same prophet,

Pay attention to Me, you who are pursuing righteousness, who are seeking Jehovah. Look to the Rock from which you were hewn. Isaiah 51:1.

In Jeremiah,

Leave the cities and dwell in the Rock, O inhabitants of Moab. Jeremiah 48:28.

In the same prophet,

I am against you, O destroying mountain, destroying the whole earth. And I will stretch out My hand against you, and roll you down from the rocks, and make you into a mountain of burning. Nor will they take from you a stone for a corner, or a stone for foundations. Jeremiah 51:25-26.

This refers to Babel. In David,

He caused me to come up out of the pit of devastation, out of the muddy clay, and He set my feet upon a rock. Psalms 40:2.

In the same author,

From the end of the earth I cry to You, when my heart fails; You lead me to the Rock high up from me. Psalms 61:2.

In the same author,

I fed them with the fat of wheat, and with honey out of the rock I satisfied them. Psalms 81:16.

[6] Since 'a rock' meant the Lord in respect of faith, and faith received from the Lord, also the wondrous things spoken of in the Book of Judges took place on a rock,

The Angel of Jehovah told Gideon to take the flesh and unleavened bread and peace them on the rock, and pour out the broth. And fire went up from the rock and consumed the flesh and unleavened bread. Judges 6:20-21.

And elsewhere in the same book,

Manoah, Samson's father, took the kid of the she-goats and offered it on the rock. Then the Angel acted in a wondrous manner and ascended in the flame. Judges 13:19-20.

What meaning these things had becomes clear if what 'Gideon' and what 'Manoah, Samson's father' represented is discovered from the internal sense, also what was meant by 'the flesh and unleavened bread' and 'the broth', 'the kid of the she-goats' as well, and 'the fire'. For every single one of these was representative and had a spiritual meaning.

[7] Knowing that 'the Rock' means faith may lead also to an understanding of the reference to Moses' being pieced in the cleft of the rock when he was to see Jehovah, Exodus 33:20-23; for 'the cleft of the rock' means obscurity of faith. It is well known in the Churches that the rock in Horeb from which the water came out means the Lord; but now it has been shown that it means the Lord in respect of faith, and also that it means faith received from the Lord. A meaning similar to that which 'the rock in Horeb' possesses is also meant in the following words in Isaiah,

Say, Jehovah has redeemed His servant Jacob. At that time they will not thirst; in waste places He will lead them. He will make water flow for them from the rock, when He cleaves the rock so that water flows out. Isaiah 48:20-21.

The reason why the people were given the water from no other rock than the one in Horeb is that 'Horeb' means God's law; and the reason why God's law is meant by 'Horeb' is that the law was proclaimed from there. And faith which is received from the Lord is acquired from God's law, that is, from the Word; for through the Word the Lord teaches what faith is and also imparts faith.

Imibhalo yaphansi: