The Lord's Rational from the mother - The Natural Rational Assumed by the Lord upon coming into the world: Its Purpose
By Rev. Paul Booth
Lessons: 1 Kings 1; 1-14 | John 3: 15, 16, 36; 6: 40; 10: 25; 20: 31 | Arcana C&œ;lestia 2535
By Rev. Paul Booth
Lessons: 1 Kings 1; 1-14 | John 3: 15, 16, 36; 6: 40; 10: 25; 20: 31 | Arcana C&œ;lestia 2535
"Wherefore Nathan spoke unto Bathsheba the mother of Solomon, saying, Have you not heard that Adonijah the son of Haggith does reign, and David our Lord does not know it? Now therefore, let me, I pray thee, give you council, that you may save your own life, and the life of your son Solomon"
(1Kings 1: 11, 12)
(1Kings 1: 11, 12)
From the Word in today's lesson we learn in the spiritual sense that the Lord while on earth was to begin a new state. What is meant there is that the Lord was to 'put on' a Human from the Divine. His human from the mother was to be overcome. Next, there is revealed that the state of the Church then on earth and, therefore the man of the Church is destroyed by the proprium of man, which is the love of self that now reigns in man. Now because in this new state the Lord was to make complete the reason for Him coming on earth, it was necessary for Him to 'put off' that human from mankind, which was of an evil nature and was the proprium that has become distorted and was no loner a proper proprium come from the Lord. This He did by glorification of His Human in the world, thus becoming Divine. Therefore, our Lord was born into this world as any other man with the potential to sin. How else could the Lord have been approached by evils spirits; how else could He combat against them, defeating them, and be victorious? The text follows in a series with the next particular and teaches that the Lord as a man on earth had to learn, to know and to acknowledge truths as any other man does. As this truth pertains to man, so too, a man must first know who the Lord is just as the Lord had to know who His Father was in order that He save those who believe on Him and who wills to love the Lord and his neighbor.
When one first reads the Word, when one first discovers its truths, if he or she accepts it as coming from God, will recognize God. One believes at that moment that God has revealed to him the truth. He even feels that the Lord has led him in his discovery of the truth. What this is was the Divine proceeding leading man in his reformation; for, the Lord had insinuated into a person, when he or she was an infant and a child, cognitions and these are what lead a person into reformation. Now, let us turn to our text. It is 'Nathan' who speaks and Nathan was a prophet, and prophets represent the Lord in Divine Truth, thus in Doctrine, and so, teach the truths of the Word. Therefore, in 'Nathan' is represented the Lord as to the Word. The Lord, while in the world in the human from the mother, as any other person, had to learn such truths concerning the Divine. He was to know the truth from the Divine and obtain them as His just as a person is to know the truth and make it 'as if' his own through his living accordingly. In so doing the Lord glorified His Human from the Father, which is the Divine within Him. The natural rational that He had was from the mother. (cf. AC 5686) For, it was through the rational of the mother, through which good became conjoined with truth. (cf. AC 9199) This process was prior shown in learning cognitions, knowledges, and scientifics of truths and, thereby in forming vessels proper for celestial things, which are things of wisdom that comes from love. Now, Bathsheba's 'hearing' Nathan signifies the Lord's obedience and apperception to the truth. (Bathsheba is the wife of David, and whose son is Solomon.) It was His receiving instructions or Divine laws, thus, the Divine's proceeding truth. 'Hearing' is the first step in one becoming regenerated. With the Lord it was the first step in the His glorification. You can see that learning the cognitions, knowledges, and scientifics, unless they become acts are just memory knowledge to be carried around and have only the appearance of one being intelligent. So, our text signifies the Lord while in a state of not knowing who reigns or rules in His human and is seen in the text as unaware that Adonijah, which signifies the proprium from the mother, here, Haggith. You can see names in the Word are not meant the person, but signify different qualities and states that the Lord went through while on earth.
In our text, there is mention of Hagar (Haggith) and Adonijah - mother and son. In the spiritual sense 'mother' signifies the Church, which in man is the truth, however, by Haggith is meant a distorted church, the truths being only apparent. In this one sees Haggith as the affection of the external man that the Lord has put on upon becoming a man as is a man on earth. Therefore, the son Adonijah signifies natural truths which are not from the Divine, but from one's natural separated there from. Remember, Bathsheba was the mother of David and David is seen as the Lord come on earth. The Word primarily concerns the Lord and, here, we see the Lord in a particular state when He began His glorification, that is, began to make Divine His Human from the Father.
So, it is that the Lord had to learn truths as does any man. He had to know that His proprium from His mother was evil and that its desire was to reign and not the Divine that was in Him, which is His Father. In fact, the Lord came into the world so that the Divine could reign in the natural of man, for the man's natural had become separated from his spiritual and celestial, in which he was conjoined with God through love. This the Lord did when He was in the world so that He not only reigned in the Celestial and Spiritual degrees of life, but in the Natural as well, which had separated itself from any conjunction with the Lord God. In man, however, reigns evil and this because of his proprium (cf. AC7648). Because of the Lord's work of salvation, love or affection inflows into our mind and there reigns. The question is: is the truth, is the genuine doctrine flowing into our mind, or is it just the love of self flowing from hell with its falsities into us? Just as the Jesus' rational was born with affection for scientifics about Divine truth, so too, man has the affection of sciences of Divine truth. A man needs to learn and to know truth from a love for truths for truths sake. Let us question ourselves and examine our thoughts. Do we love truth for truth's sake? Or do we love truth because it helps us obtain wealth, worldly pleasure, power or honor in our life?
It is the affection of knowing truths from the Word that will open a man's spirit to receive the truth and later the good that comes from the Divine. In our text these truths are: that the love of self reigns within us. Therefore, we need the Lord's love in us in order to have a new life and life in Heaven in the next. We need to receive these truths that we may have a new proprium from the Lord - a new will and understanding. Specifically, from this lesson, we have learned that the Lord Himself was to learn Divine Truths, that is, was to know these truths upon coming into this world as a man even as we are.
At first, there should be a longing to know what is true, that is, to know genuine truth. This, then, becomes our faith. It is the Divine Truth represented by Nathan that teaches what is right, and that leads to the Divine Truth (cf. AE 237 § 3). Solomon signifies the Lord on earth glorified and thus the Divine Truth revealed. The text says,
"Let me, I pray thee, give you counsel . . ." (1 Kings 1: 12)
Thus, we are to come to learn and to accept the doctrine of faith and charity in order that the rational is entered and this through the revelation of truths taught in the Word. Further, we are to allow the revelation of truths to work and to intercede in our lives. That is the significance of this verse. (cf. AC 2535, 7396). In this state of learning there is no temptation. (AC 8179e). Temptations only come as truths are being confirmed. The Lord, just a man, was to know what was right or true through the Divine Truth that is learned. (AE 237 § 3). The difference is that with the Lord this was possible while with man it is only possible from the Lord within man. (AC 3705e). For, it is the Lord who appropriated truths for man: He acquired genuine truth for man when He became the Divine Human. Nonetheless, a man should 'as if' of himself appropriate truths. Of ourselves we do not have that power; we are only receptacles that can receive the truth and the good of the Lord. What the Lord appropriated to His Natural He wills to give to anyone. (cf. AC 2742e).
The twelfth verse continues,
"That you may save your own life, and the life of your son Solomon"
Of course, by to 'save' signifies salvation, thus to keep and to guard. It refers to man's reformation, to his regeneration and sanctification. These things come only from the Lord. However, as to the Lord, they represent His union with the Divine and, thus, becoming the Lord's Divine Human. (cf. AC 10370 § 2). What is meant here is the saving of the man's natural rational, which signifies an internal that is from the Natural. And, it is the Divine Human that comes into the world in the Natural which Solomon signifies. For, David represents the Lord coming into the world, while Solomon the Lord after His coming into the world in His glorification. So it is the saving of the man's rational through the Lord's glorification that we are to 'as it were' listen to Nathan - the Divine Truth or Word.
Next, the Word continues in the twelfth verse,
"Go and get thee unto King David, and say unto him,"
Spiritually, to 'go' means to live and requires action. To 'get' is to acquire or to appropriate for one's self, as example: to eat that food becomes a part of the body or to read, to learn that it becomes a part of one's life. What these words imply is that man is to take the truth, the doctrine, and to present it to the rational - that which enables one to think - for that is where the Lord, that is the food and the truth, reigns with man. There, if the scientific, the natural truths, are acknowledged, the doctrine of faith becomes known. And, thus it becomes acknowledged because the doctrine of faith and charity, when it becomes a part of one's life, becomes the doctrine of life. Then are genuine truths known. Thus, the truth we are to learn or come to know from our lesson is: that Jehovah came in the Divine Human to reign in the Natural state and He, thus, has redeemed mankind from falsities and evils. The Lord was able to do this while in the human of man from the mother by listening to, that is, by obedience to the Divine Truth, the Word. Then, in obedience to present the truths learned in His rational and, thus, present them to the Divine, which is seen as a reciprocation of God's love.
'Bathsheba' the mother of Solomon, signifies the affection of the rational for scientific truths and is the rational of the glorified Lord. This is the affirming medium that conjoins interior truth with exterior or natural truth. (cf. AC 3913). Thus, truth was confirmed and falsity rejected as sins in the Lord in His Human. Therefore, the human from the mother as signified by Haggith was put off and the Human from the Father put on and became dominate and reined in His Human made Divine.
Those who are of the Lord's New Church need also to 'go' and to 'get' unto the Lord. This implies on our part an act of the will. We must confirm that truth which is from the Lord God or good reigns in our life. We need to also confirm the doctrine that the Divine Human now reigns in Heaven and on earth, thus in man's celestial, spiritual, and natural senses. This man does as he shuns evils as sins against the Lord
One might wonder, Why does our proprium reign; why does the evil the love of self reign in our natural life and not the good of Lord? However, when one sees that the love of self does reigns, but wills that the Lord or the qualities of good and truth reign then truth is counseling him. It is then that we 'go' to the Lord and present His truth and so, we will know and come to acknowledge the Lord as our king. It is then that the Lord rules in our life and the love of self has been removed to the periphery.
What a man then presents to the rational must be confirmed. Our regeneration begins by first knowing, then, second. by acknowledging the truth. This truth then becomes no longer our truth, but the Lord's truth confirmed. If it is not confirmed, then the truth will be present but there will be no conjoined with us since it will still remain our truth and to this truth adheres falsity. Let us read the next scripture where this is stated.
"Behold, while you yet talk there with the king, I also will come in after
Here, spiritually signifies that truths from the Divine Proceeding (Holy Spirit) presented by the rational to the Divine will be confirmed as true as the Divine Truth, that is, by the Word. Similarly, falsities from evil's influx brought into the rational and presented to its king, the love of self, are confirmed as true by the Infernal.
We should know that in confirming truths that there will be combats. First, let us understand why. It is because of our proprium rules and truth from the Lord is against falsities that we think are true and because good is against evil. Thus, in order to confirm any truth there results a combat and, thus, this implies a life lived according to the victor. (cf. AC 63). Thus is seen that the rational acknowledges truth because of affection for or of scientific knowledge through the Divine Truth - the Word. And, they are confirmed as the true when they are loved as coming from the Lord and not when coming from any person. As the truths are obeyed, then man is exhorted by them. He is encouraged, urged, and admonished to believe them. And, they lead him to goodness and the contrary; if falsities are obeyed, then he is led to evils. (cf. AC 2542). It is by the rational that a conjunction takes place with the natural and the spiritual. By allowing the Lord, who is Good and Truth itself to reign in us in our rational we are conjoined with the Lord and, so too, Heaven, for He in us is that true life.
These truths, then, in the rational, we present to the Divine need to confirm our doctrine. And, in the Lord we have an example. First, the Lord while in His human from the mother had to learn truths from the Divine - the Word. Next, He then brought them to His rational and there appropriated or accepted them as they were testified by the Divine and became confirmed. However, as we pointed out, in so doing He had to combat against all falsities and evils, for they tempted Him. It is in this way that He put off the human from the mother and put on the Human from the Father. We must know truths, acknowledge them, and confirm them through our life from the Lord.
It was in this way that the Lord completely 'put on' a new state. He thus became the Lord in the Divine Human in the Natural, just as He is in the Spiritual and Celestial states. And, we, because of Him becoming the Divine Human in the natural, are redeemed and may become saved when we, too, allow Him to live within us, for then we will know and acknowledge and confirm His truths as true. Then, because His truth and His good are with us we are saved and have true life, His life is in us.
May we have affection for rational scientifics and natural things that are truths that concerns the Lord, the Heavens and man. May we allow the rational from the Lord in us to conjoin interior truth with exterior truths. And, thus, may we acknowledge the Lord as our life in us reigning.
Amen.
When one first reads the Word, when one first discovers its truths, if he or she accepts it as coming from God, will recognize God. One believes at that moment that God has revealed to him the truth. He even feels that the Lord has led him in his discovery of the truth. What this is was the Divine proceeding leading man in his reformation; for, the Lord had insinuated into a person, when he or she was an infant and a child, cognitions and these are what lead a person into reformation. Now, let us turn to our text. It is 'Nathan' who speaks and Nathan was a prophet, and prophets represent the Lord in Divine Truth, thus in Doctrine, and so, teach the truths of the Word. Therefore, in 'Nathan' is represented the Lord as to the Word. The Lord, while in the world in the human from the mother, as any other person, had to learn such truths concerning the Divine. He was to know the truth from the Divine and obtain them as His just as a person is to know the truth and make it 'as if' his own through his living accordingly. In so doing the Lord glorified His Human from the Father, which is the Divine within Him. The natural rational that He had was from the mother. (cf. AC 5686) For, it was through the rational of the mother, through which good became conjoined with truth. (cf. AC 9199) This process was prior shown in learning cognitions, knowledges, and scientifics of truths and, thereby in forming vessels proper for celestial things, which are things of wisdom that comes from love. Now, Bathsheba's 'hearing' Nathan signifies the Lord's obedience and apperception to the truth. (Bathsheba is the wife of David, and whose son is Solomon.) It was His receiving instructions or Divine laws, thus, the Divine's proceeding truth. 'Hearing' is the first step in one becoming regenerated. With the Lord it was the first step in the His glorification. You can see that learning the cognitions, knowledges, and scientifics, unless they become acts are just memory knowledge to be carried around and have only the appearance of one being intelligent. So, our text signifies the Lord while in a state of not knowing who reigns or rules in His human and is seen in the text as unaware that Adonijah, which signifies the proprium from the mother, here, Haggith. You can see names in the Word are not meant the person, but signify different qualities and states that the Lord went through while on earth.
In our text, there is mention of Hagar (Haggith) and Adonijah - mother and son. In the spiritual sense 'mother' signifies the Church, which in man is the truth, however, by Haggith is meant a distorted church, the truths being only apparent. In this one sees Haggith as the affection of the external man that the Lord has put on upon becoming a man as is a man on earth. Therefore, the son Adonijah signifies natural truths which are not from the Divine, but from one's natural separated there from. Remember, Bathsheba was the mother of David and David is seen as the Lord come on earth. The Word primarily concerns the Lord and, here, we see the Lord in a particular state when He began His glorification, that is, began to make Divine His Human from the Father.
So, it is that the Lord had to learn truths as does any man. He had to know that His proprium from His mother was evil and that its desire was to reign and not the Divine that was in Him, which is His Father. In fact, the Lord came into the world so that the Divine could reign in the natural of man, for the man's natural had become separated from his spiritual and celestial, in which he was conjoined with God through love. This the Lord did when He was in the world so that He not only reigned in the Celestial and Spiritual degrees of life, but in the Natural as well, which had separated itself from any conjunction with the Lord God. In man, however, reigns evil and this because of his proprium (cf. AC7648). Because of the Lord's work of salvation, love or affection inflows into our mind and there reigns. The question is: is the truth, is the genuine doctrine flowing into our mind, or is it just the love of self flowing from hell with its falsities into us? Just as the Jesus' rational was born with affection for scientifics about Divine truth, so too, man has the affection of sciences of Divine truth. A man needs to learn and to know truth from a love for truths for truths sake. Let us question ourselves and examine our thoughts. Do we love truth for truth's sake? Or do we love truth because it helps us obtain wealth, worldly pleasure, power or honor in our life?
It is the affection of knowing truths from the Word that will open a man's spirit to receive the truth and later the good that comes from the Divine. In our text these truths are: that the love of self reigns within us. Therefore, we need the Lord's love in us in order to have a new life and life in Heaven in the next. We need to receive these truths that we may have a new proprium from the Lord - a new will and understanding. Specifically, from this lesson, we have learned that the Lord Himself was to learn Divine Truths, that is, was to know these truths upon coming into this world as a man even as we are.
At first, there should be a longing to know what is true, that is, to know genuine truth. This, then, becomes our faith. It is the Divine Truth represented by Nathan that teaches what is right, and that leads to the Divine Truth (cf. AE 237 § 3). Solomon signifies the Lord on earth glorified and thus the Divine Truth revealed. The text says,
"Let me, I pray thee, give you counsel . . ." (1 Kings 1: 12)
Thus, we are to come to learn and to accept the doctrine of faith and charity in order that the rational is entered and this through the revelation of truths taught in the Word. Further, we are to allow the revelation of truths to work and to intercede in our lives. That is the significance of this verse. (cf. AC 2535, 7396). In this state of learning there is no temptation. (AC 8179e). Temptations only come as truths are being confirmed. The Lord, just a man, was to know what was right or true through the Divine Truth that is learned. (AE 237 § 3). The difference is that with the Lord this was possible while with man it is only possible from the Lord within man. (AC 3705e). For, it is the Lord who appropriated truths for man: He acquired genuine truth for man when He became the Divine Human. Nonetheless, a man should 'as if' of himself appropriate truths. Of ourselves we do not have that power; we are only receptacles that can receive the truth and the good of the Lord. What the Lord appropriated to His Natural He wills to give to anyone. (cf. AC 2742e).
The twelfth verse continues,
"That you may save your own life, and the life of your son Solomon"
Of course, by to 'save' signifies salvation, thus to keep and to guard. It refers to man's reformation, to his regeneration and sanctification. These things come only from the Lord. However, as to the Lord, they represent His union with the Divine and, thus, becoming the Lord's Divine Human. (cf. AC 10370 § 2). What is meant here is the saving of the man's natural rational, which signifies an internal that is from the Natural. And, it is the Divine Human that comes into the world in the Natural which Solomon signifies. For, David represents the Lord coming into the world, while Solomon the Lord after His coming into the world in His glorification. So it is the saving of the man's rational through the Lord's glorification that we are to 'as it were' listen to Nathan - the Divine Truth or Word.
Next, the Word continues in the twelfth verse,
"Go and get thee unto King David, and say unto him,"
Spiritually, to 'go' means to live and requires action. To 'get' is to acquire or to appropriate for one's self, as example: to eat that food becomes a part of the body or to read, to learn that it becomes a part of one's life. What these words imply is that man is to take the truth, the doctrine, and to present it to the rational - that which enables one to think - for that is where the Lord, that is the food and the truth, reigns with man. There, if the scientific, the natural truths, are acknowledged, the doctrine of faith becomes known. And, thus it becomes acknowledged because the doctrine of faith and charity, when it becomes a part of one's life, becomes the doctrine of life. Then are genuine truths known. Thus, the truth we are to learn or come to know from our lesson is: that Jehovah came in the Divine Human to reign in the Natural state and He, thus, has redeemed mankind from falsities and evils. The Lord was able to do this while in the human of man from the mother by listening to, that is, by obedience to the Divine Truth, the Word. Then, in obedience to present the truths learned in His rational and, thus, present them to the Divine, which is seen as a reciprocation of God's love.
'Bathsheba' the mother of Solomon, signifies the affection of the rational for scientific truths and is the rational of the glorified Lord. This is the affirming medium that conjoins interior truth with exterior or natural truth. (cf. AC 3913). Thus, truth was confirmed and falsity rejected as sins in the Lord in His Human. Therefore, the human from the mother as signified by Haggith was put off and the Human from the Father put on and became dominate and reined in His Human made Divine.
Those who are of the Lord's New Church need also to 'go' and to 'get' unto the Lord. This implies on our part an act of the will. We must confirm that truth which is from the Lord God or good reigns in our life. We need to also confirm the doctrine that the Divine Human now reigns in Heaven and on earth, thus in man's celestial, spiritual, and natural senses. This man does as he shuns evils as sins against the Lord
One might wonder, Why does our proprium reign; why does the evil the love of self reign in our natural life and not the good of Lord? However, when one sees that the love of self does reigns, but wills that the Lord or the qualities of good and truth reign then truth is counseling him. It is then that we 'go' to the Lord and present His truth and so, we will know and come to acknowledge the Lord as our king. It is then that the Lord rules in our life and the love of self has been removed to the periphery.
What a man then presents to the rational must be confirmed. Our regeneration begins by first knowing, then, second. by acknowledging the truth. This truth then becomes no longer our truth, but the Lord's truth confirmed. If it is not confirmed, then the truth will be present but there will be no conjoined with us since it will still remain our truth and to this truth adheres falsity. Let us read the next scripture where this is stated.
"Behold, while you yet talk there with the king, I also will come in after
- you and confirm your words"
Here, spiritually signifies that truths from the Divine Proceeding (Holy Spirit) presented by the rational to the Divine will be confirmed as true as the Divine Truth, that is, by the Word. Similarly, falsities from evil's influx brought into the rational and presented to its king, the love of self, are confirmed as true by the Infernal.
We should know that in confirming truths that there will be combats. First, let us understand why. It is because of our proprium rules and truth from the Lord is against falsities that we think are true and because good is against evil. Thus, in order to confirm any truth there results a combat and, thus, this implies a life lived according to the victor. (cf. AC 63). Thus is seen that the rational acknowledges truth because of affection for or of scientific knowledge through the Divine Truth - the Word. And, they are confirmed as the true when they are loved as coming from the Lord and not when coming from any person. As the truths are obeyed, then man is exhorted by them. He is encouraged, urged, and admonished to believe them. And, they lead him to goodness and the contrary; if falsities are obeyed, then he is led to evils. (cf. AC 2542). It is by the rational that a conjunction takes place with the natural and the spiritual. By allowing the Lord, who is Good and Truth itself to reign in us in our rational we are conjoined with the Lord and, so too, Heaven, for He in us is that true life.
These truths, then, in the rational, we present to the Divine need to confirm our doctrine. And, in the Lord we have an example. First, the Lord while in His human from the mother had to learn truths from the Divine - the Word. Next, He then brought them to His rational and there appropriated or accepted them as they were testified by the Divine and became confirmed. However, as we pointed out, in so doing He had to combat against all falsities and evils, for they tempted Him. It is in this way that He put off the human from the mother and put on the Human from the Father. We must know truths, acknowledge them, and confirm them through our life from the Lord.
It was in this way that the Lord completely 'put on' a new state. He thus became the Lord in the Divine Human in the Natural, just as He is in the Spiritual and Celestial states. And, we, because of Him becoming the Divine Human in the natural, are redeemed and may become saved when we, too, allow Him to live within us, for then we will know and acknowledge and confirm His truths as true. Then, because His truth and His good are with us we are saved and have true life, His life is in us.
May we have affection for rational scientifics and natural things that are truths that concerns the Lord, the Heavens and man. May we allow the rational from the Lord in us to conjoin interior truth with exterior truths. And, thus, may we acknowledge the Lord as our life in us reigning.
Amen.
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