Abraham's Ordeal
by Rev. Paul Booth
Lessons: Genesis 22: 1,2 ; John 8:25-32
Arcana Coelestia 2768
by Rev. Paul Booth
Lessons: Genesis 22: 1,2 ; John 8:25-32
Arcana Coelestia 2768
And it came to pass after these words, that God did tempted Abraham, and he said, Here am I, and He said, Take, 1 pray, thy son, thine only one, whom thou lovest, even Isaac, and go thou unto the 1and of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt-offering, upon one of the mountains, which I will tell thee of. (Gen. 22: 1, 2)
When looking at the trial of Abraham's faith what do you understand? Can you reconcile? That bit of history of the Hebrews with God or with His Church? In it, do you learn anything about God and the Church? Would God really ask this of anyone to take your only son and offer him for a burnt-offering or sacrifice? Would God ask for the sacrifice of humans or tempt anyone even though it was to be a test of their faith? Yet, if we believe the literal sense of the Word, it appears that He did.
As long as man only understands the Word in the light of this world, he will not understand other than its natural meaning and this will cause much of the Word to remain a mystery, such as is the story of Abraham offering his son as a burnt-offering. Our natural understanding is unable to rise above itself to understand the truths that lie hidden in the internal sense of the Word. We know that God does not desire burnt-offerings or sacrifices of us; they were only representative acts of worship: The truth is they contradict other passages in the Word. Are we to say, "These passages remain a mystery, still I accept them by 'faith' and when I am in Heaven I will understand these truths clearly?"
I ask, isn't the Lord the Word? Doesn't the Word Itself claim that the Lord is the Word? Is the written Word a record of who the Lord is and of His love for His Church? Doesn't the written Word teach man about God, about His Love and Wisdom, and how He created man,
loves us, and desires to save us? Answer yes and you must see that there must be an internal sense to a1 the histories and the prophesies, the psalms and parables that we are taught in the Word. I ask another question, What would all these histories of the different nations and the prophesies, the psalm, and the parables mean in Heaven. For in Heaven, the Word is understood either in the spiritual or celestial sense. Isn't the Lord, the Word, there with the angels like He is with us, except there the Word is not understood in the natural sense, but in the internal or spiritual sense?
There in Heaven names, places, journeys, and all things, are understood in their spiritual sense. Here on earth, we see Abraham as a man who the Lord communicated with; we attribute him as having great faith and some even call him the father of our faith, unless, of course, we have some spiritual enlightenment. Would any angel say that the person known as Abraham was the father of their faith? I believe they would say that the Lord is the Father and the Source of their faith and life Therefore, by Abraham, in the internal sense, is signified the Lord. The angels, when reading this story, would understand instead the Lord's most grievous and inmost temptations that He endured while on earth. They would not see or understand the history of the Hebrew, but they would understand how the Lord descended to man redeemed him and, thus, can save him. By this, they understand He saved the spiritual Church by uniting His Human Essence with His Divine Essence. May the Lord enlighten us that we see the internal sense in His Word so that our thoughts will raise above the literal sense to understand and to learn the sacred things of faith, charity, the Lord and, of His love for us all.
We read in the Word, "That God did tempt Abraham". According to the sense of the Letter of the Word, this attributes to God that He tempts man, but is this true? Instead, isn't God continually delivering man from temptations as far as is possible, so far as the deliverance doesn't cause evil? Doesn't the Lord continually lead to good those who are in temptations? Who is God said to lead here, if in the spiritual sense it is not meant Abraham, the father of the Hebrews". Is it not the Lord? What do you think is meant by the word God? Isn't God Divine, that is, Infinite and Eternal? Thus, it is the Divine who is said to tempt the Lord, Jesus Christ. Would the Lord tempt Himself? We look in the New Testament to learn that the Lord Jesus Christ endured the most grievous and inmost temptations while on earth, Now, if God or the Divine does not tempt as has been said, who then tempted the Lord as a man is tempted? Wasn't it the evils of hell? Isn't it evil that leads us into temptation and not God the Lord? The premise here is: Man has separated himself from the laws of the Divine Order, which are laws of good, and so, from the truth. He has subjected himself to laws opposite to Divine Order, thus, to evil with its subsequent falsity. However, evil cannot tempt God, but it can man, thus the Lord became Man. Therefore, we learn that the Lord's Human, not His Divine Essence underwent temptations and became victorious to save man, that is, to conjoin him again with the Lord and with Heaven as he was before his fall from grace.
Here, we learn some of the qualities and attributes of God: We learn His Divine Essence is Infinite and Eternal and His Human, by which we are to be made into an image and after His likeness, was manifested to us as the Lord Jesus Christ and became Divine. Continuing, we read in the Word that, "God said unto him, Abraham." What we learn, here, by these words is that the Lord has perception from the Divine Truth, that is, it is from God that the Lord's Human perceives Divine Truth. Thus, the Divine Truth 'as it were' is born by means of God, and its conception was from doctrine, that is, the Truth from the Divine Good. Both Divine Truth and Divine Good are two of the qualities of God. What is from the God is the Divine Truth and it is this truth that the Lord perceived within from the Divine while on earth.
There is not a word written in the Word that does not relate to and teach truths about the Lord, for the Word primarily speaks of the Lord, because the Lord is the Word. And the word 'God' is here used because truth is treated of. In other places the word 'Jehovah' is used because good is treated of. Here the subject is temptations and condemnations; all temptations reveal truth, because truth is from Divine Wisdom out of Divine Love, but deliverance and salvation come from good, because good is from the Divine Love out of Divine Wisdom. So, to an angel, when reading these words, it is not God speaking to a man call Abraham, but the Divine speaking to the Lord when he was on earth as the Divine Truth proceeding, and in this case, that Truth is the Lord as a Man on earth and was tempted by the evils of hell just as men are, only far more grievous than any man is tempted and in His temptations He was victorious, whereas man, by himself, is not.
We turn again to the text and read, "And he said", that is, the Lord here signified by Abraham, "Here am I." This was the Lord's perception, the thoughts that He perceived. It is thought which comes from perception. Perception comes from love to the Lord. This internal thought, exists from the Lord according to the love that one has for the Lord; it is above spiritual thought and is called celestial thought or perception. There is also thought from the conscience and this thought is spiritual. So, it is that those who are in the good of charity and of faith as to their life and doctrine have spiritual thought from their conscience, In thought from conscience it is impossible to think contrary to good and truth, which they have received from the Lord. Finally, all those who do not suffer themselves to be inwardly ruled by the Lord, but by themselves, do not have thought from conscience.
Thus, we learn that with the Lord Jesus Christ, the Divine Truth lives or dwells within and 'as it were' guided Him to redeem mankind from evil and, so, a man who has the Lord dwelling within is saved. And thus, it is that the Lord as a man, was obedient to the Divine Truth and became one with the Divine Good becoming the Divine Human. In the next verse are the instructions received. We quote,
"And He said. Take, I pray, thy son, thine only one, whom thou lovest, even Isaac".
The question we must ask here is who or what is meant by, Isaac, the son of Abraham, that is, the son of Lord Jesus Christ. The son, here, is the truth that was from the Lord, for a son is as the truth and daughter is as the good. In the natural sense, a son is born from a marriage of a man and women, likewise so is a daughter. However, how are we to understand that by a son is signified the truth? The easiest way is by the truth that the Lord in the Word is called the Son of God, which means the Truth of God. The 'Lord' here is understood the Divine Truth manifested to man as the Lord Jesus Christ. So, by the son Isaac, of Abraham is meant the Lord's Divine Rational Truth which He formed, that is, which was begotten by Himself. Now, what is meant by the Rational is one who speaks from a principle of good thought and acts from charity. So, the contrary, a man who does not speak from faith or act from charity is not rational, but instead may act pretentiously and speak in a like manner, but his life is evil, not good, and he is not rational, but instead ratiocinates; he argues from fallacies and falsities.
We can now understand more plainly that by 'son' is meant the truth as in these words, "Thine only one, whom thou lovest even Isaac." Now, I ask, who is the one only, the sole one, who can save the human race? Was not it the Lord, who became glorified, becoming the Divine Human who was Jehovah? Wasn't it the only begotten Son of God? By Isaac we can learn what quality the Rational truth was. For the Human Essence became united with the Divine Essence. The Lord became the Divine Human, that is, the good of truth became 'as it were' married to the truth of good. What is here revealed is that the Human was implanted in the Divine and the Divine in the Human. Isaac, as Abraham's son, had 'suckled' from Sarah; that is, the Lord had received truth from good and was implanted in the Lord Jesus Christ that became His Divine Rational.
In a marriage, both partners are united and, so, a son is born. So it is by the Lord's own power that that this truth was implanted within His Rational made Divine.
Now, what is asked of God, or perceived by the Lord by to "go unto the Land of Moriah and offer (His Son) there for a burnt-offering"? Isn't it to sanctify Himself to the Divine? This is what all the burnt-offerings of the Hebrew nation and the Jewish Church represented. It was their most holy portion of their worship. Thus, the Lord is to be sanctified to the Divine and it was the Lord Himself who sanctified Himself to the Divine, by which is meant that He united His Human to the Divine and this by combats and victories of temptations that were administered unto Him.
The passion of the Cross was the last temptation by which He fully united the Human to the Divine, and the Divine to the Human, thus He glorified Himself.
It is by this union that those who have faith of charity in the Lord can be saved. It is from the Lord as the Divine Human that a man's mind, his understanding can be illuminated, and so, a faith, which is from charity or from good, saves. For, a person who acts from good agrees with truth, as charity is the very ground for the seeds of truth. No one can act upright from the Lord unless the Lord had reached the human race, for the human race had removed themselves from the Divine and no longer even acknowledged these things of faith. It was through the Lord's glorification, through His Divine united with His Human, that enabled man to receive the faith of charity and so be saved. Now, a man who receives through love or affection the truth and the good of faith is saved. It is not just the idea or the thought that the Lord died on the cross and that He expiated their iniquity that save a man, but is the life that he receives and lives from the Lord. New life is received by believing and acting accordingly to good. The truth is that truth that is not implanted in good is not true faith, for in evil truth becomes false and, so, does not unite or conjoin with the Lord, thus there is no salvation. The Lord does not dwell in evil, but in good in which a man has from the Lord, and good from the Lord enters when evil is shunned. The Lord Himself has conquered and subjugated the hells. He has redeemed us. Let us turn to Him in love and live from His truth and good.
Amen.
When looking at the trial of Abraham's faith what do you understand? Can you reconcile? That bit of history of the Hebrews with God or with His Church? In it, do you learn anything about God and the Church? Would God really ask this of anyone to take your only son and offer him for a burnt-offering or sacrifice? Would God ask for the sacrifice of humans or tempt anyone even though it was to be a test of their faith? Yet, if we believe the literal sense of the Word, it appears that He did.
As long as man only understands the Word in the light of this world, he will not understand other than its natural meaning and this will cause much of the Word to remain a mystery, such as is the story of Abraham offering his son as a burnt-offering. Our natural understanding is unable to rise above itself to understand the truths that lie hidden in the internal sense of the Word. We know that God does not desire burnt-offerings or sacrifices of us; they were only representative acts of worship: The truth is they contradict other passages in the Word. Are we to say, "These passages remain a mystery, still I accept them by 'faith' and when I am in Heaven I will understand these truths clearly?"
I ask, isn't the Lord the Word? Doesn't the Word Itself claim that the Lord is the Word? Is the written Word a record of who the Lord is and of His love for His Church? Doesn't the written Word teach man about God, about His Love and Wisdom, and how He created man,
loves us, and desires to save us? Answer yes and you must see that there must be an internal sense to a1 the histories and the prophesies, the psalms and parables that we are taught in the Word. I ask another question, What would all these histories of the different nations and the prophesies, the psalm, and the parables mean in Heaven. For in Heaven, the Word is understood either in the spiritual or celestial sense. Isn't the Lord, the Word, there with the angels like He is with us, except there the Word is not understood in the natural sense, but in the internal or spiritual sense?
There in Heaven names, places, journeys, and all things, are understood in their spiritual sense. Here on earth, we see Abraham as a man who the Lord communicated with; we attribute him as having great faith and some even call him the father of our faith, unless, of course, we have some spiritual enlightenment. Would any angel say that the person known as Abraham was the father of their faith? I believe they would say that the Lord is the Father and the Source of their faith and life Therefore, by Abraham, in the internal sense, is signified the Lord. The angels, when reading this story, would understand instead the Lord's most grievous and inmost temptations that He endured while on earth. They would not see or understand the history of the Hebrew, but they would understand how the Lord descended to man redeemed him and, thus, can save him. By this, they understand He saved the spiritual Church by uniting His Human Essence with His Divine Essence. May the Lord enlighten us that we see the internal sense in His Word so that our thoughts will raise above the literal sense to understand and to learn the sacred things of faith, charity, the Lord and, of His love for us all.
We read in the Word, "That God did tempt Abraham". According to the sense of the Letter of the Word, this attributes to God that He tempts man, but is this true? Instead, isn't God continually delivering man from temptations as far as is possible, so far as the deliverance doesn't cause evil? Doesn't the Lord continually lead to good those who are in temptations? Who is God said to lead here, if in the spiritual sense it is not meant Abraham, the father of the Hebrews". Is it not the Lord? What do you think is meant by the word God? Isn't God Divine, that is, Infinite and Eternal? Thus, it is the Divine who is said to tempt the Lord, Jesus Christ. Would the Lord tempt Himself? We look in the New Testament to learn that the Lord Jesus Christ endured the most grievous and inmost temptations while on earth, Now, if God or the Divine does not tempt as has been said, who then tempted the Lord as a man is tempted? Wasn't it the evils of hell? Isn't it evil that leads us into temptation and not God the Lord? The premise here is: Man has separated himself from the laws of the Divine Order, which are laws of good, and so, from the truth. He has subjected himself to laws opposite to Divine Order, thus, to evil with its subsequent falsity. However, evil cannot tempt God, but it can man, thus the Lord became Man. Therefore, we learn that the Lord's Human, not His Divine Essence underwent temptations and became victorious to save man, that is, to conjoin him again with the Lord and with Heaven as he was before his fall from grace.
Here, we learn some of the qualities and attributes of God: We learn His Divine Essence is Infinite and Eternal and His Human, by which we are to be made into an image and after His likeness, was manifested to us as the Lord Jesus Christ and became Divine. Continuing, we read in the Word that, "God said unto him, Abraham." What we learn, here, by these words is that the Lord has perception from the Divine Truth, that is, it is from God that the Lord's Human perceives Divine Truth. Thus, the Divine Truth 'as it were' is born by means of God, and its conception was from doctrine, that is, the Truth from the Divine Good. Both Divine Truth and Divine Good are two of the qualities of God. What is from the God is the Divine Truth and it is this truth that the Lord perceived within from the Divine while on earth.
There is not a word written in the Word that does not relate to and teach truths about the Lord, for the Word primarily speaks of the Lord, because the Lord is the Word. And the word 'God' is here used because truth is treated of. In other places the word 'Jehovah' is used because good is treated of. Here the subject is temptations and condemnations; all temptations reveal truth, because truth is from Divine Wisdom out of Divine Love, but deliverance and salvation come from good, because good is from the Divine Love out of Divine Wisdom. So, to an angel, when reading these words, it is not God speaking to a man call Abraham, but the Divine speaking to the Lord when he was on earth as the Divine Truth proceeding, and in this case, that Truth is the Lord as a Man on earth and was tempted by the evils of hell just as men are, only far more grievous than any man is tempted and in His temptations He was victorious, whereas man, by himself, is not.
We turn again to the text and read, "And he said", that is, the Lord here signified by Abraham, "Here am I." This was the Lord's perception, the thoughts that He perceived. It is thought which comes from perception. Perception comes from love to the Lord. This internal thought, exists from the Lord according to the love that one has for the Lord; it is above spiritual thought and is called celestial thought or perception. There is also thought from the conscience and this thought is spiritual. So, it is that those who are in the good of charity and of faith as to their life and doctrine have spiritual thought from their conscience, In thought from conscience it is impossible to think contrary to good and truth, which they have received from the Lord. Finally, all those who do not suffer themselves to be inwardly ruled by the Lord, but by themselves, do not have thought from conscience.
Thus, we learn that with the Lord Jesus Christ, the Divine Truth lives or dwells within and 'as it were' guided Him to redeem mankind from evil and, so, a man who has the Lord dwelling within is saved. And thus, it is that the Lord as a man, was obedient to the Divine Truth and became one with the Divine Good becoming the Divine Human. In the next verse are the instructions received. We quote,
"And He said. Take, I pray, thy son, thine only one, whom thou lovest, even Isaac".
The question we must ask here is who or what is meant by, Isaac, the son of Abraham, that is, the son of Lord Jesus Christ. The son, here, is the truth that was from the Lord, for a son is as the truth and daughter is as the good. In the natural sense, a son is born from a marriage of a man and women, likewise so is a daughter. However, how are we to understand that by a son is signified the truth? The easiest way is by the truth that the Lord in the Word is called the Son of God, which means the Truth of God. The 'Lord' here is understood the Divine Truth manifested to man as the Lord Jesus Christ. So, by the son Isaac, of Abraham is meant the Lord's Divine Rational Truth which He formed, that is, which was begotten by Himself. Now, what is meant by the Rational is one who speaks from a principle of good thought and acts from charity. So, the contrary, a man who does not speak from faith or act from charity is not rational, but instead may act pretentiously and speak in a like manner, but his life is evil, not good, and he is not rational, but instead ratiocinates; he argues from fallacies and falsities.
We can now understand more plainly that by 'son' is meant the truth as in these words, "Thine only one, whom thou lovest even Isaac." Now, I ask, who is the one only, the sole one, who can save the human race? Was not it the Lord, who became glorified, becoming the Divine Human who was Jehovah? Wasn't it the only begotten Son of God? By Isaac we can learn what quality the Rational truth was. For the Human Essence became united with the Divine Essence. The Lord became the Divine Human, that is, the good of truth became 'as it were' married to the truth of good. What is here revealed is that the Human was implanted in the Divine and the Divine in the Human. Isaac, as Abraham's son, had 'suckled' from Sarah; that is, the Lord had received truth from good and was implanted in the Lord Jesus Christ that became His Divine Rational.
In a marriage, both partners are united and, so, a son is born. So it is by the Lord's own power that that this truth was implanted within His Rational made Divine.
Now, what is asked of God, or perceived by the Lord by to "go unto the Land of Moriah and offer (His Son) there for a burnt-offering"? Isn't it to sanctify Himself to the Divine? This is what all the burnt-offerings of the Hebrew nation and the Jewish Church represented. It was their most holy portion of their worship. Thus, the Lord is to be sanctified to the Divine and it was the Lord Himself who sanctified Himself to the Divine, by which is meant that He united His Human to the Divine and this by combats and victories of temptations that were administered unto Him.
The passion of the Cross was the last temptation by which He fully united the Human to the Divine, and the Divine to the Human, thus He glorified Himself.
It is by this union that those who have faith of charity in the Lord can be saved. It is from the Lord as the Divine Human that a man's mind, his understanding can be illuminated, and so, a faith, which is from charity or from good, saves. For, a person who acts from good agrees with truth, as charity is the very ground for the seeds of truth. No one can act upright from the Lord unless the Lord had reached the human race, for the human race had removed themselves from the Divine and no longer even acknowledged these things of faith. It was through the Lord's glorification, through His Divine united with His Human, that enabled man to receive the faith of charity and so be saved. Now, a man who receives through love or affection the truth and the good of faith is saved. It is not just the idea or the thought that the Lord died on the cross and that He expiated their iniquity that save a man, but is the life that he receives and lives from the Lord. New life is received by believing and acting accordingly to good. The truth is that truth that is not implanted in good is not true faith, for in evil truth becomes false and, so, does not unite or conjoin with the Lord, thus there is no salvation. The Lord does not dwell in evil, but in good in which a man has from the Lord, and good from the Lord enters when evil is shunned. The Lord Himself has conquered and subjugated the hells. He has redeemed us. Let us turn to Him in love and live from His truth and good.
Amen.
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