The Truth Combating, 2nd in a series
By Rev. Paul Booth
Joshua 2: 1-7 | Luke 26: 25-28 | Arcana C&œ;lestia 1661 § 5
By Rev. Paul Booth
Joshua 2: 1-7 | Luke 26: 25-28 | Arcana C&œ;lestia 1661 § 5
And it was told the king of Jericho, Behold; there came men in hither to night of the children of Israel to search out the country. And the king of Jericho sent unto Rabab, saying, Bring forth the men that are come unto thee, which are entered into thi/le house. for they be come to search out all the country. (Joshua 2: 2, 3)
It is only because the Lord Himself came to earth, born as a man, as we, and faced the temptations that we face from the hells, that the hells could attack Him, that He could enter into combats with them, and thus become victorious, subjugating them so that we could become free from a life evil and falsity, and so, become conjoined, that is, be joined together with the Lord and Heaven. Thus, even while we are in this world we can be conjoined with Him and in Heaven, for Heaven is within us. The results of this was that mankind was redeemed and that a man might be regenerated, that the Lord dwell within him and he live in Heaven after his natural body is put off and his spiritual body is then raised up.
In our first sermon concerning the Lord as the Truth Combating that we could see how man, who was separated from the Lord, because of his hereditary nature and his natural tendency to sin, that is, his natural, called the natural man, was separated from his spiritual, which is called the spiritual man, and that a man could, with the Lord's strength in His proceeding Truth - the Holy Spirit - which combats and overcomes the evils that now reign within man. We know that within man the Church is to exist, for that is where truths and goods of the Lord should dwell and reign. We saw that the Lord as the Word of Truth combats against the hells and is that which is insinuated into us as we learn and follow accordingly from a love for the truth.
However, the truth that we learn and appropriate must be internal or spiritual truths for these are from and are the Lord's and are not the natural truth one learns from his own understanding. Therefore, our searching for spiritual truth is to be an inward and not an outward or an external and natural learning effort, for our natural state is not subject to the spiritual unless the Lord dwells and rules within us. Our natural mind was taken over by the hell and has become evil and has become false because of our hereditary nature. However, we also learned that we have affection for the truth and that we can do or act from that affection even though our motives may be to gain benefit for ourselves; but, because of the affection for the truth and a desire to act according to the truth, even though in the natural sense it may just be an appearance the Lord will open our mind to understand internal or spiritual things and, thus, we can learn and come to know genuine truths. The important point, here, is that we must act according to the truth and not just know the truth, that is, for the truth to be in our memory, for to know the truth and not to act from it, remains, but, in our memory and is not within our will. It is the good that is done from the Lord to the Lord and towards the neighbor that by the mercy of the Lord that we can begin to understanding the truths in the Word from an internal sense. This is the beginning of the doctrine of faith and charity with man.
Now, today, our sermon is concerning what happens when the Lord, as the Truth Combating, insinuates truths in us, and so, begins to combat or to act and thus to use natural good to elevate or to illuminate our understanding in order for us to see interior truths and to develop within a true rational, so that we are instructed in living a good life. Let us now read from the Word.
And it was told the king of Jericho. (Joshua 2: 2)
A 'king' signifies truth, for the Lord as King is the Truth and, such a Truth originates in Good as the Divine is that Good. However, here, the king (of Jericho) signifies the opposite; falsities originating in evil. A 'city' (Jericho) signifies doctrine even as the doctrine of the Lord's New Church is called in the written Word in Revelation the 'New Jerusalem'. So it is that the city of Jericho in the Word means instruction or doctrine for living according to its king. Therefore, here, Jericho and its king signify the state in a man where instead of truths there are falsities that rule. It is a state where the opposite - falsities - are taught and where the doctrine formed is a false doctrine, and is a state where evil reigns over man. Instead of the Truth or the Lord as King ruling over us the evils and falsities reign over us and, as such, are our ruling love, unless we are freed from them. This love then attacks any search into the spiritual sense of the Word that man has for fear it will loose its (the evils) power over us. It fights against the truth and wants to prevent the Lord, Who is the Truth, from reigning within us. Again, we read from the Word.
Behold, there came men in hither to night of the children of Israel to search out the
country. (Joshua 2: 2)
Into a man's understanding rational things form within as his doctrine. They come from the natural good that a man does 'as if' from his self. Though this is done in obscurity and is void of any love and faith of the ruling love (a love of self) in man. By 'night' signified a state of obscurity. This is why a man's ruling love, that is, why his desires for self, becomes concerned and wants to prevent any true spiritual conjunction from happening where the spiritual of the Lord rules instead of one's self. Instead, the hells want to rule. Remember, to a man who loves himself, who loves falsities that he has confirmed as true, what is evil, appear to be good and falsities are to him the truth. Yet, it is in this state of a man that a man loves the truth and desires to know it, even though what he knows may only be seen in an appearances and that falsities adhere to his thoughts; it is the truth to him and, so, faith to the Lord can be appropriated when followed or when done from the will to do good, but not from the understanding alone. Thus, it is seen even though the truth a man accepts may not be genuine, if he wills to do good the faith he appropriates is that of the Lord's.
So, when man, from innocence, from a love of truth, desires from an affection to understand and, so, wants to know the truth, which comes from the Lord or who knows truths for the sake of truth, then, the evils and falsities which rule over him reign over the Church within him will attempt to prevent the conjunction of spiritual truth with any natural good that he does. The devil does not mind if internal truths that have remained a mystery to him are learned and in fact, when they are known they, then, can be twisted or falsified and are in danger of being profaned. Eventually these truths are destroyed with the man, for they become, then, understood only in the natural sense. It is only when truths, even though they are only understood in appearances or are only apparent truths, are followed and are then acted upon for the sake of good that the devil fights to maintain his rule over us and tries to keep us from learning and knowing and acknowledging spiritual truth.
The Lord, as the Truth combating, in man wants to reclaim what rightfully belongs to Him. Thus, there ensues a combat over the corporeal and worldly things within man. These things need to be subjugated in the man by the Lord just as the Lord Himself had to put off evils from His Human from the mother and had to subjugate them in hell. Natural things or natural truths are to be under spiritual things or spiritual truths in a man. This is of Divine Order. We read further from the Word.
And the king of Jericho sent unto Rahab, saying, Bring forth the men that are come to thee, which are entered into thine house. (Joshua 2: 3)
'Rahab' signifies the natural man - a man separated from his spirit or internal. Rahab is another name for Egypt. Egypt, in a good sense, is where man learns scientific or natural knowledge for his natural life, even as the Lord Himself, as Jesus Christ, went to Egypt where falsities and evils (signified by King Herod) could not kill Him. Isn't the natural man separated from his internal the state that we all are in before being regenerated? Don't we have affection for falsities, thinking they are true until we are born anew? This of course, is signified by the king of Jericho who rules within us before we become reformed and regenerated. Nonetheless, it is into this state that the Lord enters as the Truth combating and, thus, that the rational principle of good can become conjoined with truth, and so open up in man a new understanding and a new will and form a new true doctrine establishing the True Church within. The mind of man has been occupied by evil and filled with falsities and these must be turned away or defeated as were the Canaanites in the land of Canaan. It was the Lord, who in His own strength fought against the evils, which infiltrates into every man born on earth, so that man, now, can be conjoin with the Lord and His good and truth, even as the Divine Good was united with Divine Truth, who was the Lord Jesus Christ. He united His Natural with the Divine and became the Divine Human from which a man, now, can shun evils as sins through believing and loving the Lord as his King and Who is over the Church which is His Kingdom on earth, and as it is seen in the written Word as the Armies of the Israelites who conquered the land Canaan. He is the Lord of Hosts Who can conquer the falsities and defeat the evil within us, freeing the man of the Church.
It is here, also, that our ruling love as signified as the king of Jericho, demands 'as it were' that all natural good and its doctrine be under our ruling evil love. The threat to this ruling love is that our natural understanding becomes prepared to receive a new doctrine and that the New Church of the Lord is then established on earth and is within us. This, of course, is what is happening even today. For, we believe the Lord has come again in the Word of the Divine Human, which Word reveals the spiritual sense of the Word, for everyone who loves the truth and who does good for the sake of truth and good the Lord lives within. Continuing, we read again.
For they be (are) come to search out the country. (Joshua 2: 3)
A 'country' in the written Word signifies the corporeal and worldly things - the most external things around the city, as it were, in which we have shown was the internal, the doctrinal things that we (as the Church) are to learn. And as such, man, as a child, or when in a state of innocence, and has a desire for the truth which is from the Lord wants to know that what we understand is true. Thus, what is seen from our affection of the understanding through corporeal or bodily senses will become, first, natural, then gradually more and more interior, and, thus rational, until at length spiritual, for it is within the corporeal, as the ground, where the natural, the rational, and the spiritual are implanted in their proper order that man becomes conjoined with the Lord and with the angelic Heaven. The scientific knowedges are not only to be learned in a continuous degree, but also in the discrete degrees, that is, first in the sensual, then the natural, further the rational and the spiritual-natural and, then, finally the spiritual and even to the celestial. These degrees cannot be known or learned unless a man's understanding and will is conjoined by the Lord.
So it is that the natural good joins together with its spiritual truth from the Lord and goes 'as it were' forth to see, that is, to search for internal or spiritual truths from an affection of the understanding that comes from good from the Lord. Thus, we become the children of God.
Amen.
It is only because the Lord Himself came to earth, born as a man, as we, and faced the temptations that we face from the hells, that the hells could attack Him, that He could enter into combats with them, and thus become victorious, subjugating them so that we could become free from a life evil and falsity, and so, become conjoined, that is, be joined together with the Lord and Heaven. Thus, even while we are in this world we can be conjoined with Him and in Heaven, for Heaven is within us. The results of this was that mankind was redeemed and that a man might be regenerated, that the Lord dwell within him and he live in Heaven after his natural body is put off and his spiritual body is then raised up.
In our first sermon concerning the Lord as the Truth Combating that we could see how man, who was separated from the Lord, because of his hereditary nature and his natural tendency to sin, that is, his natural, called the natural man, was separated from his spiritual, which is called the spiritual man, and that a man could, with the Lord's strength in His proceeding Truth - the Holy Spirit - which combats and overcomes the evils that now reign within man. We know that within man the Church is to exist, for that is where truths and goods of the Lord should dwell and reign. We saw that the Lord as the Word of Truth combats against the hells and is that which is insinuated into us as we learn and follow accordingly from a love for the truth.
However, the truth that we learn and appropriate must be internal or spiritual truths for these are from and are the Lord's and are not the natural truth one learns from his own understanding. Therefore, our searching for spiritual truth is to be an inward and not an outward or an external and natural learning effort, for our natural state is not subject to the spiritual unless the Lord dwells and rules within us. Our natural mind was taken over by the hell and has become evil and has become false because of our hereditary nature. However, we also learned that we have affection for the truth and that we can do or act from that affection even though our motives may be to gain benefit for ourselves; but, because of the affection for the truth and a desire to act according to the truth, even though in the natural sense it may just be an appearance the Lord will open our mind to understand internal or spiritual things and, thus, we can learn and come to know genuine truths. The important point, here, is that we must act according to the truth and not just know the truth, that is, for the truth to be in our memory, for to know the truth and not to act from it, remains, but, in our memory and is not within our will. It is the good that is done from the Lord to the Lord and towards the neighbor that by the mercy of the Lord that we can begin to understanding the truths in the Word from an internal sense. This is the beginning of the doctrine of faith and charity with man.
Now, today, our sermon is concerning what happens when the Lord, as the Truth Combating, insinuates truths in us, and so, begins to combat or to act and thus to use natural good to elevate or to illuminate our understanding in order for us to see interior truths and to develop within a true rational, so that we are instructed in living a good life. Let us now read from the Word.
And it was told the king of Jericho. (Joshua 2: 2)
A 'king' signifies truth, for the Lord as King is the Truth and, such a Truth originates in Good as the Divine is that Good. However, here, the king (of Jericho) signifies the opposite; falsities originating in evil. A 'city' (Jericho) signifies doctrine even as the doctrine of the Lord's New Church is called in the written Word in Revelation the 'New Jerusalem'. So it is that the city of Jericho in the Word means instruction or doctrine for living according to its king. Therefore, here, Jericho and its king signify the state in a man where instead of truths there are falsities that rule. It is a state where the opposite - falsities - are taught and where the doctrine formed is a false doctrine, and is a state where evil reigns over man. Instead of the Truth or the Lord as King ruling over us the evils and falsities reign over us and, as such, are our ruling love, unless we are freed from them. This love then attacks any search into the spiritual sense of the Word that man has for fear it will loose its (the evils) power over us. It fights against the truth and wants to prevent the Lord, Who is the Truth, from reigning within us. Again, we read from the Word.
Behold, there came men in hither to night of the children of Israel to search out the
country. (Joshua 2: 2)
Into a man's understanding rational things form within as his doctrine. They come from the natural good that a man does 'as if' from his self. Though this is done in obscurity and is void of any love and faith of the ruling love (a love of self) in man. By 'night' signified a state of obscurity. This is why a man's ruling love, that is, why his desires for self, becomes concerned and wants to prevent any true spiritual conjunction from happening where the spiritual of the Lord rules instead of one's self. Instead, the hells want to rule. Remember, to a man who loves himself, who loves falsities that he has confirmed as true, what is evil, appear to be good and falsities are to him the truth. Yet, it is in this state of a man that a man loves the truth and desires to know it, even though what he knows may only be seen in an appearances and that falsities adhere to his thoughts; it is the truth to him and, so, faith to the Lord can be appropriated when followed or when done from the will to do good, but not from the understanding alone. Thus, it is seen even though the truth a man accepts may not be genuine, if he wills to do good the faith he appropriates is that of the Lord's.
So, when man, from innocence, from a love of truth, desires from an affection to understand and, so, wants to know the truth, which comes from the Lord or who knows truths for the sake of truth, then, the evils and falsities which rule over him reign over the Church within him will attempt to prevent the conjunction of spiritual truth with any natural good that he does. The devil does not mind if internal truths that have remained a mystery to him are learned and in fact, when they are known they, then, can be twisted or falsified and are in danger of being profaned. Eventually these truths are destroyed with the man, for they become, then, understood only in the natural sense. It is only when truths, even though they are only understood in appearances or are only apparent truths, are followed and are then acted upon for the sake of good that the devil fights to maintain his rule over us and tries to keep us from learning and knowing and acknowledging spiritual truth.
The Lord, as the Truth combating, in man wants to reclaim what rightfully belongs to Him. Thus, there ensues a combat over the corporeal and worldly things within man. These things need to be subjugated in the man by the Lord just as the Lord Himself had to put off evils from His Human from the mother and had to subjugate them in hell. Natural things or natural truths are to be under spiritual things or spiritual truths in a man. This is of Divine Order. We read further from the Word.
And the king of Jericho sent unto Rahab, saying, Bring forth the men that are come to thee, which are entered into thine house. (Joshua 2: 3)
'Rahab' signifies the natural man - a man separated from his spirit or internal. Rahab is another name for Egypt. Egypt, in a good sense, is where man learns scientific or natural knowledge for his natural life, even as the Lord Himself, as Jesus Christ, went to Egypt where falsities and evils (signified by King Herod) could not kill Him. Isn't the natural man separated from his internal the state that we all are in before being regenerated? Don't we have affection for falsities, thinking they are true until we are born anew? This of course, is signified by the king of Jericho who rules within us before we become reformed and regenerated. Nonetheless, it is into this state that the Lord enters as the Truth combating and, thus, that the rational principle of good can become conjoined with truth, and so open up in man a new understanding and a new will and form a new true doctrine establishing the True Church within. The mind of man has been occupied by evil and filled with falsities and these must be turned away or defeated as were the Canaanites in the land of Canaan. It was the Lord, who in His own strength fought against the evils, which infiltrates into every man born on earth, so that man, now, can be conjoin with the Lord and His good and truth, even as the Divine Good was united with Divine Truth, who was the Lord Jesus Christ. He united His Natural with the Divine and became the Divine Human from which a man, now, can shun evils as sins through believing and loving the Lord as his King and Who is over the Church which is His Kingdom on earth, and as it is seen in the written Word as the Armies of the Israelites who conquered the land Canaan. He is the Lord of Hosts Who can conquer the falsities and defeat the evil within us, freeing the man of the Church.
It is here, also, that our ruling love as signified as the king of Jericho, demands 'as it were' that all natural good and its doctrine be under our ruling evil love. The threat to this ruling love is that our natural understanding becomes prepared to receive a new doctrine and that the New Church of the Lord is then established on earth and is within us. This, of course, is what is happening even today. For, we believe the Lord has come again in the Word of the Divine Human, which Word reveals the spiritual sense of the Word, for everyone who loves the truth and who does good for the sake of truth and good the Lord lives within. Continuing, we read again.
For they be (are) come to search out the country. (Joshua 2: 3)
A 'country' in the written Word signifies the corporeal and worldly things - the most external things around the city, as it were, in which we have shown was the internal, the doctrinal things that we (as the Church) are to learn. And as such, man, as a child, or when in a state of innocence, and has a desire for the truth which is from the Lord wants to know that what we understand is true. Thus, what is seen from our affection of the understanding through corporeal or bodily senses will become, first, natural, then gradually more and more interior, and, thus rational, until at length spiritual, for it is within the corporeal, as the ground, where the natural, the rational, and the spiritual are implanted in their proper order that man becomes conjoined with the Lord and with the angelic Heaven. The scientific knowedges are not only to be learned in a continuous degree, but also in the discrete degrees, that is, first in the sensual, then the natural, further the rational and the spiritual-natural and, then, finally the spiritual and even to the celestial. These degrees cannot be known or learned unless a man's understanding and will is conjoined by the Lord.
So it is that the natural good joins together with its spiritual truth from the Lord and goes 'as it were' forth to see, that is, to search for internal or spiritual truths from an affection of the understanding that comes from good from the Lord. Thus, we become the children of God.
Amen.
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