Spiritual Meaning of GENESIS 15:18
[2] That these things were a consolation to the Lord after His temptations and horrors, may be seen without explication. For after those hard and adverse eventualities which the Lord had seen, that is to say, after he had put to flight evils and falsities--which were signified by the fowls that came down upon the bodies and that Abram drove away (verse 11)-and yet after all dense falsities infused themselves, at which He shuddered (which were signified by the "terror of great darkness" that fell upon Abram in the deep sleep, (verse 12), and yet at last mere falsities and evils took possession of the human race (which are signified by "the furnace of smoke" and "the torch of fire" which passed between the pieces, mentioned in (verse 17), that precedes this), the Lord could not but be in distress and grief; and therefore consolation now follows, such as was given above (verses 4 and 5); namely, that His seed should inherit the land, that is, that they who are in charity and in faith in Him should become heirs of His kingdom. To Him the salvation of the human race was the only consolation, for He was in Divine and celestial love, and became, even as to His Human Essence, the Divine and celestial Love itself, in which the love of all is alone regarded and is at heart.
[3] That the Divine love is such may be seen from the love of parents toward their children, which increases according to the degree in which it descends, that is, it becomes greater toward the more remote descendants than it is toward the immediate children. Nothing ever exists without a cause and an origin, consequently neither does this love in the human race that is characterized by a constant increase toward the descendants in succession. The cause and origin of this cannot but be from the Lord, from whom inflows all conjugial love, and that of parents toward their children, and the source of which is that His love for all is like that of a father for his sons, who desires to make all His heirs, and provides an inheritance for those who are to be born, as He does for those already born.
. From the river Euphrates. That this signifies the extension of spiritual and celestial things--to the river of Egypt" being the extension of spiritual things, and "to the river Euphrates" being the extension of celestial things--is evident from the signification of "the river of Egypt," and from the signification of "the great river," or "the Euphrates." That these "rivers" signify the extension of spiritual and celestial things, may be seen from the signification of the land of Canaan, as being the Lord‘s kingdom in the heavens and on the earth, in which there is nothing but the spiritual things which are of faith and the celestial things which are of mutual love; and therefore nothing but the extension of these can be meant by the boundaries of the land of Canaan. For what the land of Canaan is, what the river of Egypt is, and what the great river Euphrates is, and indeed what the boundaries of any land are, they who are in the heavens do not know at all; but they well know what the extension of spiritual and celestial things is, and also the determinations and the limitations of the states of these things. These things they have in mind while the others are being read by man; and so the letter vanishes and together with it that historical sense which has served as an objective form for the heavenly ideas.[2] That "the river of Egypt" signifies the extension of spiritual things, is because "Egypt" signifies memory-knowledges (scientifica), which, together with a man’s rational and intellectual things, constitute spiritual things (n. 1443); and that "Egypt" in the internal sense signifies memory-knowledges may be seen (n. 1164, 1165, 1186, 1462). That "the river Euphrates" signifies the extension of celestial things, may be seen from a consideration of the lands which that river bounds and separates from the land of Canaan, and by which likewise in many passages are signified the knowledges (scientifica et cognitiones) of celestial things but here, because it is called "the river" and "the great river," celestial things and the knowledges (cognitiones) of them are what alone are signified; for a "great river" and "greatness" are predicated of these.
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Author: E. Swedenborg (1688-1772). | Design: I.J. Thompson, Feb 2002. | www.BibleMeanings.info |