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Numbers Chapter 36

Summary of the Spiritual Sense

1. The man of the external church perceives from Divine Good by Divine Truth, that those who are in the affection of truth without truths receive an inheritance in the heavenly kingdom, vers. 1-2.
2. But he is in ignorance as to the truths relating to the conjunction of goodness with truth which is the heavenly marriage, and therefore seeks instruction, vers. 3-4.
3. In consequence of which he learns from Divine Truth, or the Word, that this conjunction is effected in freedom; and yet that every external affection is to be conjoined with its own internal, or with truths in harmony and agreement with itself, vers. 5-13.

1.  The heads of the fathers' houses of the family of the children of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, of the families of the sons of Joseph, denotes the natural man as to his leading principles, yet in the beginning of regeneration, and who derives his life successively from the new understanding and the new will peculiar to the man of the Spiritual Church who is in the celestial of the spiritual life, or in charity from faith, 3728, 7833, 5912, 4117, chap 26:29, 6237, 6238, 4286; and their coming near, and speaking before Moses, and before the princes the heads of the fathers' houses of the children of Israel, denotes uncertainty concerning truths and dependence upon conjunction with the leading principles of the spiritual man, which are Divine Truth from the Lord and its subordinate truths, for enlightenment, 3572, 2271, 7010, 1482, 3728, 7833, 3654.

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2.  Their saying denotes perception, 1822; "The Lord commanded my lord to give the land for inheritance by lot to the children of Israel," denotes that it is of the Divine Providence, operating by Divine Truth that, in heaven and in the church, the external man is brought into harmony with the internal, 2001, 5486, 7010, 8899, 3705, 3239, 6494; "and my lord was commanded by the Lord to give the inheritance of Zelophehad our brother to his daughters," denotes that where the external is in the fear of the Lord, although without truths, yet if he be in the affection of truth from good, truths are provided for him according to that affection, 7010, 5486, 2001, 8899, 2658, chap 26:33, 1222.

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3.  "And if they be married to any of the sons of the other tribes of the children of Israel," denotes that still it seems to him that the external affection, without its truths, may be conjoined in the heavenly marriage with an internal of a different general class in the Spiritual Church, 2173, 489, 3858, 3654; "then shall their inheritance be taken away from the inheritance of our fathers," denotes that the external affection will be alienated, 2658, 3947; "and shall be added to the inheritance of the tribe whereunto they shall belong," denotes that it will become the possession of another general class, 4692, 2658, 3858; and "so shall it be taken away from the lot of our inheritance," denotes that it will not be brought into harmony with its own internal degree, 3947, 2658.

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4.  "And when the jubilee of the children of Israel shall be," denotes so that in' the heavenly marriage of congenial human souls, which is full, continual, and eternal with the man of the Spiritual Church, 8802, Lev 25:10; "then shall their inheritance be added to the tribe whereunto they belong," denotes that it appears as if the External of one general class might become the inheritance of an Internal in another, 2658, 3947, 3858, 155, 156; and "so shall their inheritance be taken away from the tribe of our fathers," denotes thus separation eternally from its own Internal, 2658, 3947, 3858, 7833.

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5.  Moses commanding the children of Israel, according to the word of the Lord, saying, "The tribe of the sons of Joseph speaks right," denotes that revelation is made by Divine Truth from Divine Good that the reasoning of the external or natural man, having its origin from the spiritual, is true according to appearances, concerning the heavenly marriage and inheritance, 7010, 5486, 3654, 2001, 3858, 5912, 4286, 7740.

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6.  "This is the thing which the Lord has commanded concerning the daughters of Zeiophehad, saying," denotes that Divine Good reveals the genuine truth concerning the affection of truth in the external man, giving the perception, 2001, 5486, chap 26:33, 1822; "Let them marry to whom they think best," denotes that it must be conjoined to truth in perfect freedom, 10173; and "only to the family of the tribe of their father shall they marry," denotes that each "particular affection must be conjoined to the truth which is congenial to it, and at the same time is in harmony with the subdivisions, and the general class of affections to which it belongs, 7833, 10173.

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7.  "So shall no inheritance of the children of Israel remove from tribe to tribe," denotes that thus no particular external affection can be removed from its own subdivision, or general class, to another, 2658, 3654, 2973, 3858; and "for the children of Israel shall cleave every one to the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers," denotes because in every case the Internal of the man of the church conjoins to itself its own particular and perfectly corresponding External, 3654, 3875, 2658, 3858, 7833, 3703².

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8.  "And every daughter that possesses an inheritance in any tribe of the children of Israel, shall be wife to one of the family of the tribe of her father," denotes that every external affection, with its possessions or truths, belonging to any general class in the Spiritual Church, is reciprocally conjoined to its corresponding internal, 489, 2658, 3858, 3654, 915, 7833; and "that the children of Israel may possess every man the inheritance of his fathers," denotes as to subdivision and general class, so that thus every Internal has possession of its own External, 3654, 2658, 7833, 3703².

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9.  "So shall no inheritance remove from one tribe to another tribe," denotes that it is not possible, in heaven, that Externals can be removed from one subdivision, or general class, to another, 2658, 2973, 3858; "for the tribes of the children of Israel shall cleave every one to his own inheritance," denotes that it is always the Internal that chooses for itself its own External, 3858, 3654, 3875, 2658.

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10.  Even as the Lord commanded Moses, so the daughters of Zelophehad doing, denotes that this actually happens according to Divine Order with all external affections of truth grounded in the fear of the Lord conjoined with love, 2001, 5486, 7010, 489, chap 26:33.

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11.  For Mahlah, Tirzah, and Hoglah, and Milcah, and Noah, the daughters of Zelophehad, being married to their father's brothers' sons, denotes that such affection, though weak for the want of truths, may have a sincere delight therein; may be disposed strongly to confirm truth, and abide in it; to be governed by it, and thus to be distinctly elevated above merely natural good; and therefore, although relatively obscure, this affection is united in the heavenly marriage with an internal of its own kind, or to the truths of collateral internal good with which it perfectly agrees, chap 26:33, 4434, 3803, 489.

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12.  Their being married into the families of the sons of Manasseh the son of Joseph; and their inheritance remaining in the tribe of the family of their father, denotes that thus it is conjoined eternally with the truths derived from the new will of good, which is peculiar to the celestial of the Spiritual Church; and that the external truths thereof remain in that subdivision and general class to which they properly belong on account of their origin, 4434, 7833, 489, 6257. 6238, 4286, 2658, 3858, 3703².

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13.  These being the commandments and the judgements, which the Lord commanded by the hand of Moses to the children of Israel in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho, denotes that all these are the laws of Divine Order, internal and external, proceeding from Divine Good by Divine Truth, and being intended for the government of the man of the church, even when he is in a comparatively low state of adulterated good, and yet is obedient to the Word of the Lord, and to the knowledges of truth derived therefrom, 8972, 2001, 5486, 878, 7010, 3654, 2418, 2468, 1585, 9325¹⁰.

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Discussion

We are already acquainted with signification of the first person named in this chapter; for he represents the natural man in the beginning of regeneration, and the origin of this natural man is given in chap. xxvii. I, while, elsewhere, he is described as being in "the good of the pleasure of the sensual things of the body," 4117. But we are not to understand Gilead to signify merely sensual pleasure; it is that kind of sensual pleasure which is associated with, is controlled by, and is derived from the newly formed religious life from the new understanding of truth and the new will of good respectively denoted by Machir and Manasseh. But it is a fact, all the same, that this new life necessarily has a mixed quality, because of the interference of the merely natural man, and therefore we cannot wonder if the ruling principle, or principles, here are in some obscurity, especially as to the subject of this chapter. And yet we see also, in our first section, that, nevertheless, there is subjection to the Word of the Lord, and perception thence that the new natural man who humbly fears the Lord and loves the truth, although at first he is ignorant, has his proper place in the church of the Lord, and in the kingdom of heaven. And it will naturally occur to most of us that we must all pass through the states here described; that it is, in certain respects, a troublesome time; and that we shall be very glad when we are no longer Gileadites in the strict sense of the term, even if it should turn out that we form a portion of the ultimate heaven. For we have the consolation of being instructed from this chapter, that we shall not only be provided with truths, but also enter into the heavenly marriage of good and truth; and, in fact, since abstract good and truth have no existence, that we shall each of us in his own heaven find his congenial eternal partner. This, however, is anticipating. For there is a difficulty in the way as our second section shows.

And this difficulty is certainly very definitely stated, so that, after all, this natural man is not quite so ignorant as we might think, even granting that appearances of truth such as there are in nature, in the Word, and in human experience, are apt to delude him somewhat. Being in the church, and having to some extent realized his possessions and privileges, he knows already that regeneration is like a marriage; that it is compared to a marriage in the Word of the Lord, and even that the church itself is called the bride, and that the Lord Himself is called the Husband (Rev 21:2). He knows also that the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who made a marriage for his son (Matt 22:2); that some people are not willing to come to the marriage; and that of those who do come, some have not a wedding garment; and thus he clearly sees that the heavenly marriage is something real, although he may not know that it is the conjunction of truth with good, of faith with charity, or of wisdom with love in himself. But when it is put before him he begins to realize it a little; for he sees that to have faith without rove, or love without faith, is not reasonable; and also that to have these and not to embody them in his life is inconsistent. He believes, therefore, firmly that there is to be conjunction with the Lord by love to Him, and also that when it takes place the possessions of the bride will belong to the bridegroom; for he will realize that his life is from the Lord, and that at last his internal man is to have possession of his external man. But what he fears is that his own tribe, through this marriage, will lose its inheritance, or part of it; that another tribe will gain that part, and that this will be wrong, or not according to the division by lot. That is, spiritually, it may be, that "the external affection, without its truths, may be conjoined, in the heavenly marriage, with an internal of a different general class in the Spiritual Church, and thus that it will be alienated and not brought into harmony with its own internal, but will become the possession of another general class"; or in other words, it may be that the external represented by the bride and her possessions will not be adapted to its new internal, so that in reality there will not be a proper heavenly marriage. And there is fear also that finally in the year of Jubilee, that is spiritually, in the Judgement, the possession of his fathers will be entirely lost; again, spiritually, there is fear that "in the heavenly marriage of congenial human souls, which is full, continual, and eternal with the man of the Spiritual Church, it appears as if the External of one general class might become the inheritance of an Internal in another, and thus be separated eternally from its own internal," or in other words, that the External will not be truly in harmony with the new Internal, and thus again that there will not be a proper heavenly marriage.

And here it may be remarked, before proceeding to the next section, that this picture, in both its literal and spiritual senses, suggests some thoughts on Christian marriages, as they actually are in the world at the present day. Of course, in all such marriages the church and the state both assume that the marriage is genuine, and exactly according to the Lord's teaching in Matt 19:3-6, because the contracting parties themselves assume this. And therefore, according to the law, both spiritually and naturally, these marriages are for life, or during life in this world; and indeed if they are genuine they will be for eternity as well, for this is involved in the expression "What, therefore, God has joined together let not man put to pieces." But on the other hand, if any marriage is not genuine, still it must be maintained until the decease of one of the parties, because it was assumed by both spiritual and natural law to be genuine, and it is certainly representatively genuine on this account. But the fact is, in this case, that not being genuine, it cannot be eternal, and is really just such an uncongenial union as is implied and represented in this section by marriages contracted between individuals of different tribes, the true marriages being signified by those contracted within the same tribe (HH 378). But what then, it may be asked, is to happen to such ill-matched pairs in the other life? The answer is, that each party, if regenerated, and thus prepared for heaven, will be certain to find his or her conjugial partner there; for we are taught that it is of Divine Providence that conjugial pairs should be born, and that finally they will be brought together in that world where perfection of character exists, and where there is no concealment of that character, so that there is no possibility of making a mistake, in a state where every man is some specific form of love veiled by wisdom, and every woman is some specific form of wisdom veiled by love (CL 32).

Turning now to the third section, let us carefully consider it. In the first place we learn that, according to the Word of the Lord, the new natural man, denoted by the tribe of the sons of Joseph, had spoken the truth. That is, he had done so sincerely believing that the appearances of truth in which he was were genuine. For if the affection for truth constituting the spiritual life of any particular woman could be conjoined with the truths earnestly loved by a particular man of an altogether uncongenial character; and if this uncongenial character could really possess and appropriate to himself a life so dissimilar to his own, so that it might form the will of which he was the understanding, even to eternity (HH 367), then it is clear that this internal life, or love of wisdom in the husband, would so take possession of that external affection, or life, in his wife, as to entirely overpower it, because it is a law of Divine Order in heaven that the external life of an individual should be conformed to his internal life, and not the reverse; and what is true of one individual is true also of married partners in heaven, since the husband is always the internal life of which the wife is always the external. But this is absurd, because in heaven there is no preponderance of the understanding of the husband over the will of his wife, or the reverse (HH 369). Hence then we now see wherein the perception of a Gileadite, spiritually speaking, is right. For it is impossible that external affection such as is represented by the daughters of Zelophehad can form, in heaven, association by marriage, with an internal affection, in a tribe, or in an angelic society, not its own, 471. We cannot therefore wonder at the decision contained in vers. 6-7, either in the literal or in the spiritual sense, and if the references there given are consulted the truth of the latter sense will be more clearly seen. But it is not necessary to dwell upon the remaining part of the chapter, since what has already been said illustrates the spiritual sense of it. And, therefore, we close this chapter and this book with the following interesting statement: "The manner in which marriages are formed in the heavens, I have also been allowed to see. Everywhere in heaven those who are of similar dispositions are consociated, and those are dissociated who are dissimilar; and hence every society of heaven consists of those who are similar; for they who are alike are drawn together not of themselves, but from the Lord.... In the same manner married partners, whose minds are capable of being conjoined into one, are drawn to each other; therefore at first sight they love each other, see that they are conjugial partners, and enter into marriage from their inmost souls. Hence it is that all the marriages in the heavens are from the Lord alone. They also celebrate the marriage feast, which is attended by a numerous company; these festivities differ in different societies" (HH 383).

THE END