Spiritual Meaning of
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The same is evident also from the signification of the expression to walk, and from the fact that he is said to have walked with God, not with Jehovah: to walk with God is to teach and live according to the doctrine of faith, but to walk with Jehovah is to live the life of love. To walk is a customary form of speaking that signifies to live, as to walk in the law, to walk in the statutes, to walk in the truth. To walk has reference properly to a way, which has relation to truth, consequently to faith, or the doctrine of faith. What is signified in the Word by walking, may in some measure appear from the following passages.
[2] In Micah:--
He hath showed thee, O man, what is good, and what doth Jehovah require of thee, but to do judgment and the love of mercy, and to humble thyself by walking with thy God? (Micah 6:8),
where to walk with God signifies to live according to the things here indicated; here however it is said with God, while of Enoch another word is used which signifies also from with God, so that the expression is ambiguous. In David:--
Thou hast delivered my feet from impulsion, that I may walk before God in the light of the living (Ps. 56:13),
where to walk before God is to walk in the truth of faith, which is the light of the living. In like manner in Isaiah:--
The people that walk in darkness see a great light (Isaiah 9:1).
So the Lord says by Moses:--
I will walk in the midst, and will be your God, and ye shall be My people (Lev. 26:12),
signifying that they should live according to the doctrine of the law.
[3] In Jeremiah:--
They shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and to the armies of the heavens, whom they have loved, and whom they have served, and after whom they have walked, and whom they have sought (Jeremiah 8:2),
where a manifest distinction is made between the things of love, and those of faith; the things of love being expressed by loving and serving; and those of faith by walking and seeking. In all the prophetical writings every expression is used with accuracy, nor is one term ever used in the place of another. But to walk with Jehovah, or before Jehovah, signifies, in the Word, to live the life of love.
from AC 519
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| Author: E. Swedenborg (1688-1772). | Design: I.J. Thompson, Feb 2002. | www.BibleMeanings.info |