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And Jehovah said unto Moses, When thou goest to return into Egypt, see all the wonders which I have put in thy hand, and thou shalt do them before Pharaoh; and I will harden his heart, and he will not send away the people. And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith Jehovah, My son, My firstborn, is Israel, and I say unto thee, Send My son away, that he may serve Me; and if thou refuse to send him away, behold I will slay thy son, thy firstborn.
And it came to pass in the way, in the inn, that Jehovah met him, and sought to kill him. And Zipporah took a stone, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and made it touch his feet; and she said, Because a bridegroom of bloods art thou to me. And He ceased from him. Then she said, A bridegroom of bloods as to circumcisions.
Exodus 4: 21-26
Arcana Coelestia 7040… “And it came to pass in the way, in the inn,” signifies that the posterity of Jacob were in externals without an internal; “that Jehovah met him,” signifies opposition; “and sought to kill him,” signifies that a representative church could not be instituted with that posterity; “and Zipporah took a stone,” signifies the quality shown by the representative church by means of truth; “and cut off the foreskin of her son,” signifies the removal of filthy loves, and thereby the laying bare of the internal; “and made it touch his feet,” signifies that the quality of the natural was then shown; “and she said, Because a bridegroom of bloods art thou to me,” signifies that it was full of all violence and hostility against truth and good; “and He ceased from him,” signifies that it was permitted that they should represent; “then she said, A bridegroom of bloods as to circumcisions,” signifies that although the internal was full of violence and hostility against truth and good, still circumcision was to be received as a sign representative of purification from filthy loves.
Angels have alternating states and are perfected by this continual movement
Heaven and Hell 158. I have been informed from heaven why there are such changes of state there. The angels said that there are many reasons. First, the delight of life and of heaven which they have from the love and wisdom that are from the Lord, would gradually become worthless if they were in it continually, as is the case with those who are in delights and pleasures without variety. A second reason is that angels as well as men, have a proprium, and this consists in loving self. All in heaven are withheld from their proprium, and in so far as they are withheld from it by the Lord, to that extent they are in love and wisdom. But so far as they are not withheld they are in the love of self, and because everyone loves his proprium and it draws him, they have changes of state or successive alternations. A third reason is that they are in this way perfected, for they thus establish a habit of being held in love to the Lord and of being withheld from the love of self. Also by alternations between delight and lack of delight, the perception and sensation of good becomes more exquisite. The angels added that the Lord does not bring about their changes of state, since He, as a Sun is unceasingly flowing in with heat and light, that is, with love and wisdom. But the cause is in themselves in that they love what is their proprium and this continually leads them away. This was illustrated by comparison with the sun of the world, showing that the cause of the changes of state of heat and cold, and of light and shade, year by year and day by day, is not in that sun which remains stationary, but the cause is in the earth.
The house built on the rock
Matthew 7:24-27. Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. “But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.”
In Him we live, and move, and have our being
Arcana Coelestia (Potts) 2892. The state of one who leads a good life and who believes that the Lord governs the universe, and that He alone is the source of everything good that flows from love and charity, and of everything true that is a matter of faith, and indeed that He is the source of all life – thus the state of one who believes that ‘in Him we live, and move, and have our being’ – is such that he can have heavenly freedom conferred on him, and with that freedom peace as well. For he trusts solely in the Lord and has no anxious cares about all else; he is quite sure that all things work for his good, blessedness, and happiness for ever. But one who believes that he governs himself is constantly agitated, being carried along into evil desires, into anxious cares about things of the future, and thus into a vast number of anxieties. And such being his belief, evil desires and false persuasions also cling to him.
Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments offered in the online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to keep the focus on understanding the Text in terms of its application to the inner life along with reinforcing any key LP principles that have been highlighted in the exchanges
