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And Jehovah said unto Moses, Stretch forth thy hand toward heaven, and there shall be hail in all the land of Egypt, upon man, and upon beast, and upon every herb of the field in the land of Egypt. And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven; and Jehovah gave voices and hail, and the fire walked unto the land, and Jehovah made it rain hail upon the land of Egypt. And there was hail, and fire walking at the same time in the midst of the hail, very grievous, such as had not been like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. And the hail smote in all the land of Egypt all that was in the field, from man and even to beast, and the hail smote every herb of the field, and broke every tree of the field. Only in the land of Goshen, where the sons of Israel were, was there no hail. And Pharaoh sent and called Moses and Aaron, and said unto them, I have sinned this time; Jehovah is just, and I and my people are wicked. Supplicate ye unto Jehovah, for there hath been enough of voices of God and hail; and I will let you go, and ye shall stay no longer. And Moses said unto him, As soon as I am gone out of the city, I will spread out my palms unto Jehovah, and the voices shall cease, and there shall be no more hail; that thou mayest know that the earth is Jehovah’s. And as for thee and thy servants, I know that ye will not yet fear the face of Jehovah God.
Exodus 9:22-30
Arcana Coelestia 7573… As regards truth Divine in heaven and in hell, which truth is signified by the “voices,” the case is the same as it is with thunders on earth. On high mountains thunders are heard as a mild and gentle sound, whereas below on the earth they are heard as a terrific noise; and in the same way in heaven truth Divine is mild and gentle, but in hell is terrible.
The Word constantly challenges our historical faith and thus constantly perfects
AC 7577. And there was hail, and fire at the same time walking in the midst of the hail, very grievous. That this signifies the persuasions of falsity together with the cupidities of evil, is evident from the signification of “hail,” as being falsity from evil (of which above, n. 7574), here the persuasion of falsity, because it is said “hail very grievous;” from the signification of “fire,” as being the cupidity of evil (of which just above, n. 7575); from the signification of “walking in the midst,” as being to be together, and indeed the cupidity of evil inmostly, because this was the source of the falsity.
[2] There is here described the state of those who are of the church and infest the upright in the other life when they have been vastated as to what is of the church, that is, as to the goods and truths which they professed; namely, that then persuasions of falsity together with cupidities of evil reign with them; for such is their interior state. The persuasions of falsity and the cupidities of evil are inseparable, for he who is in evil as to life, is in falsity as to doctrine. It may indeed seem otherwise to those who are in evil of life; for when with the mouth they profess truths from the Word, or from the doctrine of their church, they suppose that they are in the belief of these truths. It also appears to them as if they were; but still they are not if the life is evil; for they either profess with the mouth what disagrees with their thoughts, or they think that it is so from a persuasive faith, which is for the sake of gain or of honors; therefore when there is no further canvassing for honors, or chasing of gain, this faith falls to the ground, and then they readily learn falsities which agree with the evils of cupidities. These falsities exist inwardly with those who live evilly, no matter how much they believe that they do not exist.
[3] That this is so, clearly shows itself in the other life, when the externals have there been taken away, and such persons have been left to their interiors. Then falsities burst forth, both those which they had thought in the world, and those which they had not openly thought; for they burst forth from the evils which had been of their life, because falsities are nothing else than evils reasoning and defending themselves. From all this it can be seen what is their state in the other life, namely that they have persuasions of falsity together with cupidities of evil.
Transcript
Through the shares, one word that stood out was the word attention. People mentioned that, I think just about everybody did in some form or another. And of course Moses being asked to stretch forth his hand toward heaven is about orientation and attention being given to what is higher. So just a few points about what’s going on here so far as the inner process aspect is concerned. And I’ll just go through a couple of verses here. So just using 7566 which is the opening of this reading.
And Jehovah said to Moses, like so what’s happened here is that there’s a shift of state going on. So whenever Jehovah is speaking and saying something, what you have is the state being worked with is such that this can now be heard. Because what the Lord speaks is not spoken in a linear way, but it is received in a linear way. Because we are a finite being. So all that the Lord says is always said in all its fullness. From the Lord’s perspective there’s no measuring of what is said. What creates the experience of something being measured is the capacity to receive. So this is the idea that the Lord is fully present.
So when the Lord speaks something that really refers to the influx of the Divine into the human mind. And it’s received by what’s termed Moses. And so what Moses is, is really the interior truths that can enact things and have what Jehovah speaks brought down onto a lower plane. Whatever the Lord speaks it’s for one end and that is the salvation of the human race. That’s all that Jehovah can speak. So one way of thinking about this is that if you transpose the word Jehovah with the word love, then it can open things up for you. So love finds its expression through truths and that’s Jehovah and Moses. That’s the relationship there.
And the injunction is to stretch forth thy hand toward heaven. So what’s happening is that there is influx from the Lord that is inspiring a looking to heaven. So what does that mean? So heaven as we know is not a place. There is statements that talk about heaven is the Word itself. So you can see then that what’s being inspired, ‘in-breathed’ into our consciousness is a desire to look to the Word. So the state is allowing for this and what is it? Well here comes a further revealing of the nature of proprium in particular as it relates to Egypt and Egypt can be thought of as our historical faith. Egypt is all the truths and goods that have been gathered into the mind but haven’t been put into practice. They’ve been learnt, rote. So Egypt is closely associated with what’s termed scientifics or another translation memory knowledge. So it’s just that flat level of material.
And so what has to happen is that through our early development the sense of self or proprium is strong and its gathering of information from the Word is done in order to save itself. This is just how the process works. So a lot of goods and truths have been gathered in order to cover over evils and falsities and that has to be opened up. This correlates actually with the awakening series in Heaven and Hell where first of all as you awaken in the world of spirits you go through a state of external concerns which leads into a state of internal concerns, or external things are dealt with then internal things that sit below are dealt with after that.
So what you have here is an opening up of externals to penetrate into what lies beneath. And because the proprium has gathered goods and truths from the Word it feels secure in its religiosity or historical faith but from a regeneration perspective that is a block and that’s where this is reached now. And all of that which protects the idea of myself as an independent autonomous being who is religious and spiritual and all of that that has to be broken down because so long as it’s proprium that is gathering those goods and truths they are turned into what is evil and false because they protect the very thing the Lord is seeking to deliver us from. And so what that is about of course is the breaking down of our reliance on a sense of self that’s grounded in the loves of self and love of the world and that has to be uprooted and exposed so that the ruling loves become love to the Lord and love to the neighbor. Or another way of thinking about those phrases love to the Lord is loving what is good, love to the neighbor is loving what is true for their own sakes and the love of what is good and true from the Word for proprium is about protecting love of self and love of the world.
So these things have to be exposed and turn around and this is what’s described by when Jehovah gives voices and hail. So anything from the Lord that’s looking to liberate us from proprium, from the proprium’s point of view looks like something catastrophic and it is essentially. So truths from the Lord which are received in the heavens as something gentle and nurturing when it gets down to the level of proprial levels and states becomes confrontational and something to be resisted because self love is doing everything it can to avoid having to give up its power, and that’s represented by Pharaoh.
So what you see here is this playing out of the Word working within the human mind to bring about our liberation. And what does that mean?
That means we give up any notion that we are an independent autonomous being or self, acknowledging that the Lord is the only self, and that all that exists so far as finite mind is concerned is an as if of self and as of self. We are receivers of life we do not have life in ourselves and that’s what has to be turned around. And that’s what is described by the opening up of these plagues. So the whole process is about bringing the natural into a form that is subjected to what is higher and so is able to receive the higher within the lower. The lower is in service of the higher prior to regeneration and also leading up to the state of being regenerate I guess. The natural rules over what is spiritual and that’s the issue.
So if we think about the idea of love of the world and take it away from the world out there then love of the world is simply the acquisition of what is another’s and claiming it as my own. And when we are in a belief that we have life in ourselves or that we are a self independent from the Lord then we are claiming what is the Lord’s as our own because the Lord alone has life in Himself – that’s the definition of Divinity. The definition for a created form is that it is a receiver of life, it doesn’t have life in itself and this is the whole discussion or episode in the Garden of Eden with the serpent. And again this is daily not just something historical, this is a …
Do I listen to what the senses say is true? Or do I believe what the Word says is true?
Do I believe the serpent or do I believe the Lord?
Every single decision point in our lives involves that at its core.
Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments in the online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to maintain focus on understanding the Text’s application to the inner life while reinforcing key LP principles highlighted in the exchanges.