Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man

We read in <<Heaven and Hell>> that "the men of old time had an idea of the Divine as human", "saw Him as a man but nevertheless adored Him as the God of the universe; calling Him the God of heaven and earth, and Jehovah" (HH84). Among the people who saw God in human form were "Manoah and his wife", the parents of Samson, of whom we read, "Manoah said unto his wife, We shall surely die, because we have seen God" (ibid; Judges 14:22). His wife however replies, "If the Lord were pleased to kill us, he would not have received a meat offering at our hands"; for the angel of the Lord had just recently risen to Heaven on the rising flames of that very offering (Judges 14:23; Judges 14:20). She also makes the rational observation that the angel of the Lord would not have imparted special instructions if there were to be no opportunity to implement them (Judges 14:23). Such special instructions recur whenever the Divine Human makes an appearance in the Bible.

Of course Manoah's wife was perfectly correct. They had seen God sure enough, and so had Abraham and others, and they lived (John 8:56-8:58; HH84). This favourite story therefore represents, among other things, the way that we can look upon the Divine Human, Jesus Christ, and live. Manoah feared for the survival of himself and his wife because he had been taught, "there shall no man see me and live" (Exodus 33:20). But just as Manoah and his wife were visited, so are we all visited by the Divine Human, who as Paul writes, "ever liveth to make intercession for [us]" (Hebrews 8:25). We should not conceive of Jesus as pleading for our souls in some court of law, but as comprising a comprehensible interface with the God "no man hath seen"; for it is easier to worship the Divine Human than an "invisible God" (John 1:18; AC9971). The children of Israel call attention to this same situation when they "said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die" (Exodus 20:19).

Lest we forget, the ministry of Jesus Himself represents just such a combination of the Divine Human and special instructions as has already been mentioned in relation to Moses, Manoah, and his wife. It may be wondered why Moses should be mentioned in this capacity, but after all Moses clearly represents an interface between God and men such that they are capable of surviving the encounter, this while in the usual way studying and applying His special instructions, "hearing" and "doing" the Word (James 1:22). It is therefore unsurprising that Moses represents "the law or the Word" (AC6752). Much as Manoah and his wife received special instructions in regard to Samson, we have all received our Lord the Word, in whom believing we may even live. The Lord draws attention to His function as an interface for observing the invisible Father when He tells Philip, "he that hath seen me hath seen the Father" (John 14:9). He also draws attention to our in effect reading or hearing the invisible Father.

As Jesus says, "Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me" (John 5:39). The scriptures do not only testify of Jesus in some static state but treat of His development over time; for we read in <<Luke>> that "Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man" (2:52). In other words, the very God who "created man in his own image" came into the world as a child and grew up just as we did, with the difference that His incarnation involved successive states of ever perfecting unition with the Father; for "the unition [of Jesus with Jehovah] was not effected all at once , and by a single alternation, but successively from his earliest childhood to the end of his life in the world, and this chiefly by means of temptations and victories" (Genesis 1:27; AC1926). We read in <<Matthew>> following the Lord's temptation that "he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast, in the borders of Zabulon and Naphthalim" (Matthew 4:13).

This same Zabulon signifies, in its highest sense, "the union of the Divine Itself and the Divine Human in the Lord" (AR359). As has been mentioned, "temptations and victories" are the trials which God has instituted in order to bring about this union; that the borders were specifically "of Zabulon and Naphtalim" signifies this same relation between temptation and union, for "Naphtali is a hind let loose: he giveth goodly words" (Genesis 49:21). Naphtali specifically represents "temptation and the state after it, and thence regeneration" (AE439:2). As for the "goodly words" we expect to follow close on the heels of "Naphtali", in this case Jesus' victory over temptations in the wilderness, these are the very ministry of Jesus, who "from that time... began to preach" ( Matthew 4:17). As we can see, Jesus very dramatically became the Word in the aftermath of this victory after "40 days and 40 nights" of temptation "Matthew 4:2). For 40 always signifies a "duration of temptation" (AC730).

We also see that Moses "was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights" on Mt Sinai, whereupon he promulgated the law (Exodus 34:28). In both cases the message is the same: we receive teaching and instruction in the aftermath of temptation, and not in any wise without it. If you would be regenerated, then you must undergo refinement in temptation's furnace, the "fiery trial which is to try you" (1 Peter 4:12), the "strait gate" and "narrow way" of which Jesus insistently speaks (Matthew 7:14). In brief, you will be flooded by the passions and falsities of devils into the stream of which you are dipped so as to effect your fructification. As we read in <<Spiritual Experiences>>, "When a person is being held by the Lord in such a way that companies of evil spirits do not enter, then he is free of, and lifted above the inflow of those companies. The moment one is plunged into such societies, it is a kind of flood, for one becomes like they are" (SE4155). At this point, we either delight in them or we don't.

If we delight in evil passions and falsities, if for instance we enjoy hateful thoughts and their auxiliary misunderstandings about God and the neighbour, then we capitulate at once and do not really experience, still less overcome, temptation. But if we are on the contrary grieved at the hateful thoughts and fantasies concerning other living beings, then we experience a special form of supernatural combat. As we read in <<Secrets of Heaven>>, "Temptation itself is nothing else than a wrestling or combat; for truth is assaulted by evil spirits and is defended by the angels who are with the man" (AC4274). Someone may, for instance, be tempted to hate their parents, or God, or their family, or their Church. Such a one gets dipped in a flood of devils who hate parents, or God, or their family, or their Church, and is thereby given the opportunity to enjoy or shun the evil thoughts in question. In <<1 Timothy>> we read of "murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers" (1:9).

This certainly does not signify that they have committed literal patricide and matricide by any means, but should rather be understood in relation to "Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him" (1 John 3:15). Notice the explicit reference to "eternal life abiding in him": we have been told by God that "the Kingdom of Heaven is within you" (Luke 17:21). So, in other words, people such as those whom Paul refers to as "murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers" have, when dipped in the flood of devils who hate fathers and mothers -- whether biological parents or good and truth or God and the Church -- enjoyed the evil of hatred, writing this decided enjoyment on their inner men and consequently suiting themselves as to their interiors not to Heaven but to hell. In practice, we should watch out for evil thoughts about parents, God, Christians, supervisors, bosses, and neighbours generally insinuated into our train of thought by devils.

In <<Matthew>> we read, "It is enough for the disciple to be as his master, and the servant as his lord" (10:25). It is, effectively, "enough" for the human to be tempted as His Lord was tempted, being "created... in his own image" (Genesis 1:27). It is in the course of overcoming temptation that "our old man is crucified with him", when the Lord effectively dips us into the flood of devils in the cause of our regeneration (Romans 6:6: SE4155). You may well wonder how this process of dipping us into the flood actually occurs: "If the closeness of the Lord's presence exceeds the amount of affection for good or for truth in him, he enters into temptation. The reason why is that the evils and falsities which reside with him, and which are moderated by the goods and truths residing with him, cannot suffer that closer presence" (AC4299:2). This process registers on a conscious level as distress of conscience in relation to evils and falsities, accusations and lusts. For temptation is "torture of a person's conscience" (AC4299).

It has already been mentioned that "Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and favour with God and men" (Luke 2:52). One of the stages of this growth precisely involved arriving at a point when "his rational [was] conceived and born in the same way as with other men" (AC1902:3). We ourselves cannot be tempted prior to the development of the rational in question, for the simple reason that the hereditary evil into which we are born would by correspondence immediately plunge us into hell; we are protected from the evil in which we are born, the hereditary evil on account of which we need a Saviour, until we become rational adults capable of handling the discordance between that evil and God (AC1902:2). Do you notice how easy it is to understand how the game gets played if we focus on the Divine Human, Jesus Christ? We receive special access by focusing on that "visible God", Jesus Christ, rather than someone whom we cannot see. May "your love... abound yet more and more in knowledge" (1 Philippians 1:9).

Amen.