He Came as a Thief in the Night

 " And the golden mice, according to the number of all the cities of the Philistines belonging to the five lords, both of fenced cities, and of country villages, even unto the great stone of Abel, whereon they set down the ark of the Lord: which stone remaineth unto this day in the field of Joshua, the Bethshemite" (1 Samuel 6:18). We've already seen this great stone Abel as the great spiritual truth that charity is the first thing in the Church. In this connexion the leitmotif of Abel, charity, continues in 2 Samuel: "She said, “Long ago people used to say, ‘If you want good advice, go to the town of Abel to get it.’ The answers they got here were all that was needed to settle any problem" (2 Samuel 20:18). If you have any questions about the Word or spiritual life, then all that is needed to settle any problem is to relate the text or experience to love of God and the neighbor and to charity. In the New Testament, the Lord communicates the same point when noti...

 Judges 7:25 - King James Version (KJV) <25> And they took two princes of the Midianites, Oreb and Zeeb; and they slew Oreb upon the rock Oreb, and Zeeb they slew at the winepress of Zeeb, and pursued Midian, and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon on the other side Jordan. We often make the claim that the old testament histories encode spiritual information into narrative form, and examples of this have often been shown. In this case, it should be obvious to everyone that the verse is not important in a historical sense, where it sounds ridiculous. Do we slay so and so at the rock so and so? Do we slay Gaddafi at the winepress Gaddafi? We do not, in general! What then matters? What matters is the array of the correspondences; which weave together predicates of heart and mind, will and understanding. The rock and wine are both predicates of divine truth, and princes are subordinate truths. The correspondences are in the reversed or tails position; and as such indicat...

 One continues to read the Old Testament histories particularly at the moment, because they have become more pellucid; more like jasper walls of New Jerusalem are supposed to be.  See this for instance from the episode in 1 Samuel when the Philistines -- who represent faith separate from charity -- return the ark of the Lord: 1 Samuel 6:11-18 - King James Version (KJV) <11> And they laid the ark of the Lord upon the cart, and the coffer with the mice of gold and the images of their emerods. <12> And the kine took the straight way to the way of Bethshemesh, and went along the highway, lowing as they went, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left; and the lords of the Philistines went after them unto the border of Bethshemesh. <13> And they of Bethshemesh were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley: and they lifted up their eyes, and saw the ark, and rejoiced to see it. <14> And the cart came into the field of Joshua, a Bethshemite, and st...