He Came as a Thief in the Night

 We have touched on insects in the Word in the past, as in this verse from Numbers: Numbers 13:33 - King James Version (KJV) <33> And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight. Much junk food has been written about the Nephilim; which has essentially more in common with Dungeons and Dragons than with the Word of God and the spiritual meanings which it throughout encodes. Here the salient point to take hold of is the tininess of those upon whom we gaze with contempt. As we read in Arcana Coelestia, the Nephilim "were possessed with the most enormous love of self, and supposed themselves to be as gods, and that whatever they thought was Divine" ; consequently, they looked upon other people as bugs (AC562). What is the modern-day equivalent? 'Out of ze vay, bug.'  Isaiah 40:22 - King James Version (KJV) <22> It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth...

We have seen* how the stranger in the Word, in its most positive sense -- there are reversed ones as usual with the Word's images -- is one who is willing to be instructed in the doctrines of charity and faith; and how the Word expresses this first from one camera angle then from another according to His custom:  Deuteronomy 10:16-18 - King James Version (KJV) <16> Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked. <17> For the Lord your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward: <18> He doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment. Luke 10:33-34 - King James Version (KJV) <33> But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, <34> And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own bea...

 Revelation 19:15 - King James Version (KJV) <15> And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. Luke 2:35 - King James Version (KJV) <35> (Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also,) that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed. These swords are one, the Word in person in the form of the text and the Word made flesh and Divine Human Jesus Christ, our Father, Lord and God. The soul is the will that chooses between fire and fire, good and evil, love and hate. The thoughts are the kind that choose between truth and falsehood, water and water.  The trial by fire and the trial by water are the sword of the Word in action, the process whereby God purifies your sun and moon, gold and silver, heart and mind. It is these we bake and seethe in the desert forty years. Psalms 66:12 Psalm 66:12 - King James Ver...

There are numerous explanations of glory, spiritual information shining from within the Word, and cloud, the outer or literal sense within which glory sits, throughout the Writings for the simple reason that God carefully writes cloud and glory into the Word precisely so and often; and He wants us to know why.  Exodus 24:16 - King James Version (KJV) <16> And the glory of the Lord abode upon mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days: and the seventh day he called unto Moses out of the midst of the cloud. The experience of glory cannot be distinguished from being informed by that glory. The goal is to get you to the point where you see the connection between His glory and spiritual information for yourself with spiritual eyes. The goal is for you to know power and glory within yourself with a clear connection between this awareness and the sections of the Word concerning it. 2 Kings 6:17 - King James Version (KJV) <17> And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee,...

 Isaiah 23:17-18 - King James Version (KJV) <17> And it shall come to pass after the end of seventy years, that the Lord will visit Tyre, and she shall turn to her hire, and shall commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth. <18> And her merchandise and her hire shall be holiness to the Lord: it shall not be treasured nor laid up; for her merchandise shall be for them that dwell before the Lord, to eat sufficiently, and for durable clothing. Someone who has been instructed in the inner meaning or glory of the outer meaning or cloud of the Word of God will immediately notice two things: chiastic structures and passing the baton symbolism. A notable chiastic structure in this case involves "to eat sufficiently", which refers to the goods of the Church and the supply of knowledge pertaining to them (and not only that but to procuring and teaching these for the right reasons); and "for durable clothing", which refers to t...

 Ezra 6:1 - King James Version (KJV) <1> Then Darius the king made a decree, and search was made in the house of the rolls, where the treasures were laid up in Babylon. Ephesians 3:16 - King James Version (KJV) <16> That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; Obviously the treasures kept in the house of the rolls are books. As it says elsewhere, "Surely I come! In the roll of the book it is written of me"; and of course it is Him, since He is where riches of His truth are to be found, and He is where the alignments with divine order which are good also are to be found. That is, to be conscientious from the heart is not possible without partaking of His flesh, appropriating to that degree His body. And any other good or truth of His is so powerful and penetrating that to align with it, to practice that truth, is to partake of the bread and the wine; and we partake of literal bread and ...

 Matthew 5:28 - King James Version (KJV) <28> But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. Hebrews 13:4 - King James Version (KJV) <4> Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge. Suppose that you commit adultery and the less serious but still enslaving fornication in your heart. What do you do about this problem? You proceed in an orderly fashion from outer to inner to still more interior. You cease to engage in literal, exterior adultery and fornication if doing so. You cease to engage in any hard porn and then any soft porn and then softest porn if you are doing so; the difference is like between a porn video and a bodybuilding or female model exhibition.  You cease to pour gasoline from the helicopter onto the forest fire that has engulfed the campground. Then you cease to slosh gasoline around the fire that has engulfed you...