Pittsburgh New Church

Blessed are…

…the poor in spirit

Humble—“Do I acknowledge my need for the Lord’s help? Do I recognize I’m not better than other people?”

…those who mourn

Repentant—“Do I admit mistakes I have made? Am I willing to learn from my mistakes?“

…the meek

Submissive—“Am I willing to ask for help? Do I trust in the Lord’s help? “

…those who hunger and thirst for righteousness

Virtuous—“Do I try to behave in ways that are fair, just, and true? Am I seeking these things for the sake of good things in my life and the lives of others?”

…the merciful

Compassionate—“Am I willing to put myself in other people’s shoes? Do I consider how I effect other people?

…the pure in heart

Faithful—“Do I recognize the need to work on cleaning up my life? Am I willing to use the Lord’s truth to change for the sake of others?”

…the peacemakers

Respectful—“Am I willing to listen and seek to understand people? Do I look for common ground with people who are different from me?”

…those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake

Courageous—“Am I willing to make difficult changes? Am I patient with others when they are making difficult changes in their own lives?

I am indebted to Rev. Peter Buss (Glenview New Church) for assistance in developing these questions useful for self-examiniation.

In the stories of the Word, worship can seem almost magical. When the Israelites bow before Moses’ bronze serpent, they are healed. Blind men who believe that the Lord can heal them are given their sight with a simple touch. We have a liturgy that defines every single piece of our worship—allowing us to simply read through the right words and actions.
Is that worship? The New Revelation teaches that true worship is living the life of religion—charity and service. So why do our forms of worship seems so important—important enough for the Lord to dictate a prayer to us? External forms of worship are important, but not the essential part of worship. It is words and actions that people use to remind themselves of and support themselves in the life of religion—true worship. Forms of worship can be different while the internal worship remains constant.

After the Children of Israel conquered Canaan, they and the Philistines were almost constantly at war—alternately subjugating but never conquering. Because the Philistines correspond to evil spirits who know truths but to not apply them to life, we do read stories of people sojourning with the Philistines to represent the learning of truth. But there is always grave danger of succumbing to their separation of faith and life. Thus, the Lord did not lead the newly freed Israelites into Philistia even though it was the shortest route to Cannan but led them through the harsh wilderness. The spiritual Philistines attack when we begin to learn new truths. We get excited about them and want to learn more. It is tempting to spend our time learning instead of living. The wilderness represents a life without good or truth, but where spiritual struggles allow the Lord to give us truth that will bond with good in our lives, and thus ultimately lead successfully to the Promised Land.

The Rephaim are a nation of giants. Their height corresponds to how great they think of themselves. Their size and strength correspond to their power over the minds of others. Related to Nephilim—the giants living before the representational “flood” who are now prevented from influencing anyone—the Rephaim are dangerous evil spirits who have the ability to convince us that evil is good and falsity is truth. The result of this persuasion is the selfish desire to posses the authority and power of God, that is, to become a spiritual giant yourself.
When reduced to such confusion, however, we sort of revert back to the innocence of ignorance—the state of childhood. In such a state, we are unable to do anything that is genuinely good, but we are able to do what is apparently good—represented by Chedorlaomer. We can behave like good children, being obedient to the literal teachings of the Lord in His Word—the appearances of truth. In this way, children practice being good adults and confused adults maintain their position on the path to heaven. When the child grows up or the angels drive the Rephaim away, the adult is able to understand what is genuinely good and begin moving forward on the path to heaven.

The evil spirits that correspond to the Assyrians are those who would use our rational minds to pervert the doctrines drawn from the Word into false ideas. Unlike the Moabite-like spirits, who attempt to lead into falsity from our experiences in the world through our senses, The Assyrian-like spirits attempt to look like pious and learned scholars of the Word, shunning worldly interests. But inwardly they are using the literal sense of the Lord’s Word to justify falsity and evil.
Our defense lies with the internal sense of the Word. The king of Israel orders his soldiers not to answer the blaspheming words of Sennacherib, King of Assyria. Likewise, the Lord would have us not use our rational minds to justify or argue for or against the higher teachings of the Word. Instead, we are called to first listen to the voice of the Lord in His Word as it really is, and then to use our rational minds to confirm those teachings from the literal sense of the Word.

Of all the enemies of the Children of Israel, the Amalekites are the worst. Several times, the Lord commands the Israelites to utterly destroy them. This is commanded to teach us, by means of correspondences, how we should respond to the worst of the evil inclinations we may discover in ourselves. We are to hold no negotiations, make no deals, and show no mercy. This is the only way to deal with the evil inclinations hidden deep within our will. Anything short of complete separation gives those secret inclinations the ability to arouse all the other inclinations towards evil we have inherited.

The battle against these inclinations is fought with the zeal stirred up in us by angels associated with this fight. These angels arrange the Lord’s truths into a militant order, represented by Joshua and his chosen men. But these truths are effective only when we look to the Lord, only when using the Lord’s Word—represented by the rock, Aaron and Hur—to challenge the false ideas these enemies whisper into our ears. The Lord’s truth, represented by Moses, can then direct the angelic defense of our efforts to live our lives in the ways that lead to heaven.

At this point in the story of the children of Jacob, we learn what our final steps are to cooperate with the Lord in our rebirth as angels. Earlier we learned of the work required to earn the basic ability to learn our role in our salvation. Then we learned what we can do to move out of a state of mind where selfish and worldly delights dominate. Now, we learn how we can move into a state of mind where heavenly delights reign. The key is to perform works of useful service knowing that the Lord will attach delights and happiness to those actions; that doing things for other people feels nice. And while we practice that, the Lord reorders our natural self to correspond to our spiritual self. When this is finished, our two minds are united into one mind ruled by the delights derived from the good things of heaven.

We learned in the previous chapter of Genesis that the story of the marriage of Jacob and Rachel is the story of our preparation for regeneration or rebirth. We also learned that the first four sons of Leah represent the progressive states of life we go through as we become the church in external things: seeing, hearing, and doing or knowledge, obedience, and use.

In this chapter of Genesis, the Lord is teaching the steps to take to make the transition from being the church is external things to being the church in internal things, that is, not just in the way be behave, but in the way we think and feel (becoming genuinely loving and peaceful).