Sermon Series 1:
How the Church is Born In Man
Pittsburgh New Church
October 13, 2019
Rev. Calvin Odhner
Text: Exodus (Portions)
Arcana:AC 4966
“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God from all thy heart, and in all thy soul, and in all thy mind; this is the first and great commandment; (Matthew 22:37)
Introduction
Has anybody ever had fresh corn on the cob? Well that was probably planted by a farmer! He had to get everything ready for that corn to grow—he had to plow the field, harrow it, and then level it some more because next he was bringing out the planter and everything has to be smooth for the planter. It’s the same with our mind, the Lord has to prepare the soil in our mind for “seeds” and this is the story of Exodus. Let’s read it, Exodus chapter 1.
Sermon
We have been learning that the Lord is more involved in our life more than we ever thought possible! And it is finally in the Exodus story where we learn just how carefully and quietly the Lord enters into our mind. How gently he sets the stage and prepares everything so all will grow and multiply.
1. And these are the names of the sons of Israel that came into Egypt with Jacob; a man and his house they came.
2. Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah;
3. Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin;
4. Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher.
5. And all the souls that came out of the thigh of Jacob were seventy souls; and Joseph was in Egypt.
When we talk about how the Lord enters our mind and begins His work, we first must acknowledge that the whole process is being run by what the Heavenly Doctrines call the “internal man” or the "internal celestial.”
This is the “home” of the Lord within everyone and He is constantly providing us with life from this (AC 6636) source within us. No one is ever left on his own to fend for himself, for the Lord provides a continuous source of life which we can choose to close off or open depending on our love of good (AC 6628).
You may have felt cut-off from the Lord at some time in your life, alone and without hope, but this was an appearance. Oddly, the Lord provides states like this for one reason! Our salvation, so that we will come to know some truth we do not recognize at the moment.
This “internal man” is “and Joseph was in Egypt.” This is how the Lord describes Himself within our mind, as Joseph was the ruler of all Egypt so the Lord is the ruler of our whole mind.
For the meaning of Egypt though, we must go all the way back to what was happening in this part of the world during ancient times—for where there is no space and time it is all the same to the Lord!
Egypt was one of the homes of the Ancient Church, where they understood the correspondence of things of this world with the things of heaven. It was actually a big deal, and they made studies of it.
They knew “mountains" represented “people who possess the goodness of love,” (AR 336) because those angels motivated by their love to the Lord, live on mountains.
They knew “valleys” meant the “church” in a person was literally “going downhill,” that their love and worship of the Lord had departed from holiness and was becoming unclean and profane in the “valley.”
It was in this land called “Egypt” that the Ancient Church fell and people started to mess around with magic-they actually became addicted to magic (AC 1462). And so, the Land of Egypt, over time had two meanings—a place where people knew good correspondences, and then a place where they practiced evil correspondences.
The word idea of a mountain remains the same-everybody knows what a mountain is! But now it had two meanings—a good correspondence and an evil correspondence.
You’re now ready to learn a word you will read over and over again in the Heavenly Doctrines—”memory-knowledge.” Memory-knowledge is “the mountain,” it can be either good or bad depending on if it is connected with truth or falsity (AC 4964, 4749, 6023). All memory knowledge is in the “external man.” This is the Lords “secret trick.” He's got to get these truths of the internal man into the external man, so He implants them in memory-knowledges. We read
in order that a man may be regenerated, his internal and external must be conjoined together, for unless they are conjoined, all good flowing in from the Lord through the internal man into the external or natural man is either perverted, or suffocated, or rejected, and then the internal man is also closed. The method in which this conjunction is effected is what has been described in this chapter, which method is by means of the insertion of truths into memory-knowledges.
(AC 6052)
“And Joseph was in Egypt’ —this sentence can now come to life for us. Joseph represents the Lord in the internal man and Egypt represents memory knowledges in the “external man.” In this case, they must be good correspondences because the Lord is present and in fact, they are! They are memory-knowledges of the church!
1. And these are the names of the sons of Israel that came into Egypt with Jacob; a man and his house they came.
2. Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah;
3. Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin;
4. Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher.
Now it gets amazing! Remember, we are talking about how the Lord enters our mind. How the Lord first starts cultivating His thoughts within us—Reuben, Simeon, Levi, all the brothers represent truths going into memory-knowledges. Truths about the church, truths about how to love the neighbor and all the things that you have learned about how to treat each other.
These are all coming into “Egypt” but not just anywhere in Egypt, into the land of Goshen. In the middle of the “natural man,” the Lord places this “best tract of land (6051) so that truths can begin to wax and multiply!
Jacob, the patriarch of all the children of Israel signifies truth and here they come. You can picture them coming from the outlying lands down into the land of Egypt, all the families with their animals-good affections towards the neighbor.
The Lord carefully delivering truths into your mind on good soil into a safe land where these truths of the church will multiply.
Now it makes sense when we read
In the inmost sense the migration of Jacob and his sons into Egypt represented the first instruction of the Lord in knowledges from the Word…
(AC 1462)
Now, how much control did you have over this? Zero.
This is what I mean when I say you have no idea how much the Lord is managing your spiritual life. Never, ever give up, trust in Him, He has got this, stop stressing—it really does no good but gives the hells a ‘fun day out.”
Who gets all these truths from the Internal man? Everyone! Even the Lord, remember this?
An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and His mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I tell thee. And he arose and took the young child and His mother by night, and departed into Egypt, and was there until the death of Herod;...(Matthew 2:13-15, 19-21)
So here in this first chapter of Exodus we discover that nothing happens in our mind by chance or is left up to nature. That the Lord carefully protects us and leads us to the land of Goshen, even when we thought Joseph was dead! This is the epic journey we are all on and most of you know what’s coming—400 years of slavery, plagues, escape and disappointment, 40 years in the desert, yet, where does all this lead us? Into the land of Canaan, a land flowing with milk and honey…
1. And these are the names of the sons of Israel that came into Egypt with Jacob; a man and his house they came.
2. Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah;
3. Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin;
4. Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher.
5. And all the souls that came out of the thigh of Jacob were seventy
souls; and Joseph was in Egypt.
Amen. Let us pray