"Deeper Meaning" (06/02/24)
The Word of God is truly a wonderful thing. If you look at it externally, as if it were any other book, especially if you don't believe in its power or Divinity, you might not see how it is any better than books by other writers. And yet for hundreds
of generations, children and old men, wise and simple people have read this book, and the Lord has talked to them through its pages. People who know that the Word has a spiritual sense and who know the science of correspondences have read this book, and they have seen glimpses of the wisdom of the angels. And people who have never heard of the spiritual sense or correspondence, and yet who believed that it is God's Word, have read this book, and they too have seen glimpses of the wisdom of the
angels.
God speaks to all His children, on every level of human understanding at the same time. The words they hear with their ears, or
see with their eyes, are the words of the written Word. Just as I can only communicate my mind to your mind through some medium, such as speech, facial expression, writing, body language or touch, so God can only communicate His mind to our minds through some ultimate medium. That medium is the written Word.
Every word that you and I speak or write has an inner sense and an inmost sense-we could call them a spiritual and a celestial sense. For the words I speak express or contain my ideas. Those ideas are the inner sense of my words. On a still higher level the words I speak express my love or caring
for my listener, and for the subject I am speaking about. What is even more amazing, you understand the inner and inmost senses of my words according to your own state of life. If I were talking to you about computers, you might understand the literal sense of what I was saying or you might not, depending on whether you had enough knowledges about computers to follow my ideas. But that would only be scratching the surface. Why was I talking about computers?
What is the real message of my thoughts? Perhaps I am excited about the many ways that modern science can serve the Lord in helping to spread the Word. This might be something of the inner
sense of what I was saying. If, as you listened to my speech about computers, you also loved to share the Word with other people, you might suddenly get a glimpse of what I was really thinking about. On the other hand, if you cared not at all for the use of the Word, you would never understand what I was really talking about, even if you knew more than I do about computers.
And finally, within this inner message lies hidden the things I love. And most of all, when I talk, that is what I want to communicate to you-the things I love. And if you love the same things as I do, you will get the message, and you will feel that inmost,
heavenly sense of my words. But if you [have hatred toward me], or if you do not love the things that I love, you will never feel what i feel as I am talking, even if you do understand the words I am saying.
The words we speak are like tools we use to communicate our ideas and loves. If we don't speak the same language, or if one of us is ignorant about a certain subject, communication will be difficult. But the more we share the same inner loves, the less those external problems will limit our communication. There are many stories about travelers in foreign countries who couldn't speak a word of the language and yet met
and fell in love with, and even proposed to and married, someone from that foreign country. They were able to communicate even though the words were lacking. They found other ways to share their interest and excitement in the things they both loved which brought them together.
All that I have just said about human speech applies to the Lord's Word and more. God speaks and His words are contained in the written Word, in the Sacred Scriptures and the Writings. Those words are carefully crafted by the Lord so that they can communicate something of the Divine to even the most sensual and simple of individuals. At the
same time, angels in the spiritual and celestial heavens are seeing the Lord's ideas clearly, and they are being moved by His loves. (NCL, G. Alden 1989)
