implications of Christmas change our
lives and make us different.
We can only really change our
lives if we look backward to see where
we have come from. Understanding
the events surrounding the Lord’s
birth helps us to see the things we
need to do to progress. Yet in the New
Testament there is so little about the
Lord’s infancy. Beautiful stories as they
are, they don’t give us a tremendous
insight into what we need to do to
make spiritual progress.
In the Heavenly Doctrines of the
New Church we are asked to look even
further back in the Word than the
Christmas story. We are invited back
to another new beginning, to a time
before the Children of Israel and the
Hebrew nation even existed. We look
to the time of Abram, even before
he travelled south into the land of
Canaan. In a sense, this story is to the
Old Testament what Christmas is to the New. This foundational story not only
tells us about the call of Abram, but in its inner meaning it speaks of the very
earliest states of the Lord’s infancy. By studying it carefully, we can also see
what the beginning states of our spiritual rebirth are going to be.
The story begins with Abram, living in Haran, north of the land of Canaan.
Abram was an ordinary person. He lived with his wife and his nephew, Lot.
We know nothing about Abram in Haran, except that he must have prospered.
Then, one day, apparently without warning, Jehovah spoke to him, saying:
We are invited back to
another new beginning,
to a time before the
Children of Israel and
the Hebrew nation
even existed. We look
to the time of Abram,
even before he travelled
south into the land of
Canaan. In a sense,
this story is to the
Old Testament what
Christmas is to the New.
Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land
that I will show you. (Genesis 12:1)
The teachings of the New Church tell us that while this event actually
happened in history, it also foreshadowed the way the Lord, as a very small
infant, became aware of an inner voice that would direct Him through life
the way Jehovah directed Abraham, Isaac and Jacob through their lives. This
inner voice was the voice of Jehovah, the Lord’s Divine Soul from which He
was conceived.
At conception, every person’s soul, which comes through the person’s
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