Glorification

By Nathaniel Dandridge Pendleton
1941

Part II
The Divine Nativity

II. MARY'S BETROTHAL TO JOSEPH

"The generation of Jesus Christ." (Matthew 1:1, 18)

The "generation of Jesus Christ" is twice mentioned in the first chapter of Matthew,-in the first and eighteenth verses. In the first verse it is said, "The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham." Then follows a list of the births from Abraham through David to Joseph. This generation, as representing a heavenly series, or the Divine of the Lord in the heavens, was treated of in a former discourse.

The second mention of the Lord's generation in this chapter is found in the eighteenth verse. It is there as a part of the account of His birth into the world. This second generation begins where the first generation ends, and the two are joined together by the espousal of Mary the mother to Joseph. With this second account we are concerned today. It reads as follows:

"Now the generation of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as His mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. Then Joseph her husband, being just, and not willing to make her an example, was minded to put her away secretly. - But while he thought on these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, fear not to draw near unto Mary thy wife, for the one begotten in her is of the Holy Spirit. She shall bear a son, and thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. Now all this has come to pass that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and she shall bring forth a son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us." (Matt. 1: 18-23.)

It is evident that the two generations are parts of one whole, the first carrying from Abraham to Joseph, and the other from Joseph to Mary. Thus it pleased the Lord to represent His Divine condescension on the occasion of His coming into the world in the way of all men, namely, by conception and birth, and yet, not as other men, since He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin.

The several features of this second account are so many Divine factors, each of which was imperative in effecting the Lord's Personal Advent. That is to say, each of these recorded factors, in its sequence and implication, was Divinely ordained, even as we read in the True Christian Religion, "That God assumed the Human according to His own Divine order." (T. C. R. 89.)

The first mentioned factor stated in the text refers to the betrothal of Mary to Joseph,-to that Joseph who was the last mentioned in the sacred line of the preliminary heavenly generation, the point being that Mary was joined to this sacred line by her betrothal to Joseph.

Our immediate concern is not with the Lord's infirm inheritance from Mary, but with the purity of her virginal betrothal to the heavenly Joseph. Virginity is and ever was the immemorial sign of purity.

We may note that at the time of the Divine conception the betrothal was an accomplished fact. The Child of God born into the world through Mary was conceived after, and, spiritually speaking, through this betrothal. The Lord, however, was born before the betrothal in its merely human implication was consummated.

Much is revealed in the Writings concerning the generation and birth of the Lord, but today our thought is addressed to the betrothal of Mary to Joseph, as the first given factor in the second account. The meaning of that betrothal is clearly dependent upon the spiritual or Divine representation of Joseph. Nothing is directly said of this representation in the Writings. Nor is it explained why it preceded the conception, nor why the formal betrothal continued until the Child of God was born. The only statement in the Writings which is a direct reference to this relation of Mary to Joseph is as follows: "It was of need for Him (the Lord) to be born of a virgin in legitimate marriage with Joseph." (See the little script, "Concerning the Savior Jesus Christ.") This statement is brief but imperative. That it was "of need" means that it was of Divine order-that it must so be. Even as it was of need that the Lord should be conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin, so also was it a need of Divine order that this virgin should, at the time, be in "legal marriage" to Joseph; and it was of need also that this marriage should be legal only.

Clearly this relation of Joseph to Mary represents some unknown Divine sanctity. Clearly also the arcana involved lies concealed both in the name of Joseph and in his relation to Mary, or in that which Joseph, in this relation, represents. As said before, nothing is definitely stated in the Writings concerning the representation of Joseph. Only the need of his betrothal to Mary is insisted upon, and this as a prior requisite to the Lord's conception and birth.

We know that all names in the Scriptures signify spiritual and Divine things. We may conclude that the name "Joseph" has a fundamental meaning in keeping with his relation to Mary. Fortunately for our quest, there is another and more ancient Joseph of Scripture record, having a Divine significance,-a significance which lies, in the first instance, in the meaning of his name. This meaning, we may note, prevails in all the varying statements in the Writings concerning the representation of the more ancient Joseph, in the many events of his life, as they are recorded in the Scriptures.

We have ample precedence in the Writings for an informative reference of New Testament names to their Old Testament counterparts, where a more extended exposition of the significance of the name is given. The earlier Joseph, from the day of his birth to the end of his life, is treated of at great length in the Writings, and, as noted, the meaning of the name given him at birth prevails in the celestial and Divine significance of the many representative phases of his life. When this earlier Joseph was born, it is of record that "God remembered Rachel. . . . and opened her womb; and she conceived, and bare a son, and said, God hath gathered my reproach; and she called his name Joseph, saying, Let Jehovah add to me another son." (Genesis 30:22-24.) The verbal meaning of the name "Joseph" is, therefore, that of "gathering" and "adding," and this in the sense of a connecting link or medium. (See AC 3969.)

In the Arcana explanations the fundamental idea of a connecting link or spiritual medium everywhere persists. The varied definitions may be summed under the idea of heaven as an intermediate between the Divine above the heavens and the church on earth. It is a lawful assumption, therefore, that both Josephs represent this heavenly medium, and so also the Divine accommodated to the heaven of angels. It is in this that we may perceive the significance of the betrothal of Mary to Joseph. We know from the Writings that Mary represents the church on earth as to the affection of truth, and we may conclude from the significance of Joseph that Mary would not have been competent to the Divine conception unless she had first been betrothed to Joseph. Hence the imperative need of that betrothal.

Moreover, we know that in the descent to conception the Divine of necessity passed through the heavens ("bowed the heavens and came down"), even those heavens concerned in the generation of Jesus Christ and listed under the sacred names from Abraham to Joseph. Also, it may well be that this betrothal or "legal marriage," in being legal only, was significant of the fact that in descending through the heavens the Divine (even as in its ascension), took nothing from the angels, save only the accommodation which enabled the transflowing Divine to pass and to reach a still further accommodation in the world of nature, which was necessary to the conception and birth of the Lord into the world, and this by a virgin of the Jewish race.

However, in point of reality, though the angels were not proprially concerned in this transflux, yet heaven was engaged therein as a necessary conveying medium. Hence the presence in the Lord at birth of that heavenly Divine medium which is sometimes called His "internal man. This "internal "was therefore present in the seed of His conception; and so the Lord, when born, was indeed a heavenly man,-a celestial spiritual man. This "internal "is described in the Writings as "Human," and as being heavenly. It is said to have been the "only Human in which He could be," that is, in which the essential Divine could reside. It was a Human most near to the Divine Itself. This Human was, in fact, the complex of all celestial good and truth from the Lord with the angels. In the after process of His glorification, this (internal) was put off or displaced. This means that, in the final stage of the Lord's glorification, He put off all that which was assumed in His passing down through the heavens. (See A. C. 5331, 5417, 5459, 5510.) This was, in truth, none other than the prior Divine Human in the heavens which had become unequal to the task of man's redemption. It was because of this heavenly Human which the Lord possessed at birth that He is said to have been, alone of all men, born a celestial man, and also that this celestial was the nearest covering of the Divine Itself in Him. (See AC 5689.)

It is clear that this celestial is that which was represented by Joseph, and also that it was involved in the very seed of the Lord's conception, and that it was there as the nearest covering or containing enclosure of the Infinite Divine Itself. Hence the notation in the Writings of the fact that the seed itself in Him was celestial. It was celestial because He was conceived of Jehovah by way of the heavens. In contrast with this, His celestial seed, it is said that in the seed of every other man there is something infernal. (See AC 1438.)

This seed, as to its celestial content, was therefore the Joseph covering which constituted that which is called the "internal man," which was in the Lord from birth. It was in Him as an intermediate, but was undeveloped at birth. It was opened successively by His life as a man in the world, and was that heavenly man known to men as Jesus Christ, in whom alone the Divine of the Father could be. But in the end, and as He glorified His entire Human, as He passed from the world and ascended through the heavens, this "internal man" was transcended to make clear the way for the Lord's entire union with the Father. He therefore, by His glorification, put off not only all that which was from Mary, but also all that was from and of the heavenly Joseph. Herein there must be the sharpest distinction between the man Joseph and his Divine representation. But there is no greater difficulty in this than in the case of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, each of whom represented the Lord under some Divine aspect.

It may now be clear why the betrothal of Mary to Joseph was an imperative requisite to the end that the heavenly veiling in the Divine seed might be represented. The Divine, in its passing through the heavens, was that which enabled the conception and ultimate birth, and this to the end that by a Divine recurrence from ultimates, or by the successive unfolding of the Lord's essential Divinity through the process of glorification, He, even as He came down, so also ascended through the heavens.

In the way of this ascent He was, as we know, tempted even to the inmost degree. But in this His final temptations were such as we may never know by any parallel with our human experiences. These inmost temptations and hindrances did not arise directly from the hells acting through the evil adhering to the Mary human, but from something proprial to the angels, and from their finite limitations. It was because of this that the Lord fought against "the whole angelic heaven"; and in so doing, He not only repelled the proprial angelic temptations, but also broke through every angelic limitation, and in finality dis. placed the former Divine Human in the heavens, and thereby caused His glorified Human to take its place. Let us quote the doctrine touching this point, as follows:

"Heaven is not pure in the eyes of God. This being the case, in order that the Lord might reduce the universal heaven into heavenly order, He admitted into Himself temptations from the angels also, who, in so far as they were in their proprium, were so far not in good and truth. These temptations are the inmost of all, for they act solely into the ends, and with such subtlety as cannot possibly be noticed. But in so far as they (the angels) are not in their proprium, so far they are in good and truth, and so far cannot tempt. Moreover, the angels are continually being perfected by the Lord, and yet they can never to eternity be so far perfected that their wisdom and intelligence can be compared to the Divine Wisdom and Intelligence of the Lord, for they are finite, and the Lord is Infinite." (A. C. 4295:3.)

In overcoming the temptations from the angels and in putting aside every angelic limitation the Lord ascended clear of the heavens, and into unqualified unity with the Father. This was the Sabbath of His rest. It was the outcome of His birth into the world through the medium of that which was represented by Mary's betrothal to Joseph, who, though a man in the world, nonetheless represented in this betrothal the Spirit of Holiness which filled the heavens, and which descended as the Holy Spirit. This Spirit could descend only upon the betrothed of Joseph. In this, Mary was the bride of heaven, and as such she answered the angel, saying, "Behold, the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy Word." (Luke 1: 38.)