Glorification

By Nathaniel Dandridge Pendleton
1941

Part III
THE GLORIFICATION OF THE RATIONAL

III. THE LORD'S DIVINE RATIONAL

"And God said unto Abraham, ... in Isaac shall thy seed be called." (Genesis 21: 12.)

The text records the law of legitimacy, which calls for the rule of love in the life of man. This rule prevailed during the celestial age, when men, like children, were innocent of evil. In its pre-eminent sense the text is significant of the state into which the Lord was born. His life was then ruled from within by the Divine Love descending into His earth-born human. This love was His inheritance from the Father, which, in its descent out of the Divine above the heavens, enabled Him as man - born to become Divine on the planes of His mind and body.

The point of present interest is that a representative forecast of this Divine process is given in the Genesis account of the lives of the patriarchs, the central feature of which is expressed by the words of the text, namely, the calling of the seed of Abraham by the name of Isaac. The story of the birth of Isaac tells of Jehovah's visiting Sarah and of her bearing a son to Abraham. At the time Abraham was a hundred years old, and Sarah his wife had "ceased from the manner of women." Apart from this visit of Jehovah to Sarah no conception could have taken place, for that visit was significant of a Divine conception which made of Isaac a miracle child, born under conditions impossible save for a Divine influx into the mortal human. The account of Isaac's conception and birth, as recorded in Genesis, was a forecast of the actual conception and birth of the Lord as the Child of God. As so born, the Lord was the Divine Isaac - the Man-God of ancient prophecy, who was of Infinite derivation, though born into the world under mental and bodily limitations.

With reference to the interrelation of the several characters in the Old Testament account it should be noted that a Divine aspect is represented by all who were of the house of Abraham. In this supreme sense Abraham stands as one with Jehovah who visited Sarah. That one was the Divine Love descending through the medium of Divine Truth. This mediating Truth was represented by Sarah. The relation of Abraham to Sarah was therefore significant of the Divine Love in its conceptual relation to Divine Truth. As stated in the Arcana, this relation was that the Divine Celestial was present in the Divine Spiritual. The inner presence of celestial love in its own truth is characterized as a Divine marriage. From this marriage the Child of God was born into the world a Man veiled by bodily limitations and the outward restrictions of a finite rational mind. This mind was the Lord's highest finite degree and the first to be made Divine by the process of glorification. The subsequent glorification of His sensuous mind and material body followed in order thereafter. In the Old Testament account, Isaac represented the Lord's rational as to the inmost of it, where, as noted in the Writings, the human begins. (A. C. 2666.) This Isaac rational was therefore the first and highest finite fruit derived from the marriage of Love and Wisdom in the Lord, and because of the joy therein Isaac was named "laughter." His was indeed the golden laughter of celestial love. With men, laughter, by its tone, indicates in some degree their states of affection and thought; and it may indicate whether the man is of sound or unsound mind - whether sane or insane, as the case may be. Of all creatures born into the world, man only is gifted with the power of laughter, for he alone possesses a rational mind. His power of reasoning is fundamentally based upon his inborn ability to laugh. It may here be noted in passing that laughter was formerly regarded as a genial habit of the gods.

In the Divine series before us, both Jehovah and Abraham stand as the Father of Isaac; the distinction between them is as that between the invisible Divine and the Divine Human. However, they do not appear in the Old Testament account together. Jehovah is mentioned at the beginning, but not again until the close. The opening record is that Jehovah visited Sarah and did unto her as He had spoken. Then follows the account of Sarah's bearing a son to Abraham in his old age, and thereafter the Scripture story concerning Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Hagar, and Ishmael. This group composed the sacred family of the house of Abraham. Near the close of the account Jehovah reappears, which is not only significant of the conclusion, but also implies an altered relation of the several Divine factors.

In this connection, the Arcana notes that, in the supreme sense, God and Abraham have a like significance, and that the internal sense unites that which the letter divides. This union, therefore, joins Jehovah and Abraham as one, both signifying the Divine Love in its relation to Divine Truth. Sarah was that Truth. Her representation was not unlike that of Mary, but with the difference that Sarah was an earlier representative, while Mary was the actual medium of the birth of the God-Man into the world. It may here be noted that the birth of the Lord, and also of Isaac, were miraculous, in that the Lord was Virgin - born, while Isaac was born under conditions normally impossible to finite man.

All the characters in the account of Isaac's birth stand, in the supreme sense, for some aspect of the Divine. All forecast in some degree the process of the Lord's glorification.

In the Old Testament, Abraham stands at the head. He is the Father of the Divine Love in its relation to Divine Truth. From the marriage of Sarah to Abraham, as noted, the Lord's finite rational was born - born in potency as an infant, and in adult fullness as His mind advanced by successive stages to its glorification. In this development the Lord's rational was in outer appearance not unlike that of other men, in that, like every regenerating man, He was under the necessity of rejecting from His mind its outward fallible appearances. This process, in its continuity, was represented by the subsequent events, namely, by Isaac's circumcision, and the banishment of Abraham's first-born child, Ishmael, who was not the legitimate heir and who represented the outmost aspect of the Lord's rational. For though he was born to Abraham as the Divine Father, it was by means of Hagar, the Egyptian bondwoman.

Between this outward fallible mind and the Lord's glorifying rational a conflict was inevitable, as was first indicated by Ishmael's mocking when Isaac was weaned. This first-formed mind of the Lord could not stand in the dawning presence of the Divine Rational. A preliminary purification of this outer vestment was signified by the circumcision of Isaac. Ishmael's mocking, on the occasion, was a signal of the coming conflict and the resulting banishment, as the Divine descended into the human by means of increasing revelations, by which it became manifest that all mere appearances of truth must of need be put aside. This rejection was first insisted upon by Sarah's saying to Abraham, "Cast out this bondwoman and her son, for the son of this bondwoman shall not inherit with my son Isaac."

While seeing the necessity of this banishment, the Lord perceived that Ishmael nonetheless represented that which must in the end be saved. This far-seeing perception was, however, quite above the Sarah Truth; it came directly from the Lord's Divine Love. Therefore it is said that the words of Sarah, insisting on Ishmael's banishment, were "evil" in the eyes of Abraham. By this it became manifest that that which Truth would reject, Love would save; or that all men would be saved with whom some degree of love could be conjoined; for Love perceived that the child of Hagar, though not the heir, was not the less Abraham's son. (A. C. 2658.)

The Lord's first rational mind, while outwardly formed of seeming truths, was in its origin conceived from within by Divine Love; and while Ishmael's alienation was inevitable, yet Divine Love could not but follow after the banished child. When, however, Abraham (or the Lord) perceived the pressing necessity of the Ishmael banishment, it is said that He "grieved," for in that first state, it appeared that those of the human race (called in the Writings "the spiritual" as distinguished from the celestial) would, because of their banishment, pass beyond the saving power of the Lord's Love. It should be noted, however, that it was just those who are here signified by Ishmael whom the Lord came into the world to save, and not the celestial; for the high-born celestial were from the beginning made secure by the bond of love, while the later spiritual were inbound in states of life like unto the Lord's first-formed rational, which was, of need, rejected; yet at first it appeared as if this alienation would permanently separate those known as "the spiritual" from the possibility of salvation. This was why the words of Sarah, calling for Ishmael's banishment, were "evil in the eyes of Abraham." The "eyes of Abraham" signified the Lord's inmost perception from love, which saw beyond the dictate of the Sarah Truth and exposed the final outcome, namely, that the spiritual, as distinguished from the celestial, would not be lost, but that their temporary banishment would in the end lead to their restoral.

With reference to the realization of this final outcome, it is said in the Writings that the Lord was thereby "consoled beyond measure." Therefore God said unto Abraham, "Let it not be evil in thine eyes because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman; in all that Sarah said unto thee, hearken unto her voice." While the Lord's perception from the Sarah Truth affirmed the need of casting off His first-born rational mind, yet His Divine Love revealed the final truth that Ishmael's rejection would in the end prove to be the means of his salvation, which was indeed .imperative, since otherwise the Lord's mission on earth would have failed. Therefore God said unto Abraham, "The son of thy handmaid also will I make into a nation." Herein there is a likeness, in that both Isaac and Ishmael were sons of Abraham, and a contrast, in that Ishmael, the son of the bondwoman, must of need be separated, and this while Isaac remained in the house of Abraham. Therefore, of Ishmael it is said, "I will make him a nation, because he is also thy seed."

This "nation" was composed of the spiritual, as distinguished from the celestial. The difference between them was, as indicated, one of legitimacy, - a difference which at first was not clearly defined, and indeed could not be, so long as Ishmael remained in the house of Abraham. While, therefore, the spiritual as distinguished from the celestial were to be separated, yet this was to the end that they might later be formed into a lower heaven, which would then be a heaven as if in its own right. The state of that lower heaven is indicated by Ishmael's not being the legitimate "heir," and this because that heaven was not primarily under the rule of love. To the Lord, at the time, this alienation could not be other than a most grievous temptation, for it was His will that all men should be saved, even to the highest degree. Yet, because of the racial, failure, this could not be. Therefore it was revealed, and the Lord was consoled by the revelation, that a fitting placement of the spiritual within His kingdom would be effected.

While the spiritual were inbound within the sphere of the Lord's first-formed rational, which was to be put aside, yet it was provided that their banishment would be temporary, and that their restoration would enable them freely to live their lives in its prescribed order.

Coincident with the formation of a lower heaven composed of the spiritual, men in the world were enabled to derive therefrom a new freedom in spiritual things and to attain a secondary degree of heavenly life. This newly-formed heaven was the source from which the first Christian Church was derived, and therefore regenerating Christians of that period were, for the most part, enabled to ascend to the second heaven only. It was not until the Lord's final coming that the way was opened for a beginning foundation having the future possibility of a spiritual-celestial development, and therewith a gradual return of the rule of love in the lives of men.