The Foe Within

A Sermon by the Rev. Kenneth J. Alden

1    And Judah went up, and Jehovah gave the Cananite and the Perizzite into their hand; and they killed ten thousand men at Bezek. (Judges 1:4)

2    If we look with the eyes of our culture upon the deeds of the children of Israel as they set about annihilating the inhabitants of the Land of Canaan, we are horrified.

      A    When their story is viewed as a mere matter of history, they are seen as a nation of escaped slaves who were looking for a homeland in an inhabited land.

      B    They did not seek to purchase land or to integrate with the people who already lived there by adapting to their culture and worship.

             1.   They came in, attacked, destroyed, and were under orders to kill all the inhabitants of the land.

             2.   We would be horrified if a nation did similar things today.

                   a    Western nations were horrified at what was done by the Nazis to the Jews over sixty years ago, and we are appalled today when we hear of cases of genocide or unprovoked invasions of one nation by another.

                   b    Surely the mass destruction of one people by another is not the will of God, much less the deed of Jehovah.

                   c    In the sermon this morning, we will look at the way in which the destruction of the Canaanites by the tribes of Judah and Simeon actually pictures the removal of the horrifying evil loves which incite one nation to destroy another.

3    Arcana Coelestia states that “the Canaanite” means evil in general, and more specifically the evil from the falsity of evil. (Cf. AC 1574:1-2, 4818)

      A    What is evil from the falsity of evil?

             1.   It is evil that results from a false doctrine which has been devised by an evil love. (Cf. AC 4818:3)

             2.   It starts from an evil love. Specifically, it starts from loving self above all. (Cf. AC 4818:3)

                   a    Those who love self above all have no love or respect for others, except as tools or slaves to accomplish their ends.

                   b    In order to use others for their own purposes, they must justify their purpose.

             3.   From their evil love, they then devise doctrines, or teachings, or belief systems that appear outwardly true, but are inwardly false.

                   a    To make them look true, they back them up from the literal sense of the Word, or from other things that are accepted as true by those whom they want on their side.

                   b    This is what is called the falsity of evil.

             4.   Finally, armed with and supported by the falsity of evil, they do things which harm other people, and which go against the Lord.

                   a    They destroy other people in various ways.

                   b    This, then, is evil from the falsity of evil.

      B    The Heavenly Doctrine illustrates evil from the falsity of evil by describing in this passage from Arcana Coelestia what the Jews did in their conquests.

             1.   “With those who from the evil of the love of self believe that Jehovah has chosen a single nation only, and that all the rest of mankind are relatively slaves, and so vile that they may be killed at pleasure or be cruelly treated - as the Jewish nation believed, and at this day the Babylonish nation also believes - and confirm this belief from the sense of the letter of the Word, then whatever evil they do from this false doctrine and others built upon this as a foundation, is evil from the falsity of evil, and destroys the internal man, preventing any conscience from ever being formed therein. These are ...in cruel rage against the whole human race which does not adore their articles of faith, and thus themselves, and does not offer its gifts upon their altars. “ (AC 4818:4)

                   a    Isn’t if fascinating that the very love that in all probability motivated the tribe of Judah when they went up to take their land was the very same love that was represented by the Canaanites they were conquering!

                          1)   The Canaanites represented the evil from the falsity of evil, and ten thousand of their number were killed by a tribe that was doing evil from the falsity of an evil love of self. (See Arcana Coelestia 4818:3)

                          2)   And who knows? Perhaps those leading modern nations in acts of genocide were in the evil from the falsity of evil when they so cruelly annihilated thousands upon thousands of the peoples they targetted.

                                 A.   It certainly appears that an arrogant love of self drove them in their madness.

                                 B.   In at least some widely-studied cases, the dominant race developed a philosophy of racial or ethnic superiority and inferiority that supported their ambitions.

                                 C.   Countless cruel and murderous acts have been documented as stemming from such falsity.

                                 D.   Although they were not from the “Babylonish nation” of Swedenborg’s day, the passage which mentioned that nation certainly indicates that nations at this day can be in evil from the falsity of evil, and act murderously and cruelly.

                          3)   We, too, could be in evil from the falsity of evil.

                                 A.   It all begins with our hereditary disposition to love ourselves above all.

                                 B.   If we go on from there to justify or rationalize our superiority over others, we begin to create a system of falsities that give expression to that evil.

                                 C.   Lastly, we come into the evil of that falsity if we act on our rationalizations and do things to put others down, control them, or elevate ourselves in word, deed, or advantage over others.

4    What should be done, if a person finds in him or herself evil from the falsity of evil?

      A    We should do exactly what the tribe of Judah did to the Canaanites!

             1.   The cruel, murderous love itself that we find operating in us must be put to the sword!

      B    We may well imagine that the Lord’s real will for the tribe of Judah was to fight against evil from the falsity of evil, and to drive it out of their minds and hearts.

             1.   He would rather they had shunned their love of ruling over others and of possessing their lands and goods.

             2.   He willed that they shun the love of themselves above all.

             3.   He wished they could rid themselves of the falsity that Jehovah had chosen them above other people.

                   a    He wanted them to put an end to the notion that all other nations were relatively their slaves and could be killed at pleasure and cruelly treated.

             4.   His desire was that they not act on this falsity in their treatment of others, but that they root falsity out and the evil love from which it sprang.

      C    The same is true for ourselves.

             1.   We cannot possess the heavenly state of mind that the Land of Canaan represents, so long as there are in our minds evils from the falsity of evil.

             2.   Nor will we have success against those evils if we oppose them in a half-hearted way.

                   a    When the children of Israel asked, “Who shall be first to go up for us against the Canaanites to fight against them?” Jehovah said, “Judah shall go up. Indeed I have delivered the land into his hand.” (Jud 1:1-2)

                   b    Celestial love is what Judah represents.

                          1)   It is love to the Lord.

                                 A.   This is what must lead if the Lord is to deliver evil into our hand, so that we have power over it.

                                 B.   We cannot have that power without the Lord’s help.

                                 C.   Evils must be shunned as sins against the Lord.

                   c    Judah in turn invited his brother, Simeon, to go against the Canaanites.

                          1)   Simeon pictures obedience to the Lord or faith in the will.

                                 A.   Simeon stands for a desire to take truth and apply it to life.

                                 B.   Such obedient application of faith to life is a necessary partner to love to the Lord in shunning evils as sins against the Lord.

             3.   The result of the two tribes of Judah and Simeion working as brothers was that 10,000 Canaanites were killed and Adoni-Bezek–whose name means, “The Lord of Bezek”–had his thumbs and big toes cut off.

                   a    The killling of 10,000 Canaanites has to do, spiritually, with the countless evils that the Lord subdues when we join Him in opposing them. (Cp. AC 2575:3)

                   b    Cutting off the thumbs and big toes of the Lord of Bezek seems to picture the way in which evil is made powerless in battle against truth and good when the Lord gives us victory.

                          1)   Adoni-Bezek had said “As I have done, so God has repaid me.” (Jud 1:7)

                                 A.   This may mean that just as the evil from the falsity of evil wishes to have power over all and enslave all, so in the regenerated person, the Lord gives power over that evil, and makes it subservient to the Lord and those who love Him.

5    In our second lesson, from the prophet Micah, as well as in Matthew, where He quoted Micah, the Lord taught that our foes are those of our own household. (Cf. Micah 7:6; Matt. 10:36)

      A    It is clear that He was speaking of our sins and iniquities, when He spoke of our foes, for later in our reading from Micah, it says of Jehovah, “He will again have compassions on us, and will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.” (Micah 7:19)

      B    These sins are the real enemy of our happiness and enjoyment of life.

             1.   Our most significant enemies are not “out there.”

                   a    Although we may need to go to war to have outward peace, we cannot go on a conquest of others to find inner peace in our lives.

                   b    For the kingdom of God to be within us with its eternal peace, we must fight a different battle.

                   c    We cannot have heaven within while we verbally abuse others or cruelly treat them, physically or psychologically.

                   d    We will not be content with our lives while we despise others in comparison with ourselves.

                          1)   Feeling that we somehow better than others or are chosen by God in preference to others brings no lasting satisfaction.

                          2)   No heavenly joy is found in doing with others as we please because they are not of our class or lack power to oppose us.

                   e    It is not others whom we must subdue or drive out of our lives, it is evil itself that must be driven out if we are to have heaven within us.

                          1)   If we look for it, we will undoubtedly find some area in which some element of self love has too free a hand in our lives and is preventing us from enjoying all the heavenly blessing the Lord wills for us.

6    There is no effective way to subdue or drive out the evil meant by the Canaanites, other than by turning to the Lord from love, willing to do His truth, and fighting against those evils in us that stem from the falsity of evil.

      A    So let us be courageous enough to look into our lives and identify that which is contrary to the Lord.

      B    May we gather love to the Lord and faith in the will together, so that we may go up to our allotted territory.

      C    May it be said of us, spiritually speaking:

      D    And Judah went up, and Jehovah gave the Cananite and the Perizzite into their hand; and they killed ten thousand men at Bezek.

      E    Amen.

Lessons: Judges 1:1-7; Micah 7:1-20; AC 10638, parts

Arcana Coelestia 10638. &10638. 'Behold, I am driving out from [before] your face the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite' means the moving away then of evils and the falsities arising from them.... But these things are said in regard to the Word, for 'Moses', from whose face those nations were to be driven out, represents the Word, as may be recognized from what has gone before. [2] The implications of all this must be stated briefly. When it says that if he observed what Jehovah commanded He would drive out those nations from [before] his face the meaning is, If they carried out the chief commands laid down by eternal truth evils and falsities would be moved or shifted away. Those commands are what come next in the internal sense, the main ones being that they should acknowledge no other God than the Lord, that He is the Source of everything good and everything true, and also that salvation and eternal life come from Him. And when people who believe these things and love the truth of them are reading the Word everything evil and false is shifted away from them, because at that time the Lord enlightens them and leads them. At that time also what they think does not originate in themselves, nor does their affection for the Word originate in themselves but in the Lord. Consequently no evil at all or falsity of evil comes in, for the Lord moves them away. These are the ones who understand the Word, have an affection for the truths derived from it, and also love to live in accord with them. [3] But when people who do not acknowledge those main commands laid down by eternal truth read the Word they do not receive any enlightenment, and so do not rely on the Lord's help to see the truths there. Instead the things which they see they see all by themselves; and when people see things all by themselves they see falsities instead of truths, or if they do see truths they nevertheless falsify them by means of ideas of their own which they have adopted, or by means of their selfish loves to which they direct and so attach the truths, from which falsities of evil result. These are the things which are meant in the internal sense by the words of the present verse. The reason why those things are meant is that angels who understand the Word in its internal sense when someone in the world reads it do not become aware of Moses, nor of the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, for no names pass into heaven, only the realities meant by them, so that by Moses the Word is understood there, and by those nations evils and falsities.

Through The Week

Recall the Readings

✦ When the Children of Israel asked who should be first to go up to fight against the Canaanites, Jehovah said “Judah.”

✦ Judah encouraged his brother Simeon to come up with him to his allotted territory.

✦ Jehovah delivered 10,000 Canaanites into their hands.

✦ Micah said a man’s enemies are the men of his own house, and that God will subdue our iniquities.

Reflect on the Message

✦ In the Word, wars against nations represent wars against those very things in us that incite us to oppose others unjustly.

✦ We must whole-heartedly oppose such evils in ourselves.

✦ We must do so out of love to the Lord and obedience.

✦ Subduing outward enemies may bring outward peace, but only subduing inward enemies brings inward peace.

Take Action

✦ Pray that the Lord help you notice the foe “in your own household” when you might make enemies of other people.

✦ Picture the heavenly things blocked by that enemy if you do not vigorously oppose it.

✦ Make an alliance of love-to-the-Lord and faith-in-the-will to take away that enemy’s power.