,
between truth and falsity, but we are
not able to discriminate or judge
between truths of faith within the
church, or how the various truths of
the church might be properly applied
to self and others.
This ability comes by degrees; and
therefore a man to whom this is
possiblemust be of a more advanced
age, and must have the interiors
of hisunderstanding enlightened.
(Arcana Coelestia 6766:2)
This teaching reveals the state
of the youths who mocked Elisha:
those who do know the difference
between truth and falsity, but have
not yet come into the maturity
and enlightenment to be able to
distinguish between different truths.
And what do unregenerate people
do when they run into something
that they don’t understand? They mock it.
The Word is our
instruction manual for
spiritual life. There is no
other way for us to find
the way to prepare for
spiritual life, so to deny
that the Word is anything
more than a collection
of stories about longdead people is to turn
away from the one thing
that can save your own
spiritual life.
Mocking: That this signifies not in agreement with or favoring the Divinerational,
is evident from the signification of “mocking,” as being thatwhich comes of an
affection contrary to what does not agree with andfavor one’s self. (Arcana Coelestia
2654)
Thinking from the natural sense, when people mock they look for a
weakness in the other person that corresponds to their own perceived strength.
Thus young men with lots of healthy hair would naturally mock the baldness
or relative baldness of a much older man. It is the easiest and most obvious
target to attack.
In the internal sense this mocking represents something far more serious.
Remember, these youths are from Jericho, a place where there was knowledge
of the truths of faith, but had fallen from the good of life and was struggling
to shun its evils and return to a state of good. The youths are those who have
an immature view of doctrine. They are unable to see that one path is better
than the other, and they don’t like the pain involved in shunning evils as sins
as the way to return into order, so they want a better, painless, fun way. To
demonstrate their point, they ridicule the “old” way, the “customary” way.
They say to Elisha, “Go up, you baldhead.”
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