the truth Divine that proceeds from the Lord a man can perceive and understand
nothing whatever. For the Divine truth that proceeds from the Lord is the light
which lights up the mind of man, and makes the internal sight, which is the
understanding; and as this light continually flows in, it adapts every one to receive.
But they who receive are they who are in the good of life; and they who do not
receive are they who are in evil of life. Nevertheless the latter, like the former, have
the capacity of perceiving and understanding, and also the capacity of receiving, in
so far as they desist from evils. The Divine truth which proceeds from the Lord is
continually flowing into human minds and adapting them to receive it, and that it
is received in the proportion that the evils of the loves of self and of the world are
desisted from. (Arcana Coelestia 9399)
The Lord never stopped speaking to Saul. He never stopped trying to lead
the Jewish Church out of its downward spiral. It was just that He was saying
things that they did not want to hear, He was telling them that they had to turn
away from their evil ways and return to the way of the Lord, but they chose to
continue in their evil ways which gave them delight.
The same principle applies for us. When we approach the Word with the
heartfelt conviction that it is the Word of God, and that we are seeking to learn
how to shun evils and to do good to others, then the Lord will speak volumes
to us through the Word. If, on the other hand, we never turn to the Word
because we believe that all it contains is some outmoded moral structure that
does not apply to us, then it will indeed be silent in our hearts, for it will find
no room there.
The doctrines of the Church tell us that those who wish to understand,
and who shun evils as sins, will be able to understand the Word, and that, in
general is true. But it must be understood that this principle has to be applied
with mercy, and with accommodation to the states of the reader. We cannot
assume that because people have difficulty at their first attempts in reading
the doctrines of the church, or some of the more difficult books of Scripture,
that the Lord is not speaking to them because they are evil. It is like any other
skill in the natural world: it must first be learned, and then practised. Another
consideration is this:
All the histories of the Word are truths more remote from essential Divine doctrinal
things, but still are of service to little children and older children, in order that
thereby they may be by degrees introduced into the interior doctrinal matters of
truth and good; and at last to Divine things themselves; for within them, in their
inmost, is the Divine. (Arcana Coelestia 36902)
In other words, the Word has been specifically constructed in such a way
that there is something in it for everyone. Little children love the story of
creation, and learn simply that God created them and everything else. Older
children love the stories of the conquest of Canaan, and learn that the Lord
will fight for them in their battles against evil. And if such a foundation has
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