Preached on 12-13-98

"I SEE HIM BUT NOT NOW"

A Sermon by the Rev. Patrick A. Rose

"I see Him, but not now: I behold Him, but not near: a Star shall come out of Jacob; a Scepter shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab . . ." (Num. 24:17)

WHEN THE LORD WAS BORN UPON THIS EARTH, it was the fulfillment of an ancient promise, a promise made thousands of years earlier. Indeed, as soon as the very first church upon this earth, the Most Ancient Church, began to turn away from the Lord, the birth of the Lord was prophesied (AC 2661). The Lord, in pronouncing a curse upon the serpent in the Garden of Eden, said, "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel" (Gen. 3:15). The seed of the woman was the Lord, the Lord who would one day be born to do battle with the serpent, that is, with the powers of evil. And though this might seem to us to be a very obscure reference to the Lord, those at the time knew what this prophecy meant. They knew that one day, upon this earth, the Lord Himself would be born. The Creator of the world would come down as the Savior of the human race.

Now this promise, this prophecy, was of the greatest importance. People here on earth had to know, and, even more significantly, the angels of heaven had to know, that one day the Lord Himself would come. Evil had arisen upon the earth, evil which by its very nature tends to grow and spread. And evil causes people to turn away from the Lord. It destroys their relationship with their Creator. This is why the Lord had to draw closer to mankind. He had to come down to them so that they could see Him, and turn to Him once again, and so be saved. And to begin with, this coming of the Lord, His drawing closer to the human race, was in the form of prophecy.

Even though the need for the Lord's birth arose at the time when the Most Ancient Church began to decline, He could not be born immediately. The human race had to be prepared for His advent. Moreover, evil had to be allowed to run its course. If the Lord had come too soon, those internal truths He was to reveal would have been rejected and profaned (AC 3398:4). Neither did the Lord need to be born immediately. For the time being, the promise of His coming was sufficient. People could have faith in the Lord who was to come. Their faith in the Lord was founded upon a promise. It was a faith founded upon hope, and trust. We are told in the Arcana that "from the time of the first promise (spoken of in Gen. iii. 15) the faith of love in the Lord who was to come effected conjunction" (AC 2034:7). Through the power of prophecy, people could turn, with hope, faith and love, towards a God who, it was prophesied, would one day be born upon earth.

This faith in the Lord, the Lord who was to come, was important for the angels as well. Through prophecy the Lord also gave hope to the heavens. He gave them a vision of Himself. Indeed this was one of the primary uses of the Old Testament at that time. As we read through the Old Testament we occasionally come across open prophesies of the Lord's advent, prophesies which served to sustain the faith and hope of people here on earth. For the angels, though, the entire Old Testament, from beginning to end, was a prophecy of the coming of the Lord. "In the internal sense of the Word," we read, "the Lord's whole life is described, such as it was to be in the world, even as to the perceptions and thoughts, for these were foreseen and provided because from the Divine; this being done for the additional reason that all these things might be set forth at that time as present to the angels, who perceive the Word according to the internal sense; and that so the Lord might be before them" (AC 2523).

This is an amazing teaching. Though the Lord was not to be born upon earth for many years, His whole life here on earth was set forth before the angels in the internal sense of the Old Testament. They knew what the Lord was going to do. They knew what He would experience. They even knew what His thoughts would be. They could see the coming of the Lord long before it actually occurred, and so they could be sustained, and comforted. The angels were acutely aware of the horrific growth of evil upon the earth. But they knew that one day the Lord would be born. Their detailed knowledge of His future advent gave them hope. And so it was through the power of prophecy that both people on earth and angels could be sustained by a faith in the Lord who was to come.

It is this faith or vision of the Lord which is spoken of in the prophecy of Balaam: "I see Him, but not now: I behold Him, but not near" (Num. 24:17). And indeed people did see the Lord; they did behold Him. They saw Him in the prophecies of revelation -- prophecies which extended and were added to from the time of the Most Ancient Church right up to the end of the Old Testament.

Now this prophecy of Balaam is of particular interest because it demonstrates the continuous nature of prophecy. It was absolutely vital that faith in the Lord be sustained from the time of the Fall right up to the time of the Lord's actual birth. The salvation of the human race depended upon this vision of the Lord who was to come. This is why, in the internal sense, the Old Testament is a continuous prophecy of the Lord's advent. It is also why, before the Old Testament was written, there was an earlier Word, the Ancient Word, which also was filled with prophecies of the Lord's coming. Long before the Israelitish Church was established by the Lord, those of the Ancient Church already knew, from the prophesies of the Ancient Word, that one day the Lord would be born (AC 2898, AE 422:20).

Balaam knew these earlier, ancient prophecies. Balaam was from Syria, where there was the last remnant of the Ancient Church (AC 2898, SS 101). He was one of what were called the "sons of the east" (AC 3249). When Balak, King of Moab, sent for Balaam, so that Balaam might curse the Israelites, Balaam blesses them instead. And in one of his blessings upon Israel, he prophesies that out of Jacob, out of Israel, would come forth a Star. It is an open prophecy of the coming of the Lord. This prophecy was not from Balaam himself. It came from the Lord. Indeed Balaam, though he was learned in spiritual matters, was not even a good man (AE 140). But still, through him there was given this beautiful prophecy -- a prophecy known in the Ancient Church -- the prophecy of a star. " . . . a Star shall come out of Jacob; a Scepter shall rise out of Israel, . . . "

Later -- many years later -- some other men from the same country as Balaam, from that same remnant of the Ancient Church, would actually see and follow a star. Those wise men who followed the star at the time of the Lord's birth were also "sons of the east" (AC 3249). It was because they had the prophecies of the Ancient Word that they knew what this star symbolized (AC 3762:5). They knew it would lead them to the Lord, the Ruler of heaven and earth.

And so there was this continuous thread of prophecy, extending from the time of the Fall, through the Ancient Church, and through the Israelitish and Jewish Churches, until the Lord Himself was born on earth. The knowledge of the Lord was kept alive all those thousands of years. All that time, the spiritual welfare of the human race was sustained by a faith based upon the knowledge and the hope that one day the Lord Himself would be born upon the earth.

Now to know something of the role that prophecy played throughout this long period of history is very important, because this period of history, the period which led up to the coming of the Lord, is, as it were, repeated within the life of each individual human being. The coming of the Lord occurred historically. It also occurs individually. When a person is being regenerated, then for him, in his life, it is the coming of the Lord (AC 482; cf. AC 2405:7). So too, before he is regenerated, he also needs to be sustained, and upheld, by the power of prophecy, by the knowledge that one day the Lord will come, come to give him spiritual life and spiritual light. It was a star which guided the wise men towards the Lord. A star stands for spiritual knowledge, and especially knowledge about the Lord (AC 9293:3, AE 422:20). Knowledge is not the same as a living and heartfelt experience. But for a time, knowledge of the Lord may be all that we have. And it is by holding on to and by remaining faithful to what we know that we can be sustained during that long period of spiritual darkness which precedes the coming of the Lord.

Historically, the many years which preceded the coming of the Lord were a time of darkness. The angels of heaven could see, within the internal sense of the Word, myriads of truths concerning the Lord Himself. On earth it was another matter. People knew so very little about the Lord. There was a great deal of spiritual ignorance. There were many fallacies and also downright falsities even where men had the Word. People had very little understanding of the truth. What they did have was hope and faith in the Lord who would one day bring them spiritual light.

We also go through, and must go through, a similar period of darkness. Those who are being reformed by the Lord come into a state in which they are, we are told, "reduced into ignorance even to despair" (AC 2682:2). We may have been taught and may know many spiritual things. But knowledge of what is spiritual is not the same as actually seeing it for ourselves. Much of what we know is acquired from others, or is learnt from the Word without much insight on our own part. This is not the same as seeing the truth. Indeed, mixed up with the truth we know are many false beliefs, and even where we believe what is true, we may believe it for the wrong reasons (ibid.). And so we are, to use the phrase of the Writings, "reduced into a state of ignorance." We come into a state of mind when we hardly know any longer what is really true, and what is false. We are filled with doubt: about the Lord, about ourselves, about life in general. It is a period of temptation, a temptation that perhaps continues a long time indeed, and is repeated many times. But it is permitted for a purpose -- in order that we might come to know, come to see, from experience itself, that nothing of good and truth is our own (ibid.). All that we have comes from the Lord. We then open our minds to Him, in order that from Him we might receive spiritual light.

In the meantime, how do people keep going? What sustains them? It is the Lord who sustains them, of course, and He does so by means of truth. The Arcana says this: "With all who are in temptations there flows in truth from the Lord, which rules and governs the thoughts and raises up the sufferers whenever they fall into doubts and even into despair. This governing truth is that truth and such truth as they have learned from the Word or from doctrine and have confirmed in themselves" (AC 5044:1). It is not simply a matter of our remembering what we know from the Word, and forcing ourselves to keep going. It is, more importantly, the way in which the Lord Himself governs us and sustains us. Those things we have learnt from the Word, and, just as important, the affections with which we learnt them, are used by the Lord to govern us and sustain us in temptation. He flows into those affections deep within the mind, and thus into those deeply held principles from the Word, and through these He comforts and revives us (AC 5044:1,2). We may be in a state of doubt and despair, but because we long for the truth, because we long for a vision of the Lord, He can flow into this affection, this longing for the truth, and give us consolation and hope.

Hope is what keeps us going. Just as faith in the Lord who was to come sustained mankind during the millennia preceding His advent, and gave them hope, so too, faith in what we know from the Word can keep us going, and can give us hope.

The human race was promised, in ancient times, that even though evil had begun to spread upon the earth, and even though mankind had begun to turn away from the Lord, still the Lord had not forgotten them. He made them a promise. One day, He would come. He would come to bring light, and peace and joy. He would come to strike the corners of Moab, that is, break the power of the love of self (AC 2468, 9494:3). He would come as a Star, as the source of knowledge, teaching people about Himself.

One day we also will come to know the Lord, know Him far better than we know Him now. We might wish that, within ourselves, we had a clearer vision of the Lord. We might wish that selfishness, and the love of worldly things, had less of a grip upon us. We might wish that the path to heaven was easier. But we do have a promise, a promise we can hold on to. The Lord Himself has given us a promise. He has promised us that He will come. We must trust in this promise. We must have faith that the Lord will come. We must hold on to the truth we know. And we must live according to this truth, to the best of our ability. Then, one day, when our temptations are over, the Lord will keep His promise. The Lord Himself will come to us, filling us with life, with peace, bringing us tidings of great joy.

Amen.

Lessons: Num. 24:10-17; AC 2034:6.

© 1998 by the Rev. Patrick A. Rose