December
11

Isaiah 60:9. “For the islands shall wait for Me, and the ships of Tarshish among the first, to bring thy sons from afar, their silver and their gold with them, to the name of Jehovah thy God, and to the Holy One of Israel; for He has adorned thee.”

For the children from Luke 5

1. And it came to pass, as the crowd pressed upon Him to hear the Word of God, He was standing by the lake of Gennesaret.

2. And He saw two ships standing by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing [their] nets.

3. And having stepped into one of the ships, which was Simon’s, He besought him to launch out a little from the land; and sitting down, He taught the crowd from the ship.

4. And when he had ceased speaking, He said to Simon, Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.

5. And Simon answering said to Him, Master, having labored through the whole night, we have taken nothing; but at Thy saying I will let down the net.

6. And when they had done this, they enclosed a multitude of many fishes, and their net broke.

7. And they beckoned to [their] partners in the other ship that they should come to take [some] with them. And they came and filled both the ships so that they began to sink.

8. And Simon Peter, seeing [this], fell before the knees of Jesus, saying, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, Lord!

9. For astonishment encompassed him, and all who were with him, at the catch of the fishes which they had taken;

10. and likewise also James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were companions with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men.

11. And they brought their ships to land, and left all, and followed Him.

Readings from the Heavenly Doctrine

AE 406:10. This [Isa. 60:9] too is said of the Lord, and it signifies that those will receive and acknowledge Him who are in simple truth and good, who are such as perceive the truths of the Word in a natural way, that is, according to the sense of the letter, and do them. “The islands” signify those who perceive the Word in a natural way, that is, according to the sense of the letter. “The ships of Tarshish in the beginning [or among the first]” mean the goods that they bring forth and do, for “Tarshish” signifies the natural man in respect to knowledges, and “Tarshish in the beginning” is the natural man in respect to the knowledges of good, because Tarshish abounded in gold and silver, and the ships brought gold and silver away from there (1 Kings 10:22), and in the beginning gold, which signifies good. And as truths are from good it is also said “to bring thy sons from afar.”

AC 6385. “Ships of Tarshish” denote doctrinal things and truths from the Word. Therefore it is said that they should “bring their sons, their silver and gold,” for by “sons” are signified those who are in truths; by “silver,” the truth itself; and by “gold,” good. Everyone can see that ships of Tarshish are not here meant, nor sons, silver, and gold.

AE 242:17. “The islands which shall hope” mean the nations [or gentiles] that are in Divine worship, but more remote from the truths of the church. “The ships of Tarshish” mean the general knowledges of truth and good, which contain many knowledges in particular. “The sons whom they shall bring from far” mean truths more remote, “sons” meaning truths, and “from far” those more remote; “their silver and gold with them” signify the knowledges of truth and good with them.

AE 514: 6 “The ships of Tarshish in the beginning” mean the knowledges of truth and good, such as those who are reformed have in the beginning, as may be seen above (n. 406), where this is explained. For the ships of Tarshish in the beginning brought gold and silver in great abundance, which signified the goods of life and the truths of doctrine.

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