Week 4    Day 2

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Simeon’s Place in the New Heaven

Genesis 29:33. And [Leah] conceived yet again, and gave birth to a son, and said, Because Jehovah has heard that I was hated, and has given to me this one also; and she called his name Simeon.

AC 3869:4. By “Jehovah hearing,” from which Simeon was named, in the interior sense is signified obedience, and in the internal sense faith in the will from the Lord alone. This is manifest from very many passages in the Word... [where] “to hear Him” is to have faith in Him and to obey His commandments, thus to have faith in the will.

Simeon’s Representation in the New Heaven

AR 356. Verse 7. Of the tribe of Simeon were sealed twelve thousand, signifies spiritual love, which is love towards the neighbor or charity, with those who will be of the Lord’s New Heaven and New Church. By “Simeon,” in the highest sense, is signified providence; in the spiritual sense, love towards the neighbor or charity; and, in the natural sense, obedience and hearing....

The reason why Simeon and his tribe represented this love, and therefore signify it in the Word, is because he was born after Reuben, and immediately before Levi, and by these three, Reuben, Simeon, and Levi, in their order, is signified truth in the understanding, or faith; truth in the will, or charity; and truth in act, or good work; in like manner as by Peter, James, and John. That Simeon and his tribe might therefore represent truth in the will, which is both charity and obedience, he was named from hearing, and to hear signifies both to understand truth and to will or obey it....

AR 356:2. Here something shall be said about love towards the neighbor, or charity. Love towards the neighbor is the love of obeying the Lord’s commandments, which are chiefly those contained in the second table of the Decalogue, and which are: thou shalt not murder; thou shalt not commit whoredom; thou shalt not steal; thou shalt not bear false witness; thou shalt not covet the things which are thy neighbor’s. The man who will not do such things because they are sins, loves the neighbor. For he does not love the neighbor who hates him and from hatred wishes to kill him; he does not love the neighbor who desires to commit whoredom with his wife; nor does he love the neighbor who wishes to steal and plunder his goods, and so on. This, also, Paul teaches in the following words:

For he that loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, Thou shalt not commit whoredom, Thou shalt not murder, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet, and if there be any other commandment, it is summed up in this word, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Therefore, charity is the fulfilling of the law (Rom. 13:8-10).

AE 443. Of the tribe of Simeon twelve thousand sealed, signifies obedience, and that all who are in obedience are in heaven, and come into heaven....

AE 443:2. Those belonging to the first or lowest heaven are all obedient in doing the truths and goods that are commanded in the Word or in the doctrine of the church in which they were born, or that they have heard from some master or religious teacher, from whom they have heard that this or that is true and good and ought to be done. Most of these [angels] are not in truths themselves, but in falsities from ignorance. Nevertheless, these falsities are accepted by the Lord as truths because they have the good of life for their end, and by this the evils that usually cling to falsities are removed....

AE 443:3. Because “Simeon” signifies obedience he also signifies faith, for faith becomes faith in man when he obeys and does the commandments; before this is done the knowledge of such things as man has drawn from the Word, from the doctrine of the church and from preaching, appears as faith, but this is not faith until man does these things. Until then it is merely a matter of thought from the memory, in which there is nothing of the will, consequently nothing of the man, for the will is the man himself. It is therefore when a man does this, that is, obeys, that it enters the will, thus the man himself and becomes faith.

AE 443:4. This faith, which is obedience, is signified also by Peter, when he is called “Simon” ....

Simeon the Prophet

Luke 2:25-32. And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; and this man was just and circumspect, waiting for the consolation of Israel; and the Holy Spirit was upon him... And he came by the Spirit into the temple; and when the parents were bringing in the little Child Jesus, to do for Him according to the custom of the law, he even received Him into his arms, and blessed God and said, Now Thou sendest Thy servant away in peace, O Lord, according to Thy saying; for my eyes have seen Thy salvation, which Thou hast prepared before the face of all peoples; a light for a revelation for the nations, and the glory of Thy people Israel....

AC 1422:2. Among the ancients, “to bless Jehovah,” or “the Lord,” was a customary form of speech, as is evident from the Word.... Of Zacharias and Simeon we also read that they “blessed God” (Luke 1:64, 2:28). Here it is evident that “to bless the Lord” is to sing to Him, to proclaim the good tidings of His salvation, to preach His wisdom and power, and thus to confess and acknowledge the Lord from the heart. They who do this cannot but be blessed by the Lord, that is, be gifted with those things which belong to blessing, namely, with celestial, spiritual, natural, worldly, and corporeal good. These, when they follow each other in this order, are the goods in which there is happiness.

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