December
16

Keeping Watch.

And there were in the same country shepherds, abiding in the field, and keeping watch over their flock by night. (Luke 2:8)

In the Word, “a shepherd,” or one who pastures a flock, means one who teaches and leads to good flowing from charity; “a watchman with God” means an understanding of the Word; and “night” means obscurity— a time when there is no longer any spiritual truth—also the final period of the old church, and the first of the new church. (Arcana Coelestia 4713, 6000:1, 4, 6, 2353; Apocalypse Explained 624:12)

[Reading] in Isaiah: “One cries unto me out of Seir, Watchman, what of the night? what of the night? The watchman said, The morning comes, and also the night” (Isaiah 21:11, 12). By the “watchman” in the internal sense is meant one who observes the states of the church and its changes, thus every prophet; by “night” is meant the last state of the church; by “morning” its first state. (Arcana Coelestia 10134:11)

The signification of the “watches to Jehovah” [is] the presence of the Lord and thence protection. For by the presence of the Lord, those are enlightened who are in good and thence in truth, and those are made blind who are in evil and thence in falsity; and also by the presence of the Lord those are brought out from damnation who are to be raised into heaven, for they are withheld from evil and are kept in good, and this by a strong force from the Lord. (Arcana Coelestia 7989)

Just as the welfare of the large society depends on order, so also does the welfare of the small society. Therefore, as, in a composite society, it concerns the magistrates to see and provide that order shall exist and be preserved, so with married partners in their particular society. (Conjugial Love 283)

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