2102. 'And he circumcised the flesh of their foreskin' means their purification and righteousness from the Lord. This is clear from the meaning of 'being circumcised' as being purified from self-love and love of the world, dealt with above in 2039, and also from the meaning of 'flesh of the foreskin' as the removal of those loves, also dealt with above in 2041, 2053, 2057. It was also shown in those paragraphs that those loves alone are what stop the inflow and functioning of good and truth from the Lord, and so prevent the Lord's righteousness from being imparted to him.
[2] The whole of this chapter has dealt with the union of the Lord's Divine Essence with the Human Essence, and with the conjunction of the Lord with man by means of His Human Essence now made Divine. It has dealt also with circumcision, that is, with purification from all the filth residing with man. These matters constitute a single train of thought, following one after another. In fact the union of the Divine Essence with the Human Essence in the Lord took place to enable the Divine to be joined to man. But that conjunction of the Divine with man cannot be achieved unless man is purified from those loves. As soon as he is purified from them however the Lord's Divine Human flows in and in so doing joins man to Himself. This shows the nature of the Word, that is to say, when the meaning in the internal sense is understood everything connects together in a proper and beautiful sequence.
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