Last Sunday we learned what the slavery or bondage or captivity of the Israelites in Egypt represented in the spiritual world. We also learned what "infestation" means, that it means troubling good people by trying to make them believe things that are false, and proving them from the Word. We learned that before the Lord's First Coming, and also before His Second Coming, there were many millions of good people in the "lower earth" infested in this way, and who were waiting for the Lord to come and deliver or free or redeem them, and that when He came He did redeem them, and when He arose from the tomb He raised them into heaven with Himself, forming a new heaven of them.

But what became of those who infested and how could they infest? They could infest because they knew the Bible. If they had not known the Bible they could not have twisted and perverted what it teaches, and so trouble those who believed in the Bible. Now what became of them when the Lord came?

What they knew from the Bible was taken away from them, or - to use a word which is used in the Scriptures - they were "laid waste" or "vastated" of the good things and true which they had learned from the Word, but which they used for evil purposes. Remember that no one can be in hell who has anything good or true. This must first be taken from that person. And this "vastation" of the "infesters" is described by the plagues.

How many miracles were there? Eleven.

1. Aaron's staff was turned into a serpent.

2. The waters in the rivers were turned into blood, so that the fish died, and the river stank.

3. From the rivers and pools frogs were brought up upon the land of Egypt.

4. The dust of the earth was turned into lice.

5. Swarms of noxious flying insects were sent into the house of Pharaoh and of his servants and into all the land of Egypt.

6. Boils broke forth with blains upon people and upon animals.

7. A rain of grievous hail mingled with fire rained upon the land of Egypt.

8. Locusts were sent upon the land, which devoured the herb and all the fruit of the tree.

9. A thick darkness came over all the land of Egypt.

10. All the firstborn of the land of Egypt died.

11. The children of Israel took from them their vessels of gold and silver, and raiment, and then the Egyptians were drowned in the Red Sea.

In this manner the Egyptians were gradually deprived of one thing after another, until they had nothing left, and they died in the sea.

In a similar manner those in the spiritual world who infested others, when the time of judgment came, were gradually deprived of all that they had from the Word, of all their knowledge of what is true and good, until they had nothing left and then they were cast into hell, which is represented by the Red Sea.

How this was done in every detail, what is meant by each one of the miracles, is very fully told in the internal sense of the story of these miracles, as made known by the Lord in the Arcana Coelestia. When you grow older, you will want to read it carefully. We cannot go into that now. But one very important thing you ought to know, which will help you to understand a little about the subject of "vastation."

The Word of the Lord is different from all other books, as you know, because it has a spiritual sense, which the angels who are with us understand while we are reading and thinking about the stories and prophecies and songs that are in the literal sense. It is in this way that the church on earth is together with heaven. This is the chief reason why the Lord always maintains a church, no matter how small it may be. So our principal duty, as New Church people, is to read the Word, but read it reverently, knowing that it is the Lord's Word, and doing what it teaches us. Angels can then be very near to us, and from their seeing the lovely things that are in the internal sense, a light comes to our minds, and a warm love into our hearts, and this warm feeling and bright light shine out and go out to others, just as sunlight does.

Now this wonderful power that the Word of the Lord has, of bringing angels near, it also possesses in the other world. In the world of spirits, the Word is very much like what it is here, and whatever we have learned from it, draws angels near. It is owing to angels being with us, that we can understand things right. But when the Lord is ready to judge between the evil and the good: when the "last judgment" comes, then the Lord gradually removes the angels from those who know much from the Word, but have not lived a good life, but have "infested" others. And when angels - whole societies of them -move away from people, then they no longer can think right, they cannot remember the truths which they have had, indeed they no longer care for them, and so the spiritual treasures which they had, that is to say, the things good and true which they had learned from the Word, are taken away from them. In this way, gradually, step by step, just like the plagues on the Egyptians, they lose everything that connected them with heaven and made them appear like human beings, and they finally become monstrous-looking devils and enter hell.

You can see from this how very important it is for people to study the Word, and live according to what is taught in it. The Lord taught this through John, who wrote the Book of Revelation, when He said "Blessed is he that readeth and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and that keep those things that are written therein, for the time is at hand" [emphasis added].

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