Gifts are given for many different reasons in the Bible, so it follows that the precise meanings are dependent on context. In general, though, gifts are associated with love, both because we give them to express or seek love and because they are desirable objects themselves.
Often, of course, gifts in the Bible are offered to the Lord, which represents the highest form of worship, worship springing from love to the Lord. This is reflected at a lower level in many of the gifts given to people, representing spiritual things that should be present in worship. At the lowest level – gifts given to curry favor or seek peace – they represent an introduction of more loving elements into a spiritual state.
Swedenborg notes that since all life is a gift from the Lord to us, the “gifts” we offer him are really symbolic, offering what is really his anyway. In reality, the gift we can give is acceptance; it is receiving gifts from the Lord with gratitude.
Passages from Swedenborg
Arcana Coelestia 10093: 3
Heave offerings are spoken of as gifts presented to Jehovah, that is, to the Lord, from among the children of Israel; but it should be understood that they are Jehovah’s not by virtue of their being a gift but because He is the real owner; for nothing holy or Divine with a person belongs to the person, only to the Lord present with him. All that is good and true, as is well known in the Church, thus all that is holy and Divine, comes from the Lord God, and none at all from the person; and from this it is evident that when the gift is said to come from the person, this is due to appearances.
Arcana Coelestia 1171
The kings of Tarshish and of the islands will bring a gift, and the kings of Sheba and Seba will offer a present; and all kings will fall down before Him. Ps. 72:10, 11.
This refers to the Lord, His kingdom, and the celestial Church. Anyone may see that here ‘gift’ and ‘present’ mean types of worship, though exactly which types of worship, and the nature of them, cannot be known unless it is known what ‘Tarshish and the islands’ and ‘Sheba and Seba’ are used to mean. The fact that ‘Tarshish and the islands’ is used to mean forms of external worship corresponding to internal has been shown already, from which it follows that ‘Sheba and Seba’ is used to mean forms of internal worship – ‘Sheba’ the celestial things of worship, and ‘Seba’ the spiritual.
Apocalypse Explained 661: 2
[2] Since gifts captivate the mind and bring about consociation, therefore in ancient times it was customary to give gifts to priests and prophets, also to princes and kings, when they were approached (1 Sam. ix. 7, 8). And it was also a statute that they should not appear empty, that is, without gifts, before Jehovah, but that in their feasts every one should bring a gift according to his blessing (Exod. xxiii. 15; xxxiv. 20; Deut. xvi. 16, 17); and therefore the wise men from the east brought gifts, gold, frankincense, and myrrh, to the Lord as soon as He was born (Matt. ii. 11), according to the prediction in David (Psalm lxxii. 10); and for the same reason, the oblations upon the altar, which were sacrifices, and also the meat-offerings and drink-offerings, were called gifts (Isaiah xviii. 71; lvii. 6; lxvi. 20; Zeph. iii. 10; Matt. v. 23, 24; and elsewhere), and this because external gifts signified internal or spiritual gifts, namely, such as proceed from the heart, and thus belong consequently to affection and faith; and because conjunction is effected by means of these, thereforegifts, in the spiritual sense, signify conjunction when used in reference to God, and consociation when used in reference to men.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 5619
5619. ‘And cause a gift to go down to the man’ means to obtain favour. This is clear from the meaning of ‘taking a gift to the man’ – ‘the man’ being Joseph, who is called the lord of the land – as to obtain favour. It was customary in the representative Ancient Church, and so in the Jewish Church, when people went to the judges, and at a later time to the kings or priests, to present them with a gift; indeed the people were commanded to do this. The reason for the custom was that the giftspeople presented to those men represented the kinds of things mankind possessed that ought to be offered to the Lord when any approach is made to Him. Such gifts are ones that a person offers in freedom and therefore ones that come truly from himself. For his freedom resides in what comes from his heart; and what comes from his heart comes from his will. Also what comes from his will comes from a desire arising out of his love; and a desire arising out of his love constitutes his freedom, thus what is truly his own, 1947, 2870-2893, 3158. Such should be the origin of any gift made by man to the Lord when making any approach to Him.
Arcana Coelestia 4262
[2] The reason ‘a gift’ means introduction is that it was made to initiate goodwill and favour. Indeed in former times the gifts which were made and offered had differing meanings, the gifts presented by people to kings or priests when they went to them having one meaning, those offered on the altar another. The former meant introduction but the latter meant worship, 349, for all sacrifices in general of every kind were called ‘gifts’ while the minchahs, which were offerings of bread and wine, that is, of cakes accompanied by a libation, were specifically called such; for in the original language ‘minchah’ means a gift.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 9938
9938. ‘Which the children of Israel shall sanctify, even in all their gifts of holy things’ means acts of worship representative of removal from sins. This is clear from the meaning of ‘gifts’ – or presents, which among the Israelite and Jewish nation were primarily burnt offerings, sacrifices, and minchahs – as the inner realities of acts of worship; for those realities were represented by these acts. The inner realities of worship are the fruits of love and faith; they are therefore pardonings of sins, that is, removals from them, since faith and love are the means by which the Lord moves sins away. For in the measure that the good of love and faith comes in, or what amounts to the same thing, heaven comes in, sins are removed, that is, hell is removed – the hell within the person as well as the hell outside him. From this it is evident what should be understood by the gifts which they made holy, that is, offered. The gifts were called holy, and giving or offering them was called sanctifying them, because they represented holy realities. For they were offered to expiate people, thus to remove them from their sins, which is accomplished by means of faith in and love to the Lord received from the Lord.
[2] Gifts and presents were said to be made to Jehovah, though Jehovah, that is, the Lord, is not the receiver of gifts or presents, but the giver of them, freely to everyone. Even so, His will is that they should come from a person as though they did so from that person himself, provided the person acknowledges that they do not actually come from him but from the Lord. For the Lord imparts a desire to do good because he loves it, and a desire to speak the truth because he believes it. The actual desire flows in from the Lord, yet appears to be inherent in the person and so to flow from the person. For whatever a person does out of love and desire for it, he does from his life, love being what composes anyone’s life. From this it is evident that the things that are called gifts and presents made to the Lord by a person are essentially gifts and presents made to a person by the Lord, and that they are called gifts and presents on account of what they appear to be. All who are wise at heart recognize this appearance, but not so the simple. Yet their gifts and presents are acceptable, so far as they are made in ignorance that has innocence within it. Innocence is the good of love to God, and dwells within ignorance, especially with the wise at heart. Those who are wise at heart know, indeed perceive, that nothing whatever of the wisdom within themselves originates in themselves, but that the all of wisdom is attributable to the Lord, that is, the all of the good of love and the all of the truth of faith are attributable to Him, and that for this reason even with the wise innocence dwells in ignorance. From this it is evident that the acknowledgement of this matter, and especially the perception of it, constitutes the innocence of wisdom.
[3] The gifts offered in the Jewish Church, which were primarily burnt offerings, sacrifices, and minchahs, were also spoken of as offerings made for the expiations of sins; for they were offered for the sake of being pardoned from sins, that is, being removed from them. Those who belonged to that Church also thought that sins were pardoned, indeed completely taken away, by means of these offerings; for it is said of people who have offered them that they will be pardoned, see Lev. 4:26, 31, 35; 5:6, 10, 13, 16, 18; 6:7; 9:7; 15:15, 30. But they were unaware of the fact that their gifts represented more internal things, thus the kinds of things that are done by a person from love and faith received from the Lord; that these are what expiate, that is, remove sins; and that when they have been removed they appear to have been completely removed or banished, as has been shown above in the present paragraph and the one before it. The worship of that nation was representative, and so was external devoid of anything internal; and it was by means of this worship that heaven was joined to mankind, in those times, see the places referred to in 9320 (end), 9380.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 349
349. ‘A gift’ is used to mean worship. This becomes clear from the representative acts in the Jewish Church where, in addition to first-fruits of the earth and of all it yields, and also presentation of the firstborn, sacrifices of every kind are called ‘gifts’. It was in these acts that worship consisted. And because they each represented something heavenly and had reference to the Lord, these gifts meant true worship, a fact that anyone is capable of recognizing. For what is any representative without the real thing it represents, and what is anything external without an internal but some idol or object that is dead? That which is external has life from things that are internal, that is, from the Lord through those internal things. From this it is clear that all gifts in the representative Church mean worship of the Lord. Further details on these points will in the Lord’s Divine mercy be presented later on.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 9265
9265. ‘And you shall not accept a gift’ means detesting any kind of gain. This is clear from the meaning of ‘a gift’ as anything worldly that is loved, whether it is riches, positions, reputation, or something else that gratifies the natural man, for these worldly things generally are called gain and in the internal sense are what is meant by ‘a gift’ which blinds and perverts; and from the meaning of ‘not accepting’ as detesting, for unless such gain is detested it is still looked for and accepted. It is detested when what is heavenly and Divine is loved more than what is worldly and earthly; for to the extent that one is loved the other is hated, as accords with the Lord’s words in Luke,
No slave can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other … You cannot serve God and mammon. Luke 16:13.
‘Hating’ means detesting, for detestation is a feeling of hatred, and hatred is the opposite of love, which is why it says ‘or he will love the other’. From all this it is evident that ‘you shall not accept a gift’ means detesting any kind of gain.