{"id":11185,"date":"2016-04-15T21:33:28","date_gmt":"2016-04-16T01:33:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordstudy.newchurch.org\/?page_id=11185"},"modified":"2016-04-15T21:33:28","modified_gmt":"2016-04-16T01:33:28","slug":"drive","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/societies.newchurch.org\/wordstudy\/bible-keywords\/drive\/","title":{"rendered":"Drive"},"content":{"rendered":"

Like other verbs, the meaning of \u201cdrive\u201d has a lot to do with context: What is doing the driving, and what is being driven? Is it something evil<\/a> driving out something good<\/a>? Or is it the Lord<\/a> driving people out of their land to make way for the people of Israel<\/a>? Or is it some other form of driving?<\/p>\n

According to Swedenborg<\/a>, \u201cDriving out\u201d generally has to do with creating separation. When something that represents evil is driving out something that represents good, the \u201cdriving\u201d represents the hatred and loathing that causes the evil to attack what is good. But when it is the Lord (or something representing the Lord) driving out evil, then it represents the way the Lord sets aside our evils, removing our desire for them if we trust and follow his guidance<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Passages from Swedenborg<\/b><\/p>\n

Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 9333<\/b><\/p>\n

9333. ‘I will not\u00a0drive\u00a0them out from before you in one year’ means no hurried flight or removal of them, that is to say, of the falsities and evils meant by the nations in the land of Canaan. This is clear from the meaning of ‘driving\u00a0out’ as flight, for those in the next life who are steeped in evils and falsities are not driven out but flee of their own accord (the fact that removal is also meant will be seen below); and from the meaning of ‘in one year’ as that which is hurried, for the words follow, ‘Little by little I will\u00a0drive\u00a0them out from before you’, meaning a gradual removal in keeping with order.<\/p>\n

[2] The reason why ‘driving\u00a0out’, when it has reference to evils and falsities, means removal is that falsities and evils are not driven out of a person but removed. Anyone who does not know the true nature of human deliverance from evils and falsities, which is the forgiveness of sins, thinks that sins are wiped out when they are said to have been forgiven. The literal sense of the Word which speaks several times in that kind of way leads people to think so. As a result of this the minds of very many people have been taken over by the erroneous idea that they are righteous and pure after they have received absolution. But they have no knowledge whatever of the true nature of the forgiveness of sins. They do not know that no one is purified from sins; rather people are withheld from them by the Lord when they are such that they can be maintained in goodness and truth, and they can be maintained in goodness and truth when they have been regenerated, because then they have acquired the life of the good of charity and of the truth of faith. All that a person thinks, intends, says, and does from earliest childhood enters into the composition of his life. Those things cannot be banished, only removed; and when they are removed it seems as though the person is without sins, because they have been removed, see 8393, 8988 (end), 9014. The Word speaks in keeping with the appearance that a person thinks and does what is good and true unaided, by himself (the reality being that he does so not by himself but with the Lord’s aid) when it says that he is free from sins, and also is righteous, as for instance in Isaiah,<\/p>\n

Though your sins are like scarlet, they will be as white as snow. Though they are as red as crimson,* they will be as wool. Isa. 1:18.<\/p>\n

[3] The like is said many times elsewhere. The state of souls in the next life enables anyone to know that all this is true. All people take with them from this world into the next all that composes their life, that is, whatever they have thought, intended, spoken, or done, also indeed whatever they have seen or heard from early childhood right through to the last phase of their life in the world; not even the smallest detail of any of this is lacking, 2474. Those who have led a life of faith and charity while in the world can be withheld from evils and maintained in good, and so can be raised to heaven. Those however who have not led a life of faith and charity while in the world but a life of self-love and love of the world sink down to hell because they cannot be withheld from evils or maintained in good. From all this it is evident why it is that ‘driving\u00a0out’, when it refers to what happens to falsities and evils, means removal. In this verse and the next that removal is the subject in the internal sense; there the arcana of it are disclosed.<\/p>\n

Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 7768<\/b><\/p>\n

7768. ‘When he sends everything away he will surely\u00a0drive\u00a0you out from here’ means that they will leave them completely, and will loathe and shun their presence. This is clear from the meaning of ‘sending everything away ‘as leaving completely; and from the meaning of ‘surely\u00a0driving\u00a0you out’ as loathing and shunning those belonging to the spiritual Church whom they have molested. For anyone who loathes another’s presence shuns it too, and also\u00a0drives\u00a0him away from himself.<\/p>\n

Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 8295<\/b><\/p>\n

8295. ‘My hand will\u00a0drive\u00a0them out’ means that by its power heaven will be destroyed. This is clear from the meaning of ‘driving\u00a0out’ as dislodging and so destroying; and from the meaning of ‘hand’ as power, dealt with in 878, 4931-4937, 6292, 6947, 7188, 7189, 7518. Heaven is meant because of the words ‘will\u00a0drive\u00a0them out’, that is, from heaven; for when the restraint placed on the evil is loosened they become so bold and arrogant as to think that they have the power to destroy heaven itself.<\/p>\n

Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 10638<\/b><\/p>\n

10638. ‘Behold, I am\u00a0driving\u00a0out from [before] your face the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite’ means the moving away then of evils and the falsities arising from them. This is clear from the meaning of ‘driving\u00a0out from [before] the face’ as moving or shifting something away from the interiors composing thought and affection (for ‘driving\u00a0out’ means moving or shifting something away, while ‘the face’ means interior things, see in the places referred to in 9546; and the interiors of a human being are the things present in his understanding and will, or thought and affection, so that ‘driving\u00a0out from the face’ means moving [evils and falsities] away from these); and from the representation of the nations in the land of Canaan as evils and falsities, dealt with in the places referred to in 9327.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Like other verbs, the meaning of \u201cdrive\u201d has a lot to do with context: What is doing the driving, and what is being driven? Is it something evil driving out something good? Or is it the Lord driving people out of their land to make way for the people of Israel? Or is it some […]<\/p>\n

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