49. So far we have shown that the Word in the natural sense, which is the sense of the letter, is in its holiness and its fullness. Something shall now be said to show that in this sense the Word is also in its power. How great and of what nature is the power of Divine truth in the heavens and also on earth, is evident from what has been said in Heaven and Hell concerning the power of the angels of heaven (n. 228-233). The power of Divine truth is directed especially against falsities and evils, thus against the hells. The fight against these must be waged by means of truths from the sense of the letter of the Word. Moreover it is by means of the truths in a man that the Lord has the power to save him; for man is reformed and regenerated and is at the same time taken out of hell and introduced into heaven, by means of truths from the sense of the letter of the Word. This power the Lord took upon Himself, even as to His Divine Human, after He had fulfilled all things of the Word down to its ultimates. [2] Therefore when by the passion of the cross He was about to fulfill those which remained, He said to the chief priest, Hereafter ye shall see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven (Matt. 26:64; Mark 14:62). The "Son of man" is the Lord as to the Word; the "clouds of heaven" are the Word in the sense of the letter; to "sit at the right hand of God" is omnipotence by means of the Word (as also in Mark 16:19). The Lord's power from the ultimate things of truth was represented by the Nazirites in the Jewish Church; and by Samson, of whom it is said that he was a Nazirite from his mother's womb, and that his power lay in his hair. Nazirite and Naziriteship also mean the hair. [3] That Samson's power lay in his hair, he himself made plain, saying, There hath not come a razor upon my head, because I have been a Nazirite from my mother's womb; if I be shaven, then my strength will go from me, and I shall become weak, and be like any other man (Judges 16:17). No one can know why the Naziriteship (by which is meant the hair) was instituted, or whence it came that Samson's strength was from the hair, unless he knows what is signified in the Word by the "head." The "head" signifies the heavenly wisdom which angels and men have from the Lord by means of Divine truth; consequently the "hair of the head" signifies heavenly wisdom in ultimate things, and also Divine truth in ultimate things. [4] As, from correspondence with the heavens, this is the signification of the "hair," it was a statute for the Nazirites that:
They should not shave the hair of their heads, because this is the Naziriteship of God upon their heads (Num. 6:1-21). And for the same reason it was ordained that:
The high priest and his sons should not shave their heads, lest they should die, and wrath should come upon the whole house of Israel (Lev. 10:6). [5] As, on account of this signification, which is from correspondence, the hair was so holy, the Son of man, who is the Lord as to the Word, is described even as to his hairs:
That they were white like wool, as white as snow (Rev. 1:14). In like manner the Ancient of days (Dan. 7:9). (On this subject see also above, n. 35.) In short, the reason why the power of Divine truth or of the Word is in the sense of the letter, is that there the Word is in its fullness and it is also because in that sense are, at the same time and together [simul], the angels of both the Lord's kingdoms and men on earth.
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