Bibliorum

 

Genèse 32:22-31 : Jacob Wrestles With God

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22 Il se leva la même nuit, prit ses deux femmes, ses deux servantes, et ses onze enfants, et passa le gué de Jabbok.

23 Il les prit, leur fit passer le torrent, et le fit passer à tout ce qui lui appartenait.

24 Jacob demeura seul. Alors un homme lutta avec lui jusqu'au lever de l'aurore.

25 Voyant qu'il ne pouvait le vaincre, cet homme le frappa à l'emboîture de la hanche; et l'emboîture de la hanche de Jacob se démit pendant qu'il luttait avec lui.

26 Il dit: Laisse-moi aller, car l'aurore se lève. Et Jacob répondit: Je ne te laisserai point aller, que tu ne m'aies béni.

27 Il lui dit: Quel est ton nom? Et il répondit: Jacob.

28 Il dit encore: ton nom ne sera plus Jacob, mais tu seras appelé Israël; car tu as lutté avec Dieu et avec des hommes, et tu as été vainqueur.

29 Jacob l'interrogea, en disant: Fais-moi je te prie, connaître ton nom. Il répondit: Pourquoi demandes-tu mon nom? Et il le bénit là.

30 Jacob appela ce lieu du nom de Peniel: car, dit-il, j'ai vu Dieu face à face, et mon âme a été sauvée.

31 Le soleil se levait, lorsqu'il passa Peniel. Jacob boitait de la hanche.

Commentarius

 

Fake It Until You Make It

By Todd Beiswenger

Jacob wrestles with an angel, from a fresco by Eugène Delacroix in Église Saint-Sulpice (Paris), 1861.


Ut pergas pasco dum audis, audi in fenestra nova.

When we decide that we want a new life, we have to LIVE it. Sometimes this means we're faking our responses and actions, but as long as we're faking it with the intention to make it, God will turn that fake feeling into a real one.

(Notae: Arcana Coelestia 4281, 6592, 8389, 8588; Conjugial Love 281; Genesis 32:22-31, 50:24-25)

from the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg

 

Arcana Coelestia #6592

Studere hoc loco

  
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6592. 'And you shall cause my bones to go up from here' means that there will be a representative of the Church but not a Church which also exists on an internal level. This is clear from the representation of 'Joseph' as the internal of the Church, dealt with above in 6587; and since he represents the internal of the Church, that which is the most external or the outermost area of the Church, thus that which forms the representative part of it, is meant by his 'bones'. For the representative acts which existed in the Ancient Church and which were also established among the descendants of Jacob constituted outermost forms within the Church; but the things those acts meant and represented were the inner realities of the Church. These - the inner realities - are meant by 'the flesh' which holds the spirit within it; but the outer forms are meant by 'the bones'. From this one may see what the Church is like when it is concerned solely with outer forms, without their inner realities, namely like the bones forming the framework of a person's body without the flesh. As regards the fact that no Church, only a representative of the Church existed among the Israelite and Jewish people, see 4281, 4288, 4307, 4500, 4680, 4844, 4847, 4903, 6704; and a representative of the Church was not established among them until they had been completely vastated internally, or else they would have rendered holy things profane, 4289.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.