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Exodus 25

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1 And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying,

2 Speak unto the children of Israel, that they take for me an offering: of every man whose heart maketh him willing ye shall take my offering.

3 And this is the offering which ye shall take of them: gold, and silver, and brass,

4 and blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and goats' [hair],

5 and rams' skins dyed red, and sealskins, and acacia wood,

6 oil for the light, spices for the anointing oil, and for the sweet incense,

7 onyx stones, and stones to be set, for the ephod, and for the breastplate.

8 And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them.

9 According to all that I show thee, the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the furniture thereof, even so shall ye make it.

10 And they shall make an ark of acacia wood: two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the height thereof.

11 And thou shalt overlay it with pure gold, within and without shalt thou overlay it, and shalt make upon it a crown of gold round about.

12 And thou shalt cast four rings of gold for it, and put them in the four feet thereof; and two rings shall be on the one side of it, and two rings on the other side of it.

13 And thou shalt make staves of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold.

14 And thou shalt put the staves into the rings on the sides of the ark, wherewith to bear the ark.

15 The staves shall be in the rings of the ark: they shall not be taken from it.

16 And thou shalt put into the ark the testimony which I shall give thee.

17 And thou shalt make a mercy-seat of pure gold: two cubits and a half [shall be] the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof.

18 And thou shalt make two cherubim of gold; of beaten work shalt thou make them, at the two ends of the mercy-seat.

19 And make one cherub at the one end, and one cherub at the other end: of one piece with the mercy-seat shall ye make the cherubim on the two ends thereof.

20 And the cherubim shall spread out their wings on high, covering the mercy-seat with their wings, with their faces one to another; toward the mercy-seat shall the faces of the cherubim be.

21 And thou shalt put the mercy-seat above upon the ark; and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee.

22 And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy-seat, from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel.

23 And thou shalt make a table of acacia wood: two cubits [shall be] the length thereof, and a cubit the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the height thereof.

24 And thou shalt overlay it with pure gold, and make thereto a crown of gold round about.

25 And thou shalt make unto it a border of a handbreadth round about; and thou shalt make a golden crown to the border thereof round about.

26 And thou shalt make for it four rings of gold, and put the rings in the four corners that are on the four feet thereof.

27 Close by the border shall the rings be, for places for the staves to bear the table.

28 And thou shalt make the staves of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold, that the table may be borne with them.

29 And thou shalt make the dishes thereof, and the spoons thereof, and the flagons thereof, and the bowls thereof, wherewith to pour out: of pure gold shalt thou make them.

30 And thou shalt set upon the table showbread before me alway.

31 And thou shalt make a candlestick of pure gold: of beaten work shall the candlestick be made, even its base, and its shaft; its cups, its knops, and its flowers, shall be of one piece with it.

32 And there shall be six branches going out of the sides thereof; three branches of the candlestick out of the one side thereof, and three branches of the candlestick out of the other side thereof:

33 three cups made like almond-blossoms in one branch, a knop and a flower; and three cups made like almond-blossoms in the other branch, a knop and a flower: so for the six branches going out of the candlestick:

34 and in the candlestick four cups made like almond-blossoms, the knops thereof, and the flowers thereof;

35 and a knop under two branches of one piece with it, and a knop under two branches of one piece with it, and a knop under two branches of one piece with it, for the six branches going out of the candlestick.

36 Their knops and their branches shall be of one piece with it; the whole of it one beaten work of pure gold.

37 And thou shalt make the lamps thereof, seven: and they shall light the lamps thereof, to give light over against it.

38 And the snuffers thereof, and the snuffdishes thereof, shall be of pure gold.

39 Of a talent of pure gold shall it be made, with all these vessels.

40 And see that thou make them after their pattern, which hath been showed thee in the mount.

   

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Apocalypse Revealed # 43

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43. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands. This symbolizes a new church, which will have an enlightenment from the Lord from the Word.

We are told in the last verse of this chapter that the seven lampstands are the seven churches, and it may be seen in no. 10 above that the seven churches mean all in the Christian world who turn to the church - and this in every case according to each one's state of reception (no. 41).

The seven lampstands mean a new church because the Lord is in it and in the midst of it. For we are told that in the midst of the seven lampstands John saw one like the Son of Man, and the Son of Man means the Lord in relation to the Word.

The lampstands appeared golden, because gold symbolizes goodness, and every church is a church by virtue of the goodness that is formed through truths. That gold symbolizes goodness will be seen in subsequent explanations.

[2] These lampstands were not next to one another or placed so as to touch each other, but stood at some intervals forming a kind of circle, as it apparent from this statement in the following chapter,

These things says He who... walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands. (Revelation 2:1)

We are not told anything about the lamps on the lampstands, but later it is said that the Holy Jerusalem, which is to say, the New Church, "has no need of the sun or of the moon," because "its lamp is the Lamb, and the nations that are saved shall walk in its light" (Revelation 21:23-24). And furthermore,

They need no lamp..., for the Lord God gives them light. (Revelation 22:5)

For those people who will be constituents of the Lord's New Church are the only "lampstands" that will shine with light from the Lord.

[3] The golden lampstand in the Tabernacle represented nothing else than the church in relation to its enlightenment by the Lord. Regarding this lampstand, see Exodus 25:31-40; 37:17-24; 26:35, Numbers 8:2-4. That it represented the Lord's church as to Divine spiritual love, which is love for the neighbor, see Arcana Coelestia (The Secrets of Heaven), nos. 9548, 9555, 9558, 9561, 9570, 9783. See also no. 493 below.

The lampstand in Zechariah 4 also symbolizes a new church to be established by the Lord, since it symbolizes a new house of God or temple, as is apparent from what follows there; and a house of God or temple symbolizes the church, and in the highest sense, the Lord's Divine humanity, as He Himself teaches in John 2:19-21, 1 and elsewhere.

But we will say what in turn is symbolically meant in Zechariah 4, when the lampstand appeared to him:

The particulars contained in verses 1-7 symbolize the Lord's enlightenment of a new church from the goodness of love by means of truth. The olive trees there symbolize the church in regard to the goodness of love.

The particulars from 8-10 verse there mean, symbolically, that the enlightenment comes from the Lord. Zerubbabel there, who is to build the house, thus the church, represents the Lord.

The particulars from verse 11-14 mean, symbolically, that that the church will also have in it truths from a heavenly origin.

This explanation of that chapter was given to me by the Lord through heaven.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. Jesus answered and said to them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." Then the Jews said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?" But He was speaking of the temple of His body.

  
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Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.