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Deuteronomy 10

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1 At that time the Lord said to me, Make two other stones, cut like the first two, and come up to me on the mountain, and make an ark of wood.

2 And I will put on the stones the words which were on the first stones which were broken by you, and you are to put them into the ark.

3 So I made an ark of hard wood, and had two stones cut like the others, and went up the mountain with the stones in my hands.

4 And he put on the stones, as in the first writing, the ten rules which the Lord gave you on the mountain out of the fire on the day of the great meeting: and the Lord gave the stones to me.

5 And turning round I came down from the mountain and put the stones in the ark which I had made; and there they are as the Lord gave me orders.

6 (And the children of Israel went on from Beeroth Bene-jaakan to Moserah: there death came to Aaron and he was put to rest in the earth; and Eleazar, his son, took his place as priest.

7 From there they went on to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land of streams of water.

8 At that time the Lord had the tribe of Levi marked out to take up the ark of the Lord's agreement, to be before the Lord and to do his work and to give blessings in his name, to this day.

9 For this reason Levi has no part or heritage for himself among his brothers: the Lord is his heritage, as the Lord your God said to him.)

10 And I was in the mountain, as at the first time, for forty days and forty nights; and again the ears of the Lord were open to my prayer, and he did not send destruction on you.

11 Then the Lord said to me, Get up and go on your journey before the people, so that they may go in and take the land which I said in my oath to their fathers that I would give them.

12 And now, Israel, what would the Lord your God have you do, but to go in the fear of the Lord your God, walking in all his ways and loving him and doing his pleasure with all your heart and all your soul,

13 Doing the orders of the Lord and keeping his laws which I give you this day for your good?

14 The Lord your God is ruler of heaven, of the heaven of heavens, and of the earth with everything in it.

15 But the Lord had delight in your fathers and love for them, marking out for himself their seed after them, even you, from all peoples, as at this day.

16 Let your circumcision be of the heart, and put away your pride.

17 For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, strong in power and greatly to be feared, who has no respect for any man's position and takes no rewards:

18 Judging uprightly in the cause of the widow and of the child who has no father, and giving food and clothing in his mercy to the man from a strange country.

19 So be kind to the man from a strange country who is living among you, for you yourselves were living in a strange country in the land of Egypt.

20 Let the fear of the Lord your God be before you, give him worship and be true to him at all times, taking your oaths in his name.

21 He is your God, the God of your praise, your God who has done for you all these works of power which your eyes have seen.

22 Your fathers went down into Egypt with seventy persons; and now the Lord your God has made you like the stars of heaven in number.

   

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True Christian Religion # 675

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675. Circumcision was instituted as a sign that the people of the Israelite church belonged to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, as is established by this passage:

God said to Abraham, This is the covenant with me which you are to keep between me and you, and your seed after you: every male among you is to be circumcised; and you are to circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, to be a sign of the covenant between me and you, Genesis 17:9-11.

This covenant, or its sign, was later confirmed by Moses (Leviticus 12:1-3). Because this church was distinguished from others by that sign, the Children of Israel were ordered to be circumcised again before crossing the Jordan (Joshua, chapter 5). The reason was that the land of Canaan represented the church, and the river Jordan being brought into it. In addition, so that they should remember that sign when actually in the land of Canaan, they received this order:

When you come into the land and plant any kind of tree for food, you are to regard its fruit as uncircumcised 1 ; for three years it is to be uncircumcised for you, it is not to be eaten, Leviticus 19:23.

[2] Circumcision represented and so stood for the rejection of the lusts of the flesh, and thus purification from evils, in much the same way as baptism. This is established from the passages in the Word where it is said that they should circumcise their hearts, as the following:

Moses said, Circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and do not be stiffnecked, Deuteronomy 10:16.

Jehovah God will circumcise your heart and your seed's heart, so that you will love Jehovah your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, so that you may live, Deuteronomy 30:6.

In Jeremiah:

Circumcise yourselves for Jehovah, so that He may take away the foreskins of your hearts, the man of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that my wrath may not go forth like fire on account of the wickedness of your deeds, Jeremiah 4:4.

In Paul:

In Jesus Christ neither is circumcision of any value, nor is uncircumcision, but faith working through charity, and a new creation, Galatians 5:6; 6:15.

These passages now make it plain that baptism was instituted to take the place of circumcision, because the circumcision of the heart was represented by the circumcision of the flesh; and this too meant purification from evils, for evils of every kind arise from the flesh, and the foreskin means its filthy loves. It is because circumcision and baptismal washing have a similar meaning that it is said in Jeremiah:

Circumcise yourselves for Jehovah, so that He may take away the foreskins of your hearts, Jeremiah 4:4.

and shortly afterwards:

Wash your heart free from wickedness, Jerusalem, so that you may be saved, Jeremiah 4:14.

The Lord teaches in Matthew (Matthew 15:18-19) what circumcision and the washing of the heart means.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. i.e. forbidden.

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