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Exodus 37

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1 And Bezalel made the ark of hard wood, two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide and a cubit and a half high;

2 Plating it inside and out with the best gold, and putting an edge of gold all round it.

3 And he made four gold rings for its four angles, two on one side and two on the other,

4 And rods of the same wood plated with gold.

5 These rods he put in the rings at the sides of the ark, for lifting it.

6 And he made the cover all of gold, two and a half cubits long and a cubit and a half wide.

7 And he made two winged ones, hammered out of one bit of gold, for the two ends of the cover;

8 Placing one at one end and one at the other; the winged ones were part of the cover.

9 And their wings were stretched out over the cover; the faces of the winged ones were opposite one another and facing the cover.

10 And he made the table of hard wood, two cubits long, a cubit wide and a cubit and a half high;

11 Plating it with the best gold and putting a gold edge all round it.

12 And he made a frame all round it about as wide as a man's hand, edged with gold all round.

13 And he made four gold rings, and put the rings at the angles of its four feet.

14 The rings were fixed under the frame to take the rods with which the table was to be lifted.

15 The rods for lifting the table he made of hard wood plated with gold.

16 And all the table-vessels, the plates and spoons and basins and the cups for liquids, he made of the best gold.

17 Then he made the support for the lights, all of the best gold; its base and its pillar were of hammered gold; its cups and buds and flowers were all made out of the same metal:

18 It had six branches coming out from its sides, three from one side and three from the other;

19 Every branch having three cups made like almond flowers, every cup with a bud and a flower on all the branches;

20 And on its pillar, four cups like almond flowers, every one with its bud and its flower;

21 And under every two branches a bud, made with the branch, for all six branches of it.

22 The buds and the branches were made of the same metal, all together one complete work of the best hammered gold.

23 And he made the seven vessels for the lights, and all the necessary instruments for it, of gold.

24 A talent of the best gold was used for the making of it and its vessels.

25 And he made the altar for the burning of spices, using the same hard wood; it was square, a cubit long and a cubit wide and two cubits high; the horns made of the same.

26 The top and the sides and the horns were all plated with the best gold; and he put an edge of gold all round it.

27 And he made two gold rings, placing them on the two opposite sides under the edge, to take the rods for lifting it.

28 The rods he made of the same hard wood, plating them with gold.

29 And he made the holy oil and the perfume of sweet spices for burning, after the art of the perfume-maker.

   

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Apocalypse Explained # 207

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207. (Verse 8) I know thy works. That this signifies the life of charity, is evident from the signification of works, as being those things which belong to man's love, and thus to his life (concerning which see above, n. 98, 116, 185). Here, therefore, they denote the things of charity, because these are treated of in what is written to this church.

  
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Translation by Isaiah Tansley. Many thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.

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Arcana Coelestia # 6280

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6280. As regards 'the redeeming angel' - that the Lord's Divine Human is meant - this is clear from the consideration that by His assumption of the Human and making it Divine the Lord redeemed man, that is, delivered him from hell, on account of which, in respect of His Divine Human, the Lord is called the Redeemer. The reason why the Divine Human is called an angel is that the word 'angel' means one who has been sent, and the Lord's Divine Human is called 'the One who has been sent', as is evident from quite a number of places in the Word, in the Gospels. Furthermore the Divine Human that existed before the Lord's Coming into the world was Jehovah Himself flowing in by way of heaven when He was declaring His Word. Jehovah was above the heavens, but what passed from Him through the heavens was the Divine Human at that time; for by means of Jehovah's flowing into heaven a human image was presented, and the Divine itself as present by this inflowing was the Divine Man. This is the Divine Human which has existed from eternity and is called the One who has been sent, by which is meant that which goes forth and which is one and the same as 'the angel' spoken of here.

[2] But because Jehovah was no longer able to reach men by flowing into them through that Divine Human of His, for the reason that they had distanced themselves so far away from that Divine, He took on a human form and made it Divine. Then by flowing in from this into heaven, He could reach right out to those members of the human race who would accept the good of charity and the truth of faith from His Divine Human, which had thus been made visible, and so could deliver them from hell - a deliverance which could not possibly have been accomplished in any other way. This deliverance is what is called Redemption, and the Divine Human itself effecting that deliverance or redemption is what is called 'the redeeming angel'.

[3] But the Lord's Divine Human, it should be recognized, is above heaven - as the Divine itself is - since the Lord is the Sun that gives heaven its light; thus heaven is far below Him. The Divine Human present in heaven is the Divine Truth going forth from Him, which is the light radiating from Him as from the sun. In Essence the Lord is not Divine Truth, for that Truth is what goes forth from Him like light from the sun; rather, His Essence is Divine Goodness itself, which is one with Jehovah.

[4] The Lord's Divine Human is also called 'the angel' in other places in the Word, for example when He appeared to Moses in the bramble-bush, described as follows in Exodus,

When Moses came to the mountain of God, to Horeb, the angel of Jehovah appeared to him in a flame of fire from the middle of a bramble-bush. Jehovah saw that Moses turned aside to see, therefore God called to him from the middle of the bramble-bush. And He went on to say, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Exodus 3:1-2, 4, 6.

It is the Lord's Divine Human that is referred to here by the name 'the angel of Jehovah'. He was really Jehovah, which he is also explicitly called. Jehovah's presence there within His Divine Human may be recognized from the consideration that the Divine itself could not become visible except through the Divine Human, as the Lord's words in John declare,

Nobody has ever seen God; the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He has made Him known. John 1:18.

And in another place,

You have never heard the Father's voice nor seen His shape. John 5:37.

[5] The Lord's Divine Human is also called 'an angel' where the leading of the people into the land of Canaan is the subject, referred to in Exodus as follows,

Behold, I send an angel before you to guard you on the way, and to bring you to the place which I have prepared. Take notice of his face; for he will not tolerate your transgression, since My name is within him. Exodus 23:20-21, 23.

Here 'an angel' is the Divine Human. This is evident from the fact that it says 'since My name is within him', that is, Jehovah Himself is within him. 'My name' means Jehovah's essential nature, present in the Divine Human. For more about the meaning of 'the name of Jehovah' as the Lord's Divine Human, see 2628; and for more about the meaning of 'the name of God' as His essential nature, and so everything in its entirety by which God is worshipped, 1724, 3006.

[6] In Isaiah,

In all their affliction He suffered affliction, and the angel of His face delivered them; because of His love and His compassion He redeemed them, and took them and carried them all the days of eternity. Isaiah 63:9.

'The angel of Jehovah's face' is plainly the Lord's Divine Human, for it says that 'He redeemed them'. In Malachi,

Behold, suddenly there will come to His temple the Lord whom you seek, and the angel of the covenant in whom you delight. Behold, He is coming, says Jehovah Zebaoth. But who can endure the day of His Coming, and who will stand when He appears? Then the minchah of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to Jehovah, as in the days of eternity, and as in former years. Malachi 3:1-2, 4

'The angel of the covenant' quite clearly means the Lord's Divine Human, for the subject is the Lord's Coming. 'Then the minchah of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to Jehovah' means that worship offered out of love and faith in Him will be acceptable then. It is perfectly plain that 'Judah' is not used in these verses to mean Judah, or 'Jerusalem' to mean Jerusalem, for neither at that time nor any later time was the minchah of Judah and Jerusalem acceptable. 'The days of eternity' are the states of the Most Ancient Church, which was a celestial Church, while 'former years' are the states of the Ancient Church, which was a spiritual one, see 6239. Furthermore 'angel' in the Word does not mean in the internal sense any angel but some Divine attribute within the Lord, 1925, 2319, 2821, 3039, 4085.

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