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Leviticus 23

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1 And the Lord said to Moses,

2 Say to the children of Israel, These are the fixed feasts of the Lord, which you will keep for holy meetings: these are my feasts.

3 On six days work may be done; but the seventh day is a special day of rest, a time for worship; you may do no sort of work: it is a Sabbath to the Lord wherever you may be living.

4 These are the fixed feasts of the Lord, the holy days of worship which you will keep at their regular times.

5 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at nightfall, is the Lord's Passover;

6 And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread; for seven days let your food be unleavened bread.

7 On the first day you will have a holy meeting; you may do no sort of field-work.

8 And every day for seven days you will give a burned offering to the Lord; and on the seventh day there will be a holy meeting; you may do no field-work.

9 And the Lord said to Moses,

10 Say to the children of Israel, When you have come to the land which I will give you, and have got in the grain from its fields, take some of the first-fruits of the grain to the priest;

11 And let the grain be waved before the Lord, so that you may be pleasing to him; on the day after the Sabbath let it be waved by the priest.

12 And on the day of the waving of the grain, you are to give a male lamb of the first year, without any mark, for a burned offering to the Lord.

13 And let the meal offering with it be two tenth parts of an ephah of the best meal mixed with oil, an offering made by fire to the Lord for a sweet smell; and the drink offering with it is to be of wine, the fourth part of a hin.

14 And you may take no bread or dry grain or new grain for food till the very day on which you have given the offering for your God: this is a rule for ever through all your generations wherever you are living.

15 And let seven full weeks be numbered from the day after the Sabbath, the day when you give the grain for the wave offering;

16 Let fifty days be numbered, to the day after the seventh Sabbath; then you are to give a new meal offering to the Lord.

17 Take from your houses two cakes of bread, made of a fifth part of an ephah of the best meal, cooked with leaven, to be waved for first-fruits to the Lord.

18 And with the bread, take seven lambs of the first year, without any marks, and one ox and two male sheep, to be a burned offering to the Lord, with their meal offering and their drink offerings, an offering of a sweet smell made by fire to the Lord.

19 And you are to give one male goat for a sin-offering and two male lambs of the first year for peace-offerings.

20 And these will be waved by the priest, with the bread of the first-fruits, for a wave offering to the Lord, with the two lambs: they will be holy to the Lord for the priest.

21 And on the same day, let it be given out that there will be a holy meeting for you: you may do no field-work on that day: it is a rule for ever through all your generations wherever you are living.

22 And when you get in the grain from your land, do not let all the grain at the edges of the field be cut, and do not take up the grain which has been dropped in the field; let that be for the poor, and for the man from another country: I am the Lord your God.

23 And the Lord said to Moses,

24 Say to the children of Israel, In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, let there be a special day of rest for you, a day of memory, marked by the blowing of horns, a meeting for worship.

25 Do no field-work and give to the Lord an offering made by fire.

26 And the Lord said to Moses,

27 The tenth day of this seventh month is the day for the taking away of sin; let it be a holy day of worship; you are to keep from pleasure, and give to the Lord an offering made by fire.

28 And on that day you may do no sort of work, for it is a day of taking away sin, to make you clean before the Lord your God.

29 For any person, whoever he may be, who takes his pleasure on that day will be cut off from his people.

30 And if any person, whoever he may be, on that day does any sort of work, I will send destruction on him from among his people.

31 You may not do any sort of work: this is an order for ever through all your generations wherever you may be living.

32 Let this be a Sabbath of special rest to you, and keep yourselves from all pleasure; on the ninth day of the month at nightfall from evening to evening, let this Sabbath be kept.

33 And the Lord said to Moses,

34 Say to the children of Israel, On the fifteenth day of this seventh month let the feast of tents be kept to the Lord for seven days.

35 On the first day there will be a holy meeting: do no field-work.

36 Every day for seven days give an offering made by fire to the Lord; and on the eighth day there is to be a holy meeting, when you are to give an offering made by fire to the Lord; this is a special holy day: you may do no field-work on that day.

37 These are the fixed feasts of the Lord, to be kept by you as holy days of worship, for making an offering by fire to the Lord; a burned offering, a meal offering, an offering of beasts, and drink offerings; every one on its special day;

38 In addition to the Sabbaths of the Lord, and in addition to the things you give and the oaths you make and the free offerings to the Lord.

39 But on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have got in all the fruits of the land, you will keep the feast of the Lord for seven days: the first day will be a Sabbath, and the eighth day the same.

40 On the first day, take the fruit of fair trees, branches of palm-trees, and branches of thick trees and trees from the riverside, and be glad before the Lord for seven days.

41 And let this feast be kept before the Lord for seven days in the year: it is a rule for ever from generation to generation; in the seventh month let it be kept.

42 For seven days you will be living in tents; all those who are Israelites by birth are to make tents their living-places:

43 So that future generations may keep in mind how I gave the children of Israel tents as their living-places when I took them out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.

44 And Moses made clear to the children of Israel the orders about the fixed feasts of the Lord.

   

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Apocalypse Revealed # 316

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316. "And do not harm the oil and the wine." This symbolizes the Lord's provision that they not violate and profane the goods and truths concealed inwardly in the Word.

Oil symbolizes the goodness of love, and wine the truth springing from that goodness. Thus the oil here symbolizes sacred goodness, and the wine sacred truth. The Lord's provision that these not be violated and profaned is symbolized by the people's being told not to harm them. For this instruction came from the midst of the four living creatures, thus from the Lord (no. 314). Whatever the Lord says He also provides. That this is something He provides may be seen in nos. 314 and 255 above.

That oil symbolizes the goodness of love - this we will see in nos. 778, 779 below.

That wine symbolizes the truth springing from that goodness is clear from the following passages:

Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Yes..., buy wine and milk without money... (Isaiah 55:1)

It shall come to pass in that day that the mountains will drip new wine, and the hills flow with milk... (Joel 3:18, cf. Amos 9:13-14)

Joy is taken away... from Carmel, and in the vineyards there will be no singing... No treaders will tread out wine in the presses; I have made their shouting cease. (Isaiah 16:10, cf. Jeremiah 48:32-33)

Carmel symbolizes the spiritual church, because it had vineyards there.

[2] ...wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the new wine, for it has been cut off from your mouth... The vinedressers have wailed... (Joel 1:5, 10-11)

Almost the same images occur in Hosea 9:2-3.

He washes his clothing in wine, and His vesture in the blood of grapes. His eyes are red with wine... (Genesis 49:11-12)

The subject is the Lord, and the wine symbolizes Divine truth. That is why the Lord instituted the Holy Supper, in which the bread symbolizes the Lord in respect to Divine good, and the wine the Lord in respect to Divine truth; and in their recipients the bread symbolizes a sacred goodness, and the wine sacred truth, received from the Lord. Therefore He said,

I say to you, that I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you... in My Father's kingdom. (Matthew 26:29, cf. Luke 22:18)

Because bread and wine have these symbolic meanings, so too Melchizedek, going to meet Abram, brought out bread and wine, he being a priest of God Most High, and he blessed Abram (Genesis 14:18-19).

[3] The grain offering and drink offering used in sacrifices had similar symbolic meanings, as described in Exodus 29:40, Leviticus 23:12-13, 18-19ff. The grain offering was an offering of wheat flour, thus taking the place of bread, and the drink offering was an offering of wine.

It can be seen from this what these words of the Lord symbolize:

Nor do they put new wine into old wineskins... But they put the... wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved. (Matthew 9:17, cf. Luke 5:37-38)

New wine is the Divine truth in the New Testament, thus in the New Church, and the old wine is the Divine truth in the Old Testament, thus in the old church.

A similar idea is symbolized by these words of the Lord at the wedding in Cana of Galilee:

Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior. You have kept the good wine until now! (John 2:1-10)

[4] Something similar is symbolized by the wine in the Lord's parable concerning the man wounded by thieves, on whose wound the Samaritan poured oil and wine (Luke 10:33-34); for the man wounded by thieves means people whom the Jews wounded spiritually by evils and falsities, and to whom the Samaritan brought aid by pouring oil and wine on their wounds, that is, by teaching them goodness and truth, and as far as possible, healing them.

Sacred truth is symbolized by wine and new wine also elsewhere in the Word, as in Isaiah 1:21-22; 25:6; 36:17.

[5] Because of this, a vineyard in the Word symbolizes a church that possesses truths from the Lord.

That wine symbolizes sacred truth can be seen also from its opposite meaning, in which it symbolizes truth falsified and profaned, as in the following places:

Harlotry, wine, and new wine have taken hold of the heart... Their wine is gone, they commit harlotry continually. (Hosea 4:11, 18)

Harlotry symbolizes the falsification of truth, and so, too, do the wine and new wine here.

...in the hand of Jehovah a cup, and He mixed it with wine; He filled it with the mixture and poured it out, and its dregs shall all the wicked of the earth, sucking, drink. (Psalms 75:8)

Babylon was a golden cup in Jehovah's hand, that made all the earth drunk. The nations drank her wine; therefore they are deranged. (Jeremiah 51:7)

Babylon has fallen..., because she has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication... If anyone worships the beast..., he shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed with undiluted wine in the cup of the wrath (of God). (Revelation 14:8-10)

(Babylon has made) all the nations (drink) of the wine... of her fornication. (Revelation 18:3)

...great Babylon was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of the fury of His wrath. (Revelation 16:19)

...the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication. (Revelation 17:1-2)

[6] The wine that Belshazzar, the king of Babylon, and his lords and wives and concubines drank from the vessels of the Temple in Jerusalem, while they praised the gods of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone (Daniel 5:2-4) - that wine symbolized nothing else but the sacred truth of the Word and church profaned, which is why the writing then appeared on the wall, and the king that very night was slain (Daniel 5:25, 30)

Wine symbolizes truth falsified also in Isaiah 5:11-12, 21-22; 28:1, 3, 7; 29:9; 56:11-12.

The drink offering that they poured out as an offering to idols has the same symbolic meaning in Isaiah 65:11; 57:6; Jeremiah 7:18; 44:17-19; Ezekiel 20:28; Deuteronomy 32:38.

It is owing to its correspondence that wine symbolizes sacred truth, and in an opposite sense, truth profaned. For when a person reads "wine" in the Word, angels - who apprehend everything spiritually - have just this interpretation of it. Such is the correspondence between the natural thoughts of people and the spiritual thoughts of angels. The case is the same with the wine in the Holy Supper. That is why the Holy Supper occasions an introduction into heaven (no. 224 at the end).

  
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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.