Bible

 

Leviticus 4

Studie

   

1 And the Lord said to Moses,

2 Say to the children of Israel: These are the offerings of anyone who does wrong through error, doing any of the things which by the Lord's order are not to be done:

3 If the chief priest by doing wrong becomes a cause of sin to the people, then let him give to the Lord for the sin which he has done, an ox, without any mark, for a sin-offering.

4 And he is to take the ox to the door of the Tent of meeting before the Lord; and put his hand on its head and put it to death before the Lord.

5 And the chief priest is to take some of its blood and take it to the Tent of meeting;

6 And the priest is to put his finger in the blood, shaking drops of it before the Lord seven times, in front of the veil of the holy place.

7 And the priest is to put some of the blood on the horns of the altar on which perfume is burned before the Lord in the Tent of meeting, draining out all the rest of the blood of the ox at the base of the altar of burned offering which is at the door of the Tent of meeting.

8 And he is to take away all the fat of the ox of the sin-offering; the fat covering the inside parts and all the fat of the inside parts,

9 And the two kidneys, with the fat on them, which is by the top part of the legs, and the fat joining the liver and the kidneys, he is to take away,

10 As it is taken from the ox of the peace-offering; and it is to be burned by the priest on the altar of burned offerings.

11 And the skin of the ox and all its flesh, with its head and its legs and its inside parts and its waste,

12 All the ox, he is to take away outside the circle of the tents into a clean place where the burned waste is put, and there it is to be burned on wood with fire.

13 And if all the people of Israel do wrong, without anyone's knowledge; if they have done any of the things which by the Lord's order are not to be done, causing sin to come on them;

14 When the sin which they have done comes to light, then let all the people give an ox for a sin-offering, and take it before the Tent of meeting.

15 And let the chiefs of the people put their hands on its head before the Lord, and put the ox to death before the Lord.

16 And the priest is to take some of its blood to the Tent of meeting;

17 And put his finger in the blood, shaking drops of the blood seven times before the Lord in front of the veil.

18 And he is to put some of the blood on the horns of the altar which is before the Lord in the Tent of meeting; and all the rest of the blood is to be drained out at the base of the altar of burned offering at the door of the Tent of meeting.

19 And he is to take off all its fat, burning it on the altar.

20 Let him do with the ox as he did with the ox of the sin-offering; and the priest will take away their sin and they will have forgiveness.

21 Then let the ox be taken away outside the tent-circle, that it may be burned as the other ox was burned; it is the sin-offering for all the people.

22 If a ruler does wrong, and in error does any of the things which, by the order of the Lord his God, are not to be done, causing sin to come on him;

23 When the sin which he has done is made clear to him, let him give for his offering a goat, a male without any mark.

24 And he is to put his hand on the head of the goat and put it to death in the place where they put to death the burned offering before the Lord: it is a sin-offering.

25 And the priest is to take some of the blood of the offering with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of burned offering, draining out the rest of the blood at the base of the altar of burned offering.

26 And all the fat of it is to be burned on the altar like the fat of the peace-offering; and the priest will take away his sin and he will have forgiveness.

27 And if any one of the common people does wrong in error, doing any of the things which the Lord has given orders are not to be done, causing sin to come on him;

28 When the sin which he has done is made clear to him, then he is to give for his offering a goat, a female without any mark, for the sin which he has done.

29 And he is to put his hand on the head of the sin-offering and put it to death in the place where they put to death the burned offering.

30 And the priest is to take some of the blood with his finger, and put it on the horns of the altar of burned offering, and all the rest of its blood is to be drained out at the base of the altar.

31 And let all its fat be taken away, as the fat is taken away from the peace-offerings, and let it be burned on the altar by the priest for a sweet smell to the Lord; and the priest will take away his sin and he will have forgiveness.

32 And if he gives a lamb as his sin-offering, let it be a female without any mark;

33 And he is to put his hand on the head of the offering and put it to death for a sin-offering in the place where they put to death the burned offering.

34 And the priest is to take some of the blood of the offering with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of burned offering, and all the rest of the blood is to be drained out at the base of the altar;

35 And let him take away all its fat, as the fat is taken away from the lamb of the peace-offerings; and let it be burned by the priest on the altar among the offerings made by fire to the Lord: and the priest will take away his sin and he will have forgiveness.

   

Ze Swedenborgových děl

 

Arcana Coelestia # 10033

Prostudujte si tuto pasáž

  
/ 10837  
  

10033. Since the present chapter deals with the sacrifice and the burnt offering through which Aaron and his sons were consecrated to the priestly office a little more will be stated regarding the blood and the fat. All the blood of a sacrifice or of a burnt offering had to be poured out at the altar and all the fat had to be burned on the altar, as the statutes and laws in Leviticus relating to burnt offerings and sacrifices make clear. The reason why this was done to the blood and fat was that the blood meant Divine Truth and the fat Divine Good. The fact that the blood meant Divine Truth is clear from what has been shown regarding 'blood' in 4735, 6378, 6978, 7317, 7326, 7850, 9127, 9393, and that the fat meant Divine Good is clear from what has been shown in 5943.

[2] That 'blood' means Divine Truth is perfectly clear in Ezekiel,

Gather yourselves from all around to My sacrifice which I am sacrificing for you, a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, so that you may eat flesh and drink blood. You will eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth. You will eat fat till you are glutted, and drink blood till you are drunk, from My sacrifice which I will sacrifice for you. You will be glutted at My table with horse, chariot, the mighty, and every man of war. Thus will I set My glory among the nations. Ezekiel 39:17-22.

Anyone can see that 'blood' is not used to mean blood here, for it states that they were going to drink the blood of the princes of the earth, doing so till they were drunk, and also that they were going to eat fat till they were glutted, and then that they would be glutted with horse and chariot. From these statements it is evident that 'blood' is used to mean something other than blood, 'the princes of the earth' to mean something other than princes of the earth, and also 'fat' as well as 'horse and chariot' something other than fat, or horse and chariot. What is meant however none can know except through the internal sense. This shows that 'blood' means Divine Truth, 'the princes of the earth' the Church's primary or leading truths, 'fat' Divine Good, 'horse' the internal sense of the Word, and 'chariot' actual doctrinal teachings derived from there.

'Blood' means Divine Truth; this is clear from the places referred to above.

'The princes of the earth' means primary truths, 5044.

'The earth' means the Church, 9325.

'Horse' means the internal sense of the Word, 2760-2762.

'Chariot' means doctrinal teachings, 5321, 8215.

[3] From all this it is now evident what the meaning is of the Lord's words in John,

Jesus said, Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood you will have no life in yourselves. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is truly food, and My blood is truly drink. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. John 6:53-56.

'Flesh' means Divine Good, see 3813, 7850, 9127; and 'the Son of Man' whose flesh they were to eat and blood they were to drink means the Lord in respect of Divine Truth emanating from Divine Good, 9807.

[4] But the fact that 'fat' means Divine Good is clear in Isaiah,

Jehovah will make for all peoples on this mountain a feast of fat things. Isaiah 25:6.

In the same prophet,

Attend [diligently] to Me and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Isaiah 55:2.

And in Jeremiah,

I will fill the soul of the priests with fat, and My people will be satisfied with My goodness. Jeremiah 31:14.

From these quotations it becomes clear why all the fat of a sacrifice was burned on the altar and why all the blood was poured out at the side of it.

[5] Because blood and fat were signs of those Divine Entities the Israelite people were totally forbidden to eat fat or blood, as is clear in Moses,

[This shall be] a perpetual statute throughout your generations: You shall eat no fat and no blood. Leviticus 3:17.

In the same author,

You shall eat no fat, neither of ox, nor sheep, nor she-goat. Everyone who eats fat from a beast, from one that is offered as a fire-offering to Jehovah, that soul eating it will be cut off from his peoples. Leviticus 7:23, 25.

And again in the same author,

Whoever eats any blood, I will set My face against the soul eating blood and will cut him off from among his people. Leviticus 17:10-14; Deuteronomy 12:16, 23-25.

[6] The reason why eating blood and fat was so strictly forbidden was that eating them represented the profanation of Divine Truth and Divine Good. For the Israelite and Jewish nation was interested in outward forms but not their inner substance, so that in their faith and love there was no Divine Truth nor any Divine Good; and their worship was external devoid of these. This was because they were ruled by self-love and love of the world more than other nations; consequently they were steeped in evils gushing out of those loves, these evils being contempt for others, enmity, hatred, vengeance, brutality, and cruelty. This also was the reason why internal truths were not revealed to them, for if these had been revealed that nation would have inevitably profaned them. Such was the character of that nation, as may be seen in the places referred to in 9320(end), 9380. Therefore they would have represented profanation if they had eaten blood and fat; for whatever was established among them was representative of the interior things of the Church and heaven.

[7] From these considerations it is even more evident what the meaning is of the words in Ezekiel 39:17-22, dealt with above, stating that they would eat fat till they were glutted and drink blood, the blood of the princes of the earth, till they were drunk. That is to say, the meaning is that when inner virtues were opened up, those with whom these virtues existed, that is, faith in and love to the Lord, would have Divine Truth and Divine Good imparted to them as their own, as happened among gentile nations when the Lord came into the world. Therefore also those words go on to say, Thus will I set My glory among the nations, 'glory' meaning Divine Truth emanating from the Lord as it exists in heaven, 9429, and 'the nations' meaning all who are governed by good, 1259, 1260, 1416, 1849, 4574, 6005, 8771, 9256.

[8] This the Lord Himself corroborates, in His declaration that His flesh was truly food and His blood was truly drink, and whoever ate His flesh and drank His blood would abide in Him, and He in that person, John 6:55-56, and also in His institution of the Holy Supper, in which they were to eat His flesh and to drink His blood, Matthew 26:26-29, by which receiving Divine Good and Divine Truth from Him and making them their own was meant. Receiving Divine Good and Divine Truth from the Lord and making them their own is possible only with those who acknowledge the Lord's Divinity, for this is the first and most essential of all matters of belief within the Church. To no others can the way to heaven be opened, because the whole of heaven assents to that belief, and therefore Divine Truth emanating from the Lord's Divine Good, meant here by 'blood', cannot be imparted to them. Therefore let anyone who is within the Church beware of refusing to believe in the Lord and also His Divinity; for heaven is closed and hell opened to that refusal. For those people are separated from the Lord, and so are separated from heaven, where the Lord's Divinity is the All in all since it composes heaven. And when heaven has been closed, knowledge of the truths of faith derived from the Word and from the teachings of the Church indeed exists, but not a particle of faith that is real faith because real faith comes from above, that is, from the Lord by way of heaven.

[9] The Lord spoke in this manner, that is to say, He called the Divine Good emanating from Himself His flesh, and the Divine Truth emanating from His Divine Good His blood, because the Word, which sprang from Him, was His Divinity filling the whole of heaven. Such a Word must manifest itself through the use of correspondences, as a result of which it is representative and carries a spiritual meaning in every single part; for in this and no other way could it link members of the Church to angels in heaven. For when people in the world understand the Word according to its literal meaning angels understand it according to its inner meaning. Thus instead of the Lord's flesh they understand Divine Good, and instead of His blood they understand Divine Truth, both emanating from the Lord. As a consequence that which is holy flows in by way of the Word.

  
/ 10837  
  

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