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Numbers 15

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1 And the Lord said to Moses,

2 Say to the children of Israel, When you have come into the land which I am giving to you for your resting-place,

3 And are going to make an offering by fire to the Lord, a burned offering or an offering in connection with an oath, or an offering freely given, or at your regular feasts, an offering for a sweet smell to the Lord, from the herd or the flock:

4 Then let him who is making his offering, give to the Lord a meal offering of a tenth part of a measure of the best meal mixed with a fourth part of a hin of oil:

5 And for the drink offering, you are to give with the burned offering or other offering, the fourth part of a hin of wine for every lamb.

6 Or for a male sheep, give as a meal offering two tenth parts of a measure of the best meal mixed with a third part of a hin of oil:

7 And for the drink offering give a third part of a hin of wine, for a sweet smell to the Lord.

8 And when you make ready a young ox for a burned or other offering, or for the effecting of an oath, or for peace-offerings to the Lord:

9 Then with the ox give a meal offering of three tenth parts of a measure of the best meal mixed with half a hin of oil.

10 And for the drink offering: give half a hin of wine, for an offering made by fire for a sweet smell to the Lord.

11 This is to be done for every young ox and for every male sheep or he-lamb or young goat.

12 Whatever number you make ready, so you are to do for every one.

13 All those who are Israelites by birth are to do these things in this way, when giving an offering made by fire of a sweet smell to the Lord.

14 And if a man from another country or any other person living among you, through all your generations, has the desire to give an offering made by fire of a sweet smell to the Lord, let him do as you do.

15 There is to be one law for you and for the man of another country living with you, one law for ever from generation to generation; as you are, so is he to be before the Lord.

16 The law and the rule are to be the same for you and for those from other lands living with you.

17 And the Lord said to Moses,

18 Say to the children of Israel, When you come into the land where I am guiding you,

19 Then, when you take for your food the produce of the land, you are to give an offering lifted up before the Lord.

20 Of the first of your rough meal you are to give a cake for a lifted offering, lifting it up before the Lord as the offering of the grain-floor is lifted up.

21 From generation to generation you are to give to the Lord a lifted offering from the first of your rough meal.

22 And if in error you go against any of these laws which the Lord has given to Moses,

23 All the laws which the Lord has given you by the hand of Moses, from the day when the Lord gave them, and ever after from generation to generation;

24 Then, if the wrong is done in error, without the knowledge of the meeting of the people, let all the meeting give a young ox as a burned offering, a sweet smell to the Lord, with its meal offering and its drink offering, as is ordered in the law, together with a he-goat for a sin-offering.

25 So the priest will make the people free from sin, and they will have forgiveness; for it was an error, and they have given their offering made by fire to the Lord, and their sin-offering before the Lord, on account of their error:

26 And all the meeting of the children of Israel, as well as those from other lands living among them, will have forgiveness; for it was an error on the part of the people.

27 And if one person does wrong, without being conscious of it, then let him give a she-goat of the first year for a sin-offering.

28 And the priest will take away the sin of the person who has done wrong, if the wrong was done unconsciously, and he will have forgiveness.

29 The law in connection with wrong done unconsciously is to be the same for him who is an Israelite by birth and for the man from another country who is living among them.

30 But the person who does wrong in the pride of his heart, if he is one of you or of another nation by birth, is acting without respect for the Lord, and will be cut off from his people.

31 Because he had no respect for the word of the Lord, and did not keep his law, that man will be cut off without mercy and his sin will be on him.

32 Now while the children of Israel were in the waste land, they saw a man who was getting sticks on the Sabbath day.

33 And those who saw him getting sticks took him before Moses and Aaron and all the people.

34 And they had him shut up, because they had no directions about what was to be done with him.

35 Then the Lord said to Moses, Certainly the man is to be put to death: let him be stoned by all the people outside the tent-circle.

36 So all the people took him outside the tent-circle and he was stoned to death there, as the Lord gave orders to Moses.

37 And the Lord said to Moses,

38 Say to the children of Israel that through all their generations they are to put on the edges of their robes an ornament of twisted threads, and in every ornament a blue cord;

39 So that, looking on these ornaments, you may keep in mind the orders of the Lord and do them; and not be guided by the desires of your hearts and eyes, through which you have been untrue to me:

40 And that you may keep in mind all my orders and do them and be holy to your God.

41 I am the Lord your God, who took you out of the land of Egypt, so that I might be your God: I am the Lord your God.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 1947

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1947. 'Because Jehovah has hearkened to your affliction' means since it was submitting itself. This is clear from what has been stated above in 1937 about 'humiliating oneself and flinging oneself down' as meaning submitting oneself beneath the controlling power of the internal man, which submission was discussed there and was shown to consist in self-compulsion. It was also shown that in self-compulsion there is freedom, that is, what is willing and spontaneous, and that this distinguishes self-compulsion from being compelled. It was also shown that without this freedom, or willingness and spontaneity, a person cannot possibly be reformed and receive any heavenly proprium; also that though the contrary seems to be the case, there is more freedom in times of temptation than there is outside of them. Indeed at such times freedom increases as assaults are made by evils and falsities and it is consolidated by the Lord in order that a heavenly proprium may be given to the person. For that reason also the Lord is closer in times of temptation. It was shown as well that the Lord in no way compels anybody. No one who is compelled to think that which is true and to do that which is good is reformed, but instead thinks all the more what is false and wills all the more what is evil. This is so with all compulsion, as may also become clear from all the experience and lessons of life, which when learned prove two things - first, that human consciences will not allow themselves to be coerced, and second, that we strive after the forbidden.

[2] Furthermore everyone who is not free desires to become so, for this is his life. From this it is evident that nothing is in any way pleasing to the Lord that is not done in freedom, that is, spontaneously or willingly. For when anyone worships the Lord under circumstances in which he is not free he worships Him with nothing of himself. In his case that which moves the external is the external, that is, it is moved under compulsion - the internal being non-existent, or else incompatible, and even contradictory. When a person is being regenerated he compels himself from the freedom the Lord imparts to him, and humbles, and indeed afflicts, his rational, so that it may submit itself, and in consequence he receives a heavenly proprium. This proprium is then gradually perfected by the Lord and it becomes more and more free, so that as a result it becomes the affection for good and for truth deriving from that good, and possesses delight. And in that affection and delight there is happiness such as the angels experience. This freedom is what the Lord Himself is referring to in John.

The truth makes you free. If the Son makes you free, you are truly free. John 8:32, 36. 1

[3] What this freedom is, is totally unknown to those who do not have conscience, for they identify freedom with feelings of being at liberty and without restraint to think and utter what is false, and to will and do what is evil, and not to control and humble, still less to afflict, those feelings. Yet this is the complete reverse of freedom, as the Lord again teaches in the same place,

Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin. John 8:34.

People acquire this slave-like freedom from the hellish spirits who reside with them and who inject it into them. When the life of those hellish spirits takes possession of them so do the loves and desires of those same spirits; for an unclean and utterly disgusting delight blows upon them, and being carried away so to speak in a stream they imagine themselves to be in freedom; but it is hellish freedom. The difference between this hellish freedom and heavenly freedom is that the former spells death and drags them down into hell, while the latter, that is, heavenly freedom, promises life and lifts them up to heaven.

[4] That all true internal worship springs from freedom, not from compulsion, and that unless it springs from freedom it is not internal worship, is clear from the Word, from the sacrifices - free-will, votive, and peace or eucharistic - which were called offerings and oblations, mentioned in Numbers 15:3 and following verses; Deuteronomy 12:6; 16:10-11; 23:23; and elsewhere. In David,

With a free-will offering I will sacrifice to You; I will confess Your name, O Jehovah, for it is good. Psalms 54:6.

From the thruma, 2 or the collection which the people were to contribute towards the Tabernacle and sacred vestments, referred to in Moses,

Speak to the children of Israel and let them receive for Me a collection; from every man whose heart makes him willing you shall receive My collection. Exodus 25:2.

And elsewhere in Moses,

Everyone who is willing in heart shall bring it, Jehovah's collection. Exodus 35:5.

[5] The humbling of the rational man, or affliction of it - as stated, from freedom - was also represented by the affliction souls underwent during festivals, referred to in Moses,

It shall be a statute to you for ever: in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict your souls. Leviticus 16:29.

And elsewhere in Moses,

On the tenth day of the seventh month is the day of atonement; it shall be a holy convocation for you, and you shall afflict your souls. Every soul who does not afflict himself on that very day shall be cut off from his peoples. Leviticus 23:27, 29.

It is for this reason that unleavened bread in which no fermentation has taken place is called the bread of affliction in Deuteronomy 16:2-3. Affliction is referred to in David in the following way,

O Jehovah, who will sojourn in Your tent? Who will dwell on Your holy mountain? He who walks blameless and performs righteousness, who swears to the affliction of himself and changes not. Psalms 15:1-2, 4.

[6] That 'affliction' is the taming and subduing of evils and falsities rising up from the external man into the rational man may become clear from what has been stated. Thus it is not any reduction of oneself to poverty and misery - not a renunciation of bodily enjoyments - that is meant by affliction. No taming and subduing of evil can result from doing that; indeed it may give rise to an additional evil, namely the desire to receive merit for such a renunciation; and what is more, man's freedom suffers, in which alone, as its ground, the good and truth of faith is able to be sown. Affliction also means temptation; see what has been said already in 1846.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. In 9096, where this verse is quoted, the verbs are future tense, as in the Greek.

2. A Hebrew word meaning an offering

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