Apocalypse Revealed # 378
378. "And have washed their robes." This symbolically means, who have cleansed their religious beliefs of the evils accompanying falsity.
Washing in the Word symbolizes a cleansing oneself of evils and falsities, and robes symbolize general truths (no. 328). General truths are concepts of goodness and truth drawn from the literal sense of the Word, in accordance with which these people have lived, so that they are religious beliefs. And because every matter of religion has relation to goodness and truth, therefore robes are mentioned twice - "have washed their robes" and "have made their robes white."
Robes or religious beliefs are cleansed only in the case of people who fight against evils and so reject falsities, who thus undergo temptations or trials, which are symbolically meant by "the great tribulation" (no. 377).
That to be washed means, symbolically, to be cleansed of evils and falsities, and so to be reformed and regenerated, can be seen from the following passages:
When the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and rinsed away the blood of Jerusalem... by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of purification... (Isaiah 4:4)
Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; put away the evil of your doings from My eyes. Cease to do evil... (Isaiah 1:16)
Wash your heart of its wickedness, O Jerusalem, that you may be saved. (Jeremiah 4:14)
Wash me clean of my iniquity..., and I shall be whiter than snow. (Psalms 51:2, 7)
...if you wash yourself with soda, and use much soap, your iniquity will still retain its spots. (Jeremiah 2:22)
If I wash myself with melted snow, and cleanse my hands with soap..., yet... my own clothes will abhor me. (Job 9:30-31)
Who... has washed his clothing in wine, and his vesture in the blood of grapes. (Genesis 49:11)
This is said of the celestial church, from which come people prompted by love toward the Lord, and in the highest sense it is said of the Lord Himself. Wine and the blood of grapes are spiritual and celestial Divine truth.
I washed you with water, and rinsed off your blood from upon you... (Ezekiel 16:9)
This is said of Jerusalem. Water is truth, and blood is an adulteration of truth.
[2] It can be seen from this what washing in the Israelite Church represented and thus symbolized. As, for example, that Aaron was to wash himself before he put on the vestments of his ministry (Leviticus 16:4, 24), and before he approached the altar to minister (Exodus 30:18-21; 40:30-31).
[3] It can be seen from this that among the children of Israel washing represented a spiritual washing, which is a cleansing from evils and falsities, and thus reformation and regeneration.
It is apparent also from the aforesaid what baptism by John in the Jordan symbolized (Matthew 3, Mark 1:4-13), and what the symbolic meaning of the following words by John regarding the Lord is, that He baptized with the Holy Spirit and with fire (Luke 3:16, John 1:33), and regarding himself, that he baptized with water (John 1:26). The meaning is that the Lord washes or purifies a person by Divine truth and Divine goodness, and that John by his baptism represented this. For the Holy Spirit is Divine truth, the fire is Divine goodness, and the water is representative of these. For water symbolizes the truth in the Word, which becomes goodness by one's living in accordance with it (no. 50).
Exodus 40
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Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
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"On the first day of the first month you shall raise up the tabernacle of the Tent of Meeting.
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You shall put the ark of the testimony in it, and you shall screen the ark with the veil.
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You shall bring in the table, and set in order the things that are on it. You shall bring in the lampstand, and light its lamps.
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You shall set the golden altar for incense before the ark of the testimony, and put the screen of the door to the tabernacle.
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"You shall set the altar of burnt offering before the door of the tabernacle of the Tent of Meeting.
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You shall set the basin between the Tent of Meeting and the altar, and shall put water therein.
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You shall set up the court around it, and hang up the screen of the gate of the court.
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"You shall take the anointing oil, and anoint the tabernacle, and all that is in it, and shall make it holy, and all its furniture: and it will be holy.
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You shall anoint the altar of burnt offering, with all its vessels, and sanctify the altar: and the altar will be most holy.
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You shall anoint the basin and its base, and sanctify it.
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"You shall bring Aaron and his sons to the door of the Tent of Meeting, and shall wash them with water.
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You shall put on Aaron the holy garments; and you shall anoint him, and sanctify him, that he may minister to me in the priest's office.
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You shall bring his sons, and put coats on them.
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You shall anoint them, as you anointed their father, that they may minister to me in the priest's office. Their anointing shall be to them for an everlasting priesthood throughout their generations."
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Moses did so. According to all that Yahweh commanded him, so he did.
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It happened in the first month in the second year, on the first day of the month, that the tabernacle was raised up.
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Moses raised up the tabernacle, and laid its sockets, and set up its boards, and put in its bars, and raised up its pillars.
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He spread the covering over the tent, and put the roof of the tabernacle above on it, as Yahweh commanded Moses.
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He took and put the testimony into the ark, and set the poles on the ark, and put the mercy seat above on the ark.
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He brought the ark into the tabernacle, and set up the veil of the screen, and screened the ark of the testimony, as Yahweh commanded Moses.
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He put the table in the Tent of Meeting, on the side of the tabernacle northward, outside of the veil.
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He set the bread in order on it before Yahweh, as Yahweh commanded Moses.
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He put the lampstand in the Tent of Meeting, opposite the table, on the side of the tabernacle southward.
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He lit the lamps before Yahweh, as Yahweh commanded Moses.
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He put the golden altar in the Tent of Meeting before the veil;
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and he burnt incense of sweet spices on it, as Yahweh commanded Moses.
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He put up the screen of the door to the tabernacle.
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He set the altar of burnt offering at the door of the tabernacle of the Tent of Meeting, and offered on it the burnt offering and the meal offering, as Yahweh commanded Moses.
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He set the basin between the Tent of Meeting and the altar, and put water therein, with which to wash.
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Moses, Aaron, and his sons washed their hands and their feet there.
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When they went into the Tent of Meeting, and when they came near to the altar, they washed, as Yahweh commanded Moses.
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He raised up the court around the tabernacle and the altar, and set up the screen of the gate of the court. So Moses finished the work.
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Then the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the glory of Yahweh filled the tabernacle.
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Moses wasn't able to enter into the Tent of Meeting, because the cloud stayed on it, and Yahweh's glory filled the tabernacle.
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When the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the children of Israel went onward, throughout all their journeys;
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but if the cloud wasn't taken up, then they didn't travel until the day that it was taken up.
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For the cloud of Yahweh was on the tabernacle by day, and there was fire in the cloud by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys.
