Apocalypse Revealed # 3
3. Which God gave Him to show His servants. This symbolically means, for people who have faith arising from charity, or truths of wisdom arising from the goodness of love.
To show means, symbolically, to make evident, and servants here symbolize people who have faith arising from charity. The following things are made evident to them because they understand and accept.
Servants mean, in the spiritual sense, people who are governed by truths; and because truths spring from goodness, servants mean people who are governed by truths arising from goodness, thus also people governed by wisdom arising from love, because wisdom has to do with truth, and love with goodness. They also are people who have faith arising from charity, because faith, too, has to do with truth, and charity with goodness. And because the spiritual sense in reality is abstracted from person, therefore servants in that sense symbolize truths.
Now because truths, by teaching goodness, serve it, therefore in general, and properly speaking, by a servant in the Word is meant something serving, or someone or something that serves. In this sense not only were prophets called servants of God, but so, too, was the Lord in respect to His humanity.
That prophets were called servants of God is evident from the following passages:
Jehovah has sent to you all His servants the prophets... (Jeremiah 25:4)
...He has revealed His secret to His servants the prophets. (Amos 3:7)
...He has set before us by the hand of His servants the prophets. (Daniel 9:10)
Moses, too, is called a servant of Jehovah (Malachi 4:4). That is because a prophet, in the spiritual sense, means doctrinal truth, as discussed below.
[2] Moreover, because the Lord was the very embodiment of Divine truth, which also is the Word, and for that reason was called the prophet, and because He served in the world and serves all people to eternity by teaching, therefore He, too, is here and there called the servant of Jehovah, as in the following passages:
Of the labor of His soul He shall see; He shall be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many... (Isaiah 53:11)
Behold, My Servant shall deal prudently; He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high. (Isaiah 52:13)
Behold! My Servant on whom I rest, My Elect. My soul has good pleasure! I have put My Spirit upon Him... (Isaiah 42:1, 19)
These things are said of the Lord. David is spoken of similarly, where by him is meant the Lord, as in the following:
I, Jehovah, will be their God, and My servant David a prince among them... (Ezekiel 34:24)
David My servant shall be king over them, so that they all have one shepherd... (Ezekiel 37:24)
I will protect this city to save it, for My sake and for My servant David's sake. (Isaiah 37:35)
So, too, Psalms 78:70-72; 89:3-4, 20. (That by David in these places is meant the Lord, may be seen in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Lord, nos. 43, 44.)
The Lord Himself speaks similarly of Himself:
...whoever desires to become great among you must be your attendant, and whoever desires to be first among you must be your servant, even as the Son of Man did not come to be ministered to, but to minister... (Matthew 20:25-28. Cf. Mark 10:42-45, Luke 22:27. So, too, Luke 12:37)
The Lord says this, because by a servant and attendant are meant one who serves and ministers by teaching, and abstractly from person, Divine truth, which He embodied.
[3] Since a servant therefore means someone who teaches Divine truth, it is apparent that servants in this place in the book of Revelation mean people who possess truths arising from goodness, or faith arising from charity, because they are able to teach from the Lord, that is to say, because the Lord is able to teach and minister through them.
It is in this sense that they are called servants in Matthew:
(At the end of the age,) who... is the faithful and prudent servant, whom his lord set over his household, to give them food in due season? Blessed is that servant whom his lord, when he comes, will find so doing. (Matthew 24:45-46)
And in Luke:
Blessed are those servants whom the lord, when he comes, will find watching. Truly I say to you that he will gird himself and have them sit down to eat, and will (himself) come and attend to them. (Luke 12:37)
In heaven, all people in the Lord's spiritual kingdom are called His servants, while those in His celestial kingdom are called His ministers. That is because people in His spiritual kingdom are governed by wisdom derived from Divine truth, and those in the celestial kingdom by love derived from Divine good. And good ministers, while truth serves.
In an opposite sense, however, by servants are meant people who serve the devil. These are in a real state of servitude, whereas people who serve the Lord are in a state of freedom - as the Lord also teaches in John 8:31-36. 1
Poznámky pod čarou:
1. Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, "If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." They answered Him, "We are Abraham's descendants, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can you say, 'You will be made free'?" Jesus answered them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. (John 8:31-36)
Ezekiel 23
1
The word of Yahweh came again to me, saying,
2
Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother:
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and they played the prostitute in Egypt; they played the prostitute in their youth; there were their breasts pressed, and there was handled the bosom of their virginity.
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The names of them were Oholah the elder, and Oholibah her sister: and they became mine, and they bore sons and daughters. As for their names, Samaria is Oholah, and Jerusalem Oholibah.
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Oholah played the prostitute when she was mine; and she doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians [her] neighbors,
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who were clothed with blue, governors and rulers, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding on horses.
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She bestowed her prostitution on them, the choicest men of Assyria all of them; and on whoever she doted, with all their idols she defiled herself.
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Neither has she left her prostitution since [the days of] Egypt; for in her youth they lay with her, and they handled the bosom of her virginity; and they poured out their prostitution on her.
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Therefore I delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians, on whom she doted.
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These uncovered her nakedness; they took her sons and her daughters; and her they killed with the sword: and she became a byword among women; for they executed judgments on her.
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Her sister Oholibah saw this, yet was she more corrupt in her doting than she, and in her prostitution which were more than the prostitution of her sister.
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She doted on the Assyrians, governors and rulers, [her] neighbors, clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding on horses, all of them desirable young men.
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I saw that she was defiled; they both took one way.
14
She increased her prostitution; for she saw men portrayed on the wall, the images of the Chaldeans portrayed with vermilion,
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dressed with girdles on their waists, with flowing turbans on their heads, all of them princes to look on, after the likeness of the Babylonians in Chaldea, the land of their birth.
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As soon as she saw them she doted on them, and sent messengers to them into Chaldea.
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The Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their prostitution, and she was polluted with them, and her soul was alienated from them.
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So she uncovered her prostitution, and uncovered her nakedness: then my soul was alienated from her, like as my soul was alienated from her sister.
19
Yet she multiplied her prostitution, remembering the days of her youth, in which she had played the prostitute in the land of Egypt.
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She doted on their paramours, whose flesh is as the flesh of donkeys, and whose issue is like the issue of horses.
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Thus you called to memory the lewdness of your youth, in the handling of your bosom by the Egyptians for the breasts of your youth.
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Therefore, Oholibah, thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I will raise up your lovers against you, from whom your soul is alienated, and I will bring them against you on every side:
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the Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, Pekod and Shoa and Koa, [and] all the Assyrians with them; desirable young men, governors and rulers all of them, princes and men of renown, all of them riding on horses.
24
They shall come against you with weapons, chariots, and wagons, and with a company of peoples; they shall set themselves against you with buckler and shield and helmet all around; and I will commit the judgment to them, and they shall judge you according to their judgments.
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I will set my jealousy against you, and they shall deal with you in fury; they shall take away your nose and your ears; and your residue shall fall by the sword: they shall take your sons and your daughters; and your residue shall be devoured by the fire.
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They shall also strip you of your clothes, and take away your beautiful jewels.
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Thus will I make your lewdness to cease from you, and your prostitution [brought] from the land of Egypt; so that you shall not lift up your eyes to them, nor remember Egypt any more.
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For thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I will deliver you into the hand of them whom you hate, into the hand of them from whom your soul is alienated;
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and they shall deal with you in hatred, and shall take away all your labor, and shall leave you naked and bare; and the nakedness of your prostitution shall be uncovered, both your lewdness and your prostitution.
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These things shall be done to you, because you have played the prostitute after the nations, and because you are polluted with their idols.
31
You have walked in the way of your sister; therefore will I give her cup into your hand.
32
Thus says the Lord Yahweh: You will drink of your sister's cup, which is deep and large; you will be ridiculed and held in derision; it contains much.
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You shall be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, with the cup of astonishment and desolation, with the cup of your sister Samaria.
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You shall even drink it and drain it out, and you shall gnaw the broken pieces of it, and shall tear your breasts; for I have spoken it, says the Lord Yahweh.
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Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because you have forgotten me, and cast me behind your back, therefore you also bear your lewdness and your prostitution.
36
Yahweh said moreover to me: Son of man, will you judge Oholah and Oholibah? then declare to them their abominations.
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For they have committed adultery, and blood is in their hands; and with their idols have they committed adultery; and they have also caused their sons, whom they bore to me, to pass through [the fire] to them to be devoured.
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Moreover this they have done to me: they have defiled my sanctuary in the same day, and have profaned my Sabbaths.
39
For when they had slain their children to their idols, then they came the same day into my sanctuary to profane it; and behold, thus have they done in the midst of my house.
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Furthermore you have sent for men who come from far, to whom a messenger was sent, and behold, they came; for whom you did wash yourself, paint your eyes, and decorate yourself with ornaments,
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and sit on a stately bed, with a table prepared before it, whereupon you set my incense and my oil.
42
The voice of a multitude being at ease was with her: and with men of the common sort were brought drunkards from the wilderness; and they put bracelets on the hands of them [twain], and beautiful crowns on their heads.
43
Then I said of her who was old in adulteries, Now will they play the prostitute with her, and she [with them].
44
They went in to her, as they go in to a prostitute: so went they in to Oholah and to Oholibah, the lewd women.
45
Righteous men, they shall judge them with the judgment of adulteresses, and with the judgment of women who shed blood; because they are adulteresses, and blood is in their hands.
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For thus says the Lord Yahweh: I will bring up a company against them, and will give them to be tossed back and forth and robbed.
47
The company shall stone them with stones, and dispatch them with their swords; they shall kill their sons and their daughters, and burn up their houses with fire.
48
Thus will I cause lewdness to cease out of the land, that all women may be taught not to do after your lewdness.
49
They shall recompense your lewdness on you, and you shall bear the sins of your idols; and you shall know that I am the Lord Yahweh.
