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 24
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Again, in the ninth year, in the tenth month, in the tenth [day] of the month, the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,
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Son of man, write the name of the day, [even] of this same day: the king of Babylon drew close to Jerusalem this same day.
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Utter a parable to the rebellious house, and tell them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh, Set on the caldron, set it on, and also pour water into it:
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gather its pieces into it, even every good piece, the thigh, and the shoulder; fill it with the choice bones.
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Take the choice of the flock, and also a pile [of wood] for the bones under [the caldron]; make it boil well; yes, let its bones be boiled in its midst.
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Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Woe to the bloody city, to the caldron whose rust is therein, and whose rust is not gone out of it! take out of it piece after piece; No lot is fallen on it.
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For her blood is in the midst of her; she set it on the bare rock; she didn't pour it on the ground, to cover it with dust.
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That it may cause wrath to come up to take vengeance, I have set her blood on the bare rock, that it should not be covered.
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Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Woe to the bloody city! I also will make the pile great.
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Heap on the wood, make the fire hot, boil well the flesh, and make thick the broth, and let the bones be burned.
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Then set it empty on its coals, that it may be hot, and its brass may burn, and that its filthiness may be molten in it, that its rust may be consumed.
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She has wearied [herself] with toil; yet her great rust doesn't go forth out of her; her rust doesn't [go forth] by fire.
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In your filthiness is lewdness: because I have cleansed you and you weren't cleansed, you shall not be cleansed from your filthiness any more, until I have caused my wrath toward you to rest.
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I, Yahweh, have spoken it: it shall happen, and I will do it: I will not go back, neither will I spare, neither will I repent; according to your ways, and according to your doings, shall they judge you, says the Lord Yahweh.
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Also the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,
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Son of man, behold, I will take away from you the desire of your eyes with a stroke: yet you shall neither mourn nor weep, neither shall your tears run down.
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Sigh, but not aloud, make no mourning for the dead; bind your headdress on you, and put your shoes on your feet, and don't cover your lips, and don't eat men's bread.
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So I spoke to the people in the morning; and at even my wife died; and I did in the morning as I was commanded.
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The people said to me, Won't you tell us what these things are to us, that you do so?
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Then I said to them, The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,
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Speak to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I will profane my sanctuary, the pride of your power, the desire of your eyes, and that which your soul pities; and your sons and your daughters whom you have left behind shall fall by the sword.
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You shall do as I have done: you shall not cover your lips, nor eat the bread of men.
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Your tires shall be on your heads, and your shoes on your feet: you shall not mourn nor weep; but you shall pine away in your iniquities, and moan one toward another.
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Thus Ezekiel shall be a sign to you; according to all that he has done, you will do. When this comes, then you will know that I am the Lord Yahweh.
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You, son of man, shall it not be in the day when I take from them their strength, the joy of their glory, the desire of their eyes, and that whereupon they set their heart, their sons and their daughters,
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that in that day he who escapes shall come to you, to cause you to hear it with your ears?
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In that day your mouth will be opened to him who has escaped, and you shall speak, and be no more mute: so you will be a sign to them; and they shall know that I am Yahweh.
