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Daniel 8

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1 In the third year of the reign of Belshazzar the king, a vision appeared unto me, [even] to me Daniel, after that which appeared unto me at the first.

2 And I saw in the vision; and it came to pass, when I saw, that I was in the fortress of Shushan, which is in the province of Elam. And I saw in the vision, and I was by the river Ulai.

3 And I lifted up mine eyes and saw, and behold, there stood before the river a ram which had two horns; and the two horns were high; and one was higher than the other, and the higher came up last.

4 I saw the ram pushing westward, and northward, and southward, and no beast could stand before him, neither was there any that could deliver out of his hand; and he did according to his will, and became great.

5 And as I was considering, behold, a he-goat came from the west over the face of the whole earth, and touched not the ground: and the goat had a notable horn between his eyes.

6 And he came to the ram that had the two horns, which I had seen standing before the river, and ran upon him in the fury of his power.

7 And I saw him come close to the ram, and he was enraged with him, and smote the ram, and broke his two horns; and there was no power in the ram to stand before him; and he cast him down to the ground, and trampled upon him; and there was none that could deliver the ram out of his hand.

8 And the he-goat became exceeding great; but when he was become strong, the great horn was broken; and in its stead came up four notable ones toward the four winds of the heavens.

9 And out of one of them came forth a little horn, which became exceeding great, toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the beauty [of the earth].

10 And it became great, even to the host of heaven; and it cast down [some] of the host and of the stars to the ground, and trampled upon them.

11 (And he magnified [himself] even to the prince of the host, and from him the continual [sacrifice] was taken away, and the place of his sanctuary was cast down.

12 And a time of trial was appointed unto the continual [sacrifice] by reason of transgression.) And it cast down the truth to the ground; and it practised and prospered.

13 And I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that one who spoke, How long shall be the vision of the continual [sacrifice] and of the transgression that maketh desolate, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden down under foot?

14 And he said unto me, Until two thousand and three hundred evenings [and] mornings: then shall the sanctuary be vindicated.

15 And it came to pass, when I Daniel had seen the vision, I sought for the understanding of it, and behold, there stood before me as the appearance of a man.

16 And I heard a man's voice between [the banks of] the Ulai; and he called and said, Gabriel, make this [man] to understand the vision.

17 And he came near where I stood; and when he came, I was afraid, and fell on my face; and he said unto me, Understand, son of man; for the vision is for the time of the end.

18 Now, as he was speaking with me, I was in a deep stupor, with my face toward the ground. And he touched me, and set me up where I had stood.

19 And he said, Behold, I will make thee know what shall be at the end of the indignation: for at the set time the end shall be.

20 The ram that thou sawest having the two horns: they are the kings of Media and Persia.

21 And the rough goat is the king of Greece; and the great horn that was between his eyes is the first king.

22 Now that being broken, whereas four stood up in its stead, four kingdoms shall stand up out of the nation, but not with his power.

23 And at the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors shall have come to the full, a king of bold countenance, and understanding riddles, shall stand up.

24 And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power; and he shall destroy marvellously, and shall prosper, and shall practise, and shall destroy the mighty ones, and the people of the saints.

25 And through his cunning shall he cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he will magnify [himself] in his heart, and by prosperity will corrupt many; and he will stand up against the Prince of princes: but he shall be broken without hand.

26 And the vision of the evening and the morning which hath been told is true; but close thou up the vision, for it is for many days [to come].

27 And I Daniel fainted, and was sick [certain] days: then I rose up, and did the king's business. And I was astonished at the vision, but none understood [it].

   

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Rise

  

It is common in the Bible for people to "rise up," and it would be easy to pass over the phrase as simply describing a physical action. But in fact it represents an elevation in spiritual state, moving to a more internal frame of mind closer to the Lord. Often it has to do with understanding a new or important idea; we "rise up" to a state of greater perception and enlightenment. Obviously context is crucial to the exact meaning of the phrase in a given passage -- it matters greatly who it is that is rising up, and why.

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True Christian Religion # 777

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777. It is plain from the following passage in John that the Lord is the Word:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God; and the Word became flesh, John 1:1, 14.

The Word in that passage is Divine truth, because Christians have no other source of Divine truth than the Word. It is the source from which all the churches named after Christ draw an abundance of living waters, and although they are as it were in a cloud containing its natural sense, yet they are in the glory and power which contain its spiritual and celestial senses. The Word contains three senses, the natural, the spiritual and the celestial, one inside the next, as was shown in the chapters on the Sacred Scripture and the Ten Commandments or Catechism [chapters 4-5]. From this it is obvious that the Word as used in John means Divine truth. John gives further evidence of this same fact in his First Epistle:

We know that the Son of God came and gave us understanding, so that we might know the truth; and we are in the truth, in his Son Jesus Christ. 1 John 5:20.

That too was why the Lord said so often 'Amen, I say to you'; Amen in Hebrew means truth. He is Himself the Amen (see Revelation 3:14) and truth (John 14:6).

If you ask the scholars of the present time what they understand by the Word in John 1:1, they say it is 'the Word in its pre-eminence'; and what else is the Word in its pre-eminence but Divine truth?

[2] From this it is clear that the Lord is even now about to appear in the Word. The reason why He will not appear in person is that after His ascension into heaven He is in His glorified Human; and in this He cannot appear to any person, unless He has first opened the eyes of his spirit. This is impossible with anyone who is in a state of evils and consequent falsities, and so with any of the goats, whom He has placed on the left. Therefore, when He showed Himself to the disciples, He first opened their eyes; for we read:

And their eyes were opened, and they recognised Him; but He became invisible to them, Luke 24:31.

Much the same happened with the women near the tomb after the resurrection. That is why then too they saw angels sitting in the tomb and speaking to them, something no one can see with his material eyes. Neither did the Apostles see the Lord with the eyes of their bodies before His resurrection in His glorified Human; but they saw Him in the spirit, something which seems like seeing in sleep after waking up. This is clear from His transfiguration in front of Peter, James and John, when we read that they were then heavy with sleep (Luke 9:32). It is futile therefore to believe that the Lord will appear in a cloud of heaven in person; but He will appear in the Word, which is from Him and which He is.

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