Bible

 

Exodus 13

Studie

   

1 And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,

2 Hallow unto me every firstborn, whatever breaketh open the womb among the children of Israel, of man and of cattle: it is mine.

3 And Moses said to the people, Remember this day, in which ye came out from Egypt, out of the house of bondage; for with a powerful hand hath Jehovah brought you out from this; and nothing leavened shall be eaten.

4 Ye come out to-day, in the month Abib.

5 And it shall be when Jehovah hath brought thee into the land of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, which he swore to thy fathers to give thee, a land flowing with milk and honey, that thou shalt keep this service in this month.

6 Seven days shalt thou eat unleavened bread; and in the seventh day is a feast to Jehovah.

7 Unleavened bread shall be eaten the seven days; and leavened bread shall not be seen with thee, neither shall there be leaven seen with thee in all thy borders.

8 And thou shalt inform thy son in that day, saying, It is because of what Jehovah did to me when I came out of Egypt.

9 And it shall be for a sign to thee on thy hand, and for a memorial between thine eyes, that the law of Jehovah may be in thy mouth; for with a powerful hand hath Jehovah brought thee out of Egypt.

10 And thou shalt keep this ordinance at its set time from year to year.

11 And it shall be when Jehovah hath brought thee into the land of the Canaanites, as he hath sworn to thee and to thy fathers, and hath given it thee,

12 that thou shalt offer unto Jehovah all that breaketh open the womb, and every firstling that cometh of cattle which is thine: the males [shall be] Jehovah's.

13 And every firstling of an ass shalt thou ransom with a lamb; and if thou do not ransom it, thou shalt break its neck; and every firstborn of a man among thy sons shalt thou ransom.

14 And it shall be when thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, What is this? that thou shalt say to him, With a powerful hand Jehovah brought us out from Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

15 And it came to pass, when Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, that Jehovah slew all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of men and the firstborn of cattle: therefore I sacrifice to Jehovah all that breaketh open the womb -- being males; and every firstborn of my children I ransom.

16 And it shall be for a sign on thy hand, and for frontlets between thine eyes, for with a powerful hand Jehovah brought us forth out of Egypt.

17 And it came to pass, when Pharaoh let the people go, that God did not lead them the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, That the people may not repent when they see conflict, and return to Egypt.

18 And God led the people about, the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea; and the children of Israel went arrayed out of the land of Egypt.

19 And Moses took the bones of Joseph with him; for he had made the children of Israel swear an oath, saying, God will be sure to visit you; then ye shall carry my bones with you hence.

20 And they took their journey from Succoth, and encamped in Etham, at the end of the wilderness.

21 And Jehovah went before their face by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them [in] the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; so that they could go day and night.

22 The pillar of the cloud did not remove [from] before the people by day, nor the pillar of fire by night.

   

Komentář

 

Face

  
Photo by Caleb Kerr

“The eyes are the windows of the soul.” That's a sentiment with roots somewhere in murky antiquity, but one that has become hopelessly cliché because it is both poetic and obviously true. We feel that if we can look in someone's eyes, we can truly know what they are inside. And it's not just the eyes; really it is the face as a whole that conveys this. As Swedenborg puts it, the face is “man's spiritual world presented in his natural world” (Heaven and Hell, No. 91). Our faces reveal our interior thoughts and feelings in myriad ways, which is why psychologists, poker players and criminal investigators spend so much time studying them. It makes sense, then, that people's faces in the Bible represent their interiors, the thoughts, loves and desires they hold most deeply. We turn our faces to the ground to show humility when we bow in worship; we turn them to the mountains when seeking inspiration; we turn them toward our enemies when we are ready to battle temptation. When things are hard, we need to “face facts,” or accept them internally. When the topic is the Lord's face, it represents the Lord's interiors, which are perfect love and perfect mercy. And when people turn away from the Lord and refuse his love, it is described as the Lord “hiding his face.”

(Odkazy: Heaven and Hell 91)


Komentář

 

Firstborn

  
The Firstborn, by François Antoine de Bruycker (1816-1882)

Firstborn, in a supreme sense, represents the Lord as to divine celestial love, and also peope who were of the celestial church. The sanctification of the firstborn, as in Exodus 13, signifies faith in the Lord. The firstborn, in the spiritual sense of the Word, is good, for with infants the good of innocence is first infused by the Lord, by virtue of which man first becomes a man. Since good is of love, and man does not reflect upon his own love, but only upon the thoughts of his memory, and since good has not at first a quality, but acquires one when it is formed in truths, and without a quality nothing is perceived, hence it was unknown that good was the primary principle, or firstborn. Good is first conceived from the Lord in man, and is produced by truths, in which good is manifested, in its own form and effigy. Firstborn, as in Psalm 89:28, signifies the Lord's humanity.