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Exodus 33

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1 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: God, get thee up from this place, thou and thy people which thou has brought out of the land of Egypt, into the land concerning which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying: To thy seed I will give it.

2 And I will send an angel before thee, that I may cast out the Chanaanite, and the Amorrhite, and the Hethite, and the Pherezite, and the Hevite, and the Jebusite.

3 That thou mayst enter into the land that floweth with milk and honey. For I will not go up with thee, because thou art a stiffnecked people: lest I destroy thee in the way.

4 And the people hearing these very bad tidings, mourned: and no man put on his ornaments according to custom.

5 And the Lord said to Moses: Say to the children of Israel: Thou are a stiffnecked people; once I shall come up in the midst of thee, and shall destroy thee. Now presently lay aside thy ornaments, that I may know what to do with thee.

6 So the children of Israel laid aside their ornaments by mount Horeb.

7 Moses also taking the tabernacle, pitched it without the camp afar off, and called the name thereof, The tabernacle of the covenant. And all the people that had any question, went forth to the tabernacle of the covenant, without the camp.

8 And when Moses went forth to the tabernacle, all the people rose up, and every one stood in the door of his pavilion, and they beheld the back of Moses, till he went into the tabernacle.

9 And when he was gone into the tabernacle of the covenant, the pillar of the cloud came down, and stood at the door, and he spoke with Moses.

10 And all saw that the pillar of the cloud stood at the door of the tabernacle. And they stood, and worshipped at the doors of their tents.

11 And the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man is wont to speak to his friend. And when he returned into the camp, his servant Josue the son of Nun, a young man, departed not from the tabernacle.

12 And Moses said to the Lord; Thou commandest me to lead forth this people: and thou dost not let me know whom thou wilt send with me, especially whereas thou hast said: I know thee by name, and thou hast found favour in my sight.

13 If therefore I have found favour in thy sight, show me thy face, that I may know thee, and may find grace before thy eyes: look upon thy people this nation.

14 And the Lord said: My face shall go before thee, and I will give thee rest.

15 And Moses said: If thou thyself dost not go before, bring us not out of this place.

16 For how shall we be able to know, I and thy people, that we have found grace in thy sight, unless thou walk with us, that we may be glorified by all people that dwell upon the earth?

17 And the Lord said to Moses: This word also, which thou hast spoken, will I do: for thou hast found grace before me, and thee I have known by name.

18 And he said: Shew me thy glory.

19 He answered: I will shew thee all good, and I will proclaim in the name of the Lord before thee: and I will have mercy on whom I will, and I will be merciful to whom it shall please me.

20 And again he said: Thou canst not see my face: for man shall not see me and live.

21 And again he said: Behold there is a place with me, and thou shalt stand upon the rock.

22 And when my glory shall pass, I will set thee in a hole of the rock, and protect thee with my right hand, till I pass:

23 And I will take away my hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face thou canst not see.

   

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True Christianity # 787

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787. This new church is the crown of all the churches that have ever existed on this planet because it will worship the one God, who can be seen, within whom is the God that cannot be seen, like a soul in a body. This is the only way we can form a partnership with God, because we are earthly and we think in earthly ways; and such a partnership must be formed in our thinking and then in the desires that belong to our love. This occurs when we think of God as a human being.

Establishing contact with a God we cannot see is like trying to make eye contact with the limitless vastness of outer space, or like being on the lookout in mid-ocean but not being able to see anything but endless sky and sea.

Establishing contact with a God we can see is like making eye contact with a person in the air or on the sea, whose arms then reach out, inviting us into an embrace.

Any partnership between God and us must also be reciprocated as a partnership between us and God, and this second aspect of the partnership is not possible unless we can see God.

[2] The fact that we were unable to see God before he took on a human manifestation is something the Lord himself teaches in John: "You have never heard the voice of the Father or seen what he looks like" (John 5:37). And in Moses we read that no one can see God and live (Exodus 33:20). In John we read that God's human manifestation allows him to be seen: "No one has ever seen God. The only begotten Son, who is close to the Father's heart, has made him visible" (John 1:18). In the same gospel, "Jesus said, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Those who know me also know the Father, and those who see me also see the Father'" (John 14:6-7, 9).

As for the point that we form a partnership with the God that cannot be seen through the aspect of him that can be seen, that is, through the Lord - this is something the Lord himself teaches in the following passages:

Jesus said, "Live in me and I [shall live] in you. Those who live in me and I in them bear much fruit. " (John 15:4-5)

On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me and I am in you. (John 14:20)

The glory that you gave me, I have given them so that they may be one as we are one - I in them and you in me, so that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and I may be in them. (John 17:22-23, 26; see also John 6:56)

See also the teachings that the Father and the Lord are one, and that we have to believe in him in order to have eternal life.

Many times already in this work I have demonstrated that our salvation depends on our forming a partnership with God.

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