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Exodus 4

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1 Moses answered and said: They will not believe me, nor hear my voice, but they will say: The Lord hath not appeared to thee.

2 Then he said to him: What is that thou holdest in thy hand? He answered: A rod.

3 And the Lord said: Cast it down upon the ground. He cast it down, and it was turned into a serpent: so that Moses fled from it.

4 And the Lord said: Put out thy hand and take it by the tail. He Put forth his hand, and took hold of it, and it was turned into a rod.

5 That they may believe, saith he, that the Lord God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath appeared to thee.

6 And the Lord said again: Put thy hand into thy bosom. And when he had Put it into his bosom, he brought it forth leprous as snow.

7 And he said: Put back thy hand into thy bosom. He Put it back, and brought it out again, and it was like the other flesh.

8 If they will not believe thee, saith he, nor hear the voice of the former sign, they will believe the word of the latter sign.

9 But if they will not even believe these two signs, nor hear thy voice: take of the river water, and pour it out upon the dry land, and whatsoever thou drawest out of the river shall be turned into blood.

10 Moses said: I beseech thee, Lord. I am not eloquent from yesterday and the day before: and since thou hast spoken to thy servant, I have more impediment and slowness of tongue.

11 The Lord said to him: Who made man's mouth? or who made the dumb and the deaf, the seeing and the blind? did not I?

12 Go therefore and I will be in thy mouth: and I will teach thee what thou shalt speak.

13 But he said: I beseech thee, Lord send whom thou wilt send.

14 The Lord being angry at Moses, said Aaron the Levite is thy brother, I know that he is eloquent: behold he cometh forth to meet thee, and seeing thee shall be glad at heart.

15 Speak to him, and put my words in his mouth: and I will be in thy mouth, and in his mouth, and will shew you what you must do.

16 He shall speak in thy stead to the people, and shall be thy mouth: but thou shalt be to him in those things that pertain to God.

17 And take this rod in thy hand, wherewith thou shalt do the signs.

18 Moses went his way, and returned to Jethro his father in law and said to him: I will go and return to my brethren into Egypt, that I may see if they be yet alive. And Jethro said to him: go in peace.

19 And the Lord said to Moses, in Madian: Go, and return into Egypt: for they are all dead that sought thy life.

20 Moses therefore took his wife, and his sons, and set them upon an ass: and returned into Egypt, carrying the rod of God in his hand.

21 And the Lord said to him as he was returning into Egypt: See that thou do all the wonders before Pharao, which I have put in thy hand: I shall harden his heart, and he will not let the people go.

22 And thou shalt say to him: Thus saith the Lord: Israel is my son, my firstborn.

23 I have said to thee: Let my son go, that he may serve me, and thou wouldst not let him go: behold I will kill thy son, thy firstborn.

24 And when he was in his journey, in the inn, the Lord met him, and would have killed him.

25 Immediately Sephora took a very sharp stone, and circumcised the fore skin of her son, and touched his feet and said: A bloody spouse art thou to me.

26 And he let him go after she had said A bloody spouse art thou to me, because of the circumcision.

27 And the Lord said to Aaron: Go into the desert to meet Moses. And he went forth to meet him in the mountain of God, and kissed him.

28 And Moses told Aaron all the words of the Lord, by which he had sent him, and the signs that he had commanded.

29 And they came together, and they assembled all the ancients of the children of Israel.

30 And Aaron spoke all the words which the Lord had said to Moses: and he wrought the signs before the people,

31 And the people believed. And they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel: and that he had looked upon their affliction: and falling down they adored.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 7007

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7007. 'And will teach you the things you will do' means that the Divine will therefore be within every single thing that is going to happen. This is clear from the meaning of 'teaching' as flowing in, and when it is used as it is here in reference to the Divine, as going forth, as above in 6999; and from the meaning of 'the things you will do' as things that are going to happen. Every single one is meant because what is said refers to the Divine. Something must be said here about what is meant by the Divine within every single thing that happens in a person's life. To man this seems to be altogether untrue, because he thinks that if the Divine were present in every single thing that happens no evil deeds would be done and no one would be damned either, and also that justice would always prevail, the upright would prosper in the world rather than those who are not upright, and many other conditions like these. But because they see the opposite of such conditions they do not believe that the Divine is in every single thing. As a consequence they attribute matters of a specific nature to themselves and their own prudence, and merely general, overall control to the Divine, calling everything else fortune and chance, which to them are blind natural forces.

[2] But a person thinks in that kind of way because he has no knowledge of the arcana of heaven, which are that the Lord leaves each person in freedom, for unless a person is in freedom he cannot be reformed at all. What a person does under compulsion does not reform him because compulsion does not allow anything to take root; for anything a person does under compulsion is not an act of willing, whereas what he does in freedom is an act of willing. What is good and true, if it is to be present in a person as his own, must take root in his will. What is outside the will is not the person's own. And since everyone is for that reason left in freedom people are allowed to think what is evil and, so far as outward fears do not hold them back, to do what is evil; and - since everyone is in freedom - those who are not upright rejoice and glory in the world seemingly more than those who are upright. But the glorying and rejoicing of those who are not upright is external or of the body and in the next life it is turned into hellish misery, whereas the glorying and rejoicing of those who are upright, being internal or of the spirit, remains and becomes heavenly bliss.

[3] Furthermore high rank and wealth bring worldly but not eternal happiness. This being so, that happiness may be experienced both by those who are not upright and by those who are upright; and if the upright are denied it, it is in order that such things may not divert them from what is good. And since a person thinks that Divine blessings consist in worldly kinds of goodness and bliss, his weakness leads him into errors about God's providence when He sees the opposite taking place. He also draws conclusions from present circumstances as he sees them. He gives no thought to the idea that Divine Providence has what is eternal in view, working especially to bring all things into a state of order in heaven, and also in hell, and so to ensure that heaven will unceasingly resemble a single human being, hell will exist opposite it, and equilibrium will therefore result. He gives no thought to the idea that these things cannot be brought about at all except by means of Divine providence at work in the most specific details of all, thus unless the Divine is constantly governing and directing people's freedom.

[4] For anything further on the subject see what has been stated and shown already regarding Divine providence:

The Lord's providence cannot be overall unless it is present in the most specific details, 1919 (end), 4319, 5122 (end), 5894 (end), 6481-6486, 6490.

The Lord's providence has in view what is eternal, 5264, 6490.

The Lord foresees what is evil and makes provision for what is good, 5155, 5195, 6489.

The Lord turns evil that He foresees into good, 6574.

Things that happen by chance are all part of providence, 5508, 6493, 6494.

One's own prudence is like dust thinly distributed in the air, while providence is, like the entire atmosphere, 6485.

Quite a number of mistaken ideas deny the presence of Divine providence in specific details, 6481.

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