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Exodus 7

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1 Ja Issand ütles Moosesele: 'Vaata, ma panen sind vaaraole jumalaks ja su vend Aaron olgu sulle prohvetiks.

2 Sina räägi kõik, mida ma sind käsin, ja su vend Aaron rääkigu vaaraole, et ta laseks Iisraeli lapsed oma maalt ära minna.

3 Aga mina teen kõvaks vaarao südame ja teen palju imetegusid ja tunnustähti Egiptusemaal.

4 Vaarao ei kuula teid, aga mina panen oma käe Egiptuse vastu ja viin oma väehulgad, oma rahva, Iisraeli lapsed Egiptusemaalt välja suurte nuhtluste abil.

5 Ja Egiptus peab tundma, et mina olen Issand, kui ma sirutan oma käe Egiptuse kohale ja viin Iisraeli lapsed nende keskelt välja!'

6 Ja Mooses ja Aaron tegid nõnda; nagu Issand neid oli käskinud, nõnda nad tegid.

7 Mooses oli kaheksakümmend aastat vana ja Aaron oli kaheksakümmend kolm aastat vana, kui nad vaaraoga rääkisid.

8 Ja Issand rääkis Moosese ja Aaroniga, öeldes:

9 'Kui vaarao räägib teiega ja ütleb: Tehke mõni tunnustäht!, siis ütle Aaronile: Võta oma kepp ja viska vaarao ette, siis see muutub maoks!'

10 Siis Mooses ja Aaron läksid vaarao juurde ja tegid nõnda, nagu Issand oli käskinud. Aaron viskas oma kepi vaarao ja ta sulaste ette ja see muutus maoks.

11 Aga vaaraogi kutsus targad ja nõiad, ja Egiptuse võlurid tegid oma salakunstidega ka sedasama:

12 igaüks neist viskas oma kepi maha ja need muutusid madudeks; aga Aaroni kepp neelas nende kepid ära.

13 Ja vaarao süda jäi kõvaks ja ta ei kuulanud neid, nagu Issand oli öelnud.

14 Siis Issand ütles Moosesele: 'Vaarao süda on kalk, ta keeldub rahvast ära laskmast.

15 Mine hommikul vaarao juurde, kui ta läheb vee äärde, ja astu temale vastu Niiluse jõe ääres. Võta kätte kepp, mis muutus maoks,

16 ja ütle temale: Issand, heebrealaste Jumal, on mind läkitanud sinu juurde, et ma ütleksin: Lase mu rahvas minna ja mind kõrbes teenida! Aga vaata, sa ei ole senini kuulda võtnud.

17 Seepärast ütleb Issand nõnda: Sellest sa tunned, et mina olen Issand: vaata, ma löön kepiga, mis mul käes on, jõe vett, ja see muutub vereks.

18 Kalad jões surevad ja jõgi hakkab haisema, nõnda et egiptlased jõest vett juues tunnevad tülgastust.'

19 Ja Issand ütles Moosesele: 'Ütle Aaronile: Võta oma kepp ja siruta käsi egiptlaste vete kohale, nende jõgede, kanalite, tiikide ja kõigi veekogude kohale, et need muutuksid vereks. Siis on kogu Egiptusemaal veri, niihästi puu- kui kiviastjais.'

20 Ja Mooses ja Aaron tegid nõnda, nagu Issand oli käskinud. Ta tõstis kepi üles ning lõi Niiluse jõe vett vaarao ja ta sulaste silma ees, ja kõik vesi jões muutus vereks.

21 Ja kalad jões surid, jõgi haises ja egiptlased ei saanud jõest vett juua; ja veri oli kogu Egiptusemaal.

22 Aga Egiptuse võlurid tegid oma salakunstidega sedasama. Ja vaarao süda jäi kõvaks ning ta ei kuulanud neid, nagu Issand oli öelnud.

23 Ja vaarao pöördus ümber ning läks oma kotta ega võtnud ka seda südamesse.

24 Aga kõik egiptlased kaevasid Niiluse jõe ümbruses joogivett otsides, sest nad ei saanud jõe vett juua.

25 Möödus seitse päeva Niiluse jõe löömisest Issanda poolt.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 7290

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7290. 'When he says, Perform a wonder' means and they therefore wish to receive proof. This is clear from the meaning of 'wonders and signs' as proofs or corroborations of truths, dealt with in 3900, 6870. With regard to the wonders and signs described in what follows from here onwards, it should be realized that they were performed among the kind of people whose worship was external and who had no wish to know about internal worship. For those whose worship was like that had to be coerced by means of external things. This explains why miracles were performed among the Israelite and Jewish people, for their worship was entirely external and not at all internal. What is more, since they had no liking for internal worship, external worship was the kind they were required to engage in, to the end that they might represent things of a holy nature within their external observances. This would establish a channel of communication with heaven as if through something of a Church. For correspondences, representatives, and meaningful signs link the natural world to the spiritual world. This then was why so many miracles were performed among that nation.

[2] But no miracles are performed among those whose worship is internal, that is, who have charity and faith residing with them, since miracles are harmful to them; for miracles compel one to believe, and what one is compelled to believe does not remain but is thrown to the winds. The internal constituents of their worship, which are faith and charity, must be implanted in freedom; for then they make them their own and what they make their own in this way remains, whereas what is implanted under compulsion remains outside the internal man, in the external man. This is because nothing passes into the internal man except by way of ideas seen in the understanding, that is, seen rationally, since the soil which receives what is implanted in the internal man is enlightened reason. This is why no miracles are performed at the present day. One may also conclude from this that they are harmful, for they compel a person to believe something and give the external man fixed ideas about the truth of it. If after that the internal man refuses to believe what the miracles have proved, the internal man and the external become opposed to and clash with each other, and when at length the ideas implanted under the influence of miracles are driven to the winds, falsity becomes joined to truth, that is, profanation occurs. This shows how harmful miracles are at the present day in a Church in which the internal qualities constituting worship have been made known. This is also what is meant by the Lord's words to Thomas,

Because you have seen Me, Thomas, you have believed; blessed are those who do not see yet believe. John 20:29.

This shows too that they are 'blessed', those whose belief is not induced by miracles.

[3] But miracles are not harmful to those whose worship is external, devoid of anything internal, for with them no opposition between the internal man and the external is possible, nor thus any clashing, nor consequently any profanation. The fact that miracles do not make any contribution towards faith becomes quite clear from the miracles performed among the Israelite people in Egypt and in the wilderness; those miracles had no effect whatever on them. Although those people had not long before seen so many miracles in Egypt, after which they had seen the Sea Suph divided, and the Egyptians drowned in it, with the pillar of cloud going before them by day and the pillar of fire by night, and with the manna raining from heaven each day; and although they had seen Mount Sinai smoking and heard Jehovah speaking from it, and other miracles besides, nevertheless, while yet in the midst of such wonders, they fell completely away from faith, and from worship of Jehovah to calf-worship, Exodus 32:1-end. From this one may see what effect miracles have.

[4] They would have even less effect at the present day when nobody acknowledges that there is anything which has its origin in the spiritual world, and when anything miraculous that occurs and is not attributed to natural causes is refused recognition. For a refusal to recognize that the Divine flows in and governs on earth reigns everywhere. If at the present day therefore one who belongs to the Church were to witness utterly Divine miracles, he would first deduce that they had a natural origin and sully them with this, then dismiss them as fantasies, and finally mock whoever attributed them to the Divine and not to natural causes. The fact that miracles have no effect at all is also clear from the Lord's words in Luke,

If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone rises from the dead. Luke 16:31.

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