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1 Ja Issand ütles Aaronile: 'Sina ja su pojad, koos sinuga su perekond, peate kandma süüd pühamu eest; ja sina, ja koos sinuga su pojad, peate kandma süüd oma preestriameti eest.

2 Too ka oma vennad, Leevi suguharu, enesega kaasa ja nad seltsigu sinuga ja teenigu sind, kui sina, ja koos sinuga su pojad, olete tunnistustelgi ees!

3 Nad toimetagu sinu ja kogu telgiteenistust, aga pühadele riistadele ja altarile nad ei tohi ligineda, et ei sureks nii nemad kui teie!

4 Nad seltsigu sinuga ja toimetagu kogudusetelgi teenistust, kogu telgiteenistust; aga võõras ei tohi teile ligineda!

5 Teie aga toimetage pühamu- ja altariteenistust, et suur viha ei tabaks enam Iisraeli lapsi!

6 Mina, vaata, olen võtnud teie vennad leviidid Iisraeli laste hulgast: nad on teile kingituseks, mis on antud Issandale, et nad toimetaksid kogudusetelgi teenistust.

7 Aga sina ja koos sinuga su pojad peate pidama preestriametit kõiges, mis puutub altarisse ja seespool eesriiet sooritatavaisse toiminguisse, ja teie peate toimetama teenistust! Teie preestriameti ma annan teile kingitusena, aga võõras, kes ligineb, surmatagu!'

8 Ja Issand rääkis Aaroniga: 'Mina, vaata, olen andnud sinule, mis mu tõstelõivudest tuleb üle jätta; kõigist Iisraeli laste pühadest andidest ma annan need osaks sinule ja su poegadele igavese seadusena.

9 Kõige pühamaist andidest saagu sulle see, mida ei põletata tules: kõik nende ohvriannid kõigi nende roaohvrite ja kõigi nende patuohvrite ja kõigi nende süüohvrite puhul, mida nad mulle toovad; kui kõige püham kuulub see sinule ja su poegadele.

10 Söö seda kõige pühamas paigas; kõik meesterahvad võivad seda süüa! See olgu sulle püha!

11 Nende andidest kuulub sinule tõstelõivuna ka see: kõik Iisraeli laste kõigutusohvrid ma annan sinule ja su poegadele ja tütardele koos sinuga igavese seadusena; iga puhas su peres võib neid süüa.

12 Kõik parima õlist, kõik parima värskest veinist ja nende uudseviljast, mida nad annavad Issandale, ma annan sinule.

13 Uudsevili kõigest, mis nende maal on, mida nad toovad Issandale, olgu sinu; kõik puhtad su peres võivad seda süüa.

14 Kõik pühendatu Iisraelis kuulub sinule.

15 Iga emakoja avaja kõigest lihast, keda tuuakse Issandale inimestest ja veistest, olgu sinu; aga lase lunastada inimese esmasündinu, samuti lase lunastada roojase looma esmasündinu!

16 Neid lunastatavaid lase lunastada ühe kuu vanuselt hindeväärtuse alusel: viis seeklit hõbedat püha seekli järgi, milles on kakskümmend geera.

17 Aga härja või lamba või kitse esmasündinut ära lase lunastada: need on pühitsetud; nende veri piserda altarile ja nende rasv süüta põlema healõhnaliseks tuleohvriks Issandale!

18 Nende liha aga saagu sinule; samuti kui kõigutusrind ja parempoolne saps saagu see sinule!

19 Kõik pühad tõstelõivud, mida Iisraeli lapsed ohverdavad Issandale, annan ma sinule ja su poegadele ja tütardele koos sinuga kui igavesti kuuluva osa. See olgu igavene soolaosadus Issanda ees sinule ja su soole koos sinuga!'

20 Ja Issand ütles Aaronile: 'Nende maal ärgu olgu sul pärisosa ja ärgu olgu sul omandit nende seas! Mina olen su omand ja su pärisosa Iisraeli laste seas.

21 Aga leviitidele, vaata, annan ma pärisosaks kõik kümnise Iisraelis tasuks nende teenistuse eest, mida nad toimetavad, kogudusetelgi-teenistuse eest.

22 Ja Iisraeli lapsed ei tohi enam ligineda kogudusetelgile, et nad ei võtaks eneste peale pattu ega sureks,

23 vaid leviidid toimetagu kogudusetelgi-teenistust ja nemad kandku süüd; see olgu teie sugupõlvedele igaveseks seaduseks! Aga Iisraeli laste seas nad ärgu saagu pärisosa,

24 sest Iisraeli laste kümnise, mida nad ohverdavad Issandale tõstelõivuks, annan ma leviitidele pärisosaks. Seepärast ma ütlen neile, et nad ei tohi saada pärisosa Iisraeli laste seas!'

25 Ja Issand rääkis Moosesega, öeldes:

26 'Räägi leviitidega ja ütle neile: Kui te võtate Iisraeli lastelt kümnist, mille ma neilt olen andnud teile kui teie pärisosa, siis võtke sellest Issandale tõstelõiv - kümnis kümnistest -

27 ja seda teie tõstelõivu arvestatagu teile nagu vilja rehealusest ja ülevoolavust surutõrrest!

28 Nõnda ohverdage ka teie Issandale tõstelõivu kõigist oma kümnistest, mida te saate Iisraeli lastelt, ja see Issanda tõstelõiv andke preester Aaronile!

29 Kõigist oma saadud andidest ohverdage Issandale täielik tõstelõiv, kõige parem osa neist kui temale pühitsetud and!

30 Ja ütle neile: Kui te ohverdate sellest parima osa, siis arvestatagu seda leviitidele nagu rehealuse vilja ja surutõrre saadust!

31 Ja te võite seda süüa igas paigas, teie ja teie pere, sest see on teie palk teenistuse eest kogudusetelgis.

32 Ja kui te ohverdate sellest parima osa, siis te ei võta sellega eneste peale pattu ega teota Iisraeli laste pühi ande, ja te ei sure.'

   

Ze Swedenborgových děl

 

Apocalypse Revealed # 379

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379. "And made their robes white in the blood of the Lamb." This symbolically means, and by truths have purified those religious beliefs from the falsities accompanying evil, and so have been reformed by the Lord.

Some evils are evils that accompany falsity, and some falsities are falsities that accompany evil. Evils that accompany falsity are found among people who, in accord with their religion, believe that evils do not condemn, provided they orally confess that they are sinners. And falsities that accompany evil are found among people who justify the evils they harbor.

As in no. 378 above, robes here symbolize general truths drawn from the Word, which constitute the people's religious beliefs. They are said to have made their robes white in the blood of the Lamb because the color white is predicated of truths (nos. 167, 231, 232), meaning therefore that they used truths to purify their falsities.

This symbolically means also that thus they were reformed by the Lord, because all who have fought against evils in the world and have believed in the Lord are, after their departure from the world, taught by the Lord and led by truths away from the falsities of their religion. And so they are reformed. That is because people who refrain from evils as being sins possess goodness of life, and goodness of life desires truths, and acknowledges and accepts them. But this is never the case with evil of life.

People believe that the blood of the Lamb here and elsewhere in the Word symbolizes the Lord's suffering of the cross. But the suffering of the cross was the final temptation or trial by which the Lord completely overcame the hells and fully glorified His humanity. By these two means He saved mankind (see The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Lord, nos. 12-14, 15-17, and also no. 67 above). Moreover, because by His suffering of the cross the Lord fully glorified His humanity, which is to say, made it Divine, therefore nothing else can be meant by His flesh and blood but the Divinity in Him and emanating from Him - His flesh meaning the Divine goodness of His Divine love, and His blood meaning the Divine truth emanating from that goodness.

[2] Blood is mentioned many times in the Word, and everywhere it symbolizes, in the spiritual sense, either the Lord's Divine truth, which is the same as the Divine truth of the Word, or in an opposite sense, the Divine truth of the Word falsified or profaned, as can be seen from the following passages.

First, that blood symbolizes the Lord's Divine truth or the Divine truth of the Word can be seen from these passages:

Blood was called the blood of the covenant, and a covenant conjoins, a conjunction that the Lord accomplishes by His Divine truth. So, for example, in Zechariah:

By the blood of your covenant, I will set your prisoners free from the pit... (Zechariah 9:11)

After Moses read the Book of the Law in the hearing of the people, he sprinkled half the blood on the people and said,

This is the blood of the covenant which Jehovah has made with you in accordance with all these words. (Exodus 24:3-8)

Moreover,

(Jesus) took the cup..., and gave it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you. ...this is My blood, the blood of the new covenant... (Matthew 26:27-28, cf. Mark 14:24, Luke 22:20)

The blood of the new covenant or testament symbolizes nothing else than the Word, which is called a covenant or testament - the Old Covenant or Testament, and the New Covenant or Testament - thus symbolizing the Divine truth in it.

[3] Since blood has this symbolic meaning, the Lord therefore gave His disciples wine, saying, "This is My blood" - wine symbolizing Divine truth (no. 316). Wine is also on that account called "the blood of grapes" (Genesis 49:11, Deuteronomy 32:14).

This is still further apparent from these words of the Lord:

Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you will have no life in you... For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. (John 6:53-56).

It is clearly apparent that blood here means Divine truth, because the text says that he who drinks has life, and abides in the Lord, and the Lord in him. This is the effect of Divine truth and a life in accordance with it, and an effect confirmed by the Holy Supper, as everyone in the church may know.

[4] Since blood symbolizes the Lord's Divine truth, which is the same as the Divine truth of the Word, and this is the essence of the Old and New Covenants or Testaments, therefore blood was the holiest representative symbol in the Israelite Church, in which every single thing corresponded to something spiritual. So, for example, the people were to take some of the blood of the paschal lamb and put it on the doorposts and lintel of their houses to keep the plague from coming upon them (Exodus 12:7, 13, 22). The blood of the burnt offering was to be sprinkled on the altar, at the base of the altar, on Aaron and his sons, and on their vestments (Exodus 29:12, 16, 20-21).

[5] The blood of the Lamb has a like symbolism in the following verses in the book of Revelation:

...war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon... And they overcame it by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony... (Revelation 12:7, 11)

For no one can think that Michael and his angels overcame the dragon with anything other than the Lord's Divine truth in the Word. Angels in heaven, indeed, cannot think of any blood, nor do they think of the Lord's suffering, but of His Divine truth and resurrection. Consequently, when a person thinks about the Lord's blood, angels perceive His Divine truth, and when a person thinks about the Lord's suffering, they perceive His glorification, and then only His resurrection. I have been granted to know the reality of this by much experience.

[6] That blood symbolizes Divine truth is apparent also from these verses in the book of Psalms:

(God) will save the souls of the needy... Precious shall be their blood in His sight. And they shall live, and He will give them the gold of Sheba. (Psalms 72:13-15)

The blood, precious in the sight of God, stands for Divine truth among those people. The gold of Sheba is the resulting wisdom.

In Ezekiel:

Gather together... to My great sacrifice... on the mountains of Israel, that you may eat flesh and drink blood. You shall... drink the blood of the princes of the earth... You shall... drink blood till you are drunk at My sacrifice which I am sacrificing for you... (Thus) I will set My glory among the nations. (Ezekiel 39:17-21)

Blood here does not mean blood, because the statement is that they will drink the blood of the princes of the earth and that they will drink blood till they are drunk. But the true meaning of the word emerges when blood is understood to mean Divine truth. The subject there, too, is the Lord's church, which He would establish among gentiles.

[7] Second, that blood symbolizes Divine truth can be clearly seen from its opposite meaning, in which it symbolizes the Divine truth of the Word falsified or profaned, as is apparent from these passages:

He who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed, and shuts his eyes from seeing evil... (Isaiah 33:15)

You shall destroy those who speak falsehood; Jehovah abhors the bloody and deceitful man. (Psalms 5:6)

...everyone recorded for life in Jerusalem, when the Lord has... rinsed away (her) blood... from her midst, by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of purification. (Isaiah 4:3-4)

...on the day you were born... I saw you trampled in your blood, and I said to you in your blood, "Live!" ...I washed you and rinsed away the blood upon you... (Ezekiel 16:5-6, 9, 22, 36, 38)

They wandered blind in the streets; they have defiled themselves with blood, and what they cannot touch, they touch with their garments. (Lamentations 4:13-14)

The garment is polluted with blood. (Isaiah 9:5)

Also on your skirts is found the blood of the souls of the innocent... (Jeremiah 2:34)

Your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; put away the evil of your doings... (Isaiah 1:15-16)

...your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken a lie... They make haste to shed innocent blood. (Isaiah 59:3, 7)

...Jehovah is coming out... to visit the iniquity... of the earth; then the earth will disclose her blood... (Isaiah 26:21)

...as many as received Him, to them He gave the ability to be children of God..., who were born, not of blood... (John 1:12-13)

In (Babylon) was found the blood of prophets and saints... (Revelation 18:24)

...the sea... became as the blood of a dead man... ...the springs of water... became blood. (Revelation 16:3-4. Cf. Isaiah 15:9, Psalms 105:29)

The like is symbolized by the rivers, ponds, and pools of water in Egypt being turned into blood (Exodus 7:15-25).

...the moon (shall be turned) into blood, before the coming of the great... day of Jehovah. (Joel 2:31)

...the moon became... blood. (Revelation 6:12)

In these places and many others, blood symbolizes the truth of the Word falsified, and also profaned. But this can be seen more clearly when these passages in the Word are read in context.

So, then, since blood in an opposite sense symbolizes the truth of the Word falsified or profaned, it is apparent that blood in a true sense symbolizes the truth of the Word not falsified.

  
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Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.