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Joel 3

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1 Sillä katso, niinä päivinä ja sillä ajalla, kuin minä Juudan ja Jerusalemin vankiuden palautan,

2 Tahdon minä koota kaikki pakanat, ja viedä heitä alas Josaphatin laaksoon; ja tahdon siellä heidän kanssansa riidellä, minun kansani ja minun perimiseni Israelin tähden, jonka he pakanain sekaan hajoittivat, ja jakoivat minun maani itsellensä,

3 Ja ovat minun kansastani arpaa heittäneet; ja ovat pojan porton edestä antaneet, ja piian myyneet viinan edestä, ja sen juoneet.

4 Mitä myös minun on teidän kanssanne, te Tyrosta ja Zidonista, ja te kaikki Philistealaisten rajat? vai tahdotteko te minulle kaiketi kostaa? Jos te minulle tahdotte kostaa, niin minä tahdon sen äkisti ja pian kostaa teidän päänne päälle.

5 Sillä te olette minun hopiani ja kultani ottaneet, ja minun kauniit kappaleeni teidän kirkkoihinne vieneet;

6 Ja myyneet Juudan ja Jerusalemin lapset Grekiläisille, heitä kauvas heidän rajoistansa saattaaksenne.

7 Katso, minä tahdon heidät sieltä herättää, johonka te heidät myyneet olette; ja tahdon sen kostaa teidän päänne päälle;

8 Ja tahdon myydä jälleen teidän poikanne ja tyttärenne Juudan lasten kautta; ne pitää heidät rikkaasen Arabiaan, kaukaisen maan kansalle myymän; sillä Herra on sen puhunut.

9 Julistakaat näitä pakanain seassa, pyhittäkäät sota, herättäkäät väkevät, käyköön edes, ja menköön ylös kaikki sotaväki.

10 Tehkäät vannanne miekoiksi ja viikahteenne keihäiksi. Ja joka heikko on, se sanokaan: minä olen väkevä.

11 Kootkaat teitänne, ja tulkaat tänne kaikki pakanat ympäristöltä, ja kootkaat teitänne; anna, Herra, sinun väkevät sinne astua alas.

12 Nouskaat pakanat ja menkäät ylös Josaphatin laaksoon; sillä minä tahdon siellä istua, ja tuomita kaikki pakanat ympäristöltä.

13 Sivaltakaat viikahteella, sillä elo on kypsä; tulkaat ja astukaat alas; sillä kuurnat ovat täydet, ja kuurna-astiat kuohuvat; sillä heidän pahuutensa on suuri.

14 Paljo kansaa pitää oleman ympärillä joka paikassa Tuomiolaaksossa; sillä Herran päivä on läsnä Tuomiolaaksossa.

15 Aurinko ja kuu pimenevät, ja tähdet peittävät valkeutensa.

16 Ja Herra on Zionista kiljuva, ja antaa kuulla äänensä Jerusalemista, että taivaan ja maan pitää vapiseman. Mutta Herra on kansansa turva, ja linna Israelin lapsille.

17 Ja teidän pitää tietämän, että minä Herra teidän Jumalanne asun Zionissa minun pyhällä vuorellani; silloin on Jerusalem pyhäksi tuleva, ja ei pidä muukalaisen käymän enään sen lävitse.

18 Sillä ajalla pitää vuoret makiaa viinaa tiukkuman, ja kukkulat rieskaa vuotaman, ja kaikki Juudan ojat pitää vettä täynnä oleman; ja lähde pitää Herran huoneessa käymän, ja Sittimin ojaan juokseman.

19 Vaan Egyptin pitää autioksi tuleman, ja Edom synkiäksi erämaaksi; sen vääryyden tähden, mikä Juudan lapsille tehty on, että he viattoman veren heidän maassansa vuodattaneet ovat.

20 Mutta Juudassa pitää ijankaikkisesti asuttaman, ja Jerusalemissa ijankaikkiseen aikaan.

21 Ja minä tahdon puhdistaa heidän verensä, jota en minä ennen ole puhdistanut; ja Herra on asuva Zionissa.

   


SWORD version by Tero Favorin (tero at favorin dot com)

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Apocalypse Revealed # 350

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350. Of the tribe of Judah twelve thousand were sealed. (7:5) This symbolizes celestial love, which is love toward the Lord, and this in all those people who will be in the Lord's New Heaven and New Church.

In the highest sense Judah symbolizes the Lord in relation to celestial love; in the spiritual sense, the Lord's celestial kingdom and the Word; and in the natural sense, the doctrine of a celestial church drawn from the Word. Here, however, Judah symbolizes celestial love, which is love toward the Lord; and because it is named first in the series, it symbolizes that love in all those people who will be in the New Heaven and in the Lord's New Church. For the tribe named first is everything in the rest, being to them as though their head and serving as a universal property entering into all those that follow, tying them together, qualifying them and affecting them. This property is love toward the Lord.

To be shown that twelve thousand symbolizes all who possess that love, see no. 348 above.

[2] People know that after the death of Solomon the twelve tribes of Israel were divided into two kingdoms: the kingdom of Judah and the kingdom of Israel. The kingdom of Judah represented the celestial kingdom or the Lord's priestly kingdom, while the kingdom of Israel represented the spiritual kingdom or the Lord's royal kingdom. But the latter was destroyed when the people had nothing spiritual left in them, whereas the kingdom of Judah was preserved, for the sake of the Word, and because the Lord would be born there. However, when the people adulterated the Word completely, and thus could not recognize the Lord, then their kingdom was destroyed.

It can be seen from this that the tribe of Judah symbolizes celestial love, which is love toward the Lord. But because the people were of the character they were with respect to the Word and with respect to the Lord, the tribe of Judah symbolizes also the opposite love, which is love of self - properly speaking, a love of dominating springing from a love of self - a love which we call diabolical love.

[3] The fact that Judah and his tribe symbolize the celestial kingdom and its love, which is love toward the Lord, follows from these passages:

Judah, your brothers shall praise you... The scepter shall not be taken from Judah... until Shiloh comes; and to Him shall be the obedience of the people. Binding his donkey's foal to the vine, his donkey's colt to the choice vine, he washes his garment in wine... His eyes are redder than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk. (Genesis 49:8-12)

...David shall be their prince forever, and I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them..., and I will set My sanctuary in their midst forevermore. (Ezekiel 37:25-26)

Exult and rejoice, O daughter of Zion! ...Jehovah will make Judah an inheritance for Himself, His portion on the holy land. (Zechariah 2:10-12)

O Judah, celebrate your feasts, perform your vows. For Belial 1 shall no more pass through you; he is utterly cut off. (Nahum 1:15)

The Lord... will suddenly come to His temple... Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be sweet to Jehovah as in the days of old... (Malachi 3:1, 4)

Judah shall abide forever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation. (Joel 3:20)

Behold, the days are coming..., that I will raise to David a righteous Branch... In His days Judah will be saved... (Jeremiah 23:5-6)

I will bring forth offspring from Jacob, and from Judah an heir of My mountains, that My elect may possess it... (Isaiah 65:9)

Judah became His sanctuary, and Israel His dominion. (Psalms 114:2)

Behold, the days are coming..., when I will make a new covenant... with the house of Judah... ...this will be the covenant...: I will put My law within them, and write it on their heart... (Jeremiah 31:27, 31, 33-34)

In those days ten men... shall grasp the sleeve of a Jewish man, saying, "We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you." (Zechariah 8:23)

...as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make shall remain before Me..., so shall your offspring and your name remain.

Kings (of the nations) shall be your foster fathers, their princesses your nursing mothers. They shall bow down to you, their faces to the ground, and lick the dust of your feet. (Isaiah 66:22; 49:23)

[4] From these and many other passages, which we do not have the space to cite because of their number, it can be clearly seen that Judah means not Judah but the church. We are told, for example, that the Lord would make a new and eternal covenant with that nation, that He would make it His heir and His sanctuary forevermore, and that kings of the nations and their princesses would bow down to them, licking the dust of their feet, and so on.

[5] That the tribe of Judah, regarded in itself, means the diabolic kingdom, which is one of a love of dominating springing from a love of self, can be seen from the following passages:

I will hide My face from them, I will see what their posterity will be. ...they are a perverse generation, children in whom is no faith... ...they are a nation void of counsel... ...their vine is of the vine of Sodom and of the fields of Gomorrah; its grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter. Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps. Is this not laid up in store with Me, sealed up in My treasuries? (Deuteronomy 32:20-34)

(Know that) it is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart... that Jehovah... is... giving you (the land of Canaan)..., for you are a stiff-necked people. (Deuteronomy 9:5-6)

...according to the number of your cities have been your gods, O Judah... ...according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem you have set up altars... to burn incense to Baal. (Jeremiah 2:28; 11:13)

You are of your father the devil, and you choose to do the desires of your father. (John 8:44)

Jews are said to be full of hypocrisy, iniquity, and uncleanness (Matthew 23:27-28.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. In the Old Testament, the personification of wickedness and destruction, originally conceived perhaps as some sort of spirit demon.

  
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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.

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Divine Providence # 264

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264. 2. Doubts about divine providence may be raised by the fact that until now people have not known that there is spiritual meaning in the details of the Word and that this is the basis of its holiness. It may raise doubts about divine providence when people ask, "Why is this only being revealed now? And why is it happening through this particular individual, and not through some prominent clergyman?" Whether it is some prominent clergyman or some prominent clergyman's servant, though, is up to the Lord. He knows the nature of each.

There are two reasons, though, that this meaning of the Word has not been revealed earlier. The first is that if it had been revealed earlier, the church would have profaned it, and in so doing would have profaned the very holiness of the Word; and the second is that the genuine truths that constitute the Word's spiritual meaning could not be revealed until the Last Judgment had been completed and the new church meant by the Holy Jerusalem was being founded by the Lord. But let us look at these separately.

[2] (a) The Word's spiritual meaning was not revealed earlier because if it had been, the church would have profaned it, and in so doing would have profaned the very holiness of the Word. Not long after the church was begun it turned into a Babylon, and later it turned into a Philistia. Babylon does actually recognize the Word, but it looks down on it. They say that the Holy Spirit gives just as much inspiration to the members of its supreme council as it did to the prophets. They recognize the Word because the papacy was founded on the Lord's words to Peter, but they still look down on it because it does not agree with them. That is why they have taken it away from the people and hidden it in monasteries, where there are few who actually read it. So if the spiritual meaning had been revealed, where the Lord and all angelic wisdom are present, they would have profaned the Word not only as it is in its outermost form, in what we find in the literal meaning, but in its deepest meanings as well.

[3] Philistia too (meaning faith separated from charity) would have profaned the Word's spiritual meaning, because as already noted [258] it puts salvation in some words that we are to think about and say and not in good deeds that we are to do. So it attributes the power to save to something that has no such power. Particularly, it creates a gap between our intelligence and what we are to believe. For people like this, what becomes of the light that the spiritual meaning of the Word is in? Does it not turn into darkness? And when the outer meaning is turned into darkness, what else can happen to the spiritual meaning? Does anyone who has decided on faith separated from charity and on justification by that kind of faith want to know what a good life really is, what love for the Lord and our neighbor are, what caring and its good effects are, what good actions are, what "doing" is--actually what faith is in its essence, or any of the real truth that constitutes it? Such people write volumes, and all they do is prove what they call faith, claiming that all the things I have just listed are inherent in that faith.

We can see from this that if spiritual meaning had been disclosed earlier, it would have turned out as described by the Lord's words in Matthew, "If your eye had been evil, your whole body would have been full of darkness. So if the light that is in you is darkness, what a darkness!" (Matthew 6:23). In the Word's spiritual meaning, "the eye" means our discernment.

[4] (b) The genuine truths that constitute the Word's spiritual meaning could not be revealed by the Lord until the Last Judgment had been completed and the new church meant by the Holy Jerusalem was being founded by the Lord. The Lord foretold in the Book of Revelation that after the Last Judgment had been completed genuine truths would be disclosed, a new church would be begun, and spiritual meaning would be disclosed. On the completion of the Last Judgment, see what is presented in the booklet Last Judgment and in its supplement. This is the meaning of the heaven and earth that will pass away (Revelation 21:1). The disclosure of genuine truths is foretold by these words in the Book of Revelation, "The one sitting on the throne said, 'Look! I am making all things new!'" (Revelation 21:5). See also Revelation 19:17-18; Revelation 21:18-21; and Revelation 22:1-2. On the need for a revelation of the Word's spiritual meaning, see Revelation 19:11-16. This is the meaning of the white horse on which was seated the one called "The Word of God," the Lord of Lords and King of Kings. On this, see the booklet on The White Horse. On the holy Jerusalem meaning a new church that the Lord would begin, see Teachings for the New Jerusalem on the Lord 62-65, where this is explained.

[5] We can see, then, that the Word's spiritual meaning was to be revealed for a new church that would recognize and worship the Lord alone and would keep his Word holy, loving divine truths and rejecting any faith that is separated from charity. There is more about this meaning of the Word, though, in Teachings for the New Jerusalem on Sacred Scripture 5-26 and following. There the nature of the spiritual meaning is discussed in 5-26. Its presence throughout the Word and in every detail is discussed in 9-17; the spiritual meaning as the reason that the Word is divinely inspired and holy in every word, in 18-19; why the spiritual meaning has as yet been unknown and was not revealed earlier, in 20-25; and the granting of the spiritual meaning, from now on, only to people who have genuine truths from the Lord, in 26.

[6] We can therefore tell that it is under the Lord's divine providence that the spiritual meaning has been hidden from the world until this present age, and has been kept safe in the meanwhile among angels, who draw their wisdom from it. This meaning was known and cherished by the people of very ancient times, the ones who lived before Moses; but since their descendants took the correspondential relationships that were the sole basis of their Word and therefore of their religion and diverted them to various forms of idolatry (and to magic in Egypt), that meaning was closed off under the Lord's divine providence, first among Israelites and later among Christians, for the reasons just given. Only now is it being opened for the Lord's new church.

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