11
Sano: Minä olen teille ennusmerkki: niinkuin minä tein, niin heille tehdään, pakkosiirtolaisuuteen, vankeuteen he menevät.
Hesekiel 12:11
Doctrine of the Lord # 16
16. The state of the church founded on the Word and represented in the prophets was what bearing the iniquities and sins of the people means. The reality of this is apparent from what we are told about the prophet Isaiah, that he went naked and barefoot for three years as a sign and a wonder (Isaiah 20:3); and about the prophet Ezekiel, that he made containers for departure and covered his face so as not to see the ground, so that he was thus a sign to the house of Israel. He also said, “Behold, I am a sign to you” (Ezekiel 12:6, 11).
[2] That they regarded this as bearing iniquities is clearly apparent in the case of Ezekiel when he was ordered to lie for a period of three hundred days and a period of forty days on his left and right sides facing Jerusalem, and to eat a barley cake made with cow dung, in a passage where we also read the following:
Lie on your left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it. For the number of the days that you lie on it, you shall bear their iniquity. For I will lay on you the years of their iniquity reflected in the number of the days, three hundred and ninety, that you may bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. Then, when you have completed them, lie again on your right side, that you may bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days. (Ezekiel 4:4-6)
[3] By bearing in this way the iniquities of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah, the prophet did not take away those iniquities or thereby atone for them, but only represented and portrayed them, as is apparent in the same chapter from the following:
“Thus, ” says Jehovah, “shall the children of Israel eat their unclean bread among the nations where I will drive them.... Behold, I am breaking the staff of bread in Jerusalem..., that they may lack bread and water, and be left desolate, each man and his brother, and waste away because of their iniquity.” (Ezekiel 4:13, 16-17)
[4] So, too, when the same prophet showed himself and said, “I am a sign to you, ” saying also, “As I have done, so shall it be done to them” (Ezekiel 12:6, 11).
The same thing is therefore meant where we are told regarding the Lord, “He has borne our diseases.” “He has carried our sorrows.” “Jehovah has laid on Him the iniquities of us all.” “By His knowledge He shall justify many by His bearing their iniquities.” (Isaiah 53:4, 6, 11) This in a chapter whose subject throughout is the Lord’s suffering.
[5] That the Lord, as the grand prophet, represented the state of the church in relation to the Word, is apparent from the particulars of His suffering, as for example, that He was betrayed by Judas; that the chief priests and elders arrested Him and condemned Him; that they struck Him blows; that they struck Him on the head with a reed; that they put on it a crown of thorns; that they divided His garments, and for His tunic cast lots; that they crucified Him; that they gave Him vinegar to drink; that they pierced His side; that He was entombed, and on the third day rose again.
[6] The Lord’s being betrayed by Judas symbolized His betrayal by the Jewish nation, who had the Word; for Judas represented that nation.
The Lord’s being arrested and condemned by the chief priests and elders symbolized His having been so treated by the whole Jewish Church.
His being whipped, spat upon in the face, struck blows, and struck on the head with a reed symbolized the Jews’ treatment of the Word in a similar way in respect to its Divine truths, all of which have to do with the Lord.
His having a crown of thorns put on Him symbolized the Jews’ falsification and adulteration of those truths.
Their dividing the Lord’s garments and casting lots for His tunic symbolized their having done away with all the Word’s truths, but not its spiritual sense — the Lord’s tunic symbolizing that level of meaning in the Word.
Their crucifying the Lord symbolized their destruction and profanation of the entire Word.
Their offering Him vinegar to drink symbolized nothing but truths falsified and falsities, which is why He did not drink it, and why He then said, “It is finished.”
Their piercing His side symbolized their complete extinction of every truth in the Word and every goodness in it.
His being entombed symbolized His rejection of any remaining human quality received from His mother.
His rising again on the third day symbolized His glorification.
[7] The same things are symbolized by those passages in the Prophets and Psalms where they are foretold.
As a consequence, after the Lord had been whipped and brought out wearing the crown of thorns and a purple garment that the soldiers put on Him, He said, “Behold, the man!” (John 19:1, 5). He said this because “the man” symbolizes the church, inasmuch as the Son of man symbolizes the truth of the church, thus the Word.
It is apparent from this now that to bear iniquities means to represent and portray in person sins against the Word’s Divine truths.
We shall see later that the Lord endured and suffered these things as the Son of man, and not as the Son of God; for the Son of man symbolizes the Lord in relation to the Word.
Published by the General Church of the New Jerusalem, 1100 Cathedral Road, Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania 19009, U.S.A. A translation of Doctrina Novae Hierosolymae de Domino, by Emanuel Swedenborg, 1688-1772. Translated from the Original Latin by N. Bruce Rogers. ISBN 9780945003687, Library of Congress Control Number: 2013954074.
Ezekiel 3
1
He said to me, Son of man, eat that which you find. eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.
2
So I opened my mouth, and he caused me to eat the scroll.
3
He said to me, Son of man, cause your belly to eat, and fill your bowels with this scroll that I give you. Then I ate it; and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth.
4
He said to me, Son of man, go to the house of Israel, and speak my words to them.
5
For you are not sent to a people of a strange speech and of a hard language, but to the house of Israel;
6
not to many peoples of a strange speech and of a hard language, whose words you can not understand. Surely, if I sent you to them, they would listen to you.
7
But the house of Israel will not listen to you; for they will not listen to me: for all the house of Israel are obstinate and hard-hearted.
8
Behold, I have made your face hard against their faces, and your forehead hard against their foreheads.
9
As an adamant harder than flint have I made your forehead: don't be afraid of them, neither be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house.
10
Moreover he said to me, Son of man, all my words that I shall speak to you receive in your heart, and hear with your ears.
11
Go to them of the captivity, to the children of your people, and speak to them, and tell them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh; whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear.
12
Then the Spirit lifted me up, and I heard behind me the voice of a great rushing, [saying], Blessed be the glory of Yahweh from his place.
13
[I heard] the noise of the wings of the living creatures as they touched one another, and the noise of the wheels beside them, even the noise of a great rushing.
14
So the Spirit lifted me up, and took me away; and I went in bitterness, in the heat of my spirit; and the hand of Yahweh was strong on me.
15
Then I came to them of the captivity at Tel Aviv, that lived by the river Chebar, and to where they lived; and I sat there overwhelmed among them seven days.
16
It happened at the end of seven days, that the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,
17
Son of man, I have made you a watchman to the house of Israel: therefore hear the word from my mouth, and give them warning from me.
18
When I tell the wicked, You shall surely die; and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at your hand.
19
Yet if you warn the wicked, and he doesn't turn from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul.
20
Again, when a righteous man does turn from his righteousness, and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die: because you have not given him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteous deeds which he has done shall not be remembered; but his blood will I require at your hand.
21
Nevertheless if you warn the righteous man, that the righteous not sin, and he does not sin, he shall surely live, because he took warning; and you have delivered your soul.
22
The hand of Yahweh was there on me; and he said to me, Arise, go forth into the plain, and I will there talk with you.
23
Then I arose, and went forth into the plain: and behold, the glory of Yahweh stood there, as the glory which I saw by the river Chebar; and I fell on my face.
24
Then the Spirit entered into me, and set me on my feet; and he spoke with me, and said to me, Go, shut yourself inside your house.
25
But you, son of man, behold, they shall lay bands on you, and shall bind you with them, and you shall not go out among them:
26
and I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth, that you shall be mute, and shall not be to them a reprover; for they are a rebellious house.
27
But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth, and you shall tell them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: He who hears, let him hear; and he who forbears, let him forbear: for they are a rebellious house.
