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Hesekiel 47

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1 Sitten hän vei minut takaisin temppelin ovelle. Ja katso, vettä kumpusi temppelin kynnyksen alta itään päin, sillä temppelin etusivu oli itää kohti. Ja vesi juoksi alas temppelin oikeanpuolisen sivuseinämän alitse, alttarin eteläpuolitse.

2 Sitten hän toi minut ulos pohjoisportin kautta ja kierrätti minut ulkopuolitse ulkoportille, joka antoi itää kohden; ja katso, vesi virtasi oikeanpuoliselta sivuseinämältä päin.

3 Mennessänsä itää kohti mies, mittanuora kädessään, mittasi tuhat kyynärää ja antoi minun käydä veden poikki: vettä oli nilkkoihin asti.

4 Sitten hän mittasi tuhat ja antoi minun käydä veden poikki: vettä oli polviin asti. Sitten hän mittasi tuhat ja antoi minun käydä poikki: vettä oli lanteisiin asti.

5 Sitten hän mittasi tuhat: tuli virta, jonka poikki minä en voinut käydä, sillä vesi nousi uimavedeksi, virraksi, josta ei voinut käydä poikki.

6 Niin hän kysyi minulta: "Oletko nähnyt, ihmislapsi?" ja kuljetti minua ja toi takaisin pitkin virran rantaa.

7 Mutta kun minä tulin takaisin, niin katso: virran rannalla kasvoi hyvin paljon puita molemmilla puolin.

8 Ja hän sanoi minulle: "Nämä vedet juoksevat itäiselle alueelle, virtaavat alas Aromaahan ja tulevat mereen; niiden jouduttua mereen vesi siinä paranee.

9 Ja kaikki elolliset, kaikki, jotka liikkuvat, virkoavat elämään kaikkialla, mihin tämä kaksoisvirta tulee. Ja kaloja on oleva hyvin paljon; sillä kun nämä vedet sinne tulevat ja vesi paranee, niin kaikki virkoaa elämään, minne vain virta tulee.

10 Ja kalastajia seisoo sen rannalla. Een-Gedistä Een-Eglaimiin asti se on oleva yhtä verkkoapajaa. Siinä on kaikenlaisia kaloja, aivan kuin suuren meren kaloja, hyvin paljon.

11 Sen rämeet ja lätäköt eivät parane: ne jätetään suolan valtaan.

12 Mutta virran varrella, sen molemmilla rannoilla, kasvaa kaikkinaisia hedelmäpuita. Niistä eivät lakastu lehdet eivätkä lopu hedelmät: joka kuukausi ne kantavat tuoreet hedelmät, sillä niitten vedet juoksevat pyhäköstä, ja niitten hedelmät ovat ravitsevaiset ja niitten lehdet parantavaiset.

13 Näin sanoo Herra, Herra: Tämä on raja, jonka mukaan teidän on jaettava maa perintöosiksi kahdelletoista Israelin sukukunnalle-Joosef saakoon kaksi osaa-.

14 Ja te saatte siitä perintöosan jokainen kohdaltansa; sillä minä olen kättä kohottaen luvannut antaa sen teidän isillenne, ja niin tämä maa tulee teille perintöosaksi.

15 Tämä on maan pohjoispuolinen raja: Suuresta merestä Hetlonin tietä siihen asti, mistä mennään Sedadiin.

16 Hamat, Beerota, Sibraim, joka on Damaskon alueen ja Hamatin alueen välissä, keskimmäinen Haaser, joka on Hauranin rajalla;

17 ja näin menee raja merestä Hasar-Eenoniin-Damaskon alue jää pohjoiseen ja pohjoiseen myös Hamatin alue. Tämä on pohjoispuoli.

18 Sitten itäpuoli: Hauranin ja Damaskon välistä sekä Gileadin ja Israelin maan välistä, Jordania pitkin. Mitatkaa se rajasta Idänmereen. Tämä on itäpuoli.

19 Sitten eteläpuoli, päivään päin: Taamarista Meriban veteen, joka on Kaadeksessa, Puroon ja Suureen mereen. Tämä on päivänpuoli, etelään päin.

20 Sitten länsipuoli: Suuri meri rajasta sen paikan kohdalle, mistä mennään Hamatiin. Tämä on länsipuoli.

21 Jakakaa tämä maa keskenänne Israelin sukukuntien mukaan.

22 Ja arpokaa se perintöosiksi itsellenne ja muukalaisille, jotka asuvat teidän keskuudessanne ja ovat synnyttäneet lapsia teidän keskuudessanne. Olkoot he teille saman arvoisia kuin maassa syntyneet israelilaiset: he saakoot arvalla perintöosan Israelin sukukuntain keskuudessa teidän kanssanne.

23 Missä sukukunnassa muukalainen asuu, siinä antakaa hänelle perintöosa, sanoo Herra, Herra."

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 994

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994. That 'every creeping thing that is living' means all pleasures containing good, which is living, is clear from the meaning of 'creeping thing' dealt with already. The fact that 'creeping thing' here means all clean beasts and birds is clear to everyone, for it is said that they are 'given for food'. In their proper sense 'creeping things' comprise those which were the basest of all, mentioned by name in Leviticus 11:27, 29-30, and were unclean. But in a broad sense, as here, they are the living creatures that have been given for food. They are called 'creeping things' here however because they mean pleasures. In the Word, human affections are meant by 'clean beasts', as has been stated. But because no one perceives those affections except within his pleasures, so much so that he refers to them as pleasures, they are for this reason called 'creeping things' here.

[2] There are two kinds of pleasures - those of the will and those of the understanding. In general there are the pleasures of possessing land and wealth; the pleasures of positions of honour and those of service to the state; the pleasures of conjugial love, and of love of infants and children; the pleasures of friendship and of social intercourse; the pleasures of reading, writing, having knowledge, being wise, and many others. Then there are the pleasures of the senses; such as that of hearing, which in general is the pleasure taken in the sweet sounds of music and song; that of seeing, which in general is the pleasure taken in various things of beauty, which are manifold; that of smell, which is that taken in pleasant odours; that of taste, which is that taken in all the delicious and nourishing qualities of food and drink; and that of touch, which arises from further joyous sensations. Because these different kinds of pleasures are experienced in the body, they are called pleasures of the body. But no pleasure ever arises in the body unless it arises from, and is sustained by, some interior affection. Nor does any interior affection ever do so unless this in turn stems from a still more interior affection in which use and the end in view reside.

[3] These areas of affection, which are interior and properly ordered, starting with the inmost, are not discerned by anyone during his lifetime. The majority scarcely know that they even exist, let alone that they are the source of pleasures. Yet nothing can possibly arise in things that are external except from those that are interior and in order. Pleasures are simply ultimate effects. Interior things are not evident during life in the body except to those who reflect. It is in the next life that they first manifest themselves, and indeed in the order in which the Lord raises them up towards heaven. Interior affections together with their joys manifest themselves in the world of spirits; still more interior ones together with their delights do so in the heaven of angelic spirits; and yet more interior ones together with all their happiness in the heaven of angels. For there are three heavens, one interior to and more perfect and happy than the next, see 459, 684. Such is the order in which these things unfold and enable themselves to be perceived in the next life. But so long as someone is living in the body, because his ideas and thought are constantly of bodily things, those that are interior are so to speak dormant because they are immersed in bodily things. All the same, to anyone who stops to reflect it becomes clear that the nature of all pleasures is such as are the affections ranged in order within them and that those pleasures derive their entire essence and character from those affections.

[4] Since the affections ranged in order within are experienced in outermost things, that is, in the body, as pleasures, they are therefore called 'creeping things'. But these are simply bodily feelings that are the products of things within, as may become clear to anyone merely from sight and its pleasures. If interior sight does not exist, the eye cannot possibly see. The sight of the eye comes from a more interior sight, and therefore also man has the gift of sight just as much after his life in the body as during it; indeed he sees far better than when he lived in the body, though now he does not see worldly and bodily things but things that exist in the next life. People who have been blind during their lifetime have the gift of sight in the next life just as much as those who have been sharp-sighted. This also is why when someone is asleep he sees in his dreams just as clearly as when awake. With my internal sight I have been allowed to see the things that exist in the next life more clearly than I see those which exist in the world. From these considerations it is clear that external sight comes from a more interior sight, which in turn comes from sight still more interior, and so on. The same applies to each one of the other senses and to every kind of pleasure.

[5] In other parts of the Word pleasures are in a similar way called 'creeping things'. In those places too a distinction is made between creeping things that are clean and those that are not, that is, between pleasures whose joys are living or heavenly, and pleasures whose joys are dead or hellish, as in Hosea,

I will make for them a covenant on that day with the wild animals of the field, and with the birds of the air, 1 and with the creeping things of the ground. Hosea 2:18.

Here 'wild animals of the field, birds of the air, 1 and creeping things' means the kind of things already mentioned that reside with man. This becomes clear for the reason that a new Church is the subject.

In David,

Let heaven and earth praise Jehovah, the seas and everything creeping in them. Psalms 69:34.

'Seas and creeping things in them' cannot praise Jehovah but the things with man which they mean and which are alive, and so from what is living within them.

In the same author,

Praise Jehovah, wild animal and every beast, creeping thing and winged bird. Psalms 148:10.

Here the meaning is similar. That 'creeping things' is used here to mean nothing other than good affections in which pleasures originate is clear also from the fact that creeping things among them were unclean, as will be evident from the following:

[6] In the same author,

O Jehovah, the earth is full of Your possessions; this sea, great and wide, containing creeping things and innumerable; they all look to You to give them their food in due season. You givest to them - they gather it up; You openest Your hand - they are satisfied with good. Psalms 104:24, 25, 27-28.

Here in the internal sense 'seas' means spiritual things, 'creeping things' all things that live from them. Fruitfulness is described by 'giving them food in due season and being satisfied with good'.

In Ezekiel,

It will be that every living creature 2 that creeps, in every place the [two] rivers come to, will live, and there will be very many fish, for these waters go there, and become fresh, and everything will live where the river goes. Ezekiel 47:9.

This refers to the waters flowing out of the New Jerusalem. 'Waters' stands for spiritual things from a celestial origin. 'Living creature that creeps' stands for affections for good and the pleasures deriving from these affections, both those of the body and those of the senses. The fact that the latter get their life from 'the waters' which are spiritual things from a celestial origin is quite clear.

[7] Filthy pleasures as well, which have their origin in the proprium and so in its foul desires, are also called 'creeping things'. This is clear in Ezekiel,

And I went and saw, and behold, every form of creeping thing and of beast, an abomination; and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed on the wall round about. Ezekiel 8:10.

Here 'the form of a creeping thing' means filthy pleasures in which evil desires exist interiorly, and hatred, revenge, cruelty, and adultery within these. Such is the nature of 'creeping things', that is, the delights inherent in pleasures which originate in self-love and love of the world, that is, in the proprium. They are people's idols because they consider them delightful, love them, hold them as gods, and in so doing worship them. Because those creeping things meant filthy things such as these, in the representative Church also they were so unclean that no one was even allowed to touch them. And anyone who did merely touch them was rendered unclean, as is clear from Leviticus 5:2; 11:31-33; 22:5-6.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. literally, bird of the heavens (or the skies)

2. literally, living soul

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

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Captive of Sin

Napsal(a) Bill Woofenden

"Valley Pasture," painted by Robert Seldon Duncanson in 1857

"Turn again our captivity, O Lord, as the streams of the south." Psalm 126:4

Additional readings: Ezekiel 47:1-12, Revelation 22:1-17, Psalms 121, 124, 125, 126

This week, as usual, our nation will observe November 11 as Armistice Day. It is good to keep in remembrance the close of conflicts and the blessedness of peace and to renew our belief in the final triumph of right.

The world has entered upon a new age. No rational person can doubt it, and in the years to come this will be seen ever more clearly. All peoples look forward to a time in which oppression and poverty will be overcome. For more than a century social forces have been at work to bring about a better world, and these social forces have been contending against mighty adverse forces: individual selfishness, the love of the world and its riches, and the love of dominion. These evil forces destroy the souls of men and bring forth the pernicious theories of the super-race and the super-state, which are the supreme manifestations of selfish and worldly loves.

We should remember also that these loves are not peculiar to the nations with which those theories are especially associated. It is such selfishness that captivates and enslaves men. We can rejoice that those powers which sought - and humanly speaking very nearly with success - to subject the human race to a cruel and wicked tyranny which would have proved calamitous alike to the tyrants and to their victims were defeated. Because of the victory, freedom of religion, freedom of thought, national freedom, freedom of the press, and freedom of the individual have been preserved.

The Psalm from which our text is taken refers to Israel's captivities. Long before the children of Israel had been slaves to Pharaoh and longed for release and freedom. The Psalm brings up the picture of the Nile River flowing into the Mediterranean Sea through many streams, enriching the land and making it productive. Without the Nile, rightly called by the ancients the River of Egypt, lower Egypt would be a desert. About September thirtieth the Nile is at its height; streams and canals are full and the thirsty land is drinking in its life, and soon the parched and desert lands blossom as the rose.

The psalmist says, "Turn again our captivity, O Lord." In the letter this Scripture refers to a physical bondage. Spiritually it tells of captivity to sin. Throughout the Word the wilderness and desert are used as symbols of states of life which are barren and in which no spiritual things can survive. We read, "Make straight in the desert a highway for our God" (Isaiah 40:3, Mark 1:3). This does not mean that we are to build roads in the desert. It means that we are to bring into a life that has been made desolate the living things of God. It means that into a life made barren of good through selfishness we should bring the truth and goodness which will make life happy and abundant.

No evil or selfish person is really happy or beautiful. Though for him life may not be hard in the sense that he lacks an abundance of material things, yet it is in fact a hard life. In such a life nothing really rejoices. The man is in captivity to self. His mind is in darkness and the gentle, loving, and kindly qualities of the heart are held captive.

We read, "There is a river the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God" (Psalm 46:4). Just as the streams of the Nile make glad the people who dwell along its course, so the water of truth from the Word turns the desert of life into beauty and joy. "It shall come to pass that everything that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the rivers shall come, shall live" (Ezekiel 47:9) And the reason is given, "because their waters they issued out of the sanctuary." "Because they issued out of the sanctuary!" (Ezekiel 47:12). That is why they bring life: they are the living truths that issue out of the Word of God.

There are seasons of the soul. The Word brings forth meat for the changing seasons of the spirit. It makes childhood happy and blessed, it gives vision to the youth, strength and victory to the mature, and peace to the aged. Some are in doubt as to whether the world will ever get any better. There will always be wars, they say; men and women will always be selfish. But the Lord through His Word can enlighten the minds of men and break their captivity to self and the world. In the light of the Word one can see the Lord's operation in history; he can see that the Lord reigns over all and that, in His Divine Providence, He is leading the world forward as fast as it will let Him. If we dwell by the banks of this stream we shall not fear for ourselves or for our children, nor shall we be discouraged. It is selfishness that leads to wars and the last Great War has brought about much questioning of the self-centered, self-derived principles in which men have placed their confidence—their confidence in their ability to direct and govern their personal lives and their moral and political life.

During the last war great parts of the world were laid waste and these must be rebuilt on better lines. Yet there would be no cities laid waste if there were no waste places in the human heart. In the realm of thought and conduct a rebuilding on a vast scale is likewise called for, and we have an opportunity such as was never given before to rebuild on better and. saner lines. For there are principles now revealed upon which a new and true human society can be built. But it cannot be built without the Lord. God created man that man might know Him, learn His laws, and living according to them be blessed with happiness and peace. His laws cannot be changed because they are the laws of infinite wisdom and love. To live in violation of them can bring nothing but disaster.

The experience through which the world has passed should lead us to put deeper trust in the Lord and make us more ready to learn of Him and to do His will. It is only in this way that there can be any advancement in individual or in national life. Increased inventions and improved machinery solve some external problems but they do not make better men. Love to the Lord and to the neighbor must supplant the love of self and the world. If Christianity means anything it means the power of the Lord in the human heart to remove evil and to impart new motives. The Israelites had lived in the delta of the Nile and yearly witnessed the transformation made by the "streams of the south," as the returning sun melted the snows, filled the streams, and made the land of Egypt fruitful. So we may, if we will, be witnesses to the power of the spirit of truth from the Word flowing into the mind and heart to free the soul from captivity and make it fruitful.

The prophet writes, "O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments, then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea" (Isaiah 48:18). What the Lord has in store for the world when it turns to Him surpasses the human imagination. The Lord's Word now opened to the understanding is in the world. It is the river of life. It can bring forth the abundant harvest of everything delightful and beautiful. It can heal all our diseases. It is like those streams of the south that turn desolation into beauty and. plenty. "Turn again our captivity, O Lord." Free us from wrong thinking, from desires that lay waste our lives.

"I will hear what God the Lord will speak: for he will speak peace unto his people and to his saints: but let them not turn again unto folly. Turn again our captivity, O Lord, as the streams of the south" (Psalm 85:8).