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出エジプト記 7

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1 モーセに言われた、「見よ、わたしはあなたをパロに対して神のごときものとする。あなたの兄弟アロンはあなたの預言者となるであろう。

2 あなたはわたしが命じることを、ことごとく彼に告げなければならない。そしてあなたの兄弟アロンはパロに告げて、イスラエルの人々をそのから去らせるようにさせなければならない。

3 しかし、わたしはパロのをかたくなにするので、わたしのしるしと不思議をエジプトに多く行っても、

4 パロはあなたがたの言うことを聞かないであろう。それでわたしはエジプトの上に加え、大いなるさばきをくだして、わたしの団、わたしの民イスラエルの人々を、エジプトから導き出すであろう。

5 わたしがエジプトの上にさし伸べて、イスラエルの人々を彼らのうちから導き出す時、エジプトびとはわたしがであることを知るようになるであろう」。

6 モーセとアロンはそのように行った。すなわちが彼らに命じられたように行った。

7 彼らがパロと語った時、モーセ八十歳、アロンは八十三歳であった。

8 モーセとアロンに言われた、

9 「パロがあなたがたに、『不思議をおこなって証拠を示せ』と言う時、あなたはアロンに言いなさい、『あなたのつえを取って、パロのに投げなさい』と。するとそれはへびになるであろう」。

10 それで、モーセとアロンはパロのところに行き、主の命じられたとおりにおこなった。すなわちアロンはそのつえを、パロとその家来たちのに投げると、それはへびになった。

11 そこでパロもまた知者と魔法使を召し寄せた。これらのエジプトの魔術師らもまた、その秘術をもって同じように行った。

12 すなわち彼らは、おのおのそのつえを投げたが、それらはへびになった。しかし、アロンのつえは彼らのつえを、のみつくした。

13 けれども、パロのはかたくなになって、主の言われたように、彼らの言うことを聞かなかった。

14 モーセに言われた、「パロのはかたくなで、彼は民を去らせることを拒んでいる。

15 あなたは、あすの、パロのところに行きなさい。見よ、彼はのところに出ている。あなたは、へびに変ったあのつえをに執り、ナイル川の岸に立って彼に会い、

16 そして彼に言いなさい、『ヘブルびとのがわたしをあなたにつかわして言われます、「わたしの民を去らせ、荒野で、わたしに仕えるようにさせよ」と。しかし今もなお、あなたが聞きいれようとされないので、

17 はこう仰せられます、「これによってわたしがであることを、あなたは知るでしょう。見よ、わたしがにあるつえでナイル川のを打つと、それはに変るであろう。

18 そして川の魚は死に、川は臭くなり、エジプトびとは川のを飲むことをいとうであろう」』と」。

19 はまたモーセに言われた、「あなたはアロンに言いなさい、『あなたのつえを執って、エジプトの上、の上、流れの上、池の上、またそのすべてのたまりの上にさし伸べて、それをにならせなさい。エジプトにわたって、の器、石の器にも、があるようになるでしょう』と」。

20 モーセとアロンは主の命じられたようにおこなった。すなわち、彼はパロとその家来たちのの前で、つえをあげてナイル川のを打つと、川のは、ことごとくに変った。

21 それで川の魚は死に、川は臭くなり、エジプトびとは川のを飲むことができなくなった。そしてエジプトにわたってがあった。

22 エジプトの魔術師らも秘術をもって同じようにおこなった。しかし、主の言われたように、パロのはかたくなになり、彼らの言うことを聞かなかった。

23 パロは身をめぐらしてに入り、またこのことをもに留めなかった。

24 すべてのエジプトびとはナイル川のが飲めなかったので、飲むを得ようと、川のまわりを掘った

25 がナイル川を打たれてのち七を経た。

   

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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.