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Exodus 33

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1 And Jehovah spoke to Moses, Go, go·​·up from hence, thou and the people which thou hast made to come·​·up out of the land of Egypt, to the land which I promised to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, To thy seed will I give it;

2 and I will send before thee an angel; and I will drive·​·out the Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite;

3 to a land flowing with milk and honey; for I will not go·​·up in the midst of thee; for a stiff necked people art thou; lest I should consume· thee ·all in the way.

4 And the people heard this evil word, and they mourned; and they put not any man his decoration upon him.

5 And Jehovah said to Moses, Say to the sons of Israel, You are a stiff necked people; I will come·​·up into the midst of thee in one moment, and will consume· thee ·all; and now bring·​·down thine decorations from on thee, and I shall know what I will do to thee.

6 And the sons of Israel stripped themselves of their decoration, by Mount Horeb*.

7 And Moses took the tent, and stretched it for himself outside the camp, to be·​·far·​·away from the camp; and he called it the tent of the congregation. And it was, that everyone seeking Jehovah went·​·out to the tent of the congregation that was outside the camp.

8 And it was, as Moses went·​·out to the tent, all the people rose·​·up, and each·​·man stood·​·up at the entrance of his tent, and looked behind Moses, until he came·​·into the tent.

9 And it was, as Moses came·​·into the tent, the pillar of cloud went·​·down, and stood at the entrance of the tent, and spoke with Moses.

10 And all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent; and all the people rose·​·up and bowed· themselves ·down, each·​·man at the entrance of his tent.

11 And Jehovah spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his companion. And he returned to the camp; and his minister Joshua the son of Nun, a lad, departed not from the midst of the tent.

12 And Moses said to Jehovah, See, Thou sayest to me, Make this people come up; and Thou hast· not ·made·​·known to me whom Thou wilt send with me. And Thou hast said, I know thee by name, and thou hast· also ·found grace in My eyes.

13 And now, I pray, if I have found grace in Thine eyes, make·​·known to me, I pray, Thy way, that I may know Thee, because I have found grace in Thine eyes; and see that this nation is Thy people.

14 And He said, My faces shall go, and I will give thee rest.

15 And he said to Him, If Thy faces go not, do not make us go up from hence.

16 And in what shall it then become·​·known that I have·​·found grace in Thine eyes, I and Thy people? is it not in Thy going with us? And we shall be set·​·apart, I and Thy people, above all the people that are on the faces of the ground.

17 And Jehovah said to Moses, I will do this word also that thou hast spoken; because thou hast·​·found grace in My eyes, and I know thee by name.

18 And he said, Make me see, I pray, Thy glory.

19 And He said, I will make all My goodness to pass upon thy faces, and will proclaim in the name of Jehovah before thee; and I will be·​·gracious to whom I am·​·gracious, and I will have·​·compassion with whom I have·​·compassion.

20 And He said, Thou art· not ·able to see My faces; for man shall not see Me and live.

21 And Jehovah said, Behold, a place with Me, and thou shalt stand·​·up on the rock;

22 and it shall be when My glory passes·​·by, that I will set thee in a cleft of the rock, and will shelter with My palm over thee, until I have passed·​·by.

23 And I will remove the palm of My hand, and thou shalt see My back; and My faces shall not be seen.

   


Thanks to the Kempton Project for the permission to use this New Church translation of the Word.

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Apocalypse Revealed # 54

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54. And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as though dead. (1:17) This symbolically means that he experienced a failure of his own life owing to such a presence of the Lord.

A person's own life cannot endure the presence of the Lord such as the Lord is in Himself, indeed such as He is in the inmost constituents of His Word. For His Divine love is altogether like the sun, which no one can endure as it is in itself, because it would consume him.

This is the meaning of the declaration that no one can see God and live (Exodus 33:20, Judges 13:22).

This being the case, the Lord therefore appears to angels in heaven as the sun, at a distance from them, like the world's sun from people. That is because the Lord in that sun is present as He is in Himself.

But still the Lord moderates and tempers His Divinity so as to make it possible for a person to endure His presence. This He does by veilings. It was what He did when He revealed Himself to many people in the Word. Indeed, it is by veilings that He is present in everyone who worships Him. As He says in John,

He who... keeps (My commandments)..., in him (I) will make (My) abode. (John 14:21, 23)

And He says that He must be in them and they in Him (John 15:4-5).

It is apparent from this why, when John saw the Lord in such glory, he fell at His feet as though dead. And why, too, when three of the disciples saw the Lord in His glory, they were "heavy with sleep," and a cloud covered them (Luke 9:32, 34).

  
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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.