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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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True Christian Religion # 28

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28. (i) GOD IS INFINITE, BECAUSE HE-IS AND COMES INTO BEING IN HIMSELF, AND EVERYTHING IN THE UNIVERSE IS AND COMES INTO BEING FROM HIM.

It has so far been shown that God is one and is the very and first Being of everything, and that all things which are, come into being and subsist in the universe, are from Him. It follows from this that He is infinite. In the following pages it will be proved that human reason can see the truth of that from very many things in the created universe. But although these things can lead the human mind to acknowledge that the prime Entity (Ens) or first Being (Esse) is infinite, it still cannot know its nature; and therefore cannot define it except as the total infinite, subsisting in itself and thus the very and sole substance; and since nothing can be predicated of substance without form, that it is the very and sole form. Yet where does this get us? This still does not show what the infinite is like. For the human mind, for all its loftiness and superb analytical power, is finite, and there is no way of rendering it anything but finite. Therefore it is incapable of seeing the infinity of God as it is in itself, and so seeing God; but it can see God in shadow from behind, as Moses was told when he begged to see God: he was placed in a cleft in the rock and saw His back parts (Exodus 33:20-23). The 'back parts of God' mean what is visible in the world, and in particular what can be perceived in the Word.

[2] This will prove that it is futile to want to know God as He is in His Being or in His Substance; but it is enough to acknowledge Him by finite things, that is, His creation, in which He dwells infinitely. A person who seeks to go further can be likened to a fish out of water, or a bird put into a vacuum chamber, which, as the air is pumped out, chokes and eventually dies.

He may also be likened to a ship overwhelmed by a storm and no longer answering the helm, which is driven upon rocks or sandbanks. This is what happens to those who want to know the infinity of God from within, and are not content to acknowledge it by its plain indications from without. The story is told of a certain philosopher among the ancients, who threw himself into the sea because his mental enlightenment did not enable him to see or comprehend the eternity of the cosmos; what would he have done, if it had been the infinity of God he wished to see?

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