Bible

 

Deuteronomy 4

Studie

   

1 Now therefore hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and unto the judgments, which I teach you, for to do them, that ye may live, and go in and possess the land which the LORD God of your fathers giveth you.

2 Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.

3 Your eyes have seen what the LORD did because of Baal-peor: for all the men that followed Baal-peor, the LORD thy God hath destroyed them from among you.

4 But ye that did cleave unto the LORD your God are alive every one of you this day.

5 Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the LORD my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it.

6 Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.

7 For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the LORD our God is in all things that we call upon him for?

8 And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?

9 Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons' sons;

10 Specially the day that thou stoodest before the LORD thy God in Horeb, when the LORD said unto me, Gather me the people together, and I will make them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days that they shall live upon the earth, and that they may teach their children.

11 And ye came near and stood under the mountain; and the mountain burned with fire unto the midst of heaven, with darkness, clouds, and thick darkness.

12 And the LORD spake unto you out of the midst of the fire: ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude; only ye heard a voice.

13 And he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone.

14 And the LORD commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go over to possess it.

15 Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves; for ye saw no manner of similitude on the day that the LORD spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire:

16 Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female,

17 The likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that flieth in the air,

18 The likeness of any thing that creepeth on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth:

19 And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the LORD thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven.

20 But the LORD hath taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, even out of Egypt, to be unto him a people of inheritance, as ye are this day.

21 Furthermore the LORD was angry with me for your sakes, and sware that I should not go over Jordan, and that I should not go in unto that good land, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance:

22 But I must die in this land, I must not go over Jordan: but ye shall go over, and possess that good land.

23 Take heed unto yourselves, lest ye forget the covenant of the LORD your God, which he made with you, and make you a graven image, or the likeness of any thing, which the LORD thy God hath forbidden thee.

24 For the LORD thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God.

25 When thou shalt beget children, and children's children, and ye shall have remained long in the land, and shall corrupt yourselves, and make a graven image, or the likeness of any thing, and shall do evil in the sight of the LORD thy God, to provoke him to anger:

26 I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that ye shall soon utterly perish from off the land whereunto ye go over Jordan to possess it; ye shall not prolong your days upon it, but shall utterly be destroyed.

27 And the LORD shall scatter you among the nations, and ye shall be left few in number among the heathen, whither the LORD shall lead you.

28 And there ye shall serve gods, the work of men's hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.

29 But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.

30 When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee, even in the latter days, if thou turn to the LORD thy God, and shalt be obedient unto his voice;

31 (For the LORD thy God is a merciful God;) he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them.

32 For ask now of the days that are past, which were before thee, since the day that God created man upon the earth, and ask from the one side of heaven unto the other, whether there hath been any such thing as this great thing is, or hath been heard like it?

33 Did ever people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as thou hast heard, and live?

34 Or hath God assayed to go and take him a nation from the midst of another nation, by temptations, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by a stretched out arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?

35 Unto thee it was shewed, that thou mightest know that the LORD he is God; there is none else beside him.

36 Out of heaven he made thee to hear his voice, that he might instruct thee: and upon earth he shewed thee his great fire; and thou heardest his words out of the midst of the fire.

37 And because he loved thy fathers, therefore he chose their seed after them, and brought thee out in his sight with his mighty power out of Egypt;

38 To drive out nations from before thee greater and mightier than thou art, to bring thee in, to give thee their land for an inheritance, as it is this day.

39 Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that the LORD he is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath: there is none else.

40 Thou shalt keep therefore his statutes, and his commandments, which I command thee this day, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee, and that thou mayest prolong thy days upon the earth, which the LORD thy God giveth thee, for ever.

41 Then Moses severed three cities on this side Jordan toward the sunrising;

42 That the slayer might flee thither, which should kill his neighbour unawares, and hated him not in times past; and that fleeing unto one of these cities he might live:

43 Namely, Bezer in the wilderness, in the plain country, of the Reubenites; and Ramoth in Gilead, of the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan, of the Manassites.

44 And this is the law which Moses set before the children of Israel:

45 These are the testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgments, which Moses spake unto the children of Israel, after they came forth out of Egypt,

46 On this side Jordan, in the valley over against Beth-peor, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt at Heshbon, whom Moses and the children of Israel smote, after they were come forth out of Egypt:

47 And they possessed his land, and the land of Og king of Bashan, two kings of the Amorites, which were on this side Jordan toward the sunrising;

48 From Aroer, which is by the bank of the river Arnon, even unto mount Sion, which is Hermon,

49 And all the plain on this side Jordan eastward, even unto the sea of the plain, under the springs of Pisgah.

   

Ze Swedenborgových děl

 

Apocalypse Explained # 787

Prostudujte si tuto pasáž

  
/ 1232  
  

787. And the whole earth wondered after the beast, signifies the acceptance of these by the more learned in the church, and the reception from afar by the less learned. This is evident from the signification of "to wonder after the beast," as being (in reference to the disagreement with the Word apparently cleared away by devised conjunctions of works with faith) the acceptance by the more learned, and the reception by the less learned (of which presently). Also from the signification of "earth," as being the church (See above, n. 29, 304, 417, 697, 741, 742, 752). "The whole earth wondered after the beast" signifies acceptance and reception, because wondering attracts, and those who are attracted follow.

[2] In the Word mention is frequently made of "going" and "walking after God," "after other gods," "after a leader," and "after many;" and these expressions signify to follow and acknowledge in heart, also to be and to live with them, and to be consociated, as in the following passages. In the first book of Kings:

David hath kept My commandments, and hath walked after Me with his whole heart, to do that which is right in Mine eyes (1 Kings 14:8).

In the first book of Samuel:

The sons of Jesse had gone after Saul to the war (1 Samuel 17:13).

In Moses:

Thou shalt not follow after many to evils; thou shalt not answer respecting a cause of strife to turn aside after many (Exodus 23:2).

In Jeremiah:

Thou shalt not go after other gods whom thou hast not known (Jeremiah 7:9).

In the same:

They went after other gods to serve them (Jeremiah 11:10; Deuteronomy 8:19).

In Moses:

The man who shall go after Baal-peor, Jehovah thy God will destroy from the midst of thee (Deuteronomy 4:3).

From this it is evident that "to go after" anyone signifies to follow him, obey him, act from him, and live from him; "to walk and live" 1 also signifies to live. From this it can be seen that "to wonder after the beast" signifies acceptance and reception from the persuasion that the disagreement with the Word is apparently cleared away.

[3] Acceptance by the more learned and reception from afar by the less learned is signified, because the modes of conjoining faith with its life, which is good works, were devised by the learned; while the less learned, because they were unable to investigate interiorly these disagreements, received them, each one according to his apprehension; consequently this dogma, that faith alone is the essential means of salvation, has been received in the whole earth, or in the Christian Church.

[4] It shall be explained also in a few words how the chief point of that religion, namely, that in faith alone there is salvation, and not in good works, has been apparently cleared away, and is therefore accepted by the learned. For these have devised stages of the progress of faith to good works, which they call steps of justification. They make the first step to be the hearing from masters and preachers, the second step information from the Word that it is so; the third step acknowledgment; and since nothing of the church can be acknowledged in heart unless temptation precede, therefore they join temptation to this step; and if the doubts that are then encountered are dissipated by the Word or by the preacher, and thus the man conquers, they say that the man has confidence, which is a certainty that it is so, and also confidence that he is saved by the Lord's merit. But as the doubts that are encountered in temptation arise chiefly from not understanding the Word, where "deeds," "works," "doing," and "working" are so often mentioned, they say that the understanding must be held in check under obedience to faith. Hence follows the fourth step, which is the endeavor to do good; and in this they rest, saying that when man arrives at this stage he has been justified, and that then all the acts of his life are accepted by God, and the evils of his life are not seen by God, because they are pardoned. This conjunction of faith with good works has been devised by the learned and also accepted by them. But this conjunction rarely extends to the common people, both because it transcends the comprehension of some of them, and because they are for the most part engaged in their business and employments, and these divert the mind from gaining an understanding of the inner mysteries of this doctrine.

[5] But the conjunction of faith with good works, and thereby apparent agreement with the Word, is received in a different manner by the less learned. These know nothing about the steps of justification, but believe that faith alone is the only means of salvation; and when they see from the Word and hear from the preacher that goods must be done and that man will be judged according to his works, they think that faith produces good works, for they know no otherwise than that faith is to know the things that the preacher teaches, and thence to think that it is so; and because this comes first they believe that faith produces good works, which they call the fruits of faith, not knowing that such a faith is a faith of the memory only, and viewed in itself is historical faith, because it is from another, and thus another's with themselves, and that such a faith can never bring forth any good fruit. Into this error most of those in the Christian world have fallen, for the reason that faith alone has been received as the chief means, yea, as the only means of salvation. But how faith and charity, or believing and doing, make one shall be told hereafter.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. The photolithograph has "ambulare et vivere significat vivere;" "to walk and live signifies to live."

  
/ 1232  
  

Thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation for their permission to use this translation.