Bible

 

Exodus 17

Studie

   

1 And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, after their journeys, according to the commandment of the LORD, and pitched in Rephidim: and there was no water for the people to drink.

2 Wherefore the people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why chide ye with me? wherefore do ye tempt the LORD?

3 And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?

4 And Moses cried unto the LORD, saying, What shall I do unto this people? they be almost ready to stone me.

5 And the LORD said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel; and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand, and Go.

6 Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.

7 And he called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the LORD, saying, Is the LORD among us, or not?

8 Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim.

9 And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek: to morrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in mine hand.

10 So Joshua did as Moses had said to him, and fought with Amalek: and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill.

11 And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed: and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed.

12 But Moses' hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.

13 And Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.

14 And the LORD said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.

15 And Moses built an altar, and called the name of it Jehovah-nissi:

16 For he said, Because the LORD hath sworn that the LORD will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.

   

Ze Swedenborgových děl

 

Arcana Coelestia # 8604

Prostudujte si tuto pasáž

  
/ 10837  
  

8604. And it was when Moses lifted up his hand. That this signifies when the faith looked toward the Lord, with those who were of the spiritual church, is evident from the representation of Moses, as being truth Divine (of which frequently above); and from the signification of “lifting up the hand,” as being to determine the spiritual power upward, thus to the Lord. That “the hand” denotes spiritual power, see n. 6947, 7011; and because it denotes spiritual power it denotes faith; for all power in the spiritual world (that is, against falsities from evil) belongs to truth from good, or to faith from charity (n. 3563, 4932).

[2] What it is to look toward the Lord, and what it is to look toward the world and self; thus what it is to look above self, and what to look below self (see n. 7814-7821); namely, that to look above self is to look to the neighbor, to our country, to the church, to heaven, thus to the the Lord, (n. 7814, 7815, 7817); that to look below self is to look to the world and to self (n. 7817); that to look above self and below self is to have as the end and to love above all things (n. 7818); that man is distinguished from brutes by the fact that he can look above self and below self, and that when he looks above self, he is a man, but when below self, he is a beast (see n. 7821); and that to look above self is to be elevated by the the Lord, (n. 7816), for the Lord flows in with every man through the truth which is from Himself, whereby He gives life to man, because the light which is from the Lord is Divine truth, and is life (John 1:4).

[3] This Divine truth which is from the Lord flows into the good with man, and by means of it draws the man to itself; for the life which is from the Lord has a power of attracting, because it is from love, since all love has in it this power, inasmuch as it wills to be conjoined, so as to be a one. Then therefore a man is in good, and from good in truth, he is drawn by the Lord, and is conjoined with Him. This is meant by “looking upward to the Lord.” But when a man is not in good, thus not in truth from good, then too he is drawn by the Lord, but cannot be elevated, because evils and the derivative falsities turn themselves away. This is meant by “looking downward,” or “to self and the world.”

[4] That the Lord draws man to Himself, the Lord Himself teaches in John:

I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Myself (John 12:32).

From all this it can now be seen how it is to be understood that when the faith looked toward the Lord, the fighting truth conquered, and that when the faith looked downward from the Lord to self and the world, the falsity conquered, as is signified by Israel prevailing when Moses held up his hand, and by Amalek prevailing when he let down his hand.

  
/ 10837  
  

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