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Arcana Coelestia # 6804
6804. 'And God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob' means on account of being joined to the Church through the Lord's Divine Human. This is clear from the meaning of 'the covenant' as a joining together, dealt with below; and from the representation of 'Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob', with whom a covenant had been made, as the Lord's Divine Human. 'Abraham' represents the Lord in respect of the Divine itself, 'Isaac' in respect of the Divine Rational, and 'Jacob' in respect of the Divine Natural, see 1893, 2011, 2066, 2072, 2083, 2630, 3194, 3210, 3245, 3251, 3305 (end), 3439, 4538, 4570, 4615, 6098, 6185, 6276, 6425. When Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are mentioned in the Word those patriarchs are not meant in the spiritual sense, as may be recognized from the consideration that names never pass through into heaven. Only what is really meant by the people who are referred to - real things, the essential nature of real things, and the states of real things, that is to say, aspects of the Church, of the Lord's kingdom, and of the Lord Himself - passes through.
[2] But in addition to this the angels in heaven never fix their thoughts on specific persons; that would restrict their thoughts and remove them from that all-inclusive perception of real things that lies behind angelic speech. This explains why the things that the angels in heaven say are indescribable, far surpassing human thought, whose range does not extend to seeing things in their totality but is restricted to particular aspects. When one reads therefore in Matthew 8:11 that many will come from the east and the west and recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, the angels perceive the Lord's presence and the way people make the truth and goodness emanating from His Divine Human their own. Also when one reads in Luke 16:22 that Lazarus was carried into Abraham's bosom, the angels perceive that he was carried into heaven, where the Lord is present. This too goes to show that 'a covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob' means in the internal sense being joined through the Lord's Divine Human.
[3] The fact that the Divine Human is 'a covenant', that is, the actual joining together, may be seen from many places in the Word, as in Isaiah,
I will give You as a covenant of the people', a light of the nations. Isaiah 42:6.
In the same prophet,
I have given You as a covenant of the people, 1 to restore the land, to share out the devastated inheritances. Isaiah 49:8.
In the same prophet,
Incline your ear and come to Me; hear, and let your soul live. So will I make with you an eternal covenant, even the sure mercies of David. Lo, I have given Him as a witness to the peoples, a prince and lawgiver to the peoples. 2 Isaiah 55:3-4.
In Malachi,
Suddenly there comes to His temple the Lord whom you seek, and the angel of the covenant in whom you delight. Behold, He is coming. Malachi 3:1
In the second Book of Samuel,
He has established an eternal covenant for Me, to be set in order for all and to be kept safe. 2 Samuel 23:5.
[4] These places plainly refer to the Lord and to the joining of the human race to the Lord's Divine Being itself through His Divine Human. In respect of His Divine Human the Lord is the Mediator, and no one can come to the Divine Being itself within the Lord, called the Father, except through the Son, that is, the Divine Human, as is well known in the Church. Thus the Lord in respect of His Divine Human is the actual joining together. Can anyone in his thought begin to comprehend the Divine Being itself? And if he cannot do this in thought how can he be joined to the Divine itself in love? But the Divine Human anyone can comprehend in thought and be joined to in love.
[5] The meaning of 'a covenant' as a joining together may be seen in the fact that covenants between countries join them together. They are bargains made by both parties which must be kept if their alliance is to remain intact. These bargains or agreements are also called a covenant. On man's side the bargains or agreements that are called 'a covenant' in the Word are in a restricted sense the ten commandments or the Decalogue. In a wider sense they are all the statutes, orders, laws, testimonies, and commandments that the Lord decreed from Mount Sinai through Moses; and in an even wider sense they are the Books of Moses. The contents of these books were what the children of Israel were required on their side to carry out. On the Lord's side it is mercy and election.
[6] The ten commandments or the Decalogue are a covenant.
This is clear from the following places: In Moses,
Jehovah declared to you His covenant which He commanded you to perform, the ten words which He wrote on two tablets of stone. Deuteronomy 4:13, 23.
And since the two tablets of stone on which the ten commandments had been written were placed in the ark, Exodus 25:16, 21, 22, 31:18; 32:15, 16, 19; 40:20, the ark was called the ark of the covenant, Deuteronomy 31:9, 24-26; Joshua 3:3, 6, 14; 4:7; Judges 20:27; 2 Samuel 15:24; 1 Kings 8:21. In the last of these references Solomon says,
I have made a place there for the ark, where there is the covenant of Jehovah which He made with our fathers.
And in John,
The temple of God was opened in heaven, and the ark of His covenant was seen in His temple. Revelation 11:19.
[7] All the judgements and statutes which the Lord commanded the people of Israel through Moses are called a covenant; so too are the actual Books of Moses. In Moses,
According to the tenor 3 of these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel. Exodus 34:27.
What are called a covenant here were many regulations regarding sacrifices, feasts, and unleavened bread. In the same author,
Moses took the book of the covenant, and read it in the ears of the people, who said, All that Jehovah has spoken we will do and hear. Exodus 24:7-8.
In the second Book of Kings,
Josiah the king of Judah read before them all in the house of Jehovah the words of the book of the covenant which had been found in the house of Jehovah. And he made a covenant before Jehovah, to establish the words of the covenant that were written in that book. And all the people took a stand on the covenant. The king commanded all the people to keep the Passover to Jehovah their God, in accordance with what was written in the book of the covenant. 2 Kings 23:2-3, 21.
In David,
If your sons keep My covenant and My testimony which I have taught them, their sons also will sit even forever on your throne. Psalms 132:12.
[8] A covenant is a joining together through love and faith.
In Jeremiah,
Behold, the days are coming, said Jehovah, in which I will make with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah a new covenant, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers, for they made My covenant invalid. But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days: I will put My law in the midst of them, and will write it on their heart, and I will be their God, and they will be My people. Jeremiah 31:31-33.
'Putting the law in their midst, and writing it on their heart' is endowing with faith and charity, faith and charity being the means by which the joining together described by 'I will be their God, and they will be My people' is effected. In the same prophet,
I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not any more turn away from them, and I will do good to them. But I will put My fear into their heart so that they do not depart from Me. Jeremiah 32:40.
A joining together through love, which is a covenant, is meant by 'I will put My fear into their heart so that they do not depart from Me'.
[9] In Ezekiel,
I will make with them a covenant of peace; it will be an eternal covenant with them. And I will bless 4 them and will multiply them, and I will set a sanctuary in their midst, and it will be My dwelling-place among them; and I will be their God, and they will be My people. Ezekiel 37:26-27.
Here a joining together through love and faith, which are a covenant, is described by 'a sanctuary in their midst' and 'dwelling-place among them', and by 'I will be their God, and they will be My people'. In the same prophet,
When I passed by you and saw you, behold, it was your time, the time of love; 5 and I entered into a covenant with you, so that you would be Mine. Ezekiel 16:8.
This refers to Jerusalem, by which the Ancient Church is meant, 'entering into a covenant, so that you would be Mine' plainly being a marriage or spiritual joining together. Since 'a covenant' means a joining together a wife is also called in Malachi 2:14 the wife of a covenant, while a joining together that exists among brothers is called in Amos 1:9 a covenant of brothers. 'A covenant' is also used in David to mean a joining together,
I have made a covenant with My chosen one, I have sworn to David My servant. Psalms 89:3.
[10] The agreement in a covenant on the Lord's side is mercy and election. This is clear in David,
All the ways of Jehovah are mercy and truth to those keeping His covenant and His testimonies. Psalms 25:10.
In Isaiah,
The mountains will depart and the hills be removed, but My mercy will not depart from you, nor the covenant of My peace be removed, said Jehovah, who has mercy on you. Isaiah 54:10.
In Moses,
Jehovah your God, He is God, the faithful God keeping covenant and mercy with those who love Him and keep His commandments, to the thousandth generation. Deuteronomy 7:9, 11.
In the same author,
If you keep My covenant, you will be to Me a peculiar treasure from among all peoples. Exodus 19:5.
In the same author,
I will have regard for you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and confirm My covenant with you. Leviticus 26:9.
'Having regard for them' is viewing with mercy. 'Making them fruitful and multiplying them' is endowing with charity and faith, and those endowed with them are called 'the elect'. Thus the words used here have to do with election and so do those which say that they will be 'a peculiar treasure'.
[11] In the representative Church they also had signs of the covenant. These served to remind people of the joining together. Circumcision was one such sign, Genesis 17:11; for circumcision was a sign meaning purification from filthy loves. After these loves are removed, heavenly love is introduced, through which a joining together is effected. The sabbath too is called an eternal covenant, Exodus 31:16; and of the loaves of the presence it is said that to the children of Israel they should be for an eternal covenant, Leviticus 24:8-9. Blood in particular was a sign, as is clear in Moses,
Moses took the book of the covenant, and read it in the ears of the people, who said, All that Jehovah has spoken we will do and hear. Then Moses took the blood of the sacrifice of a peace-offering and sprinkled it over the people, and said, Behold, the blood of the covenant which Jehovah has made with you, upon all these words. Exodus 24:7-8.
In Zechariah,
Through the blood of your covenant I will let out the bound ones from the pit in which there is no water. Zechariah 9:11.
'The blood' was the covenant or sign of the covenant because it meant a joining together through spiritual love, that is, through charity towards the neighbour. This was why, when the Lord instituted the Holy Supper, He called His blood 'the blood of the new covenant', Matthew 26:28. From all this one may now see what 'the covenant' is used to mean in the internal sense of the Word.
Poznámky pod čarou:
1. The Latin means for the people but the Hebrew means of the people, which Swedenborg has in some other places where he quotes this verse.
2. The Latin means nations but the Hebrew means peoples, which Swedenborg has in other places where he quotes this verse.
3. literally, Upon the mouth
4. literally, give
5. literally, loves
Exodus 2
1
And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi.
2
And the woman conceived, and bare a son: and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months.
3
And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river's brink.
4
And his sister stood afar off, to wit what would be done to him.
5
And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river; and her maidens walked along by the river's side; and when she saw the ark among the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it.
6
And when she had opened it, she saw the child: and, behold, the babe wept. And she had compassion on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrews' children.
7
Then said his sister to Pharaoh's daughter, Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee?
8
And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Go. And the maid went and called the child's mother.
9
And Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages. And the woman took the child, and nursed it.
10
And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses: and she said, Because I drew him out of the water.
11
And it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown, that he went out unto his brethren, and looked on their burdens: and he spied an Egyptian smiting an Hebrew, one of his brethren.
12
And he looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no man, he slew the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand.
13
And when he went out the second day, behold, two men of the Hebrews strove together: and he said to him that did the wrong, Wherefore smitest thou thy fellow?
14
And he said, Who made thee a prince and a judge over us? intendest thou to kill me, as thou killedst the Egyptian? And Moses feared, and said, Surely this thing is known.
15
Now when Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to slay Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and dwelt in the land of Midian: and he sat down by a well.
16
Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters: and they came and drew water, and filled the troughs to water their father's flock.
17
And the shepherds came and drove them away: but Moses stood up and helped them, and watered their flock.
18
And when they came to Reuel their father, he said, How is it that ye are come so soon to day?
19
And they said, An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds, and also drew water enough for us, and watered the flock.
20
And he said unto his daughters, And where is he? why is it that ye have left the man? call him, that he may eat bread.
21
And Moses was content to dwell with the man: and he gave Moses Zipporah his daughter.
22
And she bare him a son, and he called his name Gershom: for he said, I have been a stranger in a strange land.
23
And it came to pass in process of time, that the king of Egypt died: and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage.
24
And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.
25
And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them.
