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အာမုတ် 4:4

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4 ဗေသလမြို့သို့သွား၍ ပြစ်မှားကြလော့။ ဂိလဂါလမြို့သို့လည်းသွား၍ များစွာသောပြစ်မှားခြင်းခြင်းကို ပြုကြလော့။ နံနက်တိုင်းပူဇော်သောယဇ်ကို၎င်း၊ သုံးနှစ်တခါ ဥစ္စာဆယ်ဘို့တဘို့ကို၎င်း ဆောင်ခဲ့ကြလော့။

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Exploring the Meaning of Amos 4

Napsal(a) Helen Kennedy

In chapter 4 of the Book of Amos, verses 1-3 are talking about people who pervert the truths of the church. They will fall into falsities in outermost things.

In the Bible, fish represent "lower" things than mammals, so we can interpret the fishhooks in verse 2 as meaning being caught and held fast in natural or lower things.

Verses 4-6 are about acts of worship such as tithes and sacrifices. These look similar to genuine worship, but are only external sorts of things. We can tell because ‘teeth’ (in verse 6) represent ultimates or outermost things (see Secrets of Heaven 6380). It follows that “cleanness of teeth” would mean outermost things that look good but only imitate genuine worship. The Lord exhorts, “Yet you have not returned to me.”

Verses 7-8. Some things true will remain, when where there are too many false ideas, the truths don't get through. This can be seen where the Lord says, “I made it rain on one city; I withheld rain from another city... where it did not rain the part withered.” Again the Lord exhorts, “Yet you have not returned to me.”

Verse 9. Afterward all things of the church are falsified, shown by blight attacking the gardens, vineyards, fig tree and olive trees. The last three represent spiritual, natural and celestial things, or all the things of spiritual life. “Yet you have not returned to me,” says the Lord.

Verses 10-11. The Lord explains the devastating things he allowed to happen: plague in Egypt, death of young men by swords, stench in the camps, Sodom and Gomorrah. This is because they are profaned by sensual knowledges. Profanation means the mixing of good and evil together. (See Secrets of Heaven 1001[2]).

This extends to all things of the church, with the church being the Lord’s kingdom on earth (Secrets of Heaven 768[3]).

With profanation “as soon as any idea of what is holy arises, the idea of what is profane joins immediately to it,” (Secrets of Heaven 301).

Now there is hardly anything left. “Yet you have not returned to Me,” says the Lord again.

Verses 12-13: Because people adamantly remain in their profane ways, they are warned, “Prepare to meet your God!”. This is the God powerful and mighty, “who forms mountains, and creates the wind,” and even more close to home, “Who declares to man what his thought is.” As intimately a knowing as that is, the Lord’s love for all humanity is contained in His exhortations for them to turn themselves to Him.

See, for example, Luke 6:44-45, and True Christian Religion 373.

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Arcana Coelestia # 3167

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3167. 'And to [her] mother' means to natural truth also, that is to say, spiritual things passed from the rational to it, even as they passed to natural good, dealt with just above. This is clear from the meaning of 'a mother' as the Church, which by virtue of truth is called 'a mother', dealt with in 289, 2717. So that people may know how spiritual things pass to natural good and to natural truth as a result of truth being introduced into good in the rational, a brief description must be given here. Everyone has an internal and an external, his internal being called the internal man, and his external the external man. But few know what the internal man is and what the external. The internal man is one and the same as the spiritual man, and the external man one and the same as the natural man. The spiritual man depends for understanding and wisdom on things that belong to the light of heaven, whereas the natural depends for its understanding and wisdom on things that belong to the light of the world. Regarding those two kinds of light, see 3138. For in heaven none but spiritual things exist, whereas in the world none but natural exist. The human being was created in such a way that in him spiritual things and natural things, that is, his spiritual man and his natural man, should accord with each other or make one. But in that case the spiritual man ought to have control over the things in the natural, and the natural man ought to obey, like a servant his master.

[2] Through the Fall however the natural man started to raise itself above the spiritual man and so turn Divine order itself upside down. As a consequence the natural man separated itself from the spiritual, and spiritual things could not reach it any longer except so to speak through chinks to provide the ability to think and speak. But so that spiritual things might flow in once more into the natural man this had to be regenerated by the Lord, that is, truth from the natural man had to be introduced and joined to good in the rational. When this happens spiritual things have access to the natural man, for now the light of heaven flows in and illuminates things in the natural man, and causes what is there to receive light. The goods there receive the warmth that the light conveys, which is love and charity, whereas the truth receives rays of light, which is faith. It is in this way that spiritual things pass from the rational into natural good and truth. Natural good in that case consists in all the delight and satisfaction gained from having service to the spiritual man as the end in view, and so service to the neighbour, more so to one's country, more so still to the Lord's kingdom, and above all to the Lord. And natural truth consists in all doctrinal teaching and factual knowledge which have wisdom, that is, the performance of those things, as the end in view.

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