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1 Mosebok 32

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1 Og Jakob drog videre, og Guds engler møtte ham.

2 Da Jakob så dem, sa han: Dette er Guds leir. Og han kalte stedet Mahana'im*. / {* d.e. to leire.}

3 Og Jakob sendte bud foran sig til sin bror Esau i landet Se'ir, på Edoms mark.

4 Og han bød dem og sa: Således skal I si til min herre Esau: Så sier din tjener Jakob: Jeg har opholdt mig hos Laban og vært der helt til nu,

5 og jeg har fått okser og asener, småfe og træler og trælkvinner; og nu vilde jeg sende bud til min herre om dette for å finne nåde for dine øine

6 Og budene kom tilbake til Jakob og sa: Vi kom til Esau, din bror, og han drar dig nu selv i møte, og fire hundre mann med ham.

7 Da blev Jakob overmåte forferdet; og han delte folket som var med ham, og småfeet og storfeet og kamelene i to leire.

8 For han tenkte: Om Esau kommer til den ene leir og slår den, da kan den leir som er igjen, få berge sig unda.

9 Og Jakob sa: Min far Abrahams Gud og min far Isaks Gud, Herre, du som sa til mig: Dra tilbake til ditt land og til ditt folk, og jeg vil gjøre vel imot dig!

10 Jeg er ringere enn all den miskunnhet og all den trofasthet som du har vist mot din tjener; for med min stav gikk jeg over Jordan her, og nu er jeg blitt til to leire.

11 Fri mig ut av Esaus, min brors hånd; for jeg er redd han skal komme og slå ihjel mig og mine, både mor og barn.

12 Du har jo selv sagt: Jeg vil alltid gjøre vel mot dig og la din ætt bli som havets sand, som ikke kan telles for mengde.

13 Så blev han der den natt, og av alt det han eide, tok han ut en gave til Esau, sin bror:

14 to hundre gjeter og tyve bukker, to hundre får og tyve værer,

15 tretti kameler som gav die, med sine føll, firti kjør og ti okser, tyve aseninner og ti asenfoler.

16 Og han lot sine tjenere dra avsted med dem, hver hjord for sig, og han sa til sine tjenere: Far i forveien, og la det være et mellemrum mellem hver hjord!

17 Og han bød den første og sa: Når min bror Esau møter dig og han taler til dig og spør: Hvem hører du til, og hvor skal du hen, og hvem eier denne hjord som du driver foran dig?

18 da skal du si: Din tjener Jakob; det er en gave han sender til min herre Esau, og snart kommer han selv efter.

19 Og han bød likeledes den annen og den tredje og alle de andre som drev hjordene, og sa: Således skal I tale til Esau når I møter ham,

20 I skal si: Snart kommer din tjener Jakob selv efter. For han tenkte: Jeg vil forsone ham ved den gave som jeg sender foran mig, og siden vil jeg selv trede frem for ham; kanskje han vil ta nådig imot mig.

21 Så drog de i forveien med gaven; men selv blev han i leiren den natt.

22 samme natt stod han op og tok sine hustruer og de to trælkvinner og sine elleve sønner og gikk over Jabboks vadested.

23 Han tok og satte dem over åen og førte over alt det han eide.

24 Så var Jakob alene tilbake. Da kom det en mann og kjempet med ham inntil morgenen grydde.

25 Og da mannen så at han ikke kunde rå med ham, rørte han ved hans hofteskål; og Jakobs hofteskål gikk av ledd, mens han kjempet med ham.

26 Og han sa: Slipp mig, for morgenen gryr! Men han sa: Jeg slipper dig ikke, uten du velsigner mig.

27 Da sa han til ham: Hvad er ditt navn? Han svarte: Jakob.

28 Han sa: Du skal ikke lenger hete Jakob, men Israel*; for du har kjempet med Gud og med mennesker og vunnet. / {* d.e. en som kjemper med Gud.}

29 Da spurte Jakob: Si mig ditt navn! Han svarte: Hvorfor spør du om mitt navn? Og han velsignet ham der.

30 Og Jakob kalte stedet Pniel*; for [sa han] jeg har sett Gud åsyn til åsyn og enda berget livet. / {* Pniel eller Pnuel betyr Guds åsyn.}

31 Og da han var kommet forbi Pnuel så han solen rinne; og han haltet på sin hofte.

32 Derfor er det så den dag idag at Israels barn aldrig eter spennesenen som er på hofteskålen, fordi han rørte ved Jakobs hofteskål på spennesenen.

   

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Husband

  
Älteres Paar im Kücheninterieur, by Friedrich Friedländer (1825–1901)

In general, men are driven by intellect and women by affections, and because of this men in the Bible generally represent knowledge and truth and women generally represent love and the desire for good. This generally carries over into marriage, where the man's growing knowledge and understanding and the woman's desire to be good and useful are a powerful combination. In many cases in the Bible, then, "husband" refers to things of truth and understanding, much as "man" does. Magnificent things can happen in a true marriage, though, when both partners are looking to the Lord. If a husband opens his heart to his wife, it's as though she can implant her loves inside him, transforming his intellectual urges into a love of growing wise. She in turn can grow in her love of that blooming wisdom, and use it for joy in their married life and in their caring for children and others in their life. Many couples, even in heaven, stay in that state -- called "Spiritual" -- growing deeper and deeper to eternity. There is the potential, though, for the couple to be transformed: through the nurturing love of his wife the husband can pass from a love of growing wise to an actual love of wisdom itself, and the wife can be transformed from the love of her husband's wisdom into the wisdom of that love -- the actual expression of the love of the Lord they have built together. In that state -- called "Celestial" -- the husband represents love and the desire for good, and the wife represents truth and knowledge.

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Abraham

  
Représentation d'Abraham, by Joseph Villiet

Abraham (or Abram, as he was named in the beginning of his story) was the ancestor of all the Children of Israel, through his son Isaac, and of the Arabs, through his son Ishmael.

Abraham represents the Divine good or love. His story foreshadows the life of Jesus, and our spiritual lives, too.

His life can be usefully seen as being divided into three periods. The first period includes the unknown early years from his birth in Ur, and his later move to Haran with his father Terah. The second section starts with Abram's being called by Jehovah to go to Canaan. It includes the adventures he had there, and continues until the events of the 17th chapter of Genesis where he is said to be 99 years old, rich, and powerful - but without a son by his wife Sarai. Once again the Lord appears to him, promises that his progeny will become a great nation, institutes the rite of circumcision, and changes his name to Abraham, adding the "ah" sound from Jehovah. The third and last period of his life sees the birth of Isaac, the death of Sarah (whose name was also changed), and the finding of a wife for Isaac from among Abraham's relatives back in Mesopotamia. Abraham is said to be 175 years old when he dies, as recorded in the 25th chapter of Genesis.

What we are here interested in is the deep representation of Abraham because he prophesies or foreshadows the inmost part of Jesus' life after He is born to Mary centuries after the man Abraham lived on the earth. Abraham represents the Divine good or love. The internal sense of the Word tells us that God himself provided the life into an ovum within Mary, so she could provide a natural body and a natural heredity from the Jewish religion, while the soul of Jesus was kept as a direct possessor of divine life. During Jesus' early life, probably up to adolescence, Jesus lived out those representative actions of Abraham in the innermost parts of his mind and spirit. Abraham as he pastured his sheep and ran his large household had no idea at all that this was true, and early in Jesus' life He didn't realize it either. There must have been perceptions as Jesus grew up, witness his visit to the temple when He was 12, but not a complete understanding until He was fully grown. And further, it isn't only Abraham. When Abraham dies, the representation attaches to Isaac, who represents the rational level of the mind, and then to both Jacob and Esau who represent the natural mind as to truth and good in the mind respectively. And then the trials of the twelve tribes, the kings, and all the sayings of the prophets become that same representation. So Jesus could say to the two disciples that He met on the road to Emmaus, "O fools and slow of heart... and beginning at Moses and all the Prophets He expounded to them in all the scriptures all the things concerning Himself." (The following references are chronologic as Abraham gets older, and are in biblical sequence.) And furthermore, the progress of mental and spiritual life in each one of us is a dim and finite image of that represented by Abraham's life if, that is, we are trying to follow the Lord's laws and precepts to love one another. We too have within us a journey to the land of Canaan, a hardworking sojourn in Egypt, a struggle in the wilderness, and a Saul, a David, and an Ahab. We have our home-grown Amalekites and Philistines. The whole of the Old Testament is a picture of how our spiritual life works.

In Genesis 20:7, Abraham signifies celestial truth, or doctrine from a celestial origin. (Arcana Coelestia 2533)

In Genesis 12:4, As ABRAHAM he represents the Lord as to His Human and Divine Essence; as ABRAM he represents the Lord as to His human essence only. (Arcana Coelestia 1426)

In Genesis 17:5, The name was changed by adding the letter H, so that the Divine Human could he represented, for H is the only letter which involves the Divine: it means I AM, or BEING. (Arcana Coelestia 1416[2])

(Odkazy: Genesis 17, 25)