Bible

 

Hoseas 6

Studie

   

1 Kom, la oss vende om til Herren! For det er han som har sønderrevet, men han vil også læge oss; han slo, men han vil også forbinde oss.

2 Han vil gjøre oss levende efter to dager; på den tredje dag vil han opreise oss, og vi skal leve for hans åsyn.

3 Så la oss lære å kjenne Herren, la oss med iver søke å lære ham å kjenne! Hans opgang er så viss som morgenrøden, og han kommer til oss som regnet, som et vårregn som væter jorden.

4 Hvad skal jeg gjøre med dig, Efra'im? Hvad skal jeg gjøre med dig, Juda? For eders kjærlighet er som en morgensky, lik duggen som tidlig går bort.

5 Derfor har jeg hugget løs på dem ved profetene, drept dem ved min munns ord, og dommene over dig fór ut som et lyn.

6 For jeg har lyst til kjærlighet og ikke til slaktoffer, og til gudskunnskap mere enn til brennoffer.

7 Men de har brutt pakten, likesom Adam; der har de vært troløse mot mig.

8 Gilead er en by med ugjerningsmenn, full av blodspor.

9 Og lik en røverskare som lurer på folk, er hele presteflokken; de myrder på veien til Sikem; ja, skammelige ting har de gjort.

10 I Israels hus har jeg sett grufulle ting; der driver Efra'im hor, der er Israel blitt urent.

11 Også for dig, Juda, er det fastsatt en høst, når jeg gjør ende på mitt folks fangenskap.

   

Ze Swedenborgových děl

 

Arcana Coelestia # 922

Prostudujte si tuto pasáž

  
/ 10837  
  

922. 'He took from every clean beast, and from every clean bird' means goods that stem from charity, and the truths of faith. This has been shown already; 'beast' means goods that stem from charity, 45, 46, 142, 143, 246, 'bird' the truths of faith, 40, 776. Burnt offerings were made from cattle, from lambs and goats, and from turtle doves and young pigeons, Leviticus 1:2-17; Numbers 15:2-15; 28:1-end. These were clean beasts, each one of them meaning some particular heavenly quality. And because they meant these things in the Ancient Church, and in subsequent Churches represented them, it is clear that burnt offerings and sacrifices were nothing else than representatives that go with internal worship, and that when they had been divorced from internal worship they became idolatrous. This any mentally normal person can see, for what is an altar but merely something made of stone? And what is a burnt offering and a sacrifice but the slaughtering of an animal? For worship to be Divine it has to represent some heavenly quality which the worshippers know and acknowledge and from which they worship the One they are representing.

[2] Nobody except the person who does not wish to understand anything at all about the Lord can be ignorant of the fact that these things were representatives of the Lord. It is the internal things, namely charity and faith deriving from charity, through which the One who is being represented has to be seen, acknowledged, and believed, as is quite clear in the Prophets, for example in Jeremiah,

Thus said Jehovah Zebaoth, the God of Israel, Add your burnt offerings on to your sacrifices, and eat the flesh. I did not speak with your fathers and I did not command them on the day I brought them out of the land of Egypt on the matters of burnt offering and sacrifice. But this matter I commanded them, saying, Obey My voice, and I will be your God. Jeremiah 7:21-23.

Hearing or obeying His voice is obeying the law, the whole of which focuses on the one command that men should love God above everything else and their neighbour as themselves, for on these depend the Law and the Prophets, Matthew 22:37-40; 7:12. In David,

O Jehovah, sacrifice and offering You have not desired; burnt offering and sin-sacrifice You host not sought. I have delighted to do Your will, O my God, and Your law is within my heart. 1 Psalms 40:6, 8.

[3] In Samuel, who said to Saul,

Has Jehovah as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of Jehovah? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, to hearken than the fat of rams. 1 Samuel 15:22.

What obeying His voice involves is apparent in Micah,

Shall I come before Jehovah with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will Jehovah be pleased with thousands of rams, with tens of thousands of rivers of oil? He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does Jehovah require of you but to carry out judgement and the love of mercy, and to humble yourself by walking with your God. Micah 6:6-8.

These are the things that burnt offerings and sacrifices of clean beasts and birds mean. In Amos,

Though you offer Me your burnt offerings and gifts, I will not accept them, and the peace offering of your fatted ones I will not look upon. Let judgement flow like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream. Amos 5:22, 24.

'Judgement' means truth, and 'righteousness' good. Both stem from charity and are the burnt offerings and sacrifices of the internal man. In Hosea,

I desire mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. Hosea 6:6.

From all these quotations the nature of sacrifices and burnt offerings when charity and faith are not present is clear. It is also clear from them that because 'clean beasts and clean birds' meant the goods that stem from charity and faith they also represented them.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. literally, in the midst of my viscera

  
/ 10837  
  

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