6281. As regards the verb 'to redeem', its proper meaning is to restore to oneself and to take to oneself what was previously one's own; and it is used when slavery, death, or evil is involved. When it is slavery, people who have become slaves are meant, in the spiritual sense those enslaved to hell; when it is death, people in a state of damnation are meant; and when it is evil, as in the present context, people in hell are meant, since the evil from which the angel redeemed the speaker is hell, 6279. Because the Lord delivered mankind from those evils through having made the Human within Himself Divine, His Divine Human is the One in the Word who is called the Redeemer, as in Isaiah,

I am helping you, said Jehovah, and your Redeemer the Holy One of Israel. Isaiah 41:14.

In the same prophet,

Thus said Jehovah, the Redeemer of Israel, His Holy One. Isaiah 49:7, 26.

In the same prophet,

Jehovah Zebaoth is His name, and your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, the God of the whole earth He will be called, Isaiah 54:5.

In these places a distinction is made between the Divine itself, called Jehovah, and the Divine Human, referred to as the Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.

[2] Yet Jehovah Himself within His Divine Human is the Redeemer, as is clear from the following places: In Isaiah,

Thus said Jehovah the King of Israel, and his Redeemer Jehovah Zebaoth, I am the first and I am the last, and besides Me there is no God. Isaiah 44:6.

In the same prophet,

Thus said Jehovah your Redeemer, I am Jehovah your God, who is teaching you. Isaiah 48:17.

In the same prophet,

You are our Father, for Abraham does not know us and Israel does not acknowledge us. You, O Jehovah, are our Father, our Redeemer; from of old is Your name. Isaiah 63:16.

In David,

Jehovah who has redeemed your ¹ life from the pit. Psalms 103:4.

[3] From these places too it is evident that no one else but the Lord is meant in the Word by 'Jehovah', 1743, 1736, 2921, 3035, 5667, and that 'Jehovah the Redeemer' is His Divine Human. Here also is the reason why those who have been redeemed are called 'the Redeemed of Jehovah' in Isaiah,

Say to the daughter of Zion, Behold, your salvation comes; behold, His reward is with Him, and the recompense of His work before Him. They will call them, The Holy People, the Redeemed of Jehovah. Isaiah 62:11, 12.

It is quite plain that the Lord is the reason why they are called 'the Redeemed of Jehovah', for the words 'Behold, your salvation comes; behold, His reward is with Him' have reference to the Lord's Coming. See in addition Isaiah 43:1; 52:2-3; 63:4, 9; Hosea 13:14; Exodus 6:6; 15:13; Job 19:25, where it is evident that redemption has reference to slavery, death, and evil.

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7093. 'And let them hold a feast to Me in the wilderness' means in order that they may worship the Lord with gladness of mind, in the obscurity of faith they live in. This is clear from the meaning of 'holding a feast' as worship offered with gladness of mind, dealt with below (the fact that the Lord was the one to whom they were to hold the feast and whom 'to Me', that is, Jehovah, is used to mean here, see just above in 7091); and from the meaning of 'the wilderness' as obscurity of faith, dealt with in 1708, 7055. Regarding those who belong to the spiritual Church, that they live in comparative obscurity of faith, see 2708, 2715-2718, 2831, 2849, 2935, 2937, 3241, 3246, 3833, 6289, 6500, 6945.

[2] The reason why 'holding a feast' means offering worship with gladness of mind is that they were to hold the feast three days' journey away from Egypt, thus not in a state when molested by falsities but in a state of freedom. For a person who is delivered from falsities and from the distress felt at that time gives thanks to God with gladness of mind, and in so doing holds a feast. Furthermore the feasts which had been instituted among those people, three a year, are also said to have been instituted in remembrance of their deliverance from slavery in Egypt, by which in the spiritual sense is meant in remembrance of deliverance from molestation by falsities through the Lord's Coming into the world. They were also told to be glad on these occasions, as is evident in Moses where the feast of tabernacles is dealt with,

At the feast of tabernacles you shall take ¹ on the first day the fruit of a fine tree, ² fronds of palm trees, the bough of a thick tree, and willows of the powerful stream; and you shall be glad before Jehovah your God seven days. Leviticus 23:40

[3] 'The fruit of a fine tree, fronds of palm trees, the bough of a thick tree, and willows of the powerful stream' means joy because of the goodness and truth present in a person from the inmost to the external parts of his being. The good of love, which is inmost, is meant by 'the fruit of a fine tree'; the good of faith by 'fronds of palm trees'; factual knowledge that accords with truth by 'the branch of a thick tree'; and sensory impressions that accord with truth, which are the most external, by 'the willows of a powerful stream'. No command to take all these things would have been given if there had not been some cause lying behind it in the spiritual world; and that cause does not become evident to anyone except from the internal sense.

[4] They were to be glad during the feast of weeks, as is also clear in Moses,

You shall keep the feast of weeks to Jehovah your God, and you shall be glad before Jehovah your God, you, and your son and your daughter, and your male servant and your female servant, and the Levite who is within your gates. Deuteronomy 16:10-11.

These words too, in the internal sense, mean gladness because of the goodness and truth present in people from the inmost to the external parts of their being.

[5] The fact that feasts were times of gladness, so that holding a feast means worshipping with gladness of mind, is also evident from the following places: In Isaiah,

You will have a song like that of a night for hallowing a feast. Isaiah 30:29.

In Nahum,

Look, on the mountains the feet of one bringing good tidings, of one proclaiming peace! Keep your feasts, O Judah, perform your vows; for [the man of] belial ³ will no more pass through you, he will be cut off completely. ⁴ Nahum 1:15.

In Zechariah,

The fasts will be to the house of Judah ones of joy and gladness and good feasts; only love truth and peace. Zechariah 8:19.

In Hosea,

I will cause all her joy to cease, her feasts, her new moons. Hosea 2:11.

In Amos,

I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation. Amos 8:10.

The fact that 'holding a feast' means offering worship with gladness of mind because they had been delivered from slavery in Egypt, or in the spiritual sense because they had been delivered from molestation by falsities, is made plain by the feast of Passover. They were commanded to celebrate this each year on the day of their departure from Egypt; and they were commanded to do so on account of the deliverance of the children of Israel from slavery, that is, on account of the deliverance of those who belonged to the spiritual Church from falsities, and so from damnation. And since the Lord delivered them by His Coming and raised them up with Him into heaven when He rose again, therefore this too was done at the Passover. This is also meant by the Lord's words in John,

Now is the judgement of this world, now will the prince of this world be cast outdoors. But I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to Myself. John 12:31-32.

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