294. The spiritual sense of this commandment is that no other God is to be worshipped except the Lord Jesus Christ, because He is Jehovah, who came into the world and carried out the redemption, without which no man, nor any angel, could have been saved. The following passages in the Word show that there is no other God beside Him.

On that day it will be said, Behold, He is our God, whom we have awaited to free us. He is Jehovah, whom we have awaited; let us exult and rejoice in His salvation, Isaiah 25:9.

The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare the way of Jehovah, make smooth in the desert a path for our God. For the glory of Jehovah will be revealed, and all flesh will see it together. Behold, the Lord Jehovah comes in strength. Like a shepherd will He feed His flock, Isaiah 40:3, 5, 10-11.

Only among you is there God, there is no other God besides; surely, you are a hidden God, O God the Saviour of Israel, Isaiah 45:14-15.

Am I not Jehovah, and there is no other God beside me? There is no ¹ righteous God and Saviour beside me, Isaiah 45:21-22.

I am Jehovah, and there is no Saviour beside me, Isaiah 43:11; Hosea 13:4.

That all flesh may know that I am Jehovah your Saviour and your Redeemer, Isaiah 49:26; 60:16.

As for our Redeemer, Jehovah Zebaoth is His name, Isaiah 47:4; Jeremiah 50:34.

Jehovah, my rock and my Redeemer, Psalms 19:14.

Thus spoke Jehovah your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, I am Jehovah your God, Isaiah 48:17; 43:14; 49:7; 54:8.

Thus spoke Jehovah your Redeemer, I am Jehovah the maker of all things, alone, by myself, Isaiah 44:24.

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

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

Abraham does not know us, Israel does not acknowledge us. You, Jehovah, are our Father, Redeemer from eternity is your name, Isaiah 63:16.

A child is born for us, a son is given to us, whose name is Wonderful, Counsellor, God, Hero, the everlasting Father, the Prince of peace, Isaiah 9:6.

Behold, the days will come, when I shall raise up for David a righteous shoot, who will reign as king; and this is His name, Jehovah our righteousness, Jeremiah 23:5-6; 33:15-16.

Philip said to Jesus, Show us the Father. Jesus said to him, He who sees me sees the Father. Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me? John 14:8-10.

In Jesus Christ all the fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily, Colossians 2:9.

We are in truth, in Jesus Christ. He is the true God and everlasting life. My sons, beware of idols. 1 John 5:20-21.

These passages plainly show that the Lord our Saviour is Jehovah Himself, who is at once the Creator, the Redeemer and the Regenerator. This is the spiritual sense of this commandment.

Poznámky pod čarou:

4868. 'And said, Allow me now to come [in] to you' means a lustful desire to be connected with it. This is clear from the meaning of 'coming (or going in) to someone' as being joined to, dealt with in 4820. The meaning here - a lustful desire like that involved in connection with a prostitute, by whom falsity is meant in the internal sense - is self-evident. For the Jewish nation, meant here by 'Judah', 4815, 4842, 4864, looked on the internal truth of the representative Church, and still looks on it at the present day, as nothing else than falsity, see above in 4865. Dealt with here is the fact that it nevertheless linked itself to that truth, not however as a wife but as a prostitute; that is, it did not link itself to it as truth but as falsity. The expression 'a lustful desire' is used to describe a link with falsity that is like a connection with a prostitute.

[2] All who believe solely the external sense of the Word, that is, its literal sense, and completely cast aside the whole internal - that is, spiritual - sense link themselves to internal truth as to a prostitute. This is above all the case among those who employ the external or literal sense of the Word to lend support to the desires that belong to their self-love and love of the world, that is, the desires for rule and gain. Those who behave like this cannot do other than look on internal truth in that kind of way; and if they attach themselves to it they do so with a lustful desire, like that for connection with a prostitute. Members of the Jewish nation in particular do this, and so also do those meant in the Word by Babel. But those people are different who do, it is true, have a simple belief in the literal sense of the Word, yet lead lives in keeping with what is contained in the internal sense. That is to say, they are people with whom love and charity exist, and also faith derived from these (for these three are the subject in the internal sense of the Word); also they are people who base their teachings on these. For the internal sense and the external sense come together in the two commandments, to love the Lord above all things and one's neighbour as oneself.

[3] Let some examples show that the Jewish nation regards internal truth as a prostitute, and that if it associates itself with that truth it does so from a lustful desire akin to that for a connection with that kind of woman. If, for example, they are told that the Word is holy, indeed most holy, and also that every part of a letter there is holy, they acknowledge and associate themselves with what is said; yet they do so from that kind of lustful desire. For they believe that holiness lies within the actual letter of the Word and not that holiness is something which enters by means of the Word when people with an affection for what is good and true read it.

[4] If they are told that many of those mentioned in the Word are to be revered as holy ones - such as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, or David - they acknowledge and associate themselves with this. But they do so from a like lustful desire, for they believe that these historical figures were chosen in preference to others and are on that account holy ones, who ought therefore to be worshipped as gods. Any holiness attached to these figures however is due solely to the fact that they represented the Lord. No one by being a holy representative undergoes a change of personality; indeed one can go further and say that without exception everyone's life after death is the same as before it.

[5] If they are told that the ark among them, the temple, the altar of burnt offering, the altar of incense, the bread on the table, the lampstand with its lamps, the continual fire, the sacrifices, the incense, the oil, and also Aaron's vestments, especially the breastplate with the urim and thummim on it, were holy, they acknowledge this and associate themselves with it, but from the same kind of lustful desire. For they believe that all these objects were inherently holy, thus that wood, stone, gold, silver, bread, and fire were so; they believe that they had holiness in them because Jehovah was within them. That is to say, they believe that the holiness of Jehovah which was attached to these objects resided in actual fact within them. This is their internal truth, which however is falsity when compared with genuine truth; for holiness exists solely within good and truth which, being from the Lord, reside within love to Him and love towards the neighbour, and from these within faith. It accordingly exists only within the living, that is, within those who accept these gifts from the Lord.

[6] If they are told that the Christian Church is one with the Church that was established among them but that the Christian was internal whereas theirs was external, so that when the external features of the Church established among them are peeled away and it is laid bare, the Christian Church is seen, they do not acknowledge this truth as anything else than a harlot, that is, as something false. Nevertheless many of them who are converted from Judaism to Christianity associate themselves with this truth; but they do so from a lustful desire. Many times in the Word these kinds of things are called acts of whoredom. As regards those however who are meant in the Word by 'Babylon', they likewise look in a similar way on the internal truths of the Church; yet because they have a knowledge of internal things, and in addition acknowledge these during childhood but in adult life refuse to do so, they are described in the Word by means of foul acts of adultery and unmentionable sexual unions; for they are forms of profanation.