284. The details just quoted about the proclamation of the law, its holiness and power, are to be found in the following passages of the Word. Jehovah came down on Mount Sinai in fire, and the mountain then smoked and shook, there was thunder and lightning, an oppressive cloud and the sound of a trumpet: Exodus 19:16-18; Deuteronomy 4:11; 5:22-26. The people prepared and sanctified themselves for three days before Jehovah came down: Exodus 19:10-11, 15. The mountain was hedged about to prevent anyone approaching its foot and coming near and being killed; not even the priests approached, only Moses: Exodus 19:12-13, 20-23; 24:1-2. The law was proclaimed from Mount Sinai: Exodus 20:2-17; Deuteronomy 5:6-21. The law was inscribed on two stone tablets, and written by the finger of God: Exodus 31:18; 32:15-16; Deuteronomy 9:10. When Moses carried the tablets down from the mountain the second time, his face shone so that he had to cover his face with a veil when talking with the people: Exodus 34:29-35. The tablets were laid up in the Ark: Exodus 25:16, 40:20; Deuteronomy 10:5; 1 Kings 8:9. The mercy-seat was mounted upon the Ark, and over it were placed cherubim made of gold: Exodus 25:17-21. The Ark together with the mercy-seat and the cherubim was put into the Tabernacle, constituting its first and thus most inward part; the table overlaid with gold, upon which was the bread of the Presence, the incense-altar of gold, and the lamp-stand and lamps of gold, made up the external part of the Tabernacle; the ten curtains of fine linen, purple and scarlet were its outermost part: Exodus 25:1-end; Exodus 26:1-end; Exodus 40:17-28. The place, where the Ark was, was called the Holy of Holies: Exodus 26:33. The whole people of Israel camped around the Tabernacle in the order of their tribes, and set out in order after it: Numbers 2:1-end. There was then a cloud over the Tabernacle by day and fire by night: Exodus 40:38; Numbers 9:15-end; Numbers 14:14; Deuteronomy 1:33. Jehovah spoke with Moses above the Ark, between the cherubim: Exodus 25:22; Numbers 7:89. The Ark was called from the law in it 'Jehovah-is-here'; for Moses said when the Ark set out 'Arise, Jehovah', and when it rested 'Return, Jehovah': Numbers 10:35-36; and further 2 Samuel 6:2 ¹ ; Psalms 132:7-8. On account of the holiness of the law Aaron was not allowed to go inside the veil, except with sacrifices and incense: Leviticus 16:2-14ff. By the presence of the Lord's power in the law contained in the Ark the waters of Jordan were parted, and the people crossed over on dry land, so long as it rested in the midst: ; 4:5-20. When the Ark was carried round them, the walls of Jericho fell down: Joshua 6:1-20. Dagon, the god of the Philistines, fell to the ground in the presence of the Ark, and afterwards was found lying on the threshold of the shrine with his head torn off and the palms of his hands cut off: 1 Samuel 5. The men of Bethshemesh were smitten because of the Ark to the number of many thousands: 1 Samuel 5, 6. Uzzah was killed by touching the Ark: 2 Samuel 6:7. The Ark was brought into Zion by David with sacrifices and jubilation: 2 Samuel 6:1-19. The Ark was brought by Solomon into the Temple at Jerusalem, where he made its inner shrine: 1 Kings 6:19ff; 1 Kings 8:3-9.

Poznámky pod čarou:

Seven, as in Revelation 15:1, signifies everything in an universal sense. The number 'seven' was considered holy, as is well known, because of the six days of creation, and the seventh, which is the celestial self, where peace, rest, and the Sabbath is. The number seven occurs so frequently in the rites of the Jewish church and is held holy everywhere.

So times were divided into seven, longer and shorter intervals, and were called weeks, like the great intervals of times till the coming of the Messiah, in Daniel 9:24-25. The time of seven years is called 'a week' by Laban and Jacob, as in Genesis 29:27-28. So wherever the number seven occurs, it is considered holy and sacred, as in Psalm 119:164, and in Isaiah 30:26.

As the periods of a person's regeneration are distinguished into six, prior to the seventh, or the celestial self, so the times of vastation are also distinguished, until nothing celestial is left. This was represented by the many captivities of the Jews, and by the last Babylonian captivity, which lasted seven decades, or seventy years. This was also represented by Nebuchadnezzar, in Daniel 4:16, 22, 29. It also refers to the vastation of the end times, in Revelation 15:1, 7-8. They should 'tread the holy city under foot, forty and two months, or six times seven,' as in Revelation 11:2 and Revelation 5:1. So the severity and increments of punishment were expressed by the number seven, as in Leviticus 26:18, 21, 24, 28 and Psalm 79:12.

(Odkazy: Apocalypse Explained 5, 7-8, 15; Arcana Coelestia 395; Daniel 9, 9:24, 9:25; Psalms 119)