Doctrine of the Lord # 48
48. Because a person’s life varies in accordance with his state, therefore by spirit is meant the varying life’s affection in a person. For example:
1. The life of wisdom:
(Bezalel was filled) with the spirit of wisdom, understanding, and knowledge.... (Exodus 31:3).
You shall speak to all the wise of heart, whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom.... (Exodus 28:3)
Joshua was filled with the spirit of wisdom (Deuteronomy 34:9).
Nebuchadnezzar said of Daniel that an excellent spirit, of knowledge, understanding and wisdom was found in him (Daniel 5:12, 14).
The erring in spirit will know understanding.... (Isaiah 29:24)
[2] 2. The arousal of life:
Jehovah has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes. (Jeremiah 51:11)
Jehovah stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel...and the spirit of all the remnant of the people. (Haggai 1:14)
...I am putting (into the king of Assyria) a spirit..., that he may hear a rumor and return to his own land. (Isaiah 37:7)
...Jehovah...hardened (the) spirit (of the king of Sihon).... (Deuteronomy 2:30)
What has come up upon your spirit shall never be.... (Ezekiel 20:32)
[3] 3. Liberty of life: The four creatures, which were cherubim, seen by the prophet went “wherever they had a spirit to go” (Ezekiel 1:12, 20).
[4] 4. Life in a state of fear, distress, and anger:
...that every heart may melt, and all hands be feeble, and every spirit shrink.... (Ezekiel 21:7)
...my spirit was faint within me, my heart within me is stunned.... (Psalms 143:4, cf. 142:3)
My spirit has been consumed! (Psalms 143:7)
As for me, Daniel, my spirit grieved.... (Daniel 7:15)
(Pharaoh’s) spirit was troubled. (Genesis 41:8)
(Nebuchadnezzar said,) “...my spirit is troubled....” (Daniel 2:3)
I went bitterly in the wrath of my spirit. (Ezekiel 3:14)
[5] 5. Life in a state of various evil affections:
“...provided there is no deceit in his spirit.” (Psalms 32:2)
Jehovah has mingled a spirit of perversity in her midst. (Isaiah 19:14)
...said (He)...to the foolish prophets, who follow their own spirit.... (Ezekiel 13:3)
The prophet is a fool, the man of the spirit is insane. (Hosea 9:7)
Be observant by your spirit, and do not deal treacherously. (Malachi 2:16)
...the spirit of harlotry has caused them to stray.... (Hosea 4:12)
...a spirit of harlotry is in their midst.... (Hosea 5:4)
When a spirit of jealousy comes upon him.... (Numbers 5:14)
...a man who is a wanderer in spirit, and he prattles falsehood.... (Micah 2:11)
...a generation...whose spirit was not steadfast with God. (Psalms 78:8)
...poured out on (them) a spirit of drowsiness.... (Isaiah 29:10)
Conceive chaff, bring forth stubble; as for your spirit, fire shall shall devour you. (Isaiah 33:11)
[6] 6. Hellish life:
I will...cause...the unclean spirit to depart from the land. (Zechariah 13:2)
When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places.... And then he...attaches to himself seven worse spirits than himself, and they enter and dwell there. (Matthew 12:43-45)
...Babylon...has become a dwelling place of...a foul spirit.... (Revelation 18:2)
[7] 7. In addition, the spirits of hell themselves who torment mankind: Matthew 8:16, 10:1, 12:43-45; Mark 1:23-27, 9:17-29; Luke 4:33, 36, 6:17-18, 7:21, 8:2, 29, 9:39, 42, 55, 11:24-26, 13:11; Revelation 13:15, 16:13-14.
Published by the General Church of the New Jerusalem, 1100 Cathedral Road, Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania 19009, U.S.A. A translation of Doctrina Novae Hierosolymae de Domino, by Emanuel Swedenborg, 1688-1772. Translated from the Original Latin by N. Bruce Rogers. ISBN 9780945003687, Library of Congress Control Number: 2013954074.
Psalms 78
1
Hear my teaching, my people. Turn your ears to the words of my mouth.
2
I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of old,
3
Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.
4
We will not hide them from their children, telling to the generation to come the praises of Yahweh, his strength, and his wondrous works that he has done.
5
For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a teaching in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children;
6
that the generation to come might know, even the children who should be born; who should arise and tell their children,
7
that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments,
8
and might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that didn't make their hearts loyal, whose spirit was not steadfast with God.
9
The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.
10
They didn't keep God's covenant, and refused to walk in his law.
11
They forgot his doings, his wondrous works that he had shown them.
12
He did marvelous things in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.
13
He split the sea, and caused them to pass through. He made the waters stand as a heap.
14
In the daytime he also led them with a cloud, and all night with a light of fire.
15
He split rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink abundantly as out of the depths.
16
He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.
17
Yet they still went on to sin against him, to rebel against the Most High in the desert.
18
They tempted God in their heart by asking food according to their desire.
19
Yes, they spoke against God. They said, "Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?
20
Behold, he struck the rock, so that waters gushed out, and streams overflowed. Can he give bread also? Will he provide flesh for his people?"
21
Therefore Yahweh heard, and was angry. A fire was kindled against Jacob, anger also went up against Israel,
22
because they didn't believe in God, and didn't trust in his salvation.
23
Yet he commanded the skies above, and opened the doors of heaven.
24
He rained down manna on them to eat, and gave them food from the sky.
25
Man ate the bread of angels. He sent them food to the full.
26
He caused the east wind to blow in the sky. By his power he guided the south wind.
27
He rained also flesh on them as the dust; winged birds as the sand of the seas.
28
He let them fall in the midst of their camp, around their habitations.
29
So they ate, and were well filled. He gave them their own desire.
30
They didn't turn from their cravings. Their food was yet in their mouths,
31
when the anger of God went up against them, killed some of the fattest of them, and struck down the young men of Israel.
32
For all this they still sinned, and didn't believe in his wondrous works.
33
Therefore he consumed their days in vanity, and their years in terror.
34
When he killed them, then they inquired after him. They returned and sought God earnestly.
35
They remembered that God was their rock, the Most High God, their redeemer.
36
But they flattered him with their mouth, and lied to him with their tongue.
37
For their heart was not right with him, neither were they faithful in his covenant.
38
But he, being merciful, forgave iniquity, and didn't destroy them. Yes, many times he turned his anger away, and didn't stir up all his wrath.
39
He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes away, and doesn't come again.
40
How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness, and grieved him in the desert!
41
They turned again and tempted God, and provoked the Holy One of Israel.
42
They didn't remember his hand, nor the day when he redeemed them from the adversary;
43
how he set his signs in Egypt, his wonders in the field of Zoan,
44
he turned their rivers into blood, and their streams, so that they could not drink.
45
He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them.
46
He gave also their increase to the caterpillar, and their labor to the locust.
47
He destroyed their vines with hail, their sycamore fig trees with frost.
48
He gave over their livestock also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.
49
He threw on them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, indignation, and trouble, and a band of angels of evil.
50
He made a path for his anger. He didn't spare their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence,
51
and struck all the firstborn in Egypt, the chief of their strength in the tents of Ham.
52
But he led forth his own people like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
53
He led them safely, so that they weren't afraid, but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
54
He brought them to the border of his sanctuary, to this mountain, which his right hand had taken.
55
He also drove out the nations before them, allotted them for an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.
56
Yet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God, and didn't keep his testimonies;
57
but turned back, and dealt treacherously like their fathers. They were turned aside like a deceitful bow.
58
For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their engraved images.
59
When God heard this, he was angry, and greatly abhorred Israel;
60
So that he forsook the tent of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men;
61
and delivered his strength into captivity, his glory into the adversary's hand.
62
He also gave his people over to the sword, and was angry with his inheritance.
63
Fire devoured their young men. Their virgins had no wedding song.
64
Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows couldn't weep.
65
Then the Lord awakened as one out of sleep, like a mighty man who shouts by reason of wine.
66
He struck his adversaries backward. He put them to a perpetual reproach.
67
Moreover he rejected the tent of Joseph, and didn't choose the tribe of Ephraim,
68
But chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion which he loved.
69
He built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth which he has established forever.
70
He also chose David his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds;
71
from following the ewes that have their young, he brought him to be the shepherd of Jacob, his people, and Israel, his inheritance.
72
So he was their shepherd according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands. A Psalm by Asaph.
