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Numbers 8

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1 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

2 "Speak to Aaron, and tell him, 'When you light the lamps, the seven lamps shall give light in front of the lampstand.'"

3 Aaron did so. He lit its lamps to light the area in front of the lampstand, as Yahweh commanded Moses.

4 This was the workmanship of the lampstand, beaten work of gold. From its base to its flowers, it was beaten work: according to the pattern which Yahweh had shown Moses, so he made the lampstand.

5 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

6 "Take the Levites from among the children of Israel, and cleanse them.

7 You shall do this to them, to cleanse them: sprinkle the water of cleansing on them, let them shave their whole bodies with a razor, and let them wash their clothes, and cleanse themselves.

8 Then let them take a young bull, and its meal offering, fine flour mixed with oil; and another young bull you shall take for a sin offering.

9 You shall present the Levites before the Tent of Meeting. You shall assemble the whole congregation of the children of Israel.

10 You shall present the Levites before Yahweh. The children of Israel shall lay their hands on the Levites,

11 and Aaron shall offer the Levites before Yahweh for a wave offering, on the behalf of the children of Israel, that it may be theirs to do the service of Yahweh.

12 "The Levites shall lay their hands on the heads of the bulls, and you shall offer the one for a sin offering, and the other for a burnt offering to Yahweh, to make atonement for the Levites.

13 You shall set the Levites before Aaron, and before his sons, and offer them as a wave offering to Yahweh.

14 Thus you shall separate the Levites from among the children of Israel, and the Levites shall be mine.

15 "After that, the Levites shall go in to do the service of the Tent of Meeting: and you shall cleanse them, and offer them as a wave offering.

16 For they are wholly given to me from among the children of Israel; instead of all who open the womb, even the firstborn of all the children of Israel, I have taken them to me.

17 For all the firstborn among the children of Israel are mine, both man and animal. On the day that I struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, I sanctified them for myself.

18 I have taken the Levites instead of all the firstborn among the children of Israel.

19 I have given the Levites as a gift to Aaron and to his sons from among the children of Israel, to do the service of the children of Israel in the Tent of Meeting, and to make atonement for the children of Israel; that there be no plague among the children of Israel, when the children of Israel come near to the sanctuary."

20 Moses, and Aaron, and all the congregation of the children of Israel did so to the Levites. According to all that Yahweh commanded Moses concerning the Levites, so the children of Israel did to them.

21 The Levites purified themselves from sin, and they washed their clothes; and Aaron offered them for a wave offering before Yahweh; and Aaron made atonement for them to cleanse them.

22 After that, the Levites went in to do their service in the Tent of Meeting before Aaron, and before his sons: as Yahweh had commanded Moses concerning the Levites, so they did to them.

23 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

24 "This is that which belongs to the Levites: from twenty-five years old and upward they shall go in to wait on the service in the work of the Tent of Meeting;

25 and from the age of fifty years they shall cease waiting on the work, and shall serve no more,

26 but shall minister with their brothers in the Tent of Meeting, to perform the duty, and shall do no service. You shall do thus to the Levites concerning their duties."

   

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Apocalypse Revealed # 43

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43. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands. This symbolizes a new church, which will have an enlightenment from the Lord from the Word.

We are told in the last verse of this chapter that the seven lampstands are the seven churches, and it may be seen in no. 10 above that the seven churches mean all in the Christian world who turn to the church - and this in every case according to each one's state of reception (no. 41).

The seven lampstands mean a new church because the Lord is in it and in the midst of it. For we are told that in the midst of the seven lampstands John saw one like the Son of Man, and the Son of Man means the Lord in relation to the Word.

The lampstands appeared golden, because gold symbolizes goodness, and every church is a church by virtue of the goodness that is formed through truths. That gold symbolizes goodness will be seen in subsequent explanations.

[2] These lampstands were not next to one another or placed so as to touch each other, but stood at some intervals forming a kind of circle, as it apparent from this statement in the following chapter,

These things says He who... walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands. (Revelation 2:1)

We are not told anything about the lamps on the lampstands, but later it is said that the Holy Jerusalem, which is to say, the New Church, "has no need of the sun or of the moon," because "its lamp is the Lamb, and the nations that are saved shall walk in its light" (Revelation 21:23-24). And furthermore,

They need no lamp..., for the Lord God gives them light. (Revelation 22:5)

For those people who will be constituents of the Lord's New Church are the only "lampstands" that will shine with light from the Lord.

[3] The golden lampstand in the Tabernacle represented nothing else than the church in relation to its enlightenment by the Lord. Regarding this lampstand, see Exodus 25:31-40; 37:17-24; 26:35, Numbers 8:2-4. That it represented the Lord's church as to Divine spiritual love, which is love for the neighbor, see Arcana Coelestia (The Secrets of Heaven), nos. 9548, 9555, 9558, 9561, 9570, 9783. See also no. 493 below.

The lampstand in Zechariah 4 also symbolizes a new church to be established by the Lord, since it symbolizes a new house of God or temple, as is apparent from what follows there; and a house of God or temple symbolizes the church, and in the highest sense, the Lord's Divine humanity, as He Himself teaches in John 2:19-21, 1 and elsewhere.

But we will say what in turn is symbolically meant in Zechariah 4, when the lampstand appeared to him:

The particulars contained in verses 1-7 symbolize the Lord's enlightenment of a new church from the goodness of love by means of truth. The olive trees there symbolize the church in regard to the goodness of love.

The particulars from 8-10 verse there mean, symbolically, that the enlightenment comes from the Lord. Zerubbabel there, who is to build the house, thus the church, represents the Lord.

The particulars from verse 11-14 mean, symbolically, that that the church will also have in it truths from a heavenly origin.

This explanation of that chapter was given to me by the Lord through heaven.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. Jesus answered and said to them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." Then the Jews said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?" But He was speaking of the temple of His body.

  
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Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.