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Exodus 24

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1 And unto Moses He said, `Come up unto Jehovah, thou, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and ye have bowed yourselves afar off;'

2 and Moses hath drawn nigh by himself unto Jehovah; and they draw not nigh, and the people go not up with him.

3 And Moses cometh in, and recounteth to the people all the words of Jehovah, and all the judgments, and all the people answer -- one voice, and say, `All the words which Jehovah hath spoken we do.'

4 And Moses writeth all the words of Jehovah, and riseth early in the morning, and buildeth an altar under the hill, and twelve standing pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel;

5 and he sendeth the youths of the sons of Israel, and they cause burnt-offerings to ascend, and sacrifice sacrifices of peace-offerings to Jehovah -- calves.

6 And Moses taketh half of the blood, and putteth in basins, and half of the blood hath he sprinkled on the altar;

7 and he taketh the Book of the Covenant, and proclaimeth in the ears of the people, and they say, `All that which Jehovah hath spoken we do, and obey.'

8 And Moses taketh the blood, and sprinkleth on the people, and saith, `Lo, the blood of the covenant which Jehovah hath made with you, concerning all these things.'

9 And Moses goeth up, Aaron also, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel,

10 and they see the God of Israel, and under His feet [is] as the white work of the sapphire, and as the substance of the heavens for purity;

11 and unto those of the sons of Israel who are near He hath not put forth His hand, and they see God, and eat and drink.

12 And Jehovah saith unto Moses, `Come up unto Me to the mount, and be there, and I give to thee the tables of stone, and the law, and the command, which I have written to direct them.'

13 And Moses riseth -- Joshua his minister also -- and Moses goeth up unto the mount of God;

14 and unto the elders he hath said, `Abide ye for us in this [place], until that we turn back unto you, and lo, Aaron and Hur [are] with you -- he who hath matters doth come nigh unto them.'

15 And Moses goeth up unto the mount, and the cloud covereth the mount;

16 and the honour of Jehovah doth tabernacle on mount Sinai, and the cloud covereth it six days, and He calleth unto Moses on the seventh day from the midst of the cloud.

17 And the appearance of the honour of Jehovah [is] as a consuming fire on the top of the mount, before the eyes of the sons of Israel;

18 and Moses goeth into the midst of the cloud, and goeth up unto the mount, and Moses is on the mount forty days and forty nights.

   

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Apocalypse Explained # 68

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68. And his eyes were as a flame of fire. That this signifies Divine providence from His Divine love, is evident from the signification of eyes, as denoting the understanding (concerning which see above, n. 37), and when said of the Lord, as denoting presence, and thence providence (see Arcana Coelestia 3869, 10569); concerning which more will be said in what follows; and from the signification of a flame of fire, when said of the Lord, as denoting Divine love. The reason why a flame of fire denotes the Divine love is, that the Lord appears from heaven as a Sun, and the Divine which proceeds from Him as light, flame-coloured in the inmost or third heaven, and shining white in the middle or second heaven; the Divine love itself is what thus appears. For this reason fire and flame in the Word signify love. (As may be evident from what is shown in Arcana Coelestia, viz., that fire in the Word signifies love in each sense, n. 934, 4906, 5215. That sacred and heavenly fire is Divine love, and every affection which belongs to that love, see n. 934, 6314, 6832. That there are two origins of heat, one from the sun of the world, by virtue of which all things upon the earth vegetate, the other from the Sun of heaven, which is the Lord, from which angels and men derive all that pertains to their life, see n. 3338, 5215, 7324. That love is the fire of life, and that life itself is actually therefrom, see n. 4906, 5071, 6032, 6314. That flame is truth from the good of the inmost heaven, and light truth from the good of the middle heaven, see n. 3222, 6832; the reason is, that light in the inmost heaven appears as flaming, and in the middle heaven, shining white, see n. 9570; and also in the work, Heaven and Hell 116-140.) The reason why eyes, when said of the Lord, signify Divine providence, is, because when said of man, they signify understanding; and the Divine understanding, because it is infinite, is Divine providence. Nothing else is signified by the eyes of Jehovah, in the following passage in Isaiah:

"Incline thine ear, O Jehovah, and hear; open thine eyes, O Jehovah, and see" (37:17).

In Jeremiah:

"I will set mine eye upon them for good, and I will bring them back upon this land, and I will build them" (24:6).

And in David:

"Behold the eye of Jehovah is upon them that fear him" (Psalms 33:18);

and in the same:

"Jehovah is in the temple of his holiness, his eyes behold, and his eyelids prove the sons of man" (Psalms 11:4.);

and in other places. (Concerning the Divine providence, see The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem 267-279.)

  
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Translation by Isaiah Tansley. Many thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.

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Arcana Coelestia # 6344

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6344. 'And the beginning of my strength' means that through that faith comes the initial power which truth possesses. This is clear from the meaning of 'the beginning of strength' as initial power; and since 'strength' is used with reference to truth, the initial power that truth possesses is what is meant. A similar usage occurs in Isaiah,

Jehovah imparts might to the weary, and to him who has no strength He gives greater power. Isaiah 40:29.

Here 'might' is used with reference to good and 'strength' to truth, 'power' with reference to both.

A brief statement will be made about how one should understand the explanation that through faith comes the power which good possesses, and the initial power which truth possesses, meant by 'Reuben my firstborn, you are my might and the beginning of my strength'. In the spiritual world all power comes from good through truth; without good truth has no power at all. For truth is so to speak the body, and good so to speak the soul of that body, and to accomplish anything the soul must act through the body. From this it is evident that truth without good has no power at all, even as the body without the soul has none at all. A body without its soul is a corpse; so too is truth without good.

[2] As soon as good effects the birth of faith that is composed of truth, power reveals itself in truth. This power is what is called the initial power that truth possesses through faith and is what is meant by 'the beginning of strength', as in other places in the Word where the condition of the firstborn is referred to, for example in David,

He smote all the firstborn in Egypt, the beginning of strength in the tents of Ham. Psalms 78:51.

And in another place,

He smote all the firstborn in their land, the beginning of all their strength. Psalms 105:36.

Also in Deuteronomy,

He must acknowledge the firstborn son of her that is hated, to give him two parts of all that will be found for him, in that he is the beginning of his strength; the right of the first born is his. Deuteronomy 21:17.

[3] The genuine meaning of 'the firstborn' is the good of charity, though the apparent meaning is the truth of faith, 3325, 4925, 4926, 4928, 4930. And because both that good and this truth are the fundamental qualities of the Church, the ancients spoke of the firstborn as his 'father's might and the beginning of his strength'. The fact that those fundamental qualities were meant by 'the firstborn' is quite evident from the considerations that everything which was a firstborn was Jehovah's or the Lord's and that the tribe of Levi was taken instead of all the firstborn and became the priesthood.

[4] Scarcely anyone in the world can know what the power possessed by truth coming from good is; but it is known to those in the next life, and so can be known through revelation from there. People in possession of truth that comes from good, that is, of faith derived from charity, possess power that comes through truth from good. All angels possess that power, which also is why in the Word angels are called 'powers'. For they have the power to restrain evil spirits; even one angel can restrain a thousand together. Their power they use most especially among men; sometimes they protect a person from numerous hells, in thousands of ways.

[5] This power that angels possess comes to them through the truth of faith derived from the good of charity. But because the faith they have comes from the Lord, the Lord alone is the power that resides with them. This power which comes from the Lord through faith is meant by the Lord's words to Peter,

On this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Matthew 16:18-19.

These words were addressed to Peter because he represented faith, see Preface to Genesis 22, as well as 3750, 4738, 6000, 6073 (end). Also wherever 'rock', 1 as Peter is called here, occurs in the Word, faith is meant in its internal sense, and the Lord in respect of faith in its highest sense.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. Reading petram (rock), which Swedenborg has in his rough draft, for Petrum (Peter).

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.