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Exodus 33

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1 And Jehovah speaketh unto Moses, `Go, ascend from this [place], thou and the people, whom thou hast brought up out of the land of Egypt, unto the land which I have sworn to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, To thy seed I give it,'

2 (and I have sent before thee a messenger, and have cast out the Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite,)

3 unto a land flowing with milk and honey, for I do not go up in thy midst, for thou [art] a stiff-necked people -- lest I consume thee in the way.'

4 And the people hear this sad thing, and mourn; and none put his ornaments on him.

5 And Jehovah saith unto Moses, `Say unto the sons of Israel, Ye [are] a stiff-necked people; one moment -- I come up into thy midst, and have consumed thee; and now, put down thine ornaments from off thee, and I know what I do to thee;'

6 and the sons of Israel take off their ornaments at mount Horeb.

7 And Moses taketh the tent, and hath stretched it out at the outside of the camp, afar off from the camp, and hath called it, `tent of Meeting;' and it hath come to pass, every one seeking Jehovah goeth out unto the tent of meeting, which [is] at the outside of the camp.

8 And it hath come to pass, at the going out of Moses unto the tent, all the people rise, and have stood, each at the opening of his tent, and have looked expectingly after Moses, until his going into the tent.

9 And it hath come to pass, at the going in of Moses to the tent, the pillar of the cloud cometh down, and hath stood at the opening of the tent, and He hath spoken with Moses;

10 and all the people have seen the pillar of the cloud standing at the opening of the tent, and all the people have risen and bowed themselves, each at the opening of his tent.

11 And Jehovah hath spoken unto Moses face unto face, as a man speaketh unto his friend; and he hath turned back unto the camp, and his minister Joshua, son of Nun, a youth, departeth not out of the tent.

12 And Moses saith unto Jehovah, `See, Thou art saying unto me, Bring up this people, and Thou hast not caused me to know whom Thou dost send with me; and Thou hast said, I have known thee by name, and also thou hast found grace in Mine eyes.

13 `And now, if, I pray Thee, I have found grace in Thine eyes, cause me to know, I pray Thee, Thy way, and I know Thee, so that I find grace in Thine eyes, and consider that this nation [is] Thy people;'

14 and He saith, `My presence doth go, and I have given rest to thee.'

15 And he saith unto Him, `If Thy presence is not going -- take us not up from this [place];

16 and in what is it known now, that I have found grace in Thine eyes -- I and Thy people -- is it not in Thy going with us? and we have been distinguished -- I and Thy people -- from all the people who [are] on the face of the ground.'

17 And Jehovah saith unto Moses, `Even this thing which thou hast spoken I do; for thou hast found grace in Mine eyes, and I know thee by name.'

18 And he saith, `Shew me, I pray Thee, Thine honour;'

19 and He saith, `I cause all My goodness to pass before thy face, and have called concerning the Name of Jehovah before thee, and favoured him whom I favour, and loved him whom I love.'

20 He saith also, `Thou art unable to see My face, for man doth not see Me, and live;'

21 Jehovah also saith, `Lo, a place [is] by Me, and thou hast stood on the rock,

22 and it hath come to pass, in the passing by of Mine honour, that I have set thee in a cleft of the rock, and spread out My hands over thee, until My passing by,

23 and I have turned aside My hands, and thou hast seen My back parts, and My face is not seen.'

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 10580

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10580. 'And Jehovah said, Behold, there is a place by Me, and you shall stand on the rock' means a state of faith in God. This is clear from the meaning of 'a place' as a state, dealt with in 2625, 2837, 3356, 3387, 4321, 4882, 5605, 7381, 9440, 9967, 10146; and from the meaning of 'the rock' as faith, dealt with in 8581, 10438, the reason why a state of faith in God is meant being that the words 'a place by Me' are used. No one can know except from the internal sense that this is the meaning of these words, thus unless he knows what it is that 'a place' means and what it is that 'the rock' means in that sense. But for the internal sense what would the declaration that there was a place by Jehovah on the rock mean? It would mean that Jehovah dwelt there and was providing Moses a place by Him; but in fact Jehovah dwells in heaven among angels, and in the Church among people. The meaning of 'the rock' as faith has its origin in the things that appear in the next life; those ruled by faith dwell there on rocks, but those governed by love dwell on mountains. The rocks there are stony in appearance; but not so the mountains, because they are raised up masses of earth. This is where the meaning of 'the rock' as faith comes from.

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

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Arcana Coelestia # 2625

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2625. 'At the appointed time' means when the Rational was such that it was receptive. This becomes clear from the meaning of 'time'. There are two things which appear to be indispensable while a person lives in the world because they exist as essential elements of the natural order - those two things being space and time. Living in the world or natural order therefore is living in space and time. But these two cease to have any existence in the next life. They do, it is true, appear to exist to some extent in the world of spirits, the reason for this being that spirits recently arrived from life in the body bring with them mental pictures of natural things. But subsequently they perceive that space and time do not exist in that life but states instead, and that states in the next life correspond to extensions of space and of time within the natural order - states in respect to Being corresponding to those of space, and in respect to Manifestation to those of time. Regarding space or place, see 1274, 1379, 1380, 1382.

[2] From this anyone may see what kind of mental pictures a person is able to have while in the world or natural order regarding things which belong to the next life and about many arcana of faith. He may see that such a person is unwilling to believe those things unless he can take them in by means of objects that exist in the world, indeed by sensory evidence. For he cannot do other than suppose that if he were to divest himself of his mental pictures that have been formed from space and time, more so to divest himself of space and time themselves, he would cease to be anything at all and so would have nothing left to him from which he could perceive with his senses or have thoughts of anything apart from that which was unintelligible to him. But in actual fact quite the reverse is the case: the life of angels is such that it is the wisest and happiest of all.

[3] This is the reason why people's ages mentioned in the Word do not in the internal sense mean ages but states, so that in this verse 'old age' does not mean old age. Nor does any number mean a number but some specific state, as in the case of 'a hundred years' mentioned further on. From this it now becomes clear that 'the appointed time' means the state when the rational was such that it was receptive.

[4] As regards the specific teaching presented here - that the Divine Rational received being and was given manifestation from the Lord's Divine spiritual united to His Divine celestial, when the days had been completed for him to cast off the human and when the Rational was such that it was receptive (meant in the internal sense by 'Sarah conceived and bore to Abraham a son in his old age, at the appointed time') - the following needs to be known:

The human has its beginnings in the inmost part of the rational, see 2106, 2194. The Lord advanced gradually towards the union of the Human Essence with the Divine Essence, and of the Divine Essence with the Human Essence, 1864, 2033, 2523.

He did so by His own power, 1921, 2025, 2026, 2083, through continuing temptations and repeated victories, 1690, 1737, 1813, and through receiving revelations repeatedly from His own Divine, 1616, 2500, till at length He cast out the whole human from the mother, 1414, 1444, 2574.

And in this way He made His Human - as to the Rational - Divine, as taught by the things that occur in this verse.

From all this it is evident how the explanation 'when the days had been completed for Him to cast off the human and when the Rational was such that it was receptive' is to be understood.

[5] Some idea of this matter may be had from what happens to people who are being regenerated. The celestial things of love, and the spiritual things of faith, are instilled into them by the Lord not all at once but gradually; and when by means of those things a person's rational has become such that it is able to be receptive, he is for the first time becoming regenerate, mostly by means of temptations in which he overcomes. While these experiences are taking place the days are being completed to cast off the old man and put on the new. Regarding man's regeneration, see 677, 679, 711, 848, 986, 1555, 2475.

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