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Ezekiel 47

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1 And he causeth me to turn back unto the opening of the house; and lo, water is coming forth from under the threshold of the house eastward, for the front of the house [is] eastward, and the water is coming down from beneath, from the right side of the house, from the south of the altar.

2 And he causeth me to go out the way of the gate northward, and causeth me to turn round the way without, unto the gate that [is] without, the way that is looking eastward, and lo, water is coming forth from the right side.

3 In the going out of the man eastward, and a line in his hand, then he measureth a thousand by the cubit, and he causeth me to pass over into water -- water to the ankles.

4 And he measureth a thousand, and causeth me to pass over into water -- water to the knees. And he measureth a thousand, and causeth me to pass over -- water to the loins.

5 And he measureth a thousand -- a stream that I am not able to pass over; for risen have the waters -- waters to swim in -- a stream that is not passed over.

6 And he saith unto me, `Hast thou seen, son of man?' and he leadeth me, and bringeth me back unto the edge of the stream.

7 In my turning back, then, lo, at the edge of the stream [are] very many trees, on this side and on that side.

8 And he saith unto me, `These waters are going forth unto the east circuit, and have gone down unto the desert, and have entered the sea; unto the sea they are brought forth, and the waters have been healed.

9 And it hath come to pass, every living creature that teemeth, whithersoever the streams come, doth live: and there hath been great abundance of fish, for these waters have come thither, and they are healed; and every thing whither the stream cometh hath lived.

10 And it hath come to pass, fishers do stand by it, from En-Gedi even unto En-Eglaim; a spreading place of nets they are; according to their own kind is their fish, as the fish of the great sea, very many.

11 Its miry and its marshy places -- they are not healed; to salt they have been given up.

12 And by the stream there cometh up on its edge, on this side and on that side, every [kind of] fruit-tree whose leaf fadeth not, and not consumed is its fruit, according to its months it yieldeth first-fruits, because its waters from the sanctuary are coming forth; and its fruits hath been for food, and its leaf for medicine.

13 `Thus said the Lord Jehovah: This [is] the border whereby ye inherit the land, according to the twelve tribes of Israel; Joseph [hath] portions.

14 And ye have inherited it, one as well as another, in that I have lifted up My hand to give it to your fathers; and this land hath fallen to you in inheritance.

15 `And this [is] the border of the land at the north quarter; from the great sea, the way of Hethlon, at the coming in to Zedad:

16 Hamath, Berothah, Sibraim, that [is] between the border of Damascus and the border of Hamath; Hazar-Hatticon, that [is] at the coast of Havran.

17 And the border from the sea hath been Hazar-Enan, the border of Damascus, and Zaphon at the north, and the border of Hamath: and [this is] the north quarter.

18 `And the east quarter [is] from between Havran, and Damascus, and Gilead, and the land of Israel, [to] the Jordan; from the border over-against the eastern sea ye measure: and [this is] the east quarter.

19 `And the south quarter southward [is] from Tamar unto the waters of Meriboth-Kadesh, the stream unto the great sea: and [this is] the south quarter southward.

20 `And the west quarter [is] the great sea, from the border till over-against the coming in to Hamath: this [is] the west quarter.

21 `And ye have divided this land to you, according to the tribes of Israel;

22 and it hath come to pass, ye separate it for an inheritance to yourselves, and to the sojourners who are sojourning in your midst, who have begotten sons in your midst, and they have been to you as native, with the sons of Israel, with you they are separated for an inheritance in the midst of the tribes of Israel.

23 And it hath come to pass, in the tribe with which the sojourner sojourneth, there ye give his inheritance -- an affirmation of the Lord Jehovah.

   

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Divine Providence # 134

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134a. 2. No one is reformed by visions or by conversations with the dead, because they compel. There are two kinds of visions, divine and demonic. Divine visions are given by means of portrayals in heaven, while demonic visions are effected though magical events in hell. There are imaginary visions as well, visions that are the illusions of a mind that has lost its bearings.

Divine visions (which as just noted are given by means of portrayals in heaven) are the kind that happened to the prophets. When they were having these visions they were not in the body but in the spirit, because visions cannot happen to us while we are physically awake. So when the prophets saw visions, it says that they were in the spirit, as the following passages show.

Ezekiel said, "The spirit lifted me up and took me back to Chaldea to the captivity in a vision of God, in the spirit of God; so the vision that I saw came over me" (Ezekiel 11:1, 24). Then too, spirits held him up between earth and heaven and brought him to Jerusalem in visions of God (Ezekiel 8:3 and following). The same thing happened in a vision of God or in the spirit when he saw the four animals that were cherubim (Ezekiel chapters 1 and 10) and when he saw the new temple, the new earth, and the angel measuring them (Ezekiel chapters 40-48). It says in chapter Ezekiel 40:2, 26 that he was in visions of God at the time, and in chapter Ezekiel 43:5 that he was in the spirit.

[2] Zechariah was in the same kind of state when he saw the man on horseback among the myrtle trees (Zechariah 1:8 and following), when he saw the four horns and the man with a measuring line in his hand (Zechariah 1:18, 20, 21; Zechariah 2:1 and following), when he saw the lampstand and the two olive trees (Zechariah 4:1 and following), when he saw the flying scroll and the ephah (Zechariah 5:1, 6), and when he saw the four chariots coming out from the four mountains, and the horses (Zechariah 6:1 and following).

Daniel was in the same kind of state when he saw the four beasts rising from the sea (Daniel 6:1 [7:1] and following), and when he saw the battles of the ram and the goat (Daniel 8:1 and following). It says in Daniel 7:1-2, 7, and 13; in Daniel 8:2; and in Daniel 10:1, 7, and 8 that he saw these things in the vision of his spirit, and it says in Daniel 9:21 that he saw the angel Gabriel in a vision.

[3] John was in the vision of the spirit when he saw the things he describes in the Book of Revelation--for example, when he saw the seven lampstands with the Human-born One in their midst (Revelation 1:12-16), when he saw the throne in heaven with someone sitting on it, surrounded by the four animals that were cherubim (Revelation 4), when he saw the book of life taken by the Lamb (Revelation 5), when he saw the horses come out of the book (Revelation 6), when he saw the seven angels with their trumpets (Revelation 8), when he saw the pit of the abyss opened with the locusts coming out of it (Revelation 9), when he saw the dragon and its battle with Michael (Revelation 12), when he saw the two beasts rise up, one from the sea and one from the land (Revelation 13), when he saw the woman sitting on the scarlet beast (Revelation 17) and the destruction of Babylon (Revelation 18), when he saw the white horse with someone riding it (Revelation 18 [19]), when he saw the new heaven and the new earth and the holy Jerusalem coming down from heaven (Revelation 21), and when he saw the river of water of life (Revelation 22). It says that he saw these things in the vision of his spirit in Revelation 1:11 [1:10]; Revelation 4:2; Revelation 5:1; Revelation 6:1; and Revelation 21:12 [21:10].

These were the kinds of visions that were visible from heaven to the sight of their spirits and not to their physical sight.

Things like this do not happen nowadays, because if they did they would not be understood, since they happen by means of images whose details are pointing to inner features of the church and secrets of heaven. It was foretold in Daniel 9:24 that they would stop when the Lord came into the world.

However, demonic visions have sometimes occurred. They are brought about by spirits who inspire deceptive passions and visions and who call themselves the Holy Spirit because of a mental confusion that engulfs them. Now, however, these spirits have been gathered in by the Lord and consigned to a hell separate from the other hells.

We can see from all this that no one can be reformed by any visions except the ones that are in the Word. There are imaginary visions as well, but these are nothing but the illusions of a mind that has lost its bearings.

134b. The story that the Lord told about the rich man in hell and Lazarus in Abraham's lap shows that no one is reformed by conversations with the dead. The rich man said, "Father Abraham, I beg you to send Lazarus to my father's house where I have five brothers, to bear witness to them so that they do not come to this place of torment." Abraham said to him, "They have Moses and the prophets: let them heed them." But he said, "No, father Abraham, but if someone came to them from the dead, they would repent." He answered him, "If they do not heed Moses and the prophets, they would not be convinced if someone rose from the dead" (Luke 16:27-31).

Conversations with the dead may lead to the same results as miracles that I have just described. That is, we may be convinced and be constrained to worship for a short while. However, since this deprives us of rational functioning at the same time that it hems in our evils, as already noted [130-131, 133], this spell or inner restraint is released and the pent-up evils erupt in blasphemy and profanation. Still, this happens only when spirits have imposed some religious dogma. No good spirit--let alone any angel of heaven--would ever do this.

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