Arcana Coelestia #2838
2838. 'As it is said today' means that which is perpetual. This is clear from the meaning of 'today' in the Word, dealt with below. One frequently reads in the Word the phrase 'even to this day (or today)', as in what has gone before,
He is the father of Moab even to this day, and the father of Ammon even to this day. Genesis 19:37-38; and in what appears later on,
The name of the city is Beersheba even to this day. Genesis 26:33; also,
The children of Israel do not eat the sinew of that which was displaced, which is on the hollow of the thigh, even to this day. Genesis 32:32; as well as,
This is the pillar of Rachel's grave even to [this] day. Genesis 35:20.
Joseph made it a statute even to this day. Genesis 47:26.
In the historical sense 'to this day' and 'today' refer to the time when Moses was alive, but in the internal sense these expressions mean perpetuity and eternity of state. 'Day' means state, see 23, 487, 488, 493, 893, and so therefore does 'today', which is the present time. That which in the world is temporal is in heaven eternal. To give the meaning of that which is eternal, the expression today or else to this day has been added, though to those who are aware only of the historical sense it does not appear to embody anything further. Similar usages of these expressions occur elsewhere in the Word, such as Joshua 4:9; 6:25; 7:26; Judges 1:21, 26; and in other places.
[2] That 'today' means that which is perpetual and eternal may be seen in David,
I will tell of the statute: Jehovah has said to me, You are My Son; today I have begotten You. Psalms 2:7.
Here 'today' plainly stands for that which is eternal. In the same author,
For ever, O Jehovah, Your Word is fixed in the heavens, Your truth to generation after generation. You have established the earth and it stands. As for Your judgements they stand [even] today. Psalms 119:89-91.
Here also 'today' plainly stands for that which is eternal. In Jeremiah,
Before I formed you in the belly, I knew you, and before you came out of the womb I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations. I have set you this day (today) over nations and over kingdoms; and I have made you today into a fortified city, and into a pillar of iron, and into walls of bronze. Jeremiah 1:5, 10, 18.
This refers in the sense of the letter to Jeremiah, but in the internal sense the Lord is meant. 'I have set you this day (or today) over nations and over kingdoms, and I have made you today into a fortified city' means from eternity. In regard to the Lord one can only speak of that which is eternal.
[3] In Moses,
You are standing today, all of you, before Jehovah your God, so that you may enter into the covenant of Jehovah your God, and into His oath, which Jehovah your God is making with you today, that He may establish you today as a people for Himself, and that He will be God to you. Not indeed with you alone [do I make it], but with those who stand with us here today before Jehovah our God, and with those who are not with us today. Deuteronomy 29:10, 12-15.
Here in the sense of the letter 'today' means that present time when
Moses addressed the people. Yet it is clear that it nevertheless implies subsequent times and what is perpetual; for making a covenant with anyone, and with those who were there and with those who were not, implies that which is perpetual. Perpetuity itself is what is meant in the internal sense.
[4] That 'daily' and 'today' mean that which is perpetual is clear also from the sacrifice that was offered each day. This sacrifice, because of what is meant by day, daily, and today, was called the continual, or perpetual, sacrifice, Numbers 28:3, 23; Daniel 8:13; 11:31; 12:11. This may be even more plainly evident from the manna which rained from heaven, spoken of in Moses as follows,
Behold, I am causing bread to rain from heaven, and the people shall go out and gather a portion day by day. And they shall not leave any of it until the morning. That which they did leave until the morning bred worms and went rotten, except that gathered on the day before the Sabbath. Exodus 16:4, 19-20, 23.
This happened because 'the manna' meant the Lord's Divine Human, John 6:31-32, 49-50, 58, and because the Lord's Divine Human meant heavenly food, which is nothing other than love and charity, together with the goods and truths of faith. In heaven the Lord imparts this food to angels moment by moment, thus perpetually and eternally, see 2193. This is also what is meant in the Lord's Prayer by the petition, Give us today our daily bread, Matthew 6:11; Luke 11:3, that is, in every moment for evermore.
Deuteronomy 29
1
These are the words of the covenant which Yahweh commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant which he made with them in Horeb.
2
Moses called to all Israel, and said to them, You have seen all that Yahweh did before your eyes in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh, and to all his servants, and to all his land;
3
the great trials which your eyes saw, the signs, and those great wonders:
4
but Yahweh has not given you a heart to know, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, to this day.
5
I have led you forty years in the wilderness: your clothes have not grown old on you, and your shoes have not grown old on your feet.
6
You have not eaten bread, neither have you drunk wine or strong drink; that you may know that I am Yahweh your God.
7
When you came to this place, Sihon the king of Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, came out against us to battle, and we struck them:
8
and we took their land, and gave it for an inheritance to the Reubenites, and to the Gadites, and to the half-tribe of the Manassites.
9
Keep therefore the words of this covenant, and do them, that you may prosper in all that you do.
10
You stand this day all of you before Yahweh your God; your heads, your tribes, your elders, and your officers, even all the men of Israel,
11
your little ones, your wives, and your foreigner who is in the midst of your camps, from the one who cuts your wood to the one who draws your water;
12
that you may enter into the covenant of Yahweh your God, and into his oath, which Yahweh your God makes with you this day;
13
that he may establish you this day to himself for a people, and that he may be to you a God, as he spoke to you, and as he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
14
Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath,
15
but with him who stands here with us this day before Yahweh our God, and also with him who is not here with us this day
16
(for you know how we lived in the land of Egypt, and how we came through the midst of the nations through which you passed;
17
and you have seen their abominations, and their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which were among them);
18
lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turns away this day from Yahweh our God, to go to serve the gods of those nations; lest there should be among you a root that bears gall and wormwood;
19
and it happen, when he hears the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, "I shall have peace, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart, to destroy the moist with the dry."
20
Yahweh will not pardon him, but then the anger of Yahweh and his jealousy will smoke against that man, and all the curse that is written in this book shall lie on him, and Yahweh will blot out his name from under the sky.
21
Yahweh will set him apart to evil out of all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant that is written in this book of the law.
22
The generation to come, your children who shall rise up after you, and the foreigner who shall come from a far land, shall say, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sicknesses with which Yahweh has made it sick;
23
[and that] the whole land of it is sulfur, and salt, [and] a burning, [that] it is not sown, nor bears, nor any grass grows therein, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which Yahweh overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath:
24
even all the nations shall say, "Why has Yahweh done thus to this land? What does the heat of this great anger mean?"
25
Then men shall say, "Because they forsook the covenant of Yahweh, the God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt,
26
and went and served other gods, and worshiped them, gods that they didn't know, and that he had not given to them:
27
therefore the anger of Yahweh was kindled against this land, to bring on it all the curse that is written in this book;
28
and Yahweh rooted them out of their land in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as at this day."
29
The secret things belong to Yahweh our God; but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.
