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Ezekiel 3

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1 He said to me, Son of man, eat that which you find. eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.

2 So I opened my mouth, and he caused me to eat the scroll.

3 He said to me, Son of man, cause your belly to eat, and fill your bowels with this scroll that I give you. Then I ate it; and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth.

4 He said to me, Son of man, go to the house of Israel, and speak my words to them.

5 For you are not sent to a people of a strange speech and of a hard language, but to the house of Israel;

6 not to many peoples of a strange speech and of a hard language, whose words you can not understand. Surely, if I sent you to them, they would listen to you.

7 But the house of Israel will not listen to you; for they will not listen to me: for all the house of Israel are obstinate and hard-hearted.

8 Behold, I have made your face hard against their faces, and your forehead hard against their foreheads.

9 As an adamant harder than flint have I made your forehead: don't be afraid of them, neither be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house.

10 Moreover he said to me, Son of man, all my words that I shall speak to you receive in your heart, and hear with your ears.

11 Go to them of the captivity, to the children of your people, and speak to them, and tell them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh; whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear.

12 Then the Spirit lifted me up, and I heard behind me the voice of a great rushing, [saying], Blessed be the glory of Yahweh from his place.

13 [I heard] the noise of the wings of the living creatures as they touched one another, and the noise of the wheels beside them, even the noise of a great rushing.

14 So the Spirit lifted me up, and took me away; and I went in bitterness, in the heat of my spirit; and the hand of Yahweh was strong on me.

15 Then I came to them of the captivity at Tel Aviv, that lived by the river Chebar, and to where they lived; and I sat there overwhelmed among them seven days.

16 It happened at the end of seven days, that the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

17 Son of man, I have made you a watchman to the house of Israel: therefore hear the word from my mouth, and give them warning from me.

18 When I tell the wicked, You shall surely die; and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at your hand.

19 Yet if you warn the wicked, and he doesn't turn from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul.

20 Again, when a righteous man does turn from his righteousness, and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die: because you have not given him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteous deeds which he has done shall not be remembered; but his blood will I require at your hand.

21 Nevertheless if you warn the righteous man, that the righteous not sin, and he does not sin, he shall surely live, because he took warning; and you have delivered your soul.

22 The hand of Yahweh was there on me; and he said to me, Arise, go forth into the plain, and I will there talk with you.

23 Then I arose, and went forth into the plain: and behold, the glory of Yahweh stood there, as the glory which I saw by the river Chebar; and I fell on my face.

24 Then the Spirit entered into me, and set me on my feet; and he spoke with me, and said to me, Go, shut yourself inside your house.

25 But you, son of man, behold, they shall lay bands on you, and shall bind you with them, and you shall not go out among them:

26 and I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth, that you shall be mute, and shall not be to them a reprover; for they are a rebellious house.

27 But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth, and you shall tell them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: He who hears, let him hear; and he who forbears, let him forbear: for they are a rebellious house.

   

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True Christian Religion #130

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130. The following passages establish that prophets represented the state of their church as regards doctrine from the Word, and living in accordance with that doctrine. The prophet Isaiah was commanded to strip the sackcloth from his loins and his shoe from his foot, and to go naked and barefoot for three years as a sign and a token (Isaiah 20:2-3). The prophet Ezekiel was commanded to represent the state of the church by packing his bags for an exile, and to move to another place in the sight of the Children of Israel; he was to bring out his baggage during the day, and go out in the evening through a hole in the house-wall; he was to cover his face so as not to see the ground, and thus he would be a token for the house of Israel, and he was to say, 'Behold, I am your token; as I have done, so shall it be with you' (Ezekiel 12:3-7, 11). The prophet Hosea was commanded to represent the state of the church by taking a prostitute as a wife; he did so, and she bore him three children, one of whom he called Jezreel, the second No-pity, and the third Not-my-people. Again he was commanded to go and love a woman who was loved by another man, an adulteress; and he bought her (Hosea 1:2-9; 3:2-3). Another prophet was commanded to put ashes on his eyes, and to allow himself to be struck and beaten (1 Kings 20:35, 38).

The prophet Ezekiel was commanded, in order to represent the state of the church, to take a brick and to draw a picture of Jerusalem on it; to lay siege to it, and make a rampart and a mound to attack it; to place an iron griddle between himself and the city; and to lie on his left side and on his right side. Also to take wheat, barley, lentils, millet and spelt, and to make bread from them; also to make a cake of barley mixed with human dung; and because he begged off this, he was allowed to make it with cow-dung. It was said to him:

Lie on your left side, and put the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it; for the number of days that you lie on that side, you shall carry their iniquity. For I will make you carry the iniquity of the house of Israel for a number of days equal to the years of their iniquity, namely, three hundred and ninety days. When you have completed this period, you are to lie a second time on your right side, to carry the iniquity of the house of Judah, Ezekiel 4:1-15.

[2] It is clear from what follows this passage that the prophet by these actions carried the iniquities of the house of Israel and the house of Judah, and did not remove and so expiate them, but merely represented and demonstrated them:

Thus said Jehovah, the Children of Israel shall eat their bread unclean. Behold, I break the staff of bread, so that they may lack bread and water, and they shall be desolate, a man and his brother, and they shall waste away because of their iniquity, Ezekiel 4:13, 16-17.

The meaning is similar where it is said of the Lord:

He bore our sicknesses, He carried our pains. Jehovah made the iniquities of us all to fall upon Him. By His knowledge He made many righteous, in that He carried their iniquities Isaiah 53:4, 6, 11.

The whole of this chapter deals with the Lord's passion.

[3] The details of the Lord's passion show clearly that as the Prophet He represented the state of the Jewish church with regard to the Word. For example, His betrayal by Judas; His arrest and conviction by the chief priests and the elders; His being beaten; His head being struck with a reed; His crowning with a crown of thorns; the dividing of His garments, and the casting of lots for His tunic; His crucifixion; His being given vinegar to drink; His side being pierced; His burial and resurrection on the third day.

His betrayal by Judas meant that He was betrayed by the Jewish nation, which possessed the Word, since Judas represented that nation. His arrest and conviction by the chief priests and elders meant that the whole of that church so behaved. His being beaten, being spat upon in the face, being flogged and having His head struck with a reed meant their similar treatment of the Word as regards the Divine truths it contains. The crowning with thorn meant that they falsified and adulterated these truths. The dividing of His garments and throwing lots for His tunic meant that they threw to the winds all the truths of the Word, but not its spiritual sense, which is what the tunic meant. The crucifixion meant that they destroyed and profaned the whole Word. Their giving Him vinegar to drink meant that they offered only falsified truths, which is why He did not drink it. The piercing of His side meant that they utterly extinguished all the truth and all the good of the Word. His burial meant the rejection of all He had left from His mother. His resurrection on the third day meant His glorification, or the union of His Human with the Father's Divine. From this it is now plain that 'carrying iniquities' does not mean removing them, but representing the profaning of truths in the Word.

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

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Ezekiel 4:13

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13 Yahweh said, Even thus shall the children of Israel eat their bread unclean, among the nations where I will drive them.