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Jis vėl man tarė: “Apsisuk, ir pamatysi dar didesnių bjaurysčių”.
Arcana Coelestia #10584
10584. 'And I will take My palm away, and you will see My back parts; and My face will not be seen' means that they would see the external things of the Word, the Church, and worship, but not the internal. This is clear from the meaning of 'Jehovah's back parts' as the external things of the Word, the Church, and worship, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'Jehovah's face' as the internal ones, dealt with above in 10578. Consequently 'seeing Jehovah's back parts and not His face' means seeing the external things of the Word, the Church, and worship, and not the internal. The fact that the Israelite and Jewish nation was like this, and still is at the present day, has been shown in all that has gone before in the present chapter and the one before it.
[2] The reason why the external things of the Word, the Church, and worship are meant by 'Jehovah's back parts' is that internal things are meant by 'the face', 10578. And people are said 'to see Jehovah's back parts and not His face' when they believe and revere the Word, yet no more than what is external, that is, the literal sense. They do not go more deeply into it in the way that those who have been enlightened do, deriving religious teachings from the Word which enable them to see its true meaning, thus its inner one.
The Word cannot be understood without religious teachings, and teachings drawn from the Word by one who has been enlightened must serve the understanding as a lamp, see 9382, 9409, 9410, 9424, 9430, 10105, 10324, 10400, 10431. The internal sense of the Word provides those teachings, 9430.
From all this it may be recognized what 'seeing Jehovah's back parts and not His face' means.
[3] But those who have no belief in the Word do not even see Jehovah's back parts; instead they turn themselves around, away from Jehovah, and see only themselves and the world. These are the ones who are meant in the Word by those who are said to turn their back parts towards the temple and worship the sun, of whom Ezekiel says,
I was brought into the court of Jehovah's house, and behold, twenty-five men, whose back parts were towards Jehovah's temple, and their faces towards the east; and the same bowed down towards the rising of the sun. Ezekiel 8:16.
By 'the sun and its rising' one should understand the sun in the world and its rising there, and by that sun self-love is meant, which is the complete opposite of love to the Lord. This is why in angels' ways of thinking the sun of the world is presented as something in complete obscurity, behind the back, whereas the Lord, who is the Sun of heaven, is before the face, see 7078. Regarding these people it is said that they turn their back parts towards the temple, and also - in Jeremiah - that they go backwards,
You have forsaken Jehovah, you have gone backwards. Jeremiah 15:6.
And elsewhere in the same prophet,
They went away in the obstinacy of their evil heart, and went 1 backwards but not forwards. Jeremiah 7:24.
Notas a pie de página:
1. literally, became
Exodus 33
1
Yahweh spoke to Moses, "Depart, go up from here, you and the people that you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, 'I will give it to your seed.'
2
I will send an angel before you; and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite:
3
to a land flowing with milk and honey: for I will not go up in the midst of you, for you are a stiff-necked people, lest I consume you in the way."
4
When the people heard this evil news, they mourned: and no one put on his jewelry.
5
Yahweh said to Moses, "Tell the children of Israel, 'You are a stiff-necked people. If I were to go up into your midst for one moment, I would consume you. Therefore now take off your jewelry from you, that I may know what to do to you.'"
6
The children of Israel stripped themselves of their jewelry from Mount Horeb onward.
7
Now Moses used to take the tent and to pitch it outside the camp, far away from the camp, and he called it "The tent of Meeting." It happened that everyone who sought Yahweh went out to the tent of Meeting, which was outside the camp.
8
It happened that when Moses went out to the Tent, that all the people rose up, and stood, everyone at their Tent door, and watched Moses, until he had gone into the Tent.
9
It happened, when Moses entered into the Tent, that the pillar of cloud descended, stood at the door of the Tent, and spoke with Moses.
10
All the people saw the pillar of cloud stand at the door of the Tent, and all the people rose up and worshiped, everyone at their Tent door.
11
Yahweh spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. He turned again into the camp, but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, didn't depart out of the Tent.
12
Moses said to Yahweh, "Behold, you tell me, 'Bring up this people:' and you haven't let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, 'I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.'
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Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways, that I may know you, so that I may find favor in your sight: and consider that this nation is your people."
14
He said, "My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest."
15
He said to him, "If your presence doesn't go with me, don't carry us up from here.
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For how would people know that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Isn't it in that you go with us, so that we are separated, I and your people, from all the people who are on the surface of the earth?"
17
Yahweh said to Moses, "I will do this thing also that you have spoken; for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name."
18
He said, "Please show me your glory."
19
He said, "I will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of Yahweh before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy."
20
He said, "You cannot see my face, for man may not see me and live."
21
Yahweh also said, "Behold, there is a place by me, and you shall stand on the rock.
22
It will happen, while my glory passes by, that I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and will cover you with my hand until I have passed by;
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then I will take away my hand, and you will see my back; but my face shall not be seen."
