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Arcana Coelestia #10019

इस मार्ग का अध्ययन करें

  
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10019. 'And you shall fill the hand of Aaron and the hand of his sons' means consecration to represent the Lord's Divine Power exercised through Divine Truth springing from Divine Good 1 . This is clear from the meaning of 'filling the hand' as being consecrated to represent the Lord in respect of Divine Truth springing from Divine Good, consequently to represent His power. Two practices existed through which consecration to the priesthood was effected, anointing and filling the hand. Through anointing consecration to represent the Lord in respect of His Divine Good was effected, for the oil used in anointing was a sign of the good of love, 10011; and through filling the hand consecration to represent the Lord in respect of Divine Truth springing from Divine Good, and so to represent His power, was effected, since 'the hand' means power, 878, 4931-4937, 5327, 5328, 6947, 7011, 7188, 7189, 7518, 7673, 8050, 8069, 8153, and 'hand' is used in reference to truth that springs from good, 3091, 3563, 4931, 8281, 9025. Because all power belongs to truth springing from good, 5623, 6344, 6423, 6948, 8200, 8304, 9327, 9410, 9639, 9643, and since the head and whole body exercise their power through the hands, and this power is the capacity to act that a human life possesses, 'the hand' also means whatever resides with a person, thus the entire person's capacity to act, 9133. From all this it may be seen what 'filling the hand' means. All power belongs to the Lord alone, and none whatever exists with any angel, spirit, or man other than that derived from Him, see 8200, 8281, 9327, 9410, 9639. The reason why consecration to the priesthood was effected through the two practices of anointing and filling the hand was that all things without exception that exist or come into existence in heaven and on earth have connection with good and with truth.

[2] But in what way filling the hand was carried out is described in verses 9-36 2 of the present chapter and in Leviticus 8:22-end. It was carried out by the use of the second ram, which for that reason is also called 'the ram of fillings [of the hand]'. The procedure was that after this ram had been slaughtered some of its blood was put on the tip of the right ear, the thumb of the right hand, and the big toe of the right foot of Aaron and his sons. Some blood from the altar and some of the anointing oil was then sprinkled over Aaron and his sons, and over their garments. The fat, the tail, the fat covering the intestines, the omentum on the liver, the kidneys with their fat, and the right flank of that ram, also unleavened bread, cakes, and wafers from the basket were placed on the palms of Aaron and his sons, and waved, after which they were burned on top of the burnt offering made from the first ram. But the breast, after it had been waved, and the left flank were for Aaron and his sons; the flesh from these was boiled in the holy place and, together with the remainder of the bread in the basket, was eaten by them at the door of the tent of meeting. Such was the procedure for 'filling the hand'. What is meant by each detail however will in the Lord's Divine mercy be stated further on.

[3] The Lord's Divine Power, which was represented by filling the hand of Aaron and his sons, is the Divine Power of saving the human race; and the power of saving the human race is power over the heavens and over the hells. By that power of the Lord's and by no other is a person saved; for all good that belongs to love and all truth that belongs to faith flow in from the Lord by way of the heavens. But neither can flow in unless the hells are removed, for the hells are the source of all evil and of all falsity arising from it. It is by the removal of the evils and consequent falsities which come from the hells, and at the same time by the inflow of the good of love and the truth of faith from the Lord by way of heaven, that a person is saved. When He was in the world the Lord overcame the hells and restored the heavens to order, and acquired for Himself Divine Power over them, see 9486, 9715, 9809, 9937, and the places referred to in 9528 (end). This power that is the Lord's is what was represented by filling the hand of priests; for the Lord's whole work of salvation was meant by the priestly office, 9809.

[4] The truth that the Lord possesses this power is His own explicit teaching in Matthew,

All power in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Matthew 28:18.

And in Luke,

Jesus spoke to the seventy who were saying that the demons obeyed them, Behold, I give you the power to trample on serpents and on scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, that nothing whatever may hurt you. All things have been delivered to Me by My Father. Luke 10:19, 22.

These words describe the Lord's power over the hells. 'The demons' are those in the hells, 'serpents and scorpions' are evils and the falsities of evil, 'trampling on them' is destroying them. The hells are also meant by 'the enemy' whom they would have power over.

[5] The truth that the Lord acquired that power for Himself when He was in the world is clear in Isaiah,

Who is This who comes from Edom, marching in the vast numbers of His strength, mighty to save? My own arm brought salvation to Me. Therefore He became their Saviour. Isaiah 63:1-10.

The fact that these words refer to the Lord is well known in the Church, as in like manner do those which occur elsewhere in the same prophet,

His own arm brought salvation to Him, and His righteousness lifted Him up. Consequently He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation upon His head. And the Redeemer came to Zion. Isaiah 59:16-21.

And in David,

Jehovah said to my Lord, Sit at My right hand, till I make your enemies as your footstool. Jehovah will send the rod of your strength from Zion; have dominion in the midst of [your] enemies. The Lord is at your right hand. Psalms 110:1ff.

The fact that these statements refer to the Lord is His own teaching in Matthew 22:44. His dominion over the hells is described there by 'sitting at the right hand', for 'the right hand' means the power that Divine Truth springing from Divine Good possesses. The hells and the evils and falsities coming from them are the enemies that were to be made as His footstool; they are also the enemies in whose midst He was to have dominion.

[6] The truth that 'Jehovah's right hand' means Divine Power is evident from a large number of places in the Word, as in Moses,

Your right hand, O Jehovah, is magnificent in strength; Your right hand, O Jehovah, breaks the enemy in pieces. Exodus 15:6.

In David,

O God, You give me the shield of salvation, and Your right hand supports me. Psalms 18:35.

In the same author,

Their arm did not save them, but Your right hand, and Your arm, and the light of Your face. Psalms 44:3.

The words 'Your right hand, and Your right arm, and the light of [Your] face' are used because 'right hand' means power, 'arm' strength, and 'light of the face' Divine Truth springing from Divine Good. For the meaning of 'arm' as strength, see 4932, 4934, 4935, 7205; 'light' as Divine Truth, 9548, 9684; and 'Jehovah's face' as Divine Good, 222, 5585, 9306. In the same author,

O God, Your right hand supports me. Psalms 63:8.

In the same author,

O Jehovah, You have an arm with power; strong is Your hand. Your right hand will be lifted up. Psalms 89:13.

In Isaiah,

Jehovah has sworn by His right hand, by His mighty arm 3 . Isaiah 62:8.

And in David,

O Jehovah, let Your hand be for the man of Your right hand, for the son of man [whom] You have made strong for Yourself. Then we will not turn back from You. Psalms 80:17-18.

[7] From these things it may now be seen what the meaning of the Lord's words in Matthew is,

Jesus said, Hereafter you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power. Matthew 26:64.

And in Luke,

Hereafter the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the power of God. Luke 22:69.

'The Son of Man' means the Lord in respect of Divine Truth, see 9807, while 'right hand', as is clear from what has been shown immediately above, means Divine Power; and this also accounts for the expression 'the right hand of power'.

From all this it is now evident what the anointing of Aaron and his sons represented, and what filling their hand represented, namely that anointing them represented the Divine Good of Divine Love within the Lord, 9954 (end), and filling their hand Divine Truth and therefore Divine Power. For all power resides with Divine Good exercised through Divine Truth, and that power belongs to the Lord alone, see the texts quoted above. Here also is the reason why in the Old Testament Word the Lord is called Hero, Man of War, and also Jehovah Zebaoth, that is, Jehovah of Armies.

फुटनोट:

1. See 10010.

2. Possibly 19-35 is intended.

3. literally, the arm of His strength

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

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Heaven and Hell #86

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86. People in heaven are amazed that people here believe they are intelligent when they think of something invisible in the process of thinking about God, something that cannot be comprehended in any form, and that they call people who think otherwise unintelligent and even simpleminded, when the opposite is in fact the case. They assert that if people who regard themselves as intelligent on this account would examine themselves, they would find nature in the place of God - for some, the nature in front of their eyes, for others, a nature they cannot see with their eyes. They would find that they are so blind that they do not know what God is, what an angel is, what a spirit is, what the soul is that will live after death, what the life of heaven is for us, or many other things that are matters of intelligence. Yet all the people whom they call simple know these things in their own way. They have an image of God as a Divine Being in human form, an image of an angel as a heavenly person, a concept of their soul that will live after death as being like an angel, and a concept of the life of heaven for us here as living by the divine commandments. Angels refer to these people as intelligent and fit for heaven, but the others they call unintelligent.

[2] References to Passages in Secrets of Heaven Concerning the Lord and His Divine Human: The Lord had a divine element from his very conception: 4641, 4963, 5041, 5157, 6716, 10125. Only the Lord had a divine seed: 1438. His soul was Jehovah: 1999, 2004-2005, 2018, 2025. So the inmost of the Lord was the Divine itself, and its clothing was from his mother: 5041. The Divine itself was the very reality of the Lord's life, and his human nature then emerged and became the manifestation from that reality: 3194, 3210, 10270 [10269?], 10372.

[3] Within the church, where there is the Word and where the Lord is known through it, there must be no denial of the Lord's divine nature or of the holy emanation from him: 2359. People within the church who do not acknowledge the Lord have no union with the Divine; it is different for people outside the church: 10205. The essence of the church is to acknowledge the Lord's divine nature and his oneness with the Father: 10083, 10112, 10370, 10738 [10728?], 10730, 10816-10818, 10820.

[4] The Word has a great deal to say about the Lord's glorification: 10828. This is everywhere in the inner meaning of the Word: 2249, 2523, 3245. The Lord glorified his human nature but not his divine nature, because the latter was intrinsically glorified: 10057. The Lord came into the world to glorify his human nature: 3637, 4286 [4287?], 9315. The Lord glorified his human nature by means of the divine love that was within him from conception: 4727. The Lord's love for the whole human race was the Lord's life in this world: 2253. The Lord's love transcends all human understanding: 2077. The Lord saved the human race by glorifying his human: 4180, 10019, 10152, 10655, 10659, 10828. Otherwise, the whole human race would have perished in eternal death: 1676. On the Lord's states of glorification and humiliation: 1785, 1999, 2159, 6866. When "glorification" is attributed to the Lord, it means his human becoming one with the Divine, and "glorifying" means "making divine": 1603, 10053, 10828. When the Lord glorified his human, he laid aside the human he had received from his mother so completely that he was no longer her son: 2159, 2574, 2649, 3036, 10829 [10830?].

[5] The Son of God from eternity was the divine truth in heaven: 2628, 2798, 2803, 3195, 3704. The Lord also made his human nature divinely true from the divine good that was in him when he was in the world: 2803, 3194-3195, 3210, 6716, 6864, 7014, 7499, 8127, 8724, 9199. The Lord then arranged everything within himself in the heavenly form that accords with divine truth: 1928, 3633. Therefore the Lord is called the Word, which is divine truth: 2533, 2818 [2813?], 2859, 2894, 3393, 3712. Only the Lord possessed perception and thought from himself and above all angelic perception and thought: 1904, 1914-1915 [1919?].

The Lord made the divine truth that was himself one with the divine good that was in himself: 10047, 10052, 10076. This uniting was reciprocal: 2004, 10067.

[6] When the Lord left this world, he also made his human divinely good: 3194, 3210, 6864, 7499, 8724, 9199, 10076. This is what is meant by "going out from the Father" and "returning to the Father": 3194, 3210. This is how he became one with the Father: 2751, 3704, 4766. Since this union, divine truth emanates from the Lord: 3704, 3712, 3969, 4577, 5704, 7499, 8127, 8241, 9199, 9398. Examples of the way divine truth emanates: 7270, 9407. The Lord united his human to his divine nature by his own power: 1616, 1749, 1753 [1752?], 1813, 1921, 2025-2026, 2523, 3141, 5005, 5045, 6716. It therefore stands to reason that the Lord's human nature was not like the human nature of any other person, because it was conceived by the Divine itself: 10125, 10826. His union with the Father, who was the source of his soul, was not like a union between two entities, but like that between soul and body: 3737, 10824.

[7] The earliest people were not able to worship a divine reality but a divine manifestation, which is the divine human; so the Lord came into the world in order to become the divine manifestation from the divine reality: 4687, 5321. The early people acknowledged the Divine because it appeared to them in human form, and this form was the divine human: 5110, 5663, 6846, 10737. The infinite reality cannot flow into heaven among angels or into people on earth except through the divine human: 1646 [1676?], 1990, 2016, 2035 [2034?]. In heaven, no other Divine is perceived except the divine human: 6475, 9303, 9267 [9315, 9356], 10067. The divine human from eternity was the divine truth in heaven and the divine nature passing through heaven; so it was the divine manifestation, which later, in the Lord, became the divine reality in its own right, the source of the divine manifestation in heaven: 3061, 6280, 6880, 10579. What the state of heaven was like before the Coming of the Lord: 6371-6373. The Divine was not perceptible except as it passed through heaven: 6982, 6996, 7004.

[8] The inhabitants of all the planets worship the Divine in human form - therefore, the Lord: 6700, 8541-8547, 10736-10738. They are overjoyed when they hear that the Lord actually became a human: 9361. The Lord accepts everyone who is involved in what is good and worships the Divine in human form: 9359. It is impossible to think about God except in human form, and what is incomprehensible does not accord with any concept, so it does not accord with any faith: 9359, 9972. We can worship something of which we have some concept, but not something of which we have no concept: 4733, 5110, 5633 [5663?], 7211, 9267 [10067?], 10267. Therefore by most people worldwide the Divine is worshiped in human form; and this is the case because of an inflow from heaven: 10159. When people who are engaged in what is good in their behavior think about the Lord, they think about a divine human, and not about some human separated from the Divine. It is different for people who are not engaged in what is good in their behavior: 2326, 4724, 4731, 4766, 8878, 9193, 9198. The people nowadays who think about the Lord's human apart from the Divine are the ones in the church who are engaged in evil in their behavior and those who are in faith separated from thoughtfulness; also some reasons why they do not grasp what the divine human is: 3212, 3241, 4689, 4692, 4724, 4731, 5321, 6372 [6872?], 8878, 9193, 9198. The Lord's human was divine because he had his soul from the very reality of the Father; illustrated by the resemblance of a father in his children: 10270 [10269?], 10372, 10823. Also because it came from divine love, which was the very reality of his life from conception: 6872. The nature of every individual is determined by his or her deepest love; and each of us is his or her own deepest love: 6872, 10177, 10284. The Lord made his whole human nature divine - both its inward and its outward constituents: 1603, 1815, 1902, 1926, 2093, 2803 [2083?]. So, unlike any other person, he rose with his whole body: 1729, 2083, 5078, 10825.

[9] The divinity of the Lord's human is recognized in his omnipresence in the Holy Supper: 2343, 2359. It is also recognized in his transfiguration before the three disciples; 3212, and also from the Word of the Old Testament, where he is called "God": 10154; and where he is called "Jehovah": 1603, 1736, 1815, 1902, 2921, 3035, 5110, 6281, 6303, 8864, 9194, 9315. In the literal meaning, a distinction is made between Father and Son or between Jehovah and the Lord, but this is not the case in the inner meaning of the Word that angels attend to: 3035. In the Christian world, the Lord's human is not recognized as divine, a situation that has come about in order that the pope might be recognized as his vicar: 3035 [4738?].

[10] Some Christians in the other life were examined to determine what kind of concept of the one God they had, and it was discovered that they had a concept of three gods: 2329, 5256, 10736-10738, 10821. A trinity or divine trine in one person - and therefore a single God - is conceivable, but a trinity in three persons is not: 10738, 10821, 10824. A divine trine in the Lord is acknowledged in heaven: 14-15, 1729, 2005 [2004?], 5256, 9303. The trine in the Lord is the essential divine nature called the Father, the divine human called the Son, the emanating Divine called the Holy Spirit, and this divine trine is one: 2149, 2156, 2288, 2321 [2319?], 2329, 2447, 3704, 6993, 7182, 10738, 10822-10823. The Lord himself teaches that the Father and he are one: 1729, 2004-2005, 2018, 2025, 2751, 3704, 3736, 4766; and the holy Divine emanates from him and is his: 3969, 4673, 6788, 6993, 7499, 8127, 8302, 9199, 9228-9229, 9270 [9264?], 9407, 9818, 9820, 10330.

[11] The divine human flows into heaven and makes heaven: 3038. The Lord is everything in heaven, and is heaven's life: 7211, 9128. The Lord dwells among angels in what is his: 9338, 10125, 10151, 10157. So people who are in heaven are in the Lord: 3637-3638. The union of the Lord with angels takes place according to their acceptance of the quality of love and thoughtfulness from him: 904, 4198, 4206 [4205?], 4211, 4320 [4220?], 6280, 6832, 7042, 8819, 9680, 9682-9683, 10106, 10811 [10810?]. The whole heaven corresponds directly to the Lord: 551-552. The Lord is the common center of heaven: 3633. Everyone there turns toward the Lord, who is above the heavens: 9828, 10130, 10189. However, angels do not turn themselves toward the Lord; rather, the Lord turns them toward himself: 10189. There is no presence of angels with the Lord, but there is a presence of the Lord with angels: 9415. There is no union with the essential Divine in heaven, but there is with the divine human: 4211, 4724, 5633 [5663?].

[12] Heaven corresponds to the Lord's divine human, and heaven overall is therefore like a single person; and therefore heaven is called the universal human: 2996, 2998, 3624-3649, 3636-3643, 3741-3745, 4625. The Lord is the only person, and only those who accept something divine from him are human: 1894. To the extent that they do so accept, they are human beings and images of him: 8547. Therefore angels are forms of love and thoughtfulness in human form, which is [given] by the Lord: 3804, 4735, 4797, 4985, 5199, 5530, 9879, 10177.

[13] The whole heaven belongs to the Lord:

2751, 7086. He has all power in the heavens and on earth: 1607, 10089, 10827. Because the Lord rules the entire heaven, he also rules everything that depends on it - therefore everything in the world: 2026-2027, 4523-4524. The

Lord alone possesses the power to move the hells away from us, restrain us from evils and keep us in good, and thus to save us: 10019.

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

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Arcana Coelestia #10076

इस मार्ग का अध्ययन करें

  
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10076. 'For it is the ram of fillings [of the hand]' means a representative sign of the Lord's Divine power in the heavens which comes through Divine Truth emanating from His Divine Good, and the transmission and the reception of that Truth there. This is clear from the meaning of 'the ram' as a person internally in respect of the good of innocence and charity within him, dealt with above in 9991, for all beasts serve to mean some human affection or inclination, 9280, which is why people possessing charity and innocence are called sheep and lambs, and 'a ram' therefore, being a male sheep, means the good of charity and innocence in the internal man, or in the highest sense that same good present internally in the Lord's Human (for that which in the internal sense means something truly human, thus something constituting the Church or heaven with a person, in the highest sense means that same virtue present in a matchless degree within the Lord when He was in the world; indeed the subject everywhere in the Word in its inmost sense is the Lord, and this is what gives it its holiness); and from the meaning of 'fillings of the hand' as a representative sign of Divine Truth emanating from the Lord's Divine Good in the heavens, and as the transmission of that Truth to the angels there and their reception of it. For as has been shown previously, just as a person who is being regenerated experiences two states, the first being a time when the truths of faith are being implanted in and joined to the good of love, and the second a time when the good of charity is the source of his actions, so it was in a matchless degree within the Lord. The first state of the glorification of His Human consisted in His making it Divine Truth and joining it to the Divine Good which was within Him and was called the Father, and in His thereby becoming the Divine Good of Divine Love, which is Jehovah. The second state of His glorification was when the Divine Good of Divine Love was the source of what He did, and the Divine Truth emanating from that Good was the means by which He accomplished it.

[2] In the case of a person, in the first state he learns things that must compose his faith, and while he is learning them, under the influence of good, that is, through good from the Lord, so the power of understanding is taking shape in him. When the truths giving shape to the understanding have been implanted in and joined to good he passes into the second state, in which his actions spring from good through the use of truths. From this it is evident what the second state of a person who is being regenerated is like, namely a state in which thought and actions spring from good, or what amounts to the same thing, from love, or what also amounts to the same thing, from the will; for what a person wills he loves, and what he loves he calls good. But a person begins to be in the second state when his entire self from head to toe is the same as his love, and so is the same as his will and his understanding springing from it. Who can ever credit it that the entire person is an image of his will and of his understanding rooted in it, consequently an image of his good and so of his truth, or else an image of his evil and so of his falsity? For good or evil compose the will, and truth or falsity compose the understanding. All angels in heaven are acquainted with this arcanum; but the reason why people in the world are not acquainted with it is that they have no knowledge of their soul, nor consequently any knowledge that the body is shaped so as to be a likeness of it, and therefore that the nature of the entire person is determined by that of his soul. This fact is clearly demonstrated by spirits and angels as seen in the next life. All these are human forms, and the nature of those forms is determined by that of the affections belonging to their love and faith, so much so that anyone in whom the good of love and charity is present may be called an embodiment of love and charity, and on the other hand anyone in whom evils resulting from self-love and love of the world are present, thus in whom hatred and the like are present, may be called an embodiment of hatred.

[3] The same fact is also clearly demonstrated by the three entities present in the whole natural order which flow one from another, namely effect, cause, and end. An effect owes its whole existence to the cause, for an effect is nothing other than the outward manifestation of a cause, because when a cause becomes an effect it clothes itself in things such as exist on external levels, in order that it may manifest itself in a lower sphere, which is the sphere of effects. The situation is similar with the cause of a cause, which in a higher sphere is called the final cause or the end. The end constitutes the all within the cause, making it a cause set to achieve something. For a cause that is not set to achieve something cannot be called a cause, for what other reason is there for its existence? Setting out to achieve something is the end, which is the first thing within the cause and also its last. From this it is evident that the end is so to speak the soul of the cause and so to speak its life, and consequently is also the soul and life of the effect. For if a cause and an effect lack the ability to complete the end in view, none of these has any real existence, because it does not set out to achieve anything, and so is like some dead object devoid of soul and life; and such a thing expires, like a body when the soul departs from it.

[4] The situation is the same with the human being. His actual soul is his will; the attendant cause by means of which his will produces the effect is his understanding; and the effect which is produced resides in the body and so belongs to the body. The truth of this is plainly evident from the consideration that what a person wills, and therefore thinks, fittingly presents itself in an effect within the body, in this way when he speaks, in that way when he acts. From all this it is again evident that what a person's will is like determines what the entire person is like. Whether one speaks of the will, end, love, or good it amounts to the same thing; for everything that a person wills is seen by him to be the end, is loved by him, and is called good. Likewise whether one speaks of the understanding, the cause attending the end, faith, or truth, it again amounts to the same thing; for what a person under the influence of his will understands or thinks he takes to be the cause, believes, and calls the truth. When these things are understood by someone he may know what a person undergoing regeneration is like in his first state, and what he is like in the second.

[5] From all this people may have some idea of how to understand the teaching that when the Lord was in the world and glorified His Human He first made it Divine Truth, and step by step the Divine Good of Divine Love; and that ever after the Divine Good of Divine Love is the source of His acts in heaven and in the world, and of the life He imparts to them, which He accomplishes by means of Divine Truth emanating from the Divine Good of Divine Love of His Divine Human. For from this the heavens have come into being and are constantly coming into being, that is, being held in being; or what amounts to the same thing, from it the heavens have been created and are constantly being created, that is, preserved, for preservation is constant creation, even as being held in being is constant coming into being.

[6] Such considerations are also contained in the following words in John,

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. And the Word became flesh. John 1:1, 3, 14.

'The Word' is Divine Truth. The first state is described by the statement, 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God', and the second state by, 'All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made'. The situation was similar when the Lord came into the world, restored the heavens to order, and so to speak created them anew. The Lord is clearly meant by 'the Word' in the above words, for they say that 'the Word became flesh'. The transmission and the perception of Divine Truth emanating from the Divine Good of Divine Love of the Lord's Divine Human is what 'the filling of the hand' means and what the representative acts associated here with the second ram describe.

[7] Since the Lord in respect of Divine Good is represented by Aaron, 9806, the glorification of the Lord's Human is described in a representative manner by the process in which Aaron and his sons were consecrated. The first state of glorification is described by the things stated regarding the sacrifice of the young bull and the burnt offering of the first ram, and the second state of glorification by those stated regarding the second ram, called 'the ram of fillings [of the hand]'. The first state is called the anointing, while the second state is called the filling of the hand. So it was when Aaron and his sons were consecrated to the priesthood by anointing and filling of the hand that they were referred to as 'the anointed' and 'those whose hands he has filled', as in Moses,

The chief priest, on whose head the anointing oil has been poured, and who has filled his hand to wear the garments, shall not shave his head or rip apart the seams of his garments. Leviticus 21:10.

From these things also it is evident that 'the filling of the hand' is a representative sign of the transmission and the reception of Divine Truth emanating from the Lord's Divine Good in the heavens, for it says 'who has filled his hand', not who has had his hand filled. It also says that he has filled his hand 'to wear the garments', for by Aaron and the anointing of him the Lord in respect of Divine Good is represented, and by his garments the same as is represented by 'the filling of the hand', namely Divine Truth emanating from the Lord's Divine Good. For this representation of 'the garments', see 9814. The dispersion of that Truth is meant by 'ripping apart the seams of garments', and the dispersion of Divine Good in the heavens by 'shaving the head'.

[8] Since the inflowing and transmission of Divine Truth from the Lord, and the reception of it in the heavens, is meant by 'the filling of the hand', purification from evils and falsities is also meant by it. For to the extent that man or angel is purified from them he receives Divine Truth from the Lord. 'Filling the hand' is meant in this sense by the following words in Moses,

The sons of Levi struck down from the people three thousand men. And Moses said, Fill your hand today to Jehovah, so that He may bestow a blessing on you today. Exodus 32:28-29.

In the spiritual sense being blessed means being endowed with the good of love and faith, thus receiving what is Divine emanating from the Lord, 2846, 3017, 3406, 4981, 6091, 6099, 8939. The expression 'filling after Jehovah' 1 is also used in Moses, by which acting in accord with Divine Truth, and thus also the reception of it, is meant,

Another Spirit has been with Caleb, and he has filled after Jehovah. Numbers 14:24; Deuteronomy 1:36.

And in another place,

Jehovah has sworn, saying, Surely none of the men who are twenty years old and over 2 will see the land which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, because they have not filled after Me, except Caleb and Joshua, who have filled after Jehovah. Numbers 32:11-12.

फुटनोट:

1. This Hebrew phrase is thought to suggest more than the words themselves actually express, i.e. it is a pregnant phrase for to go after with full commitment

2. literally, the men, from the son of twenty years and over,

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