9223. “你要献上你五谷的初熟

之物和酒的初熟之物, 不可迟延” 表由于信的一切良善和真理皆来自主, 所以要把它们归于主, 不可归于自己. 这从 “初熟之物”,

“五谷”,

“酒” 和 “不可迟延” 的含义清楚可知:

“初熟之物” 是指那些必须占据首位的事物, 因而是指那些要为首的事物, 如下文所述;

“五谷” 是指信之真理的良善 (参看5295, 5410, 5959节);

“酒” 是指良善之真理, 因而是指信的良善之真理 (1798, 6377节);

“不可迟延” 当论及信之良善和真理时, 是指出于情感归于, 因为凡不是迟迟, 而是快速所行的, 都是出于爱和情感来行的 (7695, 7866节). 之所以表示归于主, 是因为初熟之物, 以及头生的, 都被归给耶和华, 并被耶和华归给亚伦和他的种; 在圣言中,

“耶和华” 表示主 (1736, 2921, 3023, 3035, 5663, 6303, 6945, 6956, 8274, 8864节). 因此, 由于 “五谷和酒的初熟之物” 是指信之良善和真理, 故意思是说, 它们要归于主, 因为它们来自主. 构成人的思维和意愿的一切都是流入的, 一切良善和真理皆来自主 (参看2886-2888, 3142, 3147, 4151, 4249, 5119, 5147, 5150, 5259, 5482, 5649, 5779, 5854, 5893, 6027, 6982, 6985, 6996, 7004, 7055, 7056, 7058, 7270, 7343, 8321, 8685, 8701, 8717, 8728, 8823, 8863, 9110节); 这些真理来自经历 (6053-6058, 6189- 6215, 6307-6327, 6466-6495, 6598-6626节).

要献给主的初熟之物是收割季的初熟之物和酿榨季的初熟之物, 以及剪羊毛时的初熟之物, 同样是水果的初熟之物. 收割季的初熟之物是又干又新鲜的谷穗, 以及要被摇动的禾捆, 后来禾场上的产物, 也就是糕饼; 而酿榨季的初熟之物是酒, 葡萄汁和油的初熟之物. 除此之外还有剪羊毛时的初熟之物, 以及装在筐子里献上的水果的初熟之物. 另外, 一切头生的都要献给主; 只是其中, 头生的人被救赎了, 未献为祭的头生动物也被救赎了, 如头生的驴, 骡, 马等等. 初熟之物和头生的都献给耶和华, 被耶和华交给亚伦和他的种, 因为以大祭司的职分来服事的亚伦和他的儿子代表主. 在本节,

“五谷和酒的初熟之物” 是指刚才所提到的收割季和酿榨季的一切初熟之物. 因为原文所用的词语是 “五谷的丰满” 和 “酒之泪”;

“丰满” 是指成熟并收割时的庄稼,

“泪” 是指滴落下来的液体. 当以内义来观之时, 从其初熟之物被献上的这几种产物可以看出初熟之物具体代表什么, 因为主吩咐给以色列人的一切宗教律例和仪式皆代表教会的内在事物.

“五谷” 表示信之良善,

“酒” 表示信之真理, 这一点可见于前面所提到的章节. 将初熟之物交给耶和华表示, 将信的一切良善和真理都归于主, 而不是归于自己是教会首先要做的事. 将它们归于主就是知道, 承认并相信这些事物来自主, 决非来自自己; 因为如前所示, 信完全来自主.

“初熟之物” 之所以具有这种含义, 是因为它们是供物和礼物, 是对大地出产的感谢, 也是对来自耶和华, 也就是主的赐福的承认, 因而是对一切事物皆来自祂的承认. 就内义而言, 它们是对其初熟之物被给出的收成, 五谷, 葡萄汁, 酒, 羊毛和水果所表示的信的一切良善和真理皆源于主的承认 (关于这些初熟之物, 可参看出埃及记 23:19; 34:26; 利未记 23:10, 11, 20; 民数记 15:19-21; 18:12, 13; 申命记 18:4; 26:1-11). 以西结书 (20:40) 和弥迦书 (7:1, 2) 中的 “初熟之物” 所表相同.

1327. 'Jehovah confounded the lip of the whole earth' means the state of this Ancient Church, that internal worship started to perish. This is clear from the fact that the phrase used is 'the lip of the whole earth' and not, as previously in verse 7, the lip of those who started to build a city and a tower. 'The face of the whole earth' means the state of the Church since 'the earth' is the Church, as shown already in 662, 1066. The story of the Churches after the Flood is as follows: There were three Churches which receive specific mention in the Word - the first Ancient Church which took its name from Noah, the second Ancient Church which took its name from Eber, and the third Ancient Church which took its name from Jacob, and subsequently from Judah and Israel.

[2] As regards the first Ancient Church, that called Noah, this was the parent so to speak of those that followed, and as is usually the case with Churches in their earliest phases, it was more untarnished and innocent, as is also clear from verse 1 of this chapter which says that it had one lip, that is, one doctrine. That is to say, everyone regarded charity as the essential. But in the course of time, as usually happens to Churches, that Church also started to decline, chiefly because many people started to divert worship to themselves so as to set themselves above others, as is clear from verse 4 above - 'they said, Let us build ourselves a city and a tower, and its head in heaven, and let us make a name for ourselves'. In the Church such people were inevitably like some fermenting agent, or like firebrands that start a fire. When the danger of profaning what is holy was consequently near at hand, referred to in 571, 582, the state of this Church was, in the Lord's Providence, altered. That is to say, its internal worship perished but its external worship remained, which here is meant by the statement that 'Jehovah confounded the lip of the whole earth'. From this it is also clear that the kind of worship called Babel was not prevalent in the first Ancient Church but in those that followed when people started to be worshipped in place of gods, especially after they had died. This was the origin of so many pagan deities.

[3] The reason internal worship was allowed to perish and external remain was to prevent what is holy being profaned. The profanation of what is holy carries eternal condemnation with it. Nobody is able to profane what is holy unless he possesses cognitions of faith and also acknowledges them. Anyone who does not possess them cannot acknowledge them, still less profane them. It is internal things which may be profaned, for it is in internal things, not external, that holiness resides. The situation is similar with someone who does evil but does not have evil in mind. The evil he does cannot be attributed to him any more than to someone who does not deliberately intend evil, or to anyone devoid of rationality. Thus anyone who does not believe in the existence of a life after death, but who nevertheless has external worship, cannot profane the things that belong to eternal life because he does not believe that they exist. The situation is different with those who do know and acknowledge them.

[4] This too is why a person is allowed rather to live engrossed in lusts and pleasures, and so to isolate himself from internal things, than to enter into a knowledge and acknowledgement of internal things and so profane them. The Jews of today therefore are allowed to immerse themselves in avarice so that in this way they may be removed from an acknowledgement of internal things, for they are the kind of people who, if they acknowledged them, would inevitably profane them. Nothing does more to isolate a person from internal things than avarice, for this is the lowest of all earthly desires. The same applies to many inside the Church, and to gentiles outside, though gentiles, least of all people, are able to profane anything. This then is the reason for the statement here that 'Jehovah confounded the lip of the whole earth', and the reason why these words mean that the state of the Church was altered, that is to say, its worship became external, having no internal worship within it.

[5] The same situation was represented and meant by the Babylonish captivity into which the Israelites, and later on the Jews, were carried away. This is spoken of in Jeremiah as follows,

And there will be a nation and a kingdom that will not serve the king of Babel, and who will not put its neck in the yoke of the king of Babel. With the sword and famine and pestilence I will visit this people, until I have consumed it by his hand. Jeremiah 27:8 and following verses.

'Serving the king of Babel and putting its neck in his yoke' is being utterly deprived of the knowledge and acknowledgement of the good and the truth of faith, and so of internal worship.

[6] The point is clearer still in the same prophet,

Thus said Jehovah to all the people in this city, your brethren who did not go out with you into captivity, thus said Jehovah Zebaoth, Behold, I am sending on them the sword, famine, and pestilence, and I will make them like rotten figs. Jeremiah 29:16-17.

'Remaining in the city and not going out to the king of Babel' represented and meant people who possessed the cognitions of internal things, that is, of the truths of faith, and who profaned them - people on whom, it is said, He was sending 'the sword, famine, and pestilence', which are forms of punishment for profanation, and whom He was making 'like rotten figs'.

[7] That 'Babel' means people who deprive others of all knowledge and acknowledgement of truth was also represented and meant by the following words in the same prophet,

I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babel, and he will carry them off to Babel, and will smite them with the sword. And I will give over all the wealth of this city, and all its labour, and all its precious things; and I will give all the treasures of the kings of Judah into the hand of their enemies, and they will plunder them and seize them. Jeremiah 20:4-5.

Here 'all its wealth, all its lab our, all its precious things, all the treasures of the kings of Judah' means in the internal sense cognitions of faith.

[8] In the same prophet,

With the families of the north I will bring the king of Babel against this land and against its inhabitants, and against all those nations round about, and I will utterly destroy them and make them into a ruin, a hissing, and everlasting wastes. And this whole land will be a waste. Jeremiah 25:9, 11.

Here 'Babel' is used to describe the vastation of the interior things of faith, that is, of internal worship. Indeed, as shown already, anyone whose worship is worship of self possesses no truth of faith. He destroys and lays waste, and leads off into captivity, everything that is true. This is why Babel is also called 'a destroying mountain' in Jeremiah 51:25.

For more concerning Babel, see what has been stated already in 1182.