Arcana Coelestia #85
85. That the celestial man is the seventh day, and that the seventh day was for that reason made holy and called the Sabbath from a word for 'rest', are as yet undisclosed arcana. This is because people have not known what the celestial man is, and few what the spiritual man is. In their ignorance they could not avoid making the latter the same as the celestial, when in fact there is a vast difference between them; see 81. As regards the seventh day and the celestial man's being the seventh day or Sabbath, this is clear from the fact that the Lord Himself is the Sabbath, for which reason He also says,
The Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath. Mark 2:28.
These words embody the concept that the Lord is Man himself, and the Sabbath itself. He gives the name Sabbath, or eternal peace and rest, to His kingdom in heaven and on earth. The Most Ancient Church, which is the subject here, was the Lord's Sabbath more than any subsequent Church.
[2] Every subsequent inmost Church has been a Sabbath of the Lord, and so is every regenerate person when he becomes celestial, since he is a likeness of the Lord. Six days of conflict or labour precede this. In the Jewish Church these things were represented by the work days, and by the seventh which was the Sabbath; for in that Church, everything that had been ordained was representative of the Lord and His kingdom. The Ark too had a similar representation when it was travelling and when it came to rest. Its travels through the wilderness represented conflicts and temptations, and its resting represented states of peace. This is why when it travelled Moses said,
Arise, O Jehovah, and let Your enemies be scattered, and let those who hate You flee from Your face. 1 And when it came to rest he said, Return, O Jehovah, to the myriads of the thousands of Israel. Numbers 10:35-36.
The same portion of Scripture speaks of the Ark 'travelling from the mountain of Jehovah to search out rest for them'. ibid. Verse 33.
[3] The Sabbath is used to describe the celestial man's rest in Isaiah,
If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, so that you do not your desire on My holy day, and you call the things which belong to the Sabbath delights honourable to the Holiness of Jehovah, and you honour it so that you do not your own ways, nor find your own desire and speak your own words, then you will be delightful to Jehovah, and I will have you carried over the high places of the earth, and I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob. Isaiah 58:13-14.
The celestial man is such that he does not base his actions on his own desires but on what pleases the Lord; this is his desire. In this way he enjoys inward peace and happiness, here expressed by 'being carried up over the high places of the earth'. At the same time he enjoys outward contentment and joy, meant by 'being fed with the heritage of Jacob'.
Фусноти:
1. literally, faces
Isaiah 30:18-26
18
Therefore Yahweh will wait, that he may be gracious to you; and therefore he will be exalted, that he may have mercy on you, for Yahweh is a God of justice. Blessed are all those who wait for him.
19
For the people will dwell in Zion at Jerusalem. You will weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the voice of your cry. When he hears you, he will answer you.
20
Though the Lord may give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your teachers won't be hidden anymore, but your eyes will see your teachers;
21
and when you turn to the right hand, and when you turn to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, "This is the way. Walk in it."
22
You shall defile the overlaying of your engraved images of silver, and the plating of your molten images of gold. You shall cast them away as an unclean thing. You shall tell it, "Go away!"
23
He will give the rain for your seed, with which you will sow the ground; and bread of the increase of the ground will be rich and plentiful. In that day, your livestock will feed in large pastures.
24
The oxen likewise and the young donkeys that till the ground will eat savory provender, which has been winnowed with the shovel and with the fork.
25
There shall be brooks and streams of water on every lofty mountain and on every high hill in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall.
26
Moreover the light of the moon will be like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven days, in the day that Yahweh binds up the fracture of his people, and heals the wound they were struck with.
