The Bible

 

Exodus 35

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1 And Moses assembled all the congregation of the children of Israel, and said unto them, These are the words which Jehovah hath commanded, that ye should do them.

2 Six days shall work be done; but on the seventh day there shall be to you a holy day, a sabbath of solemn rest to Jehovah: whosoever doeth any work therein shall be put to death.

3 Ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations upon the sabbath day.

4 And Moses spake unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying, This is the thing which Jehovah commanded, saying,

5 Take ye from among you an offering unto Jehovah; whosoever is of a willing heart, let him bring it, Jehovah's offering: gold, and silver, and brass,

6 and blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and goats' [hair],

7 and rams' skins dyed red, and sealskins, and acacia wood,

8 and oil for the light, and spices for the anointing oil, and for the sweet incense,

9 and onyx stones, and stones to be set, for the ephod, and for the breastplate.

10 And let every wise-hearted man among you come, and make all that Jehovah hath commanded:

11 the tabernacle, its tent, and its covering, its clasps, and its boards, its bars, its pillars, and its sockets;

12 the ark, and the staves thereof, the mercy-seat, and the veil of the screen;

13 the table, and its staves, and all its vessels, and the showbread;

14 the candlestick also for the light, and its vessels, and its lamps, and the oil for the light;

15 and the altar of incense, and its staves, and the anointing oil, and the sweet incense, and the screen for the door, at the door of the tabernacle;

16 the altar of burnt-offering, with its grating of brass, it staves, and all its vessels, the laver and its base;

17 the hangings of the court, the pillars thereof, and their sockets, and the screen for the gate of the court;

18 the pins of the tabernacle, and the pins of the court, and their cords;

19 the finely wrought garments, for ministering in the holy place, the holy garments for Aaron the priest, and the garments of his sons, to minister in the priest's office.

20 And all the congregation of the children of Israel departed from the presence of Moses.

21 And they came, every one whose heart stirred him up, and every one whom his spirit made willing, [and] brought Jehovah's offering, for the work of the tent of meeting, and for all the service thereof, and for the holy garments.

22 And they came, both men and women, as many as were willing-hearted, [and] brought brooches, and ear-rings, and signet-rings, and armlets, all jewels of gold; even every man that offered an offering of gold unto Jehovah.

23 And every man, with whom was found blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and goats' [hair], and rams' skins dyed red, and sealskins, brought them.

24 Every one that did offer an offering of silver and brass brought Jehovah's offering; and every man, with whom was found acacia wood for any work of the service, brought it.

25 And all the women that were wise-hearted did spin with their hands, and brought that which they had spun, the blue, and the purple, the scarlet, and the fine linen.

26 And all the women whose heart stirred them up in wisdom spun the goats' [hair].

27 And the rulers brought the onyx stones, and the stones to be set, for the ephod, and for the breastplate;

28 and the spice, and the oil; for the light, and for the anointing oil, and for the sweet incense.

29 The children of Israel brought a freewill-offering unto Jehovah; every man and woman, whose heart made them willing to bring for all the work, which Jehovah had commanded to be made by Moses.

30 And Moses said unto the children of Israel, See, Jehovah hath called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah.

31 And he hath filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship;

32 and to devise skilful works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass,

33 and in cutting of stones for setting, and in carving of wood, to work in all manner of skilful workmanship.

34 And he hath put in his heart that he may teach, both he, and Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan.

35 Them hath he filled with wisdom of heart, to work all manner of workmanship, of the engraver, and of the skilful workman, and of the embroiderer, in blue, and in purple, in scarlet, and in fine linen, and of the weaver, even of them that do any workmanship, and of those that devise skilful works.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

True Christianity #209

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209. 6. The Word has amazing qualities because of its spiritual meaning. In the physical world, no amazing things happen because of the Word, since its spiritual meaning does not appear here and the true nature of that spiritual meaning is not being accepted at any deep level within us. In the spiritual world, however, amazing things do happen because of the Word, since all who are there are spiritual, and spiritual things affect spiritual people the way physical things affect physical people. There are many amazing things that happen in the spiritual world because of the Word; here I will mention just a few.

In the sanctuaries of church buildings in the spiritual world, the Word itself shines like a giant star before the eyes of the angels. Sometimes it shines like the sun. The glow around it causes exquisitely beautiful kinds of rainbows. This happens as soon as the sanctuary is opened.

[2] Each and every truth in the Word shines. This has been made clear to me by the fact that when anyone writes a verse from the Word on a piece of paper and throws it up in the air, the piece of paper generates a glowing form that takes the shape of the cut paper. As a result, spirits are able to use the Word to produce various light-emitting shapes such as birds and fish.

Something that is even more amazing is that when people rub the open Word - the writing itself - on their face or hands or the clothing they have on, their face, hands, or clothing shines as if they themselves were standing in a star and were surrounded by its light. I have very often seen this and I have been amazed. This made clear to me why Moses' face was shining when he carried the tablets of the covenant down from Mount Sinai [].

[3] In addition, there are many other amazing things that happen in the spiritual world because of the Word. For example, if people who have false beliefs look at the Word as it lies in its holy place, thick darkness overwhelms their eyesight, making the Word look black to them, sometimes as if it were coated with soot. If those same people touch the Word, there is an explosion with a loud bang, and they are thrown to the corner of the room and lie there as if dead for quite a while.

If people who have false beliefs write something from the Word on a piece of paper and toss it up toward heaven, when it is in the air between their eye and heaven a similar explosion takes place. The piece of paper is blown to bits and disappears. The same thing happens if the piece of paper is thrown toward an angel who is standing nearby. I have often seen this.

[4] This has made it clear to me that people who have a body of false teaching have no communication with heaven by means of the Word. On the way to heaven, their reading of it blows apart and comes to an end like a firecracker lit and thrown in the air. The opposite happens to people who have a true perspective from the Lord through the Word. Their reading of the Word penetrates all the way into heaven and forms a connection with angels who are there.

When angels come down from heaven to carry out some task below, they look as if they are covered in little stars, especially around their heads. This is an indication that there are divine truths from the Word inside these angels.

[5] The same things that exist on earth exist in the spiritual world, except that there they have a spiritual origin. So gold and silver and all kinds of precious stones exist there. Their spiritual origin is the literal meaning of the Word. This is why the Book of Revelation describes the foundations of the New Jerusalem's wall as being twelve precious stones. The foundations of its wall stand for the beliefs of the new church that are based on the Word's literal meaning. This is also why there were twelve precious stones called the Urim and the Thummim on Aaron's ephod. Answers from heaven came through these stones.

Many other amazing things happen with the Word in the spiritual world. They relate to the power of truth there, which is so immense that if I described it, it would exceed belief. The Word has so much power that it overturns mountains and hills there, moves them far away, throws them into the sea, and more. Briefly put, the power of the Lord that comes through the Word is infinite.

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