The Bible

 

Ezekiel 37

Study

   

1 The hand of the Lord was upon me, and brought me forth in the spirit of the Lord: and set me down in the midst of a plain that was full of bones.

2 And he led me about through them on every side: now they were very many upon the face of the plain, and they were exceeding dry.

3 And he said to me: Son of man, dost thou think these bones shall live? And I answered: O Lord God, thou knowest.

4 And he said to me: Prophesy concerning these bones; and say to them: Ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.

5 Thus saith the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will send spirit into you, and you shall live.

6 And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to grow over you, and will cover you with skin: and I will give you spirit and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord.

7 And I prophesied as he had commanded me: and as I prophesied there was a noise, and behold a commotion: and the bones came together, each one to its joint.

8 And I saw, and behold the sinews, and the flesh came up upon them: and the skin was stretched out over them, but there was no spirit in them.

9 And he said to me: Prophesy to the spirit, prophesy, O son of man, and say to the spirit: Thus saith the Lord God: Come, spirit, from the four winds, and blow upon these slain, and let them live again.

10 And I prophesied as he had commanded me: and the spirit came into them, and they lived: and they stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.

11 And he said to me: Son of man: All these bones are the house of Israel : they say: Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost, and we are cut off.

12 Therefore prophesy, and say to them: Thus saith the Lord God: Behold I will open your graves, and will bring you out of your sepulchres, O my people: and will bring you into the land of Israel.

13 And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall have opened your sepulchres, and shall have brought you out of your graves, O my people:

14 And shall have put my spirit in you, and you shall live, and I shall make you rest upon your own land: and you shall know that I the Lord have spoken, and done it, saith the Lord God:

15 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

16 And thou son of man, take thee a stick: and write upon it: Of Juda, and of the children of Israel his associates: and take another stick and write upon it: For Joseph the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel, and of his associates.

17 And join them one to the other into one stick, and they shall become one in thy hand.

18 And when the children of thy people shall speak to thee, saying: Wilt thou not tell us what thou meanest by this?

19 Say to them: Thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel that are associated with him, and I will put them together with the stick of Juda, and will make them one stick: and they shall be one in his hand.

20 And the sticks whereon thou hast written, shall be in thy hand, before their eyes.

21 And thou shalt say to them: Thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I will take the children of Israel from the midst of the nations whither they are gone: and I will gather them on every side, and will bring them to their own land.

22 And I will make them one nation in the land on the mountains of Israel, and one king shall be king over them all: and they shall no more be two nations, neither shall they be divided any more into two kingdoms.

23 Nor shall they be defiled any more with their idols, nor with their abominations, nor with all their iniquities: and I will save them out of all the places in which they have sinned, and I will cleanse them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.

24 And my servant David shall be king over them, and they shall have one shepherd: they shall walk in my judgments, and shall keep my commandments, and shall do them.

25 And they shall dwell in the land which I gave to my servant Jacob, wherein your fathers dwelt, and they shall dwell in it, they and their children, and their children's children, for ever: and David my servant shall be their prince for ever.

26 And I will make a covenant of peace with them, it shall be an everlasting covenant with them : and I will establish them, and will multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for ever.

27 And my tabernacle shall be with them: and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

28 And the nations shall know that I am the Lord the sanctifier of Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for ever.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Revealed #664

Study this Passage

  
/ 962  
  

664. "For just and true are Your ways, O King of the saints!" This symbolically means that everything that emanates from the Lord is just and true, because He is Divine goodness itself and Divine truth itself in heaven and in the church.

Ways symbolize truths that lead to good (no. 176). The title "king" in reference to the Lord symbolizes Divine truth, and "O King of saints" the Divine truth derived from Him in heaven and the church; for saints symbolize people who are governed by Divine truths from the Lord (nos. 173, 586). Consequently "just and true are Your ways, O King of the saints!" means symbolically that everything emanating from the Lord is just and true, because He is Divine truth itself in heaven and in the church.

The Lord is called a king in reference to His Divine humanity, because this is the Messiah, the Anointed, the Christ, the Son of God. Messiah in Hebrew is Christ in Greek, and Messiah or Christ is the Son of God, as may be seen in no. 520 above. It is well known that Messiah in Hebrew means both king and anointed.

The Lord as king is the embodiment of Divine truth because that is the symbolic meaning of the title "king" (nos. 20, 483). Kings accordingly symbolize people who possess Divine truths from the Lord (Revelation 1:6; 5:10).

It is because of this that heaven and the church are called the Lord's kingdom, and that His advent into the world is called the gospel of the kingdom.

Heaven and the church are called the Lord's kingdom in Daniel 2:44; 7:13-14, 27; Luke 1:33; 4:43; 8:1, 10; 9:2, 11, 27; 10:11; 16:16; 19:11; 21:31; 22:18; 23:51. And His advent is called the gospel of the kingdom in Matthew 4:23; 9:35; 24:14. 1

But more on this subject may be seen in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Lord.

[2] That the Lord is called a king is apparent from the following passages:

These will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings. (Revelation 17:14)

(He who sat on the white horse) is called the Word... And... His... name (is) Lord of lords and King of kings. (Revelation 19:13, 16, cf. Daniel 2:47)

Nathanael... said..., ."..You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!" (John 1:49)

When the Son of Man comes in His glory..., ...He will sit on the throne of His glory... And the King will say to those on His right hand... (and) to those on the left hand... (Matthew 25:31, 34, 41)

...they cried out: "Hosanna! 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!' The King of Israel! " (John 12:13)

Pilate (asked the Lord:) "Are You a king...?" Jesus answered, ."..I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world...." (John 18:37)

Your eyes will see the King in His beauty... ...Jehovah our King, He will save us. (Isaiah 33:17 , 22)

I am Jehovah, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King. (Isaiah 43:15)

Thus said Jehovah, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, Jehovah of hosts: "I am the First and I am the Last, and beside Me there is no God." (Isaiah 44:6)

Jehovah shall become King over all the earth. (Zechariah 14:9, cf. Psalms 47:2, 6-8)

Lift up your heads, O you gates..., that the King of glory may come in... Jehovah of hosts, He is the King of glory. (Psalms 24:7-10)

I will raise to David a righteous Branch, (who as) a king shall reign... and execute judgment and righteousness in the earth. (Jeremiah 23:5, cf. 33:15)

And so on elsewhere, as in Isaiah 6:5; 52:7; Jeremiah 10:7, 10; 46:18; Ezekiel 37:22, 24; Zephaniah 3:15; Psalms 20:9; 45:11, 13-14; 68:24; 74:12.

Footnotes:

1. See also Mark 1:14

  
/ 962  
  

Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.