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Ezekiel 7

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

2 And thou son of man, thus saith the Lord God to the land of Israel: The end is come, the end is come upon the four quarters of the land.

3 Now is an end come upon thee, and I will send my wrath upon thee, and I will judge thee according to thy ways: and I will set all thy abominations against thee.

4 And my eye shall not spare thee, and I will shew thee no pity: but I will lay thy ways upon thee, and thy abominations shall be in the midst of thee: and you shall know that I am the Lord.

5 Thus saith the Lord God: One affliction, behold an affliction is come.

6 An end is come, the end is come, it hath awaked against thee: behold it is come.

7 Destruction is come upon thee that dwellest in the land: the time is come, the day of slaughter is near, and not of the joy of mountains.

8 Now very shortly I will pour out my wrath upon thee, and I will accomplish my anger in thee: and I will judge thee according to thy ways, and I will lay upon thee all thy crimes.

9 And my eye shall not spare, neither will I shew mercy: but I will lay thy ways upon thee, and thy abominations shall be in the midst of thee: and you shall know that I am the Lord that strike.

10 Behold the day, behold it is come: destruction is gone forth, the rod hath blossomed, pride hath budded.

11 Iniquity is risen up into a rod of impiety: nothing of them shall remain, nor of their people, nor of the noise of them: and there shall be no rest among them.

12 The time is come, the day is at hand: let not the buyer rejoice: nor the seller mourn: for wrath is upon all the people thereof.

13 For the seller shall not return to that which he hath sold, although their life be yet among the living. For the vision which regardeth all the multitude thereof, shall not go back: neither shall man be strengthened in the iniquity of his life.

14 Blow the trumpet, let all be made ready, yet there is none to go to the battle: for my wrath shall be upon all the people thereof.

15 The sword without: and the pestilence, and the famine within: he that is in the field shall die by the sword: and they that are in the city, shall be devoured by the pestilence, and the famine.

16 And such of them as shall flee shall escape: and they shall be in the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them trembling, every one for his iniquity.

17 All hands shall be made feeble, and all knees shall run with water.

18 And they shall gird themselves with haircloth, and fear shall cover them, and shame shall be upon every face, and baldness upon all their heads.

19 Their silver shall be cast forth, and their gold shall become a dunghill. Their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord. They shall not satisfy their soul, and their bellies shall not be filled: because it hath been the stumblingblock of their iniquity.

20 And they have turned the ornament of their jewels into pride, and have made of it the images of their abominations, and idols: therefore I have made it an uncleanness to them.

21 And I will give it into the hands of strangers for spoil, and to the wicked of the earth for a prey, and they shall defile it.

22 And I will turn away my face from them, and they shall violate my secret place: and robbers shall enter into it, and defile it.

23 Make a shutting up: for the land is full of the judgment of blood, and the city is full of iniquity.

24 And I will bring the worse of the nations, and they shall possess their houses: and I will make the pride of the mighty to cease, and they shall possess their sanctuary.

25 When distress cometh upon them, they will seek for peace and there shall be none.

26 Trouble shall come upon trouble, and rumour upon rumour, and they shall seek a vision of the prophet, and the law shall perish from the priest, and counsel from the ancients.

27 The king shall mourn, and the prince shall be clothed with sorrow, and the hands of the people of the land shall be troubled. I will do to them according to their way, and will judge them according to their judgments: and they shall know that I am the Lord.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

True Christian Religion #764

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764. IV. This night is followed by morning, and morning is the Lord's coming.

The succeeding states of the church in general and in particular are described in the Word by the four seasons of the year, spring, summer, autumn and winter, and by the four times of day, morning, midday, evening and night. Since the present-day Christian church is in night, it follows that morning is at hand, that is, the first state of a new church. It can be established from the following passages that successive states of the church are described in the Word by the four periods of daylight:

Until the evening and the morning, two thousand three hundred [days], then will the holy place be made holy 1 . The vision of the evening and the morning is truth, Daniel 8:14, 26.

One is calling to me from Seir, Watchman, what of the night? The watchman says, The morning is coming, and night again, Isaiah 21:11-12.

The end has come, the morning has come upon you, you that dwell in the land. Look, the day has come, the morning has gone forth, Ezekiel 7:6-7, 10.

Jehovah morning by morning will set His judgment in light, nor will He fail, Zephaniah 3:5. God is in her midst, God will help her when morning breaks, Psalms 46:5.

I have waited for Jehovah, my soul waits for the Lord more than those that watch for the morning, those that watch for the morning. For with Him is a wealth of redemption, and He will redeem Israel, Psalms 130:5-8.

[2] In these passages evening and night mean the final period of the church, morning its first period. The Lord Himself is also called the morning in the following passages:

The God of Israel spoke, the Rock of Israel talked to me. He is like the light of morning, a morning without clouds. 2 Samuel 23:3-4.

I am the root and offspring of David, the bright star of morning, Revelation 22:16.

From the womb of the dawn the dew of your youth is on you, Psalms 110:3.

These things are said of the Lord. It was because the Lord is the morning that He also rose from the tomb in the early morning, so as to begin a new church (Mark 16:2, 9).

[3] The Lord's coming is to be awaited, as is plainly established by His prediction of it in Matthew:

When Jesus was seated on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him, saying, Tell us, what is the sign of your coming and of the ending of the age? Matthew 24:3.

After the affliction of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then will the sign of the Son of Man appear, and they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and glory, Matthew 24:29-30; Mark 13:26; Luke 21:27.

As were the days of Noah, so too will be the coming of the Son of Man. Therefore be ready, for at the time you do not expect, the Son of Man will come, Matthew 24:37, 39, 44, 46.

In Luke:

When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith upon the earth? Luke 18:8.

In John:

Jesus said of John, If I want him to stay until I come... John 21:22-23.

[4] In the Acts of the Apostles:

When they saw Jesus lifted up into heaven, two men stood before them in white clothing, and they said, Jesus who has been lifted up from you into heaven, will come like this, as you have seen him going into heaven, Acts of the Apostles 1:9-11.

In Revelation:

The Lord, the God of the holy prophets, has sent His angel to show His servants what must happen. Behold, I am coming. Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy 2 of this book. And behold, I am coming, and my reward is with me, so that I may give to each according to what he has done, Revelation 22:6-7, 12.

Further:

I, Jesus, have sent my angel to bear witness of these things to you in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright star of the morning. The spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him who hears say, Come. And let him who is thirsty come; and let whoever will, take the water of life without payment. Rev:16-17.

Further:

He who bears witness to these things says, I am coming indeed. Amen, come indeed, Lord Jesus. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen, Revelation 22:20-21.

Footnotes:

1. Or literally: 'be justified'.

2. For 'the words of the prophecy' the Latin has 'the commands', but this is corrected in the Author's copy.

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

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