The Bible

 

Genesis 21

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1 And the Lord visited Sara, as he had promised: and fulfilled what he had spoken.

2 And she conceived and bore a son in her old age, at the time that God had foretold her.

3 And Abraham called the name of his son, whom Sara bore him, Isaac.

4 And he circumcised him the eighth day, as God had commanded him,

5 When he was a hundred years old: for at this age of his father was Isaac born.

6 And Sara said: God hath made a laughter for me: whosoever shall hear of it will laugh with me.

7 And again she said: Who would believe that Abraham should hear that Sara gave suck to a son, whom she bore to him in his old age.

8 And the child grew and was weaned: and Abraham made a great feast on the day of his weaning.

9 And when Sara had seen the son of Agar the Egyptian playing with Isaac her son, she said to Abraham:

10 Cast out this bondwoman, and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with my son Isaac.

11 Abraham took this grievously for his son.

12 And God said to him: Let it not seem grievous to thee for the boy, and for thy bondwoman: in all that Sara hath said to thee, hearken to her voice: for in Isaac shall thy seed be called.

13 But I will make the son also of the bondwoman a great nation, because he is thy seed.

14 So Abraham rose up in the morning, and taking bread and a bottle of water, put it upon her shoulder, and delivered the boy, and sent her away. And she departed, and wandered in the wilderness of Bersabee.

15 And when the water in the bottle was spent, she cast the boy under one of the trees that were there.

16 And she went her way, and sat over against him a great way off as far as a bow can carry, for she said: I will not see the boy die: and sitting over against, she lifted up her voice and wept.

17 And God heard the voice of the boy: and an angel of God called to Agar from heaven, saying: What art thou doing, Agar? fear not: for God hath heard the voice of the boy, from the place wherein he is.

18 Arise, take up the boy, and hold him by the hand: for I will make him a great nation.

19 And God opened her eyes: and she saw a well of water, and went and filled the bottle, and gave the boy to drink.

20 And God was with him: and he grew, and dwelt in the wilderness, and became a young man, an archer.

21 And he dwelt in the wilderness of Pharan, and his mother took a wife for him out of the land of Egypt.

22 At the same time Abimelech, and Phicol the general of his army said to Abraham: God is with thee in all that thou dost.

23 Swear therefore by God, that thou wilt not hurt me, nor my posterity, nor my stock: but according to the kindness that I have done to thee, thou shalt do to me, and to the land wherein thou hast lived a stranger.

24 And Abraham said: I will swear.

25 And he reproved Abimelech for a well of water, which his servants had taken away by force.

26 And Abimelech answered: I knew not who did this thing: and thou didst not tell me, and I heard not of it till to day.

27 And Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelech: and both of them made a league.

28 And Abraham set apart seven ewe lambs of the flock.

29 And Abimelech said to him: What mean these seven ewe lambs which thou hast set apart?

30 But he said: Thou shalt take seven ewe lambs at my hand: that they may be a testimony for me, that I dug this well.

31 Therefore that place was called Bersabee: because both of them did swear.

32 And they made a league for the well of oath.

33 And Abimelech, and Phicol the general of his army arose and returned to the land of the Palestines. But Abraham planted a grove in Bersabee, and there called upon the name of the Lord God eternal.

34 And he was a sojourner in the land of the Palestines many days.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #2724

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2724. 'And there he called on the name of [Jehovah,] the God of Eternity' means worship from it. This is clear from the meaning of 'calling on the name of God' as worship, dealt with in 440. Those who belonged to the Ancient Church did not understand merely name by the word 'name' but the entire nature, see 144, 145, 340, 768, 1754, 1896, 2009. Thus by 'the name of God' they understood everything in one embrace by which God was worshipped, consequently everything of love and faith. But once the internal aspect of worship perished and only the external was left people began to understand nothing else by 'the name of God' than the name. Indeed they went so far as to worship the name itself, being quite indifferent to what the love and the faith were in which their worship was grounded. As a result of this nations began to identify themselves by the names of their gods, the Jews and Israelites setting themselves above the rest because they worshipped Jehovah. They made the utterance and the calling upon the name itself the essential feature of worship; but in fact worship of the name alone is not worship at all, for that practice may exist even among the worst of people who in worshipping the name alone become greater profaners.

[2] Now because 'the name of God' means the entirety of worship, that is, the love and faith in their entirety from which He is worshipped, it is therefore clear what is meant by hallowed be Your name - in the Lord's Prayer, Matthew 6:9, and what by the following words spoken by the Lord,

You will be hated by everyone for My name's sake. Matthew 10:22.

If two of you agree in My name on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by My Father who is in heaven. Where two or three are gathered in My name, there am I in the midst of them. Matthew 18:19-20.

He who leaves houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields, for My name's sake, will receive a hundredfold and will be allotted the inheritance of eternal life. Matthew 19:29.

Hosanna to the son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Matthew 21:9.

Jesus said, You will not see Me from now on until you say, Blessed is the one coming in the name of the Lord. Matthew 23:39.

You will be hated by all nations for My name's sake. Then many will stumble and betray one another, and hate one another, and all for My name's sake. 1 Matthew 24:9-10.

As many as received Him, to them He gave power to be sons of God, to those believing in His name, John 1:12.

He who does not believe is judged already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. John 3:17-18.

Jesus said, Whatever you ask in My name, I will do it. John 14:14-15; 15:16; 16:23-24, 26-27.

Jesus said, I have manifested Your name to men. John 17:6.

Holy Father, keep them in Your name whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are one. John 17:11-12.

I made known to them Your name, and I will make known that the love with which You have loved Me may be in them, and I in them. John 17:26.

That you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name. John 20:31.

There are in addition very many places in the Old Testament in which the name of Jehovah and of God is not used to mean the name but love and faith in their entirety in which worship is grounded.

[3] But those who worship the name alone, without love and faith, are spoken of in Matthew as follows,

Many will say to Me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy through Your name, and cast out demons through Your name, and do many mighty works in Your name? But I will confess to them, I do not know you; depart from Me, you workers of iniquity. Matthew 7:22-23.

As has been stated, once the member of the Church from being internal became external, and began to make worship consist in a name alone, people no longer acknowledged one God but many. For it was a custom among the ancients to add something after the name of Jehovah and by doing that to call to mind some benefit or attribute of His, as in the present verse, 'He called on the name of [Jehovah,] the God of Eternity'. Another example occurs in the next chapter,

Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah Jireh (that is, Jehovah will see). Genesis 22:14.

And the following, among others, are further examples,

Moses built an altar and called the name of it Jehovah Nissi (that is, Jehovah is my banner). Exodus 17:15.

Gideon built an altar to Jehovah and called it [the altar] of Jehovah Shalom (that is, of peace). Judges 6:24.

It was from this custom that those who made worship consist in a name alone came to acknowledge so many gods, and also that among the gentiles, especially those in Greece and Rome, so many gods came to be acknowledged and worshipped, whereas the Ancient Church from which those attributive names derived always worshipped but one God who was revered under so many names, for the reason that by 'name' they understood the essential nature.

Footnotes:

1. These six words which Swedenborg apparently copied from the Schmidius Latin version do not occur in the original Greek.

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