The Bible

 

Genesis 1

Study

1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first Day.

6 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.

7 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.

8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

9 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.

10 And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.

11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.

12 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

13 And the evening and the morning were the third day.

14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:

15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.

16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.

17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,

18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.

19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

20 And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.

21 And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.

23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.

25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.

31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

Commentary

 

258 - The Heaven Project

By Jonathan S. Rose

Title: The Heaven Project

Topic: Salvation

Summary: Heaven is the ultimate purpose behind creation. It is an infinite and eternal project involving ever increasing numbers, variety, and connections, to embody God with greater and greater resolution. Yet it also gives us more and more peace.

Use the reference links below to follow along in the Bible as you watch.

References:
2 Corinthians 5:1-10
Psalms 126
Matthew 10:29-30; 13:23, 47
Mark 10:29
Genesis 1:27-28; 13:16; 22:17
Isaiah 9:6-7
Job 8:7; 15:15
1 Kings 8:27
Luke 16:13-16
John 14:2-3; 12:24
Romans 12:1-5
1 Corinthians 12:12, 27
Psalms 132:8-14

Play Video
Spirit and Life Bible Study broadcast from 4/13/2016. The complete series is available at: www.spiritandlifebiblestudy.com

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Revealed #238

Study this Passage

  
/ 962  
  

238. Before the throne there was a sea of glass, like crystal. (4:6) This symbolizes a new heaven formed of Christians who possessed general truths taken from the literal sense of the Word.

Atmospheres are seen in the spiritual world, and also bodies of water, as in our world - ethereal atmospheres seemingly where angels of the highest heaven dwell, airy atmospheres seemingly where angels of the intermediate heaven dwell, and watery ones seemingly where angels of the lowest heaven dwell. These watery atmospheres, moreover, are seas that are seen at the borders of heaven, and the inhabitants there are people who possess general truths taken from the literal sense of the Word. To be shown that waters symbolize truths, see no. 50 above.

As the place where waters terminate and are collected, a sea therefore symbolizes Divine truth in its terminal expressions.

Accordingly, since the One sitting on the throne means the Lord (no. 230), and since the seven lamps which are the seven spirits of God before the throne mean a new church which will possess Divine truth from the Lord (no. 237), it is apparent that the sea of glass that was before the throne means the church with people who are at its peripheries.

[2] Seas at the borders of the heavens are something I have been granted to see, and it has been given me to speak with the inhabitants there and so to learn the truth of this matter through personal experience. The inhabitants appeared to me to be living in a sea, but they said that they did not live in a sea but in an atmosphere. It was apparent to me from this that a sea is an appearance of the Divine truth emanating from the Lord in its terminal expressions.

The existence of seas in the spiritual world is clearly apparent from the fact that they were often seen by John, as in the present instance, and in 5:13 verses; 7:1-3; 8:8-9; 10:2, 8; 13:1; 14:7; 15:2; 16:3; 18:17, 19, 21; 20:13.

The sea is called a sea of glass like crystal owing to the translucence of the Divine truth emanating from the Lord.

[3] Since Divine truth in its terminal expressions produces the appearance of a sea in the spiritual world, therefore a sea elsewhere in the Word has a similar symbolic meaning, as in the following passages:

On that day living waters shall flow out from Jerusalem, part of them to the eastern sea and part of them to the western sea. (Zechariah 14:8)

Living waters from Jerusalem are the church's Divine truths from the Lord. The sea is consequently where they terminate.

(Jehovah,) Your way was in the sea, and Your path in many waters. (Psalms 77:19)

Thus said Jehovah, who made a way in the sea, and a path through the many waters... (Isaiah 43:16)

(Jehovah) has founded (the world) on the seas, and established it on the rivers. (Psalms 24:2)

(Jehovah) set the earth on its foundations, so that it should not be moved to eternity. You covered it with the deep (or sea) as with a garment. (Psalms 104:5-6)

The earth was "founded on the sea" because the church, which is meant by the earth, is founded on general truths. For these are its footings and foundations.

[4] I will dry up (Babylon's) sea and make her spring dry... The sea will come up over Babylon; she will be covered with the multitude of its waves. (Jeremiah 51:36, 42)

To dry up Babylon's sea and make her spring dry means, symbolically, to extinguish all the church's truth from the firsts to the lasts of it.

They shall walk after Jehovah..., and His sons shall come with honor from the sea. (Hosea 11:10)

The sons from the sea are people who possess general truths or truths in their terminal expressions.

(Jehovah,) who builds His ascents in the heavens..., who calls the waters of the sea and pours them over the face of the earth... (Amos 9:6)

By the word of Jehovah the heavens were made... He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap, putting the depths in storehouses. (Psalms 33:6-7)

...by My rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness. (Isaiah 50:2)

And so likewise in other places.

[5] Since a sea symbolizes Divine truth with people who live on the borders of heaven, therefore Tyre and Sidon, which were on the seacoast, symbolized the church in respect to its learned concepts of goodness and truth. And therefore "the islands of the sea" 1 likewise symbolize people engaged in a relatively remote Divine worship (no. 34).

For the same reason, too, the word used for the sea in Hebrew is "the west," that is, the direction in which the sun's light turns into its evening state, or truth into haziness.

We will see in subsequent discussions that a sea also symbolizes the natural component of a person divorced from his spiritual one, thus also hell.

Footnotes:

1. Also called "the isles of the sea" and "the coastlands of the sea." See Isaiah 11:11; 24:15

  
/ 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.