The Bible

 

Jeremias 35

Study

   

1 Ang salita na dumating kay Jeremias na mula sa Panginoon sa mga kaarawan ni Joacim na anak ni Josias, na hari sa Juda, na nagsasabi,

2 Pumaroon ka sa bahay ng mga Rechabita, at magsalita ka sa kanila, at iyong dalhin sila sa bahay ng Panginoon, sa isa sa mga silid, at bigyan mo sila ng alak na mainom.

3 Nang magkagayo'y kinuha ko si Jazanias na anak ni Jeremias, na anak ni Habassinias, at ang kaniyang mga kapatid, at ang lahat niyang anak, at ang buong sangbahayan ng mga Rechabita;

4 At dinala ko sila sa bahay ng Panginoon, sa silid ng mga anak ni Hanan na anak ni Igdalias, na lalake ng Dios, na nasa siping ng silid ng mga prinsipe, na nasa itaas ng silid ni Maasias na anak ni Sallum, na tagatanod ng pintuan.

5 At aking inilagay sa harap ng mga anak ng sangbahayan ng mga Rechabita ang mga mankok na puno ng alak, at ang mga saro, at aking sinabi sa kanila, Magsisiinom kayo ng alak.

6 Nguni't kanilang sinabi, Kami ay hindi magsisiinom ng alak; sapagka't si Jonadab na anak ni Rechab na aming magulang ay nagutos sa amin, na nagsasabi, Huwag kayong magsisiinom ng alak, maging kayo, o ang inyong mga anak man, magpakailan man:

7 Ni huwag kayong mangagtatayo ng bahay, o mangaghahasik ng binhi, o mangagtatanim sa ubasan, o mangagtatangkilik ng anoman; kundi ang lahat ninyong mga kaarawan ay inyong itatahan sa mga tolda; upang kayo ay mangabuhay na malaon sa lupain na inyong pangingibahang bayan.

8 At aming tinalima ang tinig ni Jonadab na anak ni Rechab na aming magulang sa lahat na kaniyang ibinilin sa amin na huwag magsiinom ng alak sa lahat ng mga araw namin, kami, ang aming mga asawa, ang aming mga anak na lalake o babae man;

9 Ni huwag kaming mangagtayo ng mga bahay na aming matahanan; ni huwag kaming mangagtangkilik ng ubasan, o ng bukid, o ng binhi:

10 Kundi kami ay nagsitahan sa mga tolda, at kami ay nagsitalima, at nagsigawa ng ayon sa lahat na iniutos sa amin ni Jonadab na aming magulang.

11 Nguni't nangyari, nang si Nabucodonosor na hari sa Babilonia ay umahon sa lupain, na aming sinabi, Tayo na, at tayo'y magsiparoon sa Jerusalem dahil sa takot sa hukbo ng mga Caldeo, at dahil sa takot sa hukbo ng mga taga Siria; sa ganito'y nagsisitahan kami sa Jerusalem.

12 Nang magkagayo'y dumating ang salita ng Panginoon kay Jeremias, na nagsasabi,

13 Ganito ang sabi ng Panginoon ng mga hukbo, ng Dios ng Israel, Yumaon ka, at sabihin mo sa mga tao ng Juda at sa mga nananahan sa Jerusalem, Hindi baga kayo magsisitanggap ng turo upang dinggin ang aking mga salita? sabi ng Panginoon.

14 Ang mga salita ni Jonadab na anak ni Rechab, na kaniyang iniutos sa kaniyang mga anak, na huwag magsiinom ng alak, ay nangatupad; at hanggang sa araw na ito ay hindi sila nagsisiinom, sapagka't kanilang tinalima ang tinig ng kanilang magulang. Nguni't aking sinalita, sa inyo, na bumangon akong maaga, at aking sinasalita, at hindi ninyo ako dininig.

15 Akin din namang sinugo sa inyo ang lahat kong lingkod na mga propeta, na bumabangon akong maaga, at akin silang sinusugo, na aking sinasabi, Magsihiwalay kayo ngayon bawa't isa sa kanikaniyang masamang lakad, at pabutihin ninyo ang inyong mga gawain, at huwag kayong magsisunod sa mga ibang dios na mangaglingkod sa kanila, at kayo'y magsisitahan sa lupain na ibinigay ko sa inyo, at sa inyong mga magulang: nguni't hindi ninyo ikiniling ang inyong pakinig, o dininig man ninyo ako.

16 Yamang tinupad ng mga anak ni Jonadab na anak ni Rechab ang utos ng kanilang magulang na iniutos sa kanila, nguni't ang bayang ito ay hindi nakinig sa akin;

17 Kaya't ganito ang sabi ng Panginoon, ng Dios ng mga hukbo, ng Dios ng Israel, Narito, aking dadalhin sa Juda at sa lahat na nananahan sa Jerusalem ang buong kasamaan na aking sinalita laban sa kanila; sapagka't ako'y nagsalita sa kanila, nguni't hindi sila nangakinig; at ako'y tumawag sa kanila, nguni't hindi sila nagsisagot.

18 At sinabi ni Jeremias sa sangbahayan ng mga Rechabita, Ganito ang sabi ng Panginoon ng mga hukbo, ng Dios ng Israel, Sapagka't inyong tinalima ang utos ni Jonadab na inyong magulang, at inyong iningatan ang lahat niyang palatuntunan, at inyong ginawa ang ayon sa lahat na kaniyang iniutos sa inyo;

19 Kaya't ganito ang sabi ng Panginoon ng mga hukbo, ng Dios ng Israel, Si Jonadab na anak ni Rechab ay hindi kukulangin ng lalake na tatayo sa harap ko magpakailan man.

   

Commentary

 

Wine

  

Wine played a key role in the ancient world, where safe, reliable water sources were scarce. It could be stored for long periods of time; if lightly fermented it was rich in sugar content; it was high in mineral content; it tasted good and generally had intoxicating qualities. Thus it was a valuable commodity and treated with reverence.

Wine is, of course, made from grapes. Grapes – sweet, juicy, nutritious and full of energy-rich fructose – represent the Lord's own exquisite desire to be good to us. That's powerful stuff! But grapes have a short shelf life; you might eat a bunch for a burst of energy, but you can't exactly carry them around with you for long-term sustenance. And so it is with desires for good: They tend to come to us in energizing bursts, but fade away fairly quickly. We need something more stable and lasting.

At some point in the distant past people figured out that if you squeeze the juice from the grapes and let it ferment, the result is a liquid that offers that stability: wine. The spiritual meaning works the same way; if we examine our desires for good, try to understand and think about how to apply them, what we will get are concepts about what good really is, how to recognize it and how to make it happen. And just like the wine, these ideas offer stability and portability. For instance, finding a wallet full of cash on the sidewalk might severely test our desire to be honest, but the idea that "you shall not steal" is pretty hard to shake.

Wine, then, on the deepest level represents divine truth flowing from divine goodness – the true principles that arise from the fact that the Lord loves us and desires everything good for us.

Wine comes in many varieties, though, and is used in many ways. Depending on context it can represent truth that arises from a desire for good on much more mundane levels. You want your children to be healthy so you make them brush their teeth even though they complain and it's a pain in the neck; the truth that brushing their teeth is good for them is wine on a very day-to-day level.

In some cases wine can also actually represent good things that arise from true ideas, something of a reverse from its inmost meaning. This happens when we are in transitional stages, setting higher ideas and principles above our less-worthy desires in an effort to reshape our actions. In that case our principles are the things being squeezed, with good habits the result.

There is also, of course, a darker side to wine. There is a good deal of debate about just how much alcohol wine had in Biblical times, and some of it may indeed have been more like concentrated grape juice. But there are also many references to wine and drunkeness, so some of it, at least, was fairly potent.

On a spiritual level, getting drunk on wine represents relying too much on our ideas, taking logic to such an extreme that we forget the good things we were trying to achieve in the first place.

(References: Apocalypse Explained 376 [1-40], 1152; Apocalypse Revealed 316, 635; Arcana Coelestia 1071 [1-5], 1727, 3580 [1-4], 5117 [7], 6377, 10137 [1-10]; The Apocalypse Explained 329 [2-4]; The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine 219)

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #9323

Study this Passage

  
/ 10837  
  

9323. 'And He will bless your bread and your water' means the increase of the good of love and of the truth of faith. This is clear from the meaning of 'being blessed by Jehovah' as being made fruitful in forms of good and being multiplied in truths, dealt with in 2846, 3406, 4981, 6091, 6099, 8939, thus an increase in the kinds of things that belong to love and faith; from the meaning of 'bread' as the good of love, dealt with in 276, 680, 2165, 2177, 3478, 3735, 3813, 4211, 4217, 4735, 4976, 6118, 8410; and from the meaning of 'water' as the truth of faith, dealt with in 680, 739, 2702, 3058, 3424, 4976, 5668, 6346, 7307, 8568. Since 'bread' meant all the good of love and 'water' all the truth of faith in their entirety, and since 'being blessed by Jehovah' means every increase in them, people in the ancient Churches were accustomed to express the wish, May Jehovah bless [your] bread and water. It was also common to speak of 'bread and water' when all natural food and drink were to be expressed and all spiritual goodness and truth to be understood; for the latter are what nourish spiritual life, just as the former nourish natural life, 4976.

[2] Such goodness and truth are meant by 'bread and water' in the following places: In Isaiah,

Behold, Jehovah Zebaoth is taking away from Jerusalem and Judah the whole staff of bread, and the whole staff of water. Isaiah 3:1.

'The staff of bread' stands for power and life provided by good, 'the staff of water' for power and life provided by truth. In Ezekiel,

Behold, I am breaking the staff of bread in Jerusalem, so that they may eat bread by weight and with anxiety, and drink water by measure and with dismay; that they may be in want of bread and water, and will be dismayed with one another, 1 and waste away on account of their iniquity. Ezekiel 4:16-17.

'Being in want of bread and water' means being deprived of the good of love and of the truth of faith, as is plainly evident since it says 'that they will be dismayed with one with another, and waste away on account of iniquity'.

[3] The like occurs again in the same prophet,

They will eat their bread with anxiety, and drink their water with dismay, so that her land may be devastated of its fullness, on account of the violence of all who dwell in it. Ezekiel 12:19.

In Amos,

Behold, the days are going to come, in which I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but for hearing the words of Jehovah. Amos 8:11.

In the first Book of Kings,

The man of God said to Jeroboam, If you were to give me half your house, I would not go in with you; nor would I eat bread nor drink water in this place. For Jehovah had so commanded, saying, You shall not eat bread, nor drink water, nor return by the way you came. But a prophet from Bethel said to him that he had been told by Jehovah that he was to eat bread and drink water with him (he was lying). 2 And he went back with him, and ate bread in his house, and drank water. For that reason he was torn to pieces by a lion. 1 Kings 13:8-9, 16-19, 24.

His refusal to eat bread or drink water with Jeroboam was a sign of his abhorrence of the good there and also of the truth, because they had been rendered profane. For Jeroboam had profaned the altar and all the holy things of worship, as is evident from the historical descriptions at this point in the Word.

[4] A lack of spiritual goodness and truth was meant by the absence of rain for three and a half years when Ahab was king, resulting in a lack of bread and of water, during which time Elijah went to a widow in Zarephath and asked her for a little water in a vessel so that he might drink, and a piece of bread so that he might eat, 1 Kings 17, 18. For 'bread' meant all the good of the Church, and 'water' all the truth of the Church, as stated above. Since such things in those times were representative for the reason that only something representative of the Church existed among those people, and since things of a representative nature were used therefore in the composition of the Word, including the historical section, goodness and truth laid waste was accordingly represented by the lack of bread and water. And because 'bread' meant all the good of love in its entirety, therefore also the sacrifices were referred to as 'bread', 2165, and therefore also the Lord calls Himself 'the bread which comes down from heaven', John 6:48, 50-51; for the Lord is the Good itself of Love.

Footnotes:

1. literally, will be desolated a man and his brother

2. i.e. the prophet from Bethel was lying when he told the man of God that God had commanded him (that prophet) to bring the man of God to his house

  
/ 10837  
  

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