The Bible

 

Ezekiel 43

Study

   

1 And he causeth me to go to the gate, the gate that is looking eastward.

2 And lo, the honour of the God of Israel hath come from the way of the east, and His voice [is] as the noise of many waters, and the earth hath shone from His honour.

3 And according to the appearance [is] the appearance that I saw, as the appearance that I saw in my coming in to destroy the city, and the appearances [are] as the appearance that I saw at the river Chebar, and I fall on my face.

4 And the honour of Jehovah hath come in unto the house, the way of the gate whose face [is] eastward.

5 And take me up doth the Spirit, and bringeth me in unto the inner court, and lo, the honour of Jehovah hath filled the house.

6 And I hear one speaking unto me from the house, and a man hath been standing near me,

7 and He saith unto me: `Son of man, the place of My throne, And the place of the soles of My feet, Where I dwell in the midst of the sons of Israel to the age, Defile no more do the house of Israel My holy name, They, and their kings, by their whoredom, And by the carcases of their kings -- their high places.

8 In their putting their threshold with My threshold, And their door-post near My door-post, And the wall between Me and them, And they have defiled My holy name, By their abominations that they have done, And I consume them in Mine anger.

9 Now do they put far off their whoredom, And the carcases of their kings -- from Me, And I have dwelt in their midst to the age.

10 Thou, son of man, Shew the house of Israel the house, And they are ashamed of their iniquities, And they have measured the measurement.

11 And since they have been ashamed of all that they have done, The form of the house, and its measurement, And its outlets, and its inlets, and all its forms, And all its statutes, even all its forms, And all its laws cause them to know, And write [it] before their eyes, And they observe all its forms, And all its statutes, and have done them.

12 This [is] a law of the house: on the top of the mountain, all its border all round about [is] most holy; lo, this [is] a law of the house.

13 `And these [are] measures of the altar by cubits: The cubit [is] a cubit and a handbreadth, and the centre [is] a cubit, and a cubit the breadth; and its border on its edge round about [is] one span, and this [is] the upper part of the altar.

14 And from the centre of the ground unto the lower border [is] two cubits, and the breadth one cubit, and from the lesser border unto the greater border four cubits, and the breadth a cubit.

15 `And the altar [is] four cubits, and from the altar and upward [are] four horns.

16 And the altar [is] twelve long by twelve broad, square in its four squares.

17 And the border [is] fourteen long by fourteen broad, at its four squares, and the border round about it [is] half a cubit, and the centre to it [is] a cubit round about, and its steps are looking eastward.'

18 And He saith unto me, `Son of man, Thus said the Lord Jehovah: These [are] statutes of the altar in the day of its being made to cause burnt-offering to go up on it, and to sprinkle on it blood.

19 And thou hast given unto the priests, the Levites, who [are] of the seed of Zadok -- who are near unto Me, an affirmation of the Lord Jehovah, to serve Me -- a calf from the herd, for a sin-offering.

20 And thou hast taken of its blood, and hast put it on its four horns, and on the four corners of its border, and on the border round about, and hast cleansed it, and purified it.

21 And thou hast taken the bullock of the sin-offering, and hast burnt it in the appointed place of the house at the outside of the sanctuary.

22 And on the second day thou dost bring near a kid of the goats, a perfect one, for a sin-offering, and they have cleansed the altar, as they cleansed [it] for the bullock.

23 In thy finishing cleansing, thou dost bring near a calf, a son of the herd, a perfect one, and a ram out of the flock, a perfect one.

24 And thou hast brought them near before Jehovah, and the priests have cast upon them salt, and have caused them to go up, a burnt-offering to Jehovah.

25 Seven days thou dost prepare a goat for a sin-offering daily, and a bullock, a son of the herd, and a ram out of the flock, perfect ones, do they prepare.

26 Seven days they purify the altar, and have cleansed it, and filled their hand.

27 And the days are completed, and it hath come to pass on the eighth day, and henceforth, the priests prepare on the altar your burnt-offerings and your peace-offerings, and I have accepted you -- an affirmation of the Lord Jehovah.'

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

True Christianity #157

Study this Passage

  
/ 853  
  

157. Since our spirit means our mind, therefore "being in the spirit," as the Word sometimes says, refers to the state of our mind when it is separated from our body. In this state the prophets saw the sort of things that exist in the spiritual world; therefore this state is called "a vision of God. " At those times, the prophets' state was like the state of spirits and angels in the spiritual world. In this state our spirit can move from place to place while our body stays where it is (as is also true of our mind's eye).

This is the state I myself have been in now for twenty-six years, with the difference that I am in my spirit and my body at the same time, and only sometimes out of my body.

Ezekiel, Zechariah, Daniel, and John (when he wrote the Book of Revelation) were in this state, as is clear from the following passages: Ezekiel said, "The spirit lifted me up and led me into Chaldea to the captivity in the vision of God, in the spirit of God. In this way the vision that I saw came over me" (Ezekiel 11:1, 24). The spirit lifted Ezekiel up and he heard the earth tremble behind him (Ezekiel 3:12, 14). The spirit lifted him up between earth and heaven, and led him away to Jerusalem where he saw abominable things (Ezekiel 8:3-4). He saw four creatures that were angel guardians and various details about them (Ezekiel 1 and 10). Then he saw a new earth in the form of a new temple, and an angel measuring the temple (Ezekiel 40-48). At that time he was in a vision and in the spirit (Ezekiel 40:2; 43:5).

[2] The same thing happened to Zechariah when an angel was with him and he saw a man riding among the myrtle trees (); when he saw four horns and a man who had a string in his hand for measuring (Zechariah 1:18; 2:1-2); when he saw Joshua the high priest (Zechariah 3:1, 6); and when he saw four chariots with horses headed off between two mountains (Zechariah 6:1-3).

Daniel was in the same state when he saw four beasts rising up out of the sea, and many details about them (Daniel 7:1-8); and when he saw battles between a ram and a goat (Daniel 8:1-14). He was in a vision when he saw those things (Daniel 7:1-2, 7, 13; 8:2; 10:1, 7-8). In a vision he saw the angel Gabriel and spoke with him [].

[3] The same thing happened to John when he wrote the Book of Revelation. He said he was in the spirit on the Lord's day (Revelation 1:10); he was carried off into the wilderness in the spirit (Revelation 17:3); and he was on a high mountain in the spirit (Revelation 21:10). He was seeing things in a vision (Revelation 9:17).

Elsewhere [in the Book of Revelation] he says that he saw the things he described. For example, he saw the Son of Humankind in the middle of seven lampstands. He saw a tabernacle, a temple, an ark, and an altar in heaven; a book sealed with seven seals and horses that came out of it; four creatures around a throne; twelve thousand chosen people, some from every tribe; a lamb on Mount Zion; locusts rising up from an abyss; a dragon and its war with Michael; a woman giving birth to a male child and running away into a desert because of the dragon; two beasts, one rising up out of the sea and another out of the land; a woman sitting on a scarlet beast; a dragon thrown into a lake of fire and sulfur; a white horse and a great supper; the holy city Jerusalem coming down, with details of its entrances, its wall, and the wall's foundations; a river of living water; and trees of life producing different types of fruit every month; and so on.

Peter, James, and John were in the same state when they saw Jesus transfigured, as was Paul when he heard ineffable things from heaven.

  
/ 853  
  

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