The Bible

 

Exodus 3:1-14 : The Burning Bush

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1 Now Moses was keeping the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the back of the wilderness, and came to God's mountain, to Horeb.

2 The angel of Yahweh appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.

3 Moses said, "I will turn aside now, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt."

4 When Yahweh saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the midst of the bush, and said, "Moses! Moses!" He said, "Here I am."

5 He said, "Don't come close. Take your sandals off of your feet, for the place you are standing on is holy ground."

6 Moreover he said, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look at God.

7 Yahweh said, "I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows.

8 I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey; to the place of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite.

9 Now, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to me. Moreover I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them.

10 Come now therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh, that you may bring forth my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt."

11 Moses said to God, "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?"

12 He said, "Certainly I will be with you. This will be the token to you, that I have sent you: when you have brought forth the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain."

13 Moses said to God, "Behold, when I come to the children of Israel, and tell them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you;' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' What should I tell them?"

14 God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM," and he said, "You shall tell the children of Israel this: 'I AM has sent me to you.'"

Commentary

 

Holiness of the Holy Supper

By Todd Beiswenger


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What is holy? Why makes the Holy Supper holy?

(References: Arcana Coelestia 639 [2], 3316 [2], 8925, 9229; Divine Wisdom 12; Exodus 3:3-5; Heaven and Hell 108)

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #639

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639. That 'the ark' means the member of this Church, or the Church called Noah, becomes sufficiently clear from the description of it below, and also from the fact that the Word of the Lord in every part embodies things that are spiritual and celestial, that is, the Lord's Word is spiritual and celestial. If the ark and the covering of it with bitumen, its measurements, and its construction, and also the Flood, meant no more than what the letter declares there would be absolutely nothing spiritual and celestial about it. It would be mere history and of no more use to the human race than similar descriptions found in secular authors. Now because the Word of the Lord in every part contains and embodies within its bosom or inner recesses things that are spiritual and celestial it is quite clear that 'the ark' and everything said about the ark mean arcana which are as yet undisclosed.

[2] The same is meant elsewhere by, for example, the little ark in which Moses was hidden and which was placed in the reeds by the riverbank, Exodus 2:3; and the sacred Ark in the wilderness, constructed according to the design indicated to Moses on Mount Sinai, is an even more sublime example. Unless every single thing in this sacred Ark had been representative of the Lord and His kingdom, it would have been no more than a kind of idol, and the worship that took place would have been idolatrous. So too with Solomon's Temple. Of itself it was in no sense holy. Nor did the gold, silver, cedar, and stone there make it so, but the particular things represented by those materials. And similarly in the present context, unless the ark and the construction of it with all its details meant some arcanum of the Church, the Word would not be the Word of the Lord but some dead piece of literature such as that found among the works of any secular author. From this it is clear that 'the ark' means the member of the Church, or the Church called Noah.

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