Commentary

 

261 - Daily and Yearly Preparation for Heaven

By Jonathan S. Rose

Title: Daily and Yearly Preparation for Heaven

Topic: Salvation

Summary: The daily sacrifices, weekly sabbaths, and three annual feasts prescribed in the Old Testament are a picture of how to prepare for heaven.

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

References:
2 Peter 2:22, 10
Numbers 28:1
Exodus 23:14, 17
Leviticus 23:1, 5, 10, 33
Deuteronomy 16:1, 9, 13-14
Luke 6:1
Acts of the Apostles 2:1; 20:16
Nehemiah 8:13-14
Ezekiel 45:21, 25
Zechariah 14:16
John 7:2, 37

Play Video
Spirit and Life Bible Study broadcast from 5/4/2016. The complete series is available at: www.spiritandlifebiblestudy.com

The Bible

 

2 Peter 2

Study

   

1 But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.

2 And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.

3 And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.

4 For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;

5 And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;

6 And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly;

7 And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked:

8 (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;)

9 The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:

10 But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, selfwilled, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities.

11 Whereas angels, which are greater in power and might, bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord.

12 But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption;

13 And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the day time. Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you;

14 Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children:

15 Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;

16 But was rebuked for his iniquity: the dumb ass speaking with man's voice forbad the madness of the prophet.

17 These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever.

18 For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error.

19 While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.

20 For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.

21 For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.

22 But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #2897

Study this Passage

  
/ 10837  
  

2897. The Word in the Ancient Church after the Flood however was derived from these people meant by 'Enoch'. The member of this Church, being spiritual and not celestial, knew but did not see with perception what was embodied in representatives and meaningful signs. And because these embodied Divine things they held out a use to members of that Church and were employed by them in their Divine worship, to the end that they might have a communication with heaven; for, as has been stated, all things in the world represent and mean such things as exist in heaven. Also the Word which they had was a written Word, consisting of Historical Sections and Prophetical Parts, like the Old Testament Word. But in course of time that Word came to be lost. The historical sections were called The Wars of Jehovah, and the prophetical parts The Utterances, as is clear in Moses, Numbers 21:14, 27, where they are quoted. The historical sections of their Word were written in the prophetical style and were for the most part made-up historical narratives, like those in Chapters 1-11 of Genesis, as is evident from the quotations of those historical narratives in Moses, where the following words occur,

Therefore it is said in The Book of The Wars of Jehovah, Waheb in Suphah, and the streams of Arnon, and the descent of the streams which runs down to the dwelling at Ar and leans to the border of Moab. Numbers 21:14-15.

The prophetical parts of their Word were written in a style similar to the prophetical parts of the Old Testament, as is also evident from the quotation of these in Moses, where the following words occur,

Therefore The Utterances (or The Utterers of Prophecies) say, Come to Heshbon the city of Sihon shall be built and established. For fire went out of Heshbon flame out of the city of Sihon. It consumed Ar of Moab, the lords of the high places of Arnon. Woe to you, O Moab! You have perished, O people of Chemosh! He gave his sons as fugitives, and his daughters into captivity, to Sihon, king of the Amorites. But we shot at them; Heshbon has perished even to Dibon; and we have laid waste even to Nophah, which reaches even to Medebah. Numbers 21:27-30.

These prophetical utterances embody heavenly arcana in the same way as the prophetical parts of the Old Testament. This is quite evident not only from the fact that Moses copied them and applied them to the state of affairs prevailing in his own day, but also from the fact that almost the same words occur in Jeremiah. Included there among his prophetical sayings, they hold - as becomes clear from what has been stated about the internal sense of the Word - as many heavenly arcana within them as they consist of words. Those sayings as they occur in Jeremiah are as follows,

A fire has gone out of Heshbon, and a flame from between Sihon, and has devoured the corner of Moab and the crown of the head of the sons of tumult. Woe to you, O Moab! The people of Chemosh have perished, for your sons have been taken away into captivity, and your daughters into captivity. Jeremiah 48:45-46.

From this also it is evident that that Word too possessed an internal sense. Regarding the Ancient Church after the Flood, see 640, 641, 765, 1238, 1327, 2385.

  
/ 10837  
  

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