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

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The Bible

 

Deuteronomy 16

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1 Observe the month of Abib, and keep the passover unto the LORD thy God: for in the month of Abib the LORD thy God brought thee forth out of Egypt by night.

2 Thou shalt therefore sacrifice the passover unto the LORD thy God, of the flock and the herd, in the place which the LORD shall choose to place his name there.

3 Thou shalt eat no leavened bread with it; seven days shalt thou eat unleavened bread therewith, even the bread of affliction; for thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt in haste: that thou mayest remember the day when thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of thy life.

4 And there shall be no leavened bread seen with thee in all thy coast seven days; neither shall there anything of the flesh, which thou sacrificedst the first day at even, remain all night until the morning.

5 Thou mayest not sacrifice the passover within any of thy gates, which the LORD thy God giveth thee:

6 But at the place which the LORD thy God shall choose to place his name in, there thou shalt sacrifice the passover at even, at the going down of the sun, at the season that thou camest forth out of Egypt.

7 And thou shalt roast and eat it in the place which the LORD thy God shall choose: and thou shalt turn in the morning, and go unto thy tents.

8 Six days thou shalt eat unleavened bread: and on the seventh day shall be a solemn assembly to the LORD thy God: thou shalt do no work therein.

9 Seven weeks shalt thou number unto thee: begin to number the Seven weeks from such time as thou beginnest to put the sickle to the corn.

10 And thou shalt keep the feast of weeks unto the LORD thy God with a tribute of a freewill offering of thine hand, which thou shalt give unto the LORD thy God, according as the LORD thy God hath blessed thee:

11 And thou shalt rejoice before the LORD thy God, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite that is within thy gates, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are among you, in the place which the LORD thy God hath chosen to place his name there.

12 And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt: and thou shalt observe and do these statutes.

13 Thou shalt observe the feast of tabernacles seven days, after that thou hast gathered in thy corn and thy wine:

14 And thou shalt rejoice in thy feast, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite, the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are within thy gates.

15 Seven days shalt thou keep a solemn feast unto the LORD thy God in the place which the LORD shall choose: because the LORD thy God shall bless thee in all thine increase, and in all the works of thine hands, therefore thou shalt surely rejoice.

16 Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall choose; in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles: and they shall not appear before the LORD empty:

17 Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the LORD thy God which he hath given thee.

18 Judges and officers shalt thou make thee in all thy gates, which the LORD thy God giveth thee, throughout thy tribes: and they shall judge the people with just judgment.

19 Thou shalt not wrest judgment; thou shalt not respect persons, neither take a gift: for a gift doth blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert the words of the righteous.

20 That which is altogether just shalt thou follow, that thou mayest live, and inherit the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.

21 Thou shalt not plant thee a grove of any trees near unto the altar of the LORD thy God, which thou shalt make thee.

22 Neither shalt thou set thee up any image; which the LORD thy God hateth.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #2609

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2609. But as regards commandments to do with life 1 - as all the Ten Commandments are, and as very many in the Law and the Prophets are because the service which these perform is to man's very life, they are of use in both senses, the literal sense and the internal. The things that exist in the literal sense were for the people and peoples of that period, who had no understanding of things that were internal, while the things that exist in the internal sense were for the angels, who have no interest in things that are external. Unless the Ten Commandments also contained internal things, they would never have been declared on Mount Sinai by means of so great a miraculous event; for everything contained in them, such as the commands to honour one's parents, not to steal, not to murder, not to commit adultery, not to covet what belongs to another, is known to gentiles also and has been laid down for them in their laws. And the children of Israel too, being members of the human race, ought to have known the same without any such declaration from Sinai. But it was because those commandments in both senses were to be of service to man's life, and were as external forms produced from internal, which corresponded to one another, that they came down out of heaven on Mount Sinai by means of so great a miraculous event - being declared and heard in heaven in the internal sense and declared and heard on earth in the external sense.

[2] Take, for example, the words that those who honoured their parents would have their days prolonged upon the land. By 'parents' the angels in heaven perceived the Lord, and by 'land' His kingdom, which those who worship Him in love and faith would possess for ever as sons and heirs. People on earth however understood parents by 'parents', the land of Canaan by 'the land', and years of life by 'the prolonging of their days'. By 'do not steal' angels in heaven perceived that they were not to take anything away from the Lord nor to ascribe any righteousness and merit at all to themselves. People on earth however understood that they were not to steal. From this it is clear that these commandments are true in both senses. Or take the commandment 'not to murder'; angels in heaven perceived that they were not to hate anyone nor to destroy any good and truth existing with another. But people on earth perceived that friends must not be murdered. And so it is with all the other commandments.

Footnotes:

1. i.e. as distinct from those to do with worship

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