10325. The books of the Word are all those which have the internal sense; books which do not have it are not the Word. The books of the Word in the Old Testament are: The five Books of Moses; the Book of Joshua; the Book of Judges; the two Books of Samuel; the two Books of Kings; the Psalms of David; and the Prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi. And in the New Testament they are: The four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John; and the Book of Revelation.
Exodus 31
1
And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
2
See, I have called by name Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah:
3
And I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship,
4
To devise cunning works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass,
5
And in cutting of stones, to set them, and in carving of timber, to work in all manner of workmanship.
6
And I, behold, I have given with him Aholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan: and in the hearts of all that are wise hearted I have put wisdom, that they may make all that I have commanded thee;
7
The tabernacle of the congregation, and the ark of the testimony, and the mercy seat that is thereupon, and all the furniture of the tabernacle,
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And the table and his furniture, and the pure candlestick with all his furniture, and the altar of incense,
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And the altar of burnt offering with all his furniture, and the laver and his foot,
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And the cloths of service, and the holy garments for Aaron the priest, and the garments of his sons, to minister in the priest's office,
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And the anointing oil, and sweet incense for the holy place: according to all that I have commanded thee shall they do.
12
And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
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Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the LORD that doth sanctify you.
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Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you: every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death: for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people.
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Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD: whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death.
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Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant.
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It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.
18
And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God.
Apocalypse Revealed #490
490. "And I will give power to my two witnesses." (11:3) This symbolizes those people who confess and acknowledge from the heart that the Lord is God of heaven and earth, whose humanity is Divine, and who are conjoined with Him by a life in accordance with the Ten Commandments.
These are the people meant here by the two witnesses because these two characteristics are the two essential elements of the New Church.
Regarding the first essential, that the Lord is God of heaven and earth, whose humanity is Divine - that this is a testimony, and therefore that those people are witnesses who confess and acknowledge this from the heart, may be seen in nos. 6 and 846, and still further from the following:
I am your fellow servant... of your brethren who have the testimony of Jesus... For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. (Revelation 19:10)
(Michael's angels) overcame (the dragon) by the blood of the Lamb and by the Word of His testimony... And the dragon... went away to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. (Revelation 12:11, 17)
...the souls of those who had been beheaded because of the testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God... (Revelation 20:4)
These are people who have acknowledged the Lord.
The testimony is called the testimony of Jesus because the Lord attests to it on the authority of His Word, thus on the authority of Himself. Therefore He is called the faithful and true witness (Revelation 1:5; 3:14); and He says,
...I testify of Myself, (and) My testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going. (John 8:14)
Also,
When the Counselor comes..., the spirit of truth..., it will testify of Me. (John 15:26)
The Counselor, the spirit of truth, which is also the Holy Spirit, is an emanating Divinity, and this is the Lord Himself, as may be seen in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Lord, nos. 46-54.
Now because the Lord Himself is the witness, therefore witnesses also mean people who bear the same testimony on behalf of the Lord, as in John:
(Jesus said,) "You have sent to John, and he was a witness to the truth. Yet I do not receive testimony from man... (John 5:33-34)
(John) came as testimony, to testify concerning the light... He was not that light, but was sent to testify concerning the light. (The Word that was with God, and was God,) was the true light... (John 1:1-2ff.; see also 1:14, 1:34)
[2] Regarding the second essential of the New Church, namely conjunction with the Lord by a life in accordance with the Ten Commandments - that this is a testimony is apparent from the fact that the Ten Commandments are called a testimony, as in the following:
You shall put into the ark the Testimony which I will give you. (Exodus 25:16)
...the Testimony...(Moses) put into the ark... (Exodus 40:20)
...the mercy seat that is upon the Testimony... (Leviticus 16:13)
(Leave the rods of the tribes) before the Testimony... (Numbers 17:4)
And so, too, elsewhere, as in Exodus 25:22; 31:7, 18; 32:15, Psalms 78:5; 132:12.
[3] We will say something here regarding conjunction with the Lord by a life in accordance with the Ten Commandments:
There are two tables on which these commandments were written, one for the Lord and one for mankind. The contents of the first table declare that several gods are not to be worshiped, but only one. The contents of the second table declare that evils are not to be done. When one God is worshiped and people do not do evils, conjunction takes place. For in the measure that a person desists from evils, that is, in the measure that he repents, he is in the same measure accepted by God and does good from God.
But who, now, is the one God? A trinal or triune God is not one God when the trine or trinity exists in three persons. But a God who has a trine or trinity in one person is one God, and that God is the Lord. Weave your ideas as you may, you still will not extricate from the tangle the existence of one God unless He is also one in person.
The fact of this is something the whole Word teaches, both the Old Prophetic Word and the New Apostolic Word, as may be clearly seen from The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Lord.
