8858. A person's whole character is determined by the nature of whatever dominates his life; this is what marks him off from others. His heaven is formed in accordance with it if he is good, or his hell if he is bad. For it constitutes his true will and so the true being of his life, which is unchangeable after death. From all this one may see what the life is like in a person who has been regenerated, and what it is like in one who has not been regenerated.
Arcana Coelestia #9286
9286. 'Three times you shall keep a feast to Me in the year' means enduring worship of the Lord and thanksgiving on account of deliverance from damnation. This is clear from the meaning of 'keeping a feast' or 'holding a feast' as worshipping the Lord with gladness of mind on account of deliverance from damnation, dealt with in 7093; and from the meaning of 'three times in the year' as a state complete right to its end, for 'three' means complete from the beginning to the end, 2788, 4495, 7715, 9198, and 'year' a whole period, 2906, 7839, 8070. At this point therefore complete and whole deliverance is meant; for 'the feast of unleavened bread' means purification from falsities, 'the feast of harvest' means the planting of truth in good, and 'the feast of ingathering' means the implanting of good from there. Thus complete deliverance from damnation is meant by these feasts; for when a person has been purified from falsities, and after this has been brought by means of truths into good, and is at length governed by good, he is in heaven with the Lord and has accordingly undergone complete deliverance.
[2] The consecutive stages of deliverance from damnation are like the consecutive stages of regeneration; for regeneration is deliverance by the Lord from hell and being led by Him into heaven. For a person who is being regenerated is first purified from falsities, after that the truths of faith he knows are planted in the good of charity, and finally that good itself is implanted in him. When all this has been done the person has been regenerated and he is then in heaven with the Lord. Therefore the three feasts in the year also meant worship of the Lord and thanksgiving on account of regeneration. Because these feasts were established on account of the everlasting remembrance of those things, the worship and thanksgiving are called enduring; for the most important things in worship should endure forever. The things which should endure forever are those which have been inscribed not only on the memory but also on the actual life that is led. When this is so they are said to reign universally with a person, see 5949, 6159, 6571, 8853-8858, 8865.
Exodus 23
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"You shall not spread a false report. Don't join your hand with the wicked to be a malicious witness.
2
"You shall not follow a crowd to do evil; neither shall you testify in court to side with a multitude to pervert justice;
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neither shall you favor a poor man in his cause.
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"If you meet your enemy's ox or his donkey going astray, you shall surely bring it back to him again.
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If you see the donkey of him who hates you fallen down under his burden, don't leave him, you shall surely help him with it.
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"You shall not deny justice to your poor people in their lawsuits.
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"Keep far from a false charge, and don't kill the innocent and righteous: for I will not justify the wicked.
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"You shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds those who have sight and perverts the words of the righteous.
9
"You shall not oppress an alien, for you know the heart of an alien, since you were aliens in the land of Egypt.
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"For six years you shall sow your land, and shall gather in its increase,
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but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave the animal of the field shall eat. In the same way, you shall deal with your vineyard and with your olive grove.
12
"Six days you shall do your work, and on the seventh day you shall rest, that your ox and your donkey may have rest, and the son of your handmaid, and the alien may be refreshed.
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"Be careful to do all things that I have said to you; and don't invoke the name of other gods, neither let them be heard out of your mouth.
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"You shall observe a feast to me three times a year.
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You shall observe the feast of unleavened bread. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month Abib (for in it you came out from Egypt), and no one shall appear before me empty.
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And the feast of harvest, the first fruits of your labors, which you sow in the field: and the feast of harvest, at the end of the year, when you gather in your labors out of the field.
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Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Lord Yahweh.
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"You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread, neither shall the fat of my feast remain all night until the morning.
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The first of the first fruits of your ground you shall bring into the house of Yahweh your God. "You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk.
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"Behold, I send an angel before you, to keep you by the way, and to bring you into the place which I have prepared.
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Pay attention to him, and listen to his voice. Don't provoke him, for he will not pardon your disobedience, for my name is in him.
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But if you indeed listen to his voice, and do all that I speak, then I will be an enemy to your enemies, and an adversary to your adversaries.
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For my angel shall go before you, and bring you in to the Amorite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Canaanite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite; and I will cut them off.
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You shall not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor follow their practices, but you shall utterly overthrow them and demolish their pillars.
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You shall serve Yahweh your God, and he will bless your bread and your water, and I will take sickness away from your midst.
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No one will miscarry or be barren in your land. I will fulfill the number of your days.
27
I will send my terror before you, and will confuse all the people to whom you come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you.
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I will send the hornet before you, which will drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before you.
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I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate, and the animals of the field multiply against you.
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Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased and inherit the land.
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I will set your border from the Red Sea even to the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the River; for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you shall drive them out before you.
32
You shall make no covenant with them, nor with their gods.
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They shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against me, for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you."
