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Genesis 15

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1 After these things the word of Jehovah came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, [and] thy exceeding great reward.

2 And Abram said, O Lord Jehovah, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and he that shall be possessor of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?

3 And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir.

4 And, behold, the word of Jehovah came unto him, saying, This man shall not be thine heir; But he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir.

5 And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and number the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.

6 And he believed in Jehovah; and he reckoned it to him for righteousness.

7 And he said unto him, I am Jehovah that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it.

8 And he said, O Lord Jehovah, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?

9 And he said unto him, Take me a heifer three years old, and a she-goat three years old, and a ram three years old, and a turtle-dove, and a young pigeon.

10 And he took him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each half over against the other: but the birds divided he not.

11 And the birds of prey came down upon the carcasses, and Abram drove them away.

12 And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, a horror of great darkness fell upon him.

13 And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be sojourners in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;

14 and also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance.

15 But thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age.

16 And in the fourth generation they shall come hither again; for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet full.

17 And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold, a smoking furnace, and a flaming torch that passed between these pieces.

18 In that day Jehovah made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:

19 the Kenite, and the Kenizzite, and the Kadmonite,

20 and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Rephaim,

21 and the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Girgashite, and the Jebusite.

   

Das Obras de Swedenborg

 

Arcana Coelestia # 9415

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9415. 'Come up to Me into the mountain, and be there' means the Lord's presence with them through an intermediary. This is clear from the meaning of 'going up' as being raised towards higher, that is, more internal things, dealt with in 3084, 4539, 4969, 5406, 5817, 6007, and consequently being joined to them, 8760, 9373. The Lord's presence is meant because it says, 'Come up to Me into the mountain, and be there'; for Jehovah to whom Moses was told to go up means the Lord, see above in 9414, and 'Mount Sinai' means the Word which comes from the Lord, and in which the Lord is for that reason present, 8399, 8753, 8793, 8805. Heaven too is meant by that mountain, for the Word is Divine Truth emanating from the Lord, and heaven is a receptacle of God's truth, thus of the Lord Himself, as has often been shown before. From this it is evident that 'going up to Jehovah into the mountain' means the Lord's presence. His presence with that people is through an intermediary, because Moses now represents the people as its head, and so as an intermediary, as stated immediately above in 9414.

[2] The words 'the Lord's presence with them through an intermediary' are used here because the Lord makes Himself present with man, but man does not make himself present with the Lord. For all the good that belongs to love and the truth that belongs to faith comes from the Lord, and no good or truth whatever comes from man. Therefore the Lord's presence exists with those who let Him in, that is, with those who receive in faith and love God's truth coming from Him. That the Lord comes to them, and not they to him, is the Lord's own teaching in John,

He who loves Me keeps My word, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. John 14:23.

In the same gospel,

He who abides in Me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for without Me you can do nothing. John 15:5.

And in the same gospel,

Man cannot receive 1 anything unless it is given him from heaven. John 3:27.

Notas de rodapé:

1. The Latin means do but the Greek means receive, which Swedenborg has in most other places where he quotes this verse.

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

Das Obras de Swedenborg

 

Arcana Coelestia # 3720

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3720. 'This is nothing other than the house of God' means the Lord's kingdom as it exists in the ultimate degree of order. This is clear from the meaning of 'the house of God'. In the Word 'the house of God' is referred to in many places, and in the external sense, that is, literally, it means a building where holy worship takes place. But in the internal sense it means the Church, in the more universal sense it means heaven, and in the most universal the Lord's kingdom. In the highest sense however it means the Lord Himself as regards the Divine Human. But in the Word sometimes the expression 'House of God' is used and sometimes 'Temple'. The two are similar in meaning, the difference being that the expression 'House of God' is used when the subject is good but 'temple' when the subject is truth. From this it is evident that 'the House of God' means the Lord's celestial Church, and in the more universal sense the heaven of celestial angels, in the most universal the Lord's celestial kingdom, and in the highest sense the Lord as regards Divine Good; whereas 'the Temple' means the Lord's spiritual Church, and in the more universal sense the heaven of spiritual angels, in the most universal the Lord's spiritual kingdom, and in the highest the Lord as regards Divine Truth, see 2048. The reason why 'the House of God' means that which is celestial and the dwelling-place of good, while 'the Temple' means that which is spiritual and the dwelling-place of truth, is that 'a house' in the Word means good, see 710, 2233, 2559, 3128, 3652, and among the most ancient people used to be built of pieces of wood for the reason that 'wood' meant good, 643, 1110, 2784, 2812, whereas 'the Temple' means truth because it was built of stones - 'stones' meaning truths, see 643, 1296, 1298.

[2] These meanings that 'pieces of wood' and 'stones' possess are clear not only from the Word where they are mentioned but also from representatives in the next life. For people who assume that merit lies in good works seem to themselves to be cutting wood, and those who assume that it lies in truths, that is to say, people who have believed that they knew more truths than anybody else and yet have lived wickedly, seem to themselves to be breaking up stones. I have often seen such people wood-cutting or stone-breaking, from which the meaning of 'wood' and of 'stone' was made clear to me - that good is meant by 'wood' and truth by 'stone'. It has in like manner been made clear to me from the fact that when I have seen a wooden house the concept of good has instantly presented itself, and when I have seen a stone house the concept of truth has done so. And I have also learned from angels about this matter. This is why, when in the Word 'the House of God' is mentioned, the concept of good presents itself to angels, the kind of good depending on the nature of the subject that is being dealt with. And when 'the Temple' is mentioned, the concept of truth presents itself, the kind of truth depending on the subject that is being dealt with. From this one may also deduce how deeply and inwardly concealed the heavenly arcana lie in the Word.

[3] The reason 'the House of God' here means the Lord's kingdom as it exists in the ultimate degree of order is that the subject is Jacob who, as often shown already, represents the Lord's Divine Natural. The natural exists in the ultimate degree of order, for the natural encompasses all interior degrees and includes them all together within itself. And since they are included all together within the natural, and so countless things are beheld as a single whole, obscurity exists there compared with other degrees. This obscurity too has been dealt with frequently.

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