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Exodus 20

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1 And God spake all these words, saying,

2 I am Jehovah thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

4 Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image, nor any likeness [of any thing] that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them, for I Jehovah thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, upon the third and upon the fourth generation of them that hate me,

6 and showing lovingkindness unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.

7 Thou shalt not take the name of Jehovah thy God in vain; for Jehovah will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

9 Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work;

10 but the seventh day is a sabbath unto Jehovah thy God: [in it] thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:

11 for in six days Jehovah made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore Jehovah blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

12 Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long in the land which Jehovah thy God giveth thee.

13 Thou shalt not kill.

14 Thou shalt not commit adultery.

15 Thou shalt not steal.

16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.

17 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor's.

18 And all the people perceived the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the voice of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they trembled, and stood afar off.

19 And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear; but let not God Speak with us, lest we die.

20 And Moses said unto the people, Fear not: for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before you, that ye sin not.

21 And the people stood afar off, and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was.

22 And Jehovah said unto Moses, Thus thou shalt say unto the children of Israel, Ye yourselves have seen that I have talked with you from heaven.

23 Ye shall not make [other gods] with me; gods of silver, or gods of gold, ye shall not make unto you.

24 An altar of earth thou shalt make unto me, and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt-offerings, and thy peace-offerings, thy sheep, and thine oxen: in every place where I record my name I will come unto thee and I will bless thee.

25 And if thou make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stones; for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it.

26 Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar, that thy nakedness be not uncovered thereon.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 8924

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8924. 'Do not fear, for God has come in order to test you' means that the life of heaven will not be destroyed, [but that they are tested] solely so that the existence and essential nature of that life may be known. This is clear from the meaning of 'not fearing' - not fearing that they will die - as their having no fear that the life of heaven with them will be destroyed, 8922; and from the meaning of 'testing you' as teaching about the existence of the life of heaven and about its essential nature. The reason why 'testing' has this meaning is that all spiritual testing or temptation serves to teach about and strengthen such ideas with a person. For temptations exist to this end, that belief in truth and affection for truth may be implanted and enrooted, and after these an affection for good, so that a person receives new life, which is the life of heaven.

[2] Temptations are conflicts with evils and falsities. When a person is victorious in them he is strengthened, for he fights from truths and for truths against falsity and evil. The person is not at the time directly conscious of fighting from truths and for truths because the truths are present on the inner levels of his mind and therefore do not plainly enter his consciousness, which belongs to the outer levels. But truths are indeed what he fights from and fights for, as is evident from the fact that conflict exists, followed by victory, which is not possible except for the clashes of opposites with one another, those opposites being evil and good, and falsity and truth.

[3] Yet it should be recognized that the person does not fight, but that the Lord fights on behalf of the person, and indeed against the hells, which endeavour at that time to take over and subdue the person, 840, 1661, 1692, 8159, 8168, 8172, 8175, 8176.

From all this it is evident that 'Do not fear, for God has come in order to test you' means that there should be no fear that the life of heaven will be destroyed, but that it happens to them so that they may be taught about and know of the existence of the life of heaven, and also its essential nature. But regarding temptations, see what has been stated and shown already in 2272, 2768, 3318, 3927, 3928, 4249, 4299, 4341, 4572, 5036, 5246, 5356, 6144, 6574, 6611, 6657, 6663, 6666, 6829, 8131, 8273, 8351, 8367, 8370 (end), 8403, 8567.

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

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Arcana Coelestia # 6666

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6666. 'And the Egyptians made the children of Israel serve' means the aim to bring them under their control. This is clear from the meaning of 'making them serve' as bringing under their control, here the aim to do so because although they endeavour constantly to bring others under their control they never get the upper hand over those who are good; from the meaning of 'the Egyptians' as separated factual knowledge that is opposed to the Church's truths, dealt with in 6651; and from the meaning of 'the children of Israel' as the Church, dealt with in 6637. From these meanings it is evident that 'the Egyptians made the children of Israel serve' means the aim held by those who favour separated factual knowledge opposed to the Church's truths, to bring them [the Church] under their control.

[2] As regards the aim to bring others under one's own control, I have also been allowed to know what that aim is like among the evil belonging to hell. The nature of their endeavour and aim to bring under their control those who accept what is good and true defies description. For they employ every kind of malice, every kind of guile and deceit, every kind of trickery, and every kind of cruelty, the extent and nature of which are such that if merely a part were mentioned scarcely anyone in the world could believe it, so full of guile and artfulness are the methods they use, and so unspeakable too. In short those methods are such that no one at all, not even any angel, only the Lord, can stand up to them. The reason why such an endeavour and aim is present in them is that the whole delight of their life, thus their very life, consists in the doing of evil, on account of which nothing else occupies their minds, and consequently nothing else is intended by them. They cannot do anything good at all because it repels them; or if they do do anything good, it is for selfish reasons, thus only for themselves.

[3] Hells made up of people like this are growing immensely larger at the present day; and what is astounding, such people come mainly from among those within the Church on account of all the guile, trickery, hatred, revenge, and adultery that flourish there more than anywhere else. For in the Church of today guile is reckoned to be cleverness, and adultery to be honourable behaviour; and those who think anything different are laughed at. Since this is the situation at the present day within the Church, it is a sign that its last days are at hand, for according to the Lord's words recorded in Matthew 24:22, unless it came to an end 'no flesh would be saved'. Indeed all evil is infectious and like rottenness contaminates the whole, thus everyone in the end.

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