8859. Exodus 20

1. And God spoke all these words, saying,

2. I am Jehovah your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slaves.

3. You shall not have other gods before My face.

4. You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness [of things] which are in the heavens above, and which are on the earth beneath, and which are in the waters under the earth.

5. You shall not bow down to them, and you shall not serve them; for I am Jehovah your God, a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the sons, ¹ on the third and on the fourth [generations] of those who hate Me,

6. And showing mercy to thousands who love Me and keep My commandments.

7. You shall not take the name of Jehovah your God in vain; for Jehovah will not render him innocent who takes His name in vain.

8. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

9. Six days you shall labour and do all your work;

10. And the seventh day is a sabbath to Jehovah your God. You shall not do any work - you, nor your son, nor your daughter; your male slave, nor your female slave, nor your beast, nor your sojourner who is within your gates.

11. For in six days Jehovah made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore Jehovah blessed the sabbath day, and sanctified it.

12. Honour your father and your mother, in order that your days may be prolonged on the land which Jehovah your God gives you.

13. ² You shall not kill.

14. You shall not commit adultery.

15. You shall not steal.

16. You shall not answer as witness of a lie against your neighbour.

17. You shall not covet your neighbour's house; you shall not covet your neighbour's wife, nor his male slave nor his female slave, nor his ox nor his ass, nor anything that is your neighbour's.

18. And all the people saw the voices and torches, ³ and the voice of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking; and the people saw and were violently shaken, and stood afar off.

19. And they said to Moses, Speak yourself to us, and we will hear; and do not let God speak to us, lest perhaps we die.

20. And Moses said to the people, Do not fear, for God has come in order to test you, and in order that His fear may be before your faces, so that you do not sin.

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

22. And Jehovah said to Moses, Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, You have seen that I have spoken to you from heaven.

23. You shall not make [to be] with Me gods of silver and gods of gold; you shall not make [them] for yourselves.

24. An altar of soil ⁴ you shall make for Me, and shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your eucharistic offerings, your flocks and your herds; in every place where I shall put the memory of My name I will come to you and bless you.

25. And if you make for Me an altar of stones, you shall not build it with hewn ones; for if you move your chisel over it you will profane it.

26. And you shall not go up to My altar by steps, in order that your nakedness may not be revealed on it.

CONTENTS

This chapter deals in the internal sense with God's truths that are to be implanted in the good which governs those belonging to the Lord's spiritual Church. The Ten Commandments are those truths; and the commandments that follow them in this chapter, regarding sacrifices and the altar, are outward truths concerned with worship.

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969. Verse 4. And the third angel poured out his vial into the rivers and into the fountains of waters, signifies the state of the church manifested as to the faculty of understanding the truths of the Word. This is evident from the signification of "the angel pouring out the vial," as being the state of the church manifested (See above, n. 960, 961, 965); also from the signification of "rivers," as being such things as belong to intelligence, and thus to the faculty of understanding (See n. 518; also from the signification of "fountains of waters," as being the truths of the Word (See n. 483). From this it is clear that "the third angel poured out his vial into the rivers and into the fountains of waters" signifies the state of the church manifested as to the faculty of understanding the truths of the Word.

[2] Man is so created as to be an image of heaven and an image of the world, for he is a microcosm. He is born of his parents an image of the world, and he is born again to be an image of heaven. To be born again is to be regenerated; and man is regenerated by the Lord by means of truths from the Word and a life according to them. Man is an image of the world as to his natural mind, and he is an image of heaven as to his spiritual mind. The natural mind, which is the world, is beneath; and the spiritual mind, which is heaven, is above. The natural mind is full of all kinds of evils, such as thefts, adulteries, murders, false witnesses, covetousnesses, and even blasphemies and profanations of God. These evils and many others have their seat in that mind, for the loves of them are there, and thus the delights of thinking, willing, and doing them. These things are innate in that mind from parents, for man is born and grows up into the things that are in that mind, and is restrained only by the bonds of civil law and by the bonds of moral life from doing them, and from thus manifesting the tendencies of his depraved will. Who cannot see that the Lord cannot flow in out of heaven with man and teach him and lead him before these evils have been removed? For they obstruct, repel, pervert, and suffocate the truths and goods of heaven, which present themselves from above, press down and strive to flow in. For evils are infernal and goods are heavenly, and everything infernal burns with hatred against everything heavenly.

[3] This makes clear that before the Lord can flow in with heaven out of heaven and form man to the image of heaven, those evils that lie heaped up in the natural mind must needs be removed. Moreover, as the removal of evils must come first before man can be taught and led by the Lord, the reason is evident why in eight commandments of the Decalogue the evil works that must not be done are recounted, but not the goods that must be done. Good does not exist together with evil, nor does it exist before evils have been removed; for until then there is no way possible from heaven into man. Man is like a dark sea, the waters of which must be removed on either side before the Lord in a cloud and in fire can give a passage to the sons of Israel. The "dark sea" signifies hell, "Pharaoh with the Egyptians" the natural man, and "the sons of Israel" the spiritual man.