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Exodus 23:14-19 : The Three Annual Festivals

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14 Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year.

15 Thou shalt keep the feast of unleavened bread: (thou shalt eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded thee, in the time appointed of the month Abib; for in it thou camest out from Egypt: and none shall appear before me empty:)

16 And the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of thy labours, which thou hast sown in the field: and the feast of ingathering, which is in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field.

17 Three times in the year all thy males shall appear before the Lord GOD.

18 Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread; neither shall the fat of my sacrifice remain until the morning.

19 The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring into the house of the LORD thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk.

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Three Feasts

Nga New Christian Bible Study Staff

A loaf of homemade bread.

The Children of Israel were told to keep three feasts each year - the feast of unleavened bread, the feast of first fruits, and the feast of ingathering. Should we still do that?

In Exodus 23:14-16, Moses receives the instructions about these feasts. Those three verses in Exodus comprise our brief story. Their inner meaning is explained in Arcana Coelestia 9286-9296.

There are three feasts. In the Word, the number three represents a completeness, a sense of things being covered from beginning to end. Our thankfulness to the Lord is supposed to keep going - to endure.

The first feast, of unleavened bread, stands for worship, for our thankfulness for the Lord's action in our minds to get rid of false ideas. That enables us to start to receive good loves.

The second feast, of first fruits, relates to the planting of true ideas in that "soil" of initial loves for doing good.

The third feast, of harvest, or ingathering, stands for the time when, by applying our true ideas, we receive real good - loves of the neighbor and of the Lord - that become the middle of our lives. This is the state of rebirth, where we have - by working through the year (our lives), and enduring in thankfulness, allowed the Lord to get rid of our false ideas, and push our evil loves to the periphery, so that good can work, and be fruitful.

These feasts, then, represent the progress of our spiritual lives. In some manner, we need to keep them.

Nga veprat e Swedenborg

 

Arcana Coelestia #5193

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5193. THE INTERNAL SENSE

Verses 1-4 And it happened at the end of two years of days, 1 that Pharaoh was dreaming, and behold, he was standing next to the river. And behold, out of the river seven cows were coming up, beautiful in appearance and fat-fleshed; and they fed in the sedge. And behold, seven other cows were coming up after them out of the river, bad in appearance and thin-fleshed, and stood by the [other] cows on the bank of the river. And the cows bad in appearance and thin-fleshed devoured the seven cows beautiful in appearance and fat. And Pharaoh awoke.

'And it happened at the end of two years of days' means after the state when the joining together took place. 'That Pharaoh was dreaming means provision made for the natural. 'And behold, he was standing next to the river' means from boundary to boundary. 'And behold, out of the river' means in the boundary. 'Seven cows were coming up' means the truths belonging to the natural. 'Beautiful in appearance means which are expressions of faith. 'And fat-fleshed' means which are embodiments of charity. 'And they fed in the sedge' means instruction. 'And behold, seven other cows were coming up after them out of the river' means falsities belonging to the natural which are also at the boundary. 'Bad in appearance' means which are not expressions of faith. 'And thin-fleshed' means which are not embodiments of charity. 'And stood by the [other] cows on the bank of the river' means at the boundaries where truths were present. 'And the cows bad in appearance and thin-fleshed devoured.....' means that falsities which were not expressions of faith and were not embodiments of charity would banish.....'The seven cows beautiful in appearance and fat' means the truths in the natural which are expressions of faith and embodiments of charity. 'And Pharaoh awoke' means a state of enlightenment.

Fusnotat:

1. i.e. two full years

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