9819. 'And they shall make Aaron's garments' means through whom the spiritual kingdom exists. This is clear from the meaning of 'Aaron's garments' as a representative sign of the Lord's spiritual kingdom lying adjacent to His celestial kingdom, dealt with above in 9814. The reason why the wise at heart, filled with the spirit of wisdom, were to make those garments is that by these people those in the celestial kingdom are meant, and the spiritual kingdom is what springs from and so what covers that celestial kingdom like a garment next to the body, as also becomes clear from the things that have been stated in 9818.
Joel 1
1
The Word of Yahweh that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel.
2
Hear this, you elders, And listen, all you inhabitants of the land. Has this ever happened in your days, or in the days of your fathers?
3
Tell your children about it, and have your children Tell their children, and their children, another generation.
4
What the swarming locust has left, the great locust has eaten. What the great locust has left, the grasshopper has eaten. What the grasshopper has left, the caterpillar has eaten.
5
Wake up, you drunkards, and weep! Wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine; for it is cut off from your mouth.
6
For a nation has come up on my land, strong, and without number. His teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he has the fangs of a lioness.
7
He has laid my vine waste, and stripped my fig tree. He has stripped its bark, and thrown it away. Its branches are made white.
8
Mourn like a virgin dressed in sackcloth for the husband of her youth!
9
The meal offering and the drink offering are cut off from Yahweh's house. The priests, Yahweh's ministers, mourn.
10
The field is laid waste. The land mourns, for the grain is destroyed, The new wine has dried up, and the oil languishes.
11
Be confounded, you farmers! Wail, you vineyard keepers; for the wheat and for the barley; for the harvest of the field has perished.
12
The vine has dried up, and the fig tree withered; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all of the trees of the field are withered; for joy has withered away from the sons of men.
13
Put on sackcloth and mourn, you priests! Wail, you ministers of the altar. Come, lie all night in sackcloth, you ministers of my God, for the meal offering and the drink offering are withheld from your God's house.
14
Sanctify a fast. Call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders, and all the inhabitants of the land, to the house of Yahweh, your God, and cry to Yahweh.
15
Alas for the day! For the day of Yahweh is at hand, and it will come as destruction from the Almighty.
16
Isn't the food cut off before our eyes; joy and gladness from the house of our God?
17
The seeds rot under their clods. The granaries are laid desolate. The barns are broken down, for the grain has withered.
18
How the animals groan! The herds of livestock are perplexed, because they have no pasture. Yes, the flocks of sheep are made desolate.
19
Yahweh, I cry to you, For the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame has burned all the trees of the field.
20
Yes, the animals of the field pant to you, for the water brooks have dried up, And the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.
Arcana Coelestia # 50
50. What the Most Ancient Church understood by 'the image of the Lord' exceeds everything one can say about it. Man is totally unaware of the fact that the Lord is governing him by means of angels and spirits, and that at least two spirits and two angels are present with everyone. By means of the spirits he is in communication with the world of spirits, and by means of the angels with heaven. Without this communication with the world of spirits by means of the spirits, and with heaven by means of the angels, and so by means of heaven with the Lord, a person cannot exist at all. His entire life depends upon that link, and if the spirits and angels were to withdraw he would perish instantly.
[2] As long as a person remains unregenerate he is governed in an entirely different way from when he is regenerate. As long as he is unregenerate, evil spirits reside with him, who have such dominion over him that angels, though present, can accomplish little more than simply distract him from plunging into utter evil and so divert him towards something good. Indeed they use his own unregenerate desires to divert him towards good, and his illusions of the senses to do so towards truth. At that point he is in communication with the world of spirits by means of the spirits who reside with him, but not in the same way with heaven, for the reason that evil spirits have dominion and angels simply forestall them.
[3] When however he is regenerate it is the angels who then have dominion, and they breathe into him every kind of good and truth, as well as a horror and dread of evils and falsifies. Angels do indeed lead, yet they are but servants, for it is the Lord alone who, by means of angels and spirits, governs a person. Now because this is done through the ministry of angels, it is said here, in the plural first of all, 'Let Us make man in Our image'. Yet because it is still He alone who rules and disposes, it is said in the following verse, in the singular, 'God created him in His image'. This the Lord also states plainly in Isaiah,
Thus said Jehovah, your Redeemer, He who formed you from the womb, I Jehovah make all things, stretching out the heavens Alone, spreading out the earth by Myself. Isaiah 44:24.
Angels themselves also profess that no power at all resides with themselves but that they act from the Lord alone.
