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Zechariah 1

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1 In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet, saying,

2 The Lord has been very angry with your fathers:

3 And you are to say to them, These are the words of the Lord of armies: Come back to me, says the Lord of armies, and I will come back to you.

4 Be not like your fathers, to whom the voice of the earlier prophets came, saying, Be turned now from your evil ways and from your evil doings: but they did not give ear to me or take note, says the Lord.

5 Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they go on living for ever?

6 But my words and my orders, which I gave to my servants the prophets, have they not overtaken your fathers? and turning back they said, As it was the purpose of the Lord of armies to do to us, in reward for our ways and our doings, so has he done.

7 On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, the month Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet, saying,

8 I saw in the night a man on a red horse, between the mountains in the valley, and at his back were horses, red, black, white, and of mixed colours.

9 Then I said, O my lord, what are these? And the angel who was talking to me said to me, I will make clear to you what they are.

10 And the man who was between the mountains, answering me, said, These are those whom the Lord has sent to go up and down through the earth.

11 And the man who was between the mountains, answering, said to the angel of the Lord, We have gone up and down through the earth, and all the earth is quiet and at rest.

12 Then the angel of the Lord, answering, said, O Lord of armies, how long will it be before you have mercy on Jerusalem and on the towns of Judah against which your wrath has been burning for seventy years?

13 And the Lord gave an answer in good and comforting words to the angel who was talking to me.

14 And the angel who was talking to me said to me, Let your voice be loud and say, These are the words of the Lord of armies: I am greatly moved about the fate of Jerusalem and of Zion.

15 And I am very angry with the nations who are living untroubled: for when I was only a little angry, they made the evil worse.

16 So this is what the Lord has said: I have come back to Jerusalem with mercies; my house is to be put up in her, says the Lord of armies, and a line is to be stretched out over Jerusalem.

17 And again let your voice be loud and say, This is what the Lord of armies has said: My towns will again be overflowing with good things, and again the Lord will give comfort to Zion and take Jerusalem for himself.

18 And lifting up my eyes I saw four horns.

19 And I said to the angel who was talking to me, What are these? And he said to me, These are the horns which have sent Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem in flight.

20 And the Lord gave me a vision of four metal-workers.

21 Then I said, What have these come to do? And he said, These are the horns which sent Judah in flight, and kept him from lifting up his head: but these men have come to send fear on them and to put down the nations who are lifting up their horns against the land of Judah to send it in flight.

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True Christian Religion #376

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376. Charity and faith are of no use to a person, so long as they remain merely in the bodily hemisphere, that is, in his head, and are not given a firm base in deeds; this is evident from a thousand passages in the Word, of which I shall quote only the following.

Every tree which does not produce good fruit is cut down and cast into the fire, Matthew 7:19-21.

He who sows on good soil is the person who hears the Word and pays attention to it, and bears and produces fruit. When Jesus said this, he cried out saying, He who has ears to hear with, let him hear, Matthew 13:9, 23.

Jesus said, My mother and my brothers are these who hear the Word of God and act upon it, Luke 8:21.

We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone worships God, and does His will, He listens to him, John 9:31.

If you know these things, you are blessed if you act upon them, John 13:17.

He who has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me, and I shall love him, and show myself to him; and I shall come to him and make my dwelling with him, John 14:15-21, 23.

In this my Father is glorified, in that you bear much fruit, John 15:8, 16.

It is not those who hear the law, but those who keep it, who are made righteous by God, Romans 2:13; James 1:22.

On the day of wrath and righteous judgment, God will render to each in accordance with his deeds, Romans 2:5-6.

We must all be put on show before the tribunal of Christ, so that each may be rewarded for our bodily acts, whether good or ill. 2 Corinthians 5:10.

The Son of Man is to come in the glory of His Father, and then He will reward each man in accordance with his deeds, Matthew 16:27.

I heard a voice from heaven saying, Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. So says the Spirit, so that they may rest from their labours; their deeds accompany them, Revelation 14:13.

The book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged according to what was written in the book, everyone according to his deeds, Revelation 20:12-13.

Behold I come quickly, and my reward is with me, so that I may give to each according to what he has done, Revelation 22:12.

Jehovah, whose eyes are open upon all the behaviour of men, to give to each in accordance with his behaviour, and in accordance with the fruit of his deeds, Jeremiah 32:19.

I will punish his behaviour, and his deeds I will repay him, Hosea 4:9.

Jehovah deals with us according to our behaviour and according to our deeds, Zechariah 1:6.

There are a thousand other such passages.

[2] These prove that charity and faith are not charity and faith until they are realised in deeds, and if they merely exist above the level of deeds in space, or in the mind, they are as it were images of a tent or a temple in the air, which are nothing but atmospheric phenomena which vanish of their own accord; or they resemble paintings on paper which are eaten by bookworms; or they are like dwellings on a roof, lacking a bedroom, and not in the house. These comparisons will enable one to see that charity and faith are unstable, so long as they remain mental concepts, unless, when possible, they are realised in deeds and come into existence jointly in deeds.

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