10
Kuitenkin ei he vielä ole tähän päivään asti itsiänsä nöyryyttäneet, ja ei myös mitään pelkää; ja ei vaella minun laissani ja säädyissäni, jotka minä teidän eteenne ja teidän isäinne eteen pannut olen.
Jeremiah 44:10
SWORD version by Tero Favorin (tero at favorin dot com)
Apocalypse Revealed #938
938. 22:4 They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads. This symbolically means that they will turn to the Lord and the Lord to them, being conjoined by love.
To see the face of God and the Lamb, or the face of the Lord, does not mean to see His face, because no one can see the Lord's face such as He is in His Divine love and wisdom and live, for He is the sun of heaven and of the whole spiritual world. Indeed, to see His face as He is in Himself would be like entering the sun and being consumed in a moment by its fire. Nevertheless, the Lord sometimes presents Himself to be seen outside of the sun, but He veils Himself then and so presents Himself to those who see Him, which He does by means of an angel, as He did also in the world when He appeared to Abraham, Hagar, Lot, Gideon, Joshua, and others. That is why those angels are called angels and also Jehovah, for Jehovah was present in them from afar.
[2] Here, however, that His servants will see His face does not mean that they will see His face in this way, but that they will see the truths from Him contained in the Word and will know and acknowledge Him by means of them. For the Divine truths in the Word provide the light that emanates from the Lord as a sun, the light which angels enjoy, and because those truths provide the light, they are like mirrors in which the face of the Lord is seen. That to see the Lord's face symbolically means to turn to Him, will be explained below.
The Lord's name being on the servants' foreheads means, symbolically, that the Lord loves them and turns them to Him. The Lord's name symbolizes the Lord Himself, because it symbolizes His every attribute by which He is known and in consequence of which He is worshiped (nos. 81, 584). The forehead symbolizes love (nos. 347, 605), and being written on the forehead symbolizes the Lord's love in them (no. 729). It can be seen from this what is properly meant by the statement here.
[3] The statement, moreover, symbolically means that they will turn themselves to the Lord and the Lord to them, because the Lord gazes upon the forehead of all those who are conjoined with Him by love and so turns them to Him. Consequently, in heaven angels turn their faces only to the Lord as the sun, and this is astonishingly the case in whatever direction they turn physically. So people say in common speech that they have God ever before their eyes. The same is the case with the spirit of a person living in the world and conjoined with the Lord by love. But regarding this turning of the face to the Lord, more accounts may be seen in Angelic Wisdom Regarding Divine Love and Wisdom, nos. 129-144 and in the book Heaven and Hell (London, 1758), nos. 17 123, 143, 144, 151, 153, 255, 272.
Psalms 44
1
We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what work thou didst in their days, in the times of old.
2
How thou didst drive out the heathen with thy hand, and plantedst them; how thou didst afflict the people, and cast them out.
3
For they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them: but thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance, because thou hadst a favour unto them.
4
Thou art my King, O God: command deliverances for Jacob.
5
Through thee will we push down our enemies: through thy name will we tread them under that rise up against us.
6
For I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me.
7
But thou hast saved us from our enemies, and hast put them to shame that hated us.
8
In God we boast all the day long, and praise thy name for ever. Selah.
9
But thou hast cast off, and put us to shame; and goest not forth with our armies.
10
Thou makest us to turn back from the enemy: and they which hate us spoil for themselves.
11
Thou hast given us like sheep appointed for meat; and hast scattered us among the heathen.
12
Thou sellest thy people for nought, and dost not increase thy wealth by their price.
13
Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and a derision to them that are round about us.
14
Thou makest us a byword among the heathen, a shaking of the head among the people.
15
My confusion is continually before me, and the shame of my face hath covered me,
16
For the voice of him that reproacheth and blasphemeth; by reason of the enemy and avenger.
17
All this is come upon us; yet have we not forgotten thee, neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant.
18
Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from thy way;
19
Though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons, and covered us with the shadow of death.
20
If we have forgotten the name of our God, or stretched out our hands to a strange God;
21
Shall not God search this out? for he knoweth the secrets of the heart.
22
Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.
23
Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord? arise, cast us not off for ever.
24
Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and forgettest our affliction and our oppression?
25
For our soul is bowed down to the dust: our belly cleaveth unto the earth.
