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Exodus第17章

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1 And the children of Israel went on from the waste land of Sin, by stages as the Lord gave them orders, and put up their tents in Rephidim: and there was no drinking-water for the people.

2 So the people were angry with Moses, and said, Give us water for drinking. And Moses said, Why are you angry with me? and Why do you put God to the test?

3 And the people were in great need of water; and they made an outcry against Moses, and said, Why have you taken us out of Egypt to send death on us and our children and our cattle through need of water?

4 And Moses, crying out to the Lord, said, What am I to do to this people? they are almost ready to put me to death by stoning.

5 And the Lord said to Moses, Go on before the people, and take some of the chiefs of Israel with you, and take in your hand the rod which was stretched out over the Nile, and Go.

6 See, I will take my place before you on the rock in Horeb; and when you give the rock a blow, water will come out of it, and the people will have drink. And Moses did so before the eyes of the chiefs of Israel.

7 And he gave that place the name Massah and Meribah, because the children of Israel were angry, and because they put the Lord to the test, saying, Is the Lord with us or not?

8 Then Amalek came and made war on Israel in Rephidim.

9 And Moses said to Joshua, Get together a band of men for us and go out, make war on Amalek: tomorrow I will take my place on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand.

10 So Joshua did as Moses said to him, and went to war with Amalek: and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill.

11 Now while Moses' hand was lifted up, Israel was the stronger: but when he let his hand go down, Amalek became the stronger.

12 But Moses' hands became tired; so they put a stone under him and he took his seat on it, Aaron and Hur supporting his hands, one on one side and one on the other; so his hands were kept up without falling till the sun went down.

13 And Joshua overcame Amalek and his people with the sword.

14 And the Lord said to Moses, Make a record of this in a book, so that it may be kept in memory, and say it again in the ears of Joshua: that all memory of Amalek is to be completely uprooted from the earth.

15 Then Moses put up an altar and gave it the name of Yahweh-nissi:

16 For he said, The Lord has taken his oath that there will be war with Amalek from generation to generation.

   

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Arcana Coelestia#8604

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8604. 'And so it was, when Moses raised up his hand' means whenever the faith of those belonging to the spiritual Church looked towards the Lord. This is clear from the representation of 'Moses' as God's truth, dealt with often; and from the meaning of 'raising up one's hand' as spiritual power directed upwards, and so towards the Lord. For the meaning of 'hand' as spiritual power, see 6947, 7011; and being spiritual power it is faith, since all power in the spiritual world, that is, against falsities and evils, is the power of truth received from good, or of faith received from charity, 3563, 4931.

[2] What looking towards the Lord is, and what looking towards the world and self is, thus what looking above self and below self is, may be seen in

7814-7821:

Looking above self is looking towards one's neighbour, country, Church, heaven, and so towards the Lord, 7814, 7815, 7817.

Looking below self is looking towards the world and self, 7817.

Looking above self and below self means having something as one's end in view and loving it above all else, 7818.

The human being is distinguished from beasts by the fact that he can look above self or below self; when he looks above self he is a human being, but when he looks below self he is a beast, 7821.

Looking above self is being raised by the Lord to a higher level, 7816.

The Lord flows in with every person through the Truth emanating from Himself. Through it He brings life to the person, for the light which comes from the Lord is Divine Truth, and is life, John 1:4.

[3] This Divine Truth coming from the Lord flows into the good residing with the person, and by means of it He draws the person to Himself. For life which comes from the Lord is attractive or draws others to itself because it springs from love, and all love holds a power of attraction because of its desire to be joined to another so that they may be one. When therefore a person is governed by good, and from good is guided by truth, he is drawn by the Lord to Himself and joined to Him. This is what looking upwards to the Lord is used to mean. The person who is not governed by good, and thus is not guided by truth from good, is also drawn by the Lord, but he cannot be raised up, because evils and resulting falsities are averse to Him. This is what looking downwards, or towards self and the world, is used to mean.

[4] The truth that the Lord draws a person to Himself is His own teaching in John,

I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to Myself. John 12:31.

From all this one may now see how to understand the explanation that whenever faith looked towards the Lord the truth engaged in conflict would be winning, and whenever faith looked downwards, away from the Lord towards self and the world, falsity would be winning, which is the meaning of the statement that when Moses raised up his hand Israel prevailed, and when he let down his hand Amalek prevailed.

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