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Ezekiel第39章

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1 And you, son of man, be a prophet against Gog, and say, These are the words of the Lord: See, I am against you, O Gog, ruler of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal:

2 And turning you round, I will be your guide, and make you come up from the inmost parts of the north; I will make you come on to the mountains of Israel:

3 And with a blow I will send your bow out of your left hand and your arrows falling from your right hand.

4 On the mountains of Israel you will come down, you and all your forces and the peoples who are with you: I will give you to cruel birds of every sort and to the beasts of the field to be their food.

5 You will come down in the open field: for I have said it, says the Lord.

6 And I will send a fire on Magog, and on those who are living in the sea-lands without fear: and they will be certain that I am the Lord.

7 And I will make clear my holy name among my people Israel; I will no longer let my holy name be made unclean: and the nations will be certain that I am the Lord, the holy One in Israel.

8 See, it is coming and it will be done, says the Lord; this is the day of which I have given word.

9 And those who are living in the towns of Israel will go out and make fires of the instruments of war, burning the body-covers and the breastplates, the bows and the arrows and the sticks and the spears, and for seven years they will make fires of them:

10 And they will take no wood out of the field or have any cut down in the woods; for they will make their fires of the instruments of war: and they will take by force the property of those who took their property, and go off with the goods of those who took their goods, says the Lord.

11 And it will come about in those days, that I will give to Gog a last resting-place there in Israel, in the valley of Abarim on the east of the sea: and those who go through will be stopped: and there Gog and all his people will be put to rest, and the place will be named, The valley of Hamon-gog.

12 And the children of Israel will be seven months putting them in the earth, so as to make the land clean.

13 And all the people of the land will put them in the earth; and it will be to their honour in the day when I let my glory be seen, says the Lord.

14 And they will put on one side men to do no other work but to go through the land and put in the earth the rest of those who are still on the face of the land, to make it clean: after seven months are ended they are to make a search.

15 And while they go through the land, if anyone sees a man's bone, he is to put up a sign by the place till those who are doing the work have put it in the earth in the valley of Hamon-gog.

16 And there they will put all the army of Gog in the earth. So they will make the land clean.

17 And you, son of man, this is what the Lord has said: Say to the birds of every sort and to all the beasts of the field, Get together and come; come together on every side to the offering which I am putting to death for you, a great offering on the mountains of Israel, so that you may have flesh for your food and blood for your drink.

18 The flesh of the men of war will be your food, and your drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of sheep and lambs, of he-goats, of oxen, all of them fat beasts of Bashan.

19 You will go on feasting on the fat till you are full, and drinking the blood till you are overcome with it, of my offering which I have put to death for you.

20 At my table you will have food in full measure, horses and war-carriages, great men and all the men of war, says the Lord.

21 And I will put my glory among the nations, and all the nations will see my punishments which I have put into effect, and my hand which I have put on them.

22 So the children of Israel will be certain that I am the Lord their God, from that day and for the future.

23 And it will be clear to the nations that the children of Israel were taken away prisoners for their evil-doing; because they did wrong against me, and my face was covered from them: so I gave them up into the hands of their attackers, and they all came to their end by the sword.

24 In the measure of their unclean ways and their sins, so I did to them; and I kept my face covered from them.

25 For this cause the Lord has said, Now I will let the fate of Jacob be changed, and I will have mercy on all the children of Israel, and will take care of the honour of my holy name.

26 And they will be conscious of their shame and of all the wrong which they have done against me, when they are living in their land with no sense of danger and with no one to be a cause of fear to them;

27 When I have taken them back from among the peoples and got them together out of the lands of their haters, and have made myself holy in them before the eyes of a great number of nations.

28 And they will be certain that I am the Lord their God, because I sent them away as prisoners among the nations, and have taken them together back to their land; and I have not let one of them be there any longer.

29 And my face will no longer be covered from them: for I have sent the out-flowing of my spirit on the children of Israel, says the Lord.

   

来自斯威登堡的著作

 

Apocalypse Revealed#832

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832. 19:18 "That you may eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of commanders, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, both small and great." This symbolizes an assimilation of goods from the Lord through the truths in the Word and in doctrine drawn from it, of every level of meaning, degree or kind.

The subject of no. 831 above was conjunction with the Lord through the Word, and now here it is the assimilation of goods from Him through the Word's truths.

To eat symbolically means to assimilate (no. 89). The flesh the people were to eat symbolizes goods in the Word and so in the church. And kings, commanders, mighty men, horses and those who sit on them, and people, free and slave, both small and great symbolize truths of every level of meaning, degree or kind. Kings symbolize people governed by the church's truths from the Word, and abstractly the church's truths from the Word themselves (nos. 20, 483). Commanders symbolize people who possess concepts of goodness and truth, and abstractly those concepts themselves (no. 337). Mighty men symbolize people who are learned in doctrine from the Word, and abstractly the learning gained from there itself (nos. 337). Horses symbolize an understanding of the Word, and those who sit on them symbolize people who are wise owing to their understanding of the Word, and abstractly the wisdom gained from there itself (nos. 298, 820). People free and slave symbolize people who acquire knowledge on their own and people who gain it from others (nos. 337, 604). People small and great symbolize people who do so to a lesser or greater degree (nos. 527, 810).

It is apparent from this that the people's being called to eat the flesh of those listed symbolizes an assimilation of goods from the Lord through the truths in the Word and in doctrine drawn from it, of every level of meaning, degree or kind.

[2] It should be known that no one has any spiritual good from the Lord except through truths from the Word. For the Word's truths exist in the light of heaven, and goods in the warmth of that light. Consequently unless one's intellect is in the light of heaven through the Word, his will cannot enter into the warmth of heaven. Love and charity cannot take form except through truths from the Word. A person cannot be reformed except through truths from the Word. The church itself takes form in a person in consequence of those truths - not in consequence of those truths in the intellect alone, but by living in accordance with them. Only then do truths enter into the will and become goods. The appearance of truth is thus turned into the appearance of good. For what pertains to the will and so to the love is called good, and everything pertaining to the will or love is also part of a person's life.

It can be seen from this that what is meant here by eating the flesh of those listed is an assimilation of goodness through truths of every level of meaning, degree or kind, through the Word, from the Lord.

Who cannot see that flesh here does not mean flesh? Who can be so irrational as to believe that the Lord calls and summons all people to a great supper in order to have them eat the flesh of kings, commanders, mighty men, horses, those who sit on them, and all people, free and slave, both small and great? Who cannot see that there is in this a spiritual meaning, and that apart from that meaning no one knows what is meant here? Who can continue to deny that the Word at its heart is spiritual? Would it not be no more than something material if people were to understand it according to its literal sense and not according to the spiritual sense?

[3] Similar to the passage here is the following one in Ezekiel:

...thus says the Lord Jehovih, "Speak to every sort of bird and to every beast of the field: 'Gather yourselves and come; gather together from all sides to My... great sacrificial meal on the mountains of Israel, that you may eat flesh and drink blood. You shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth... You shall eat fat till you are full, and drink blood till you are drunk, at My sacrificial meal which I am sacrificing for you. You shall be filled at My table with horses and chariots and... with all the men of war... (Thus) will I set My glory among the nations." (Ezekiel 39:17-21)

Flesh here likewise symbolizes the church's goodness from the Lord through the Word, and blood the church's truth.

Who does not see that people would not be given blood to drink to the point of drunkenness, and would not eat horses, chariots, mighty men, and men of war till they were full, at the table of the Lord Jehovih?

Accordingly, when flesh symbolizes the church's goodness and blood the church's truth, it is clearly apparent that the Lord's flesh and blood in holy supper symbolize Divine goodness and Divine truth from the Lord, the same as bread and wine, regarding which see John 6:51-58. 1

Flesh symbolizes goodness in many other places in the Word as well, as in the following:

I will... remove the heart of stone from their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh... (Ezekiel 11:19, cf. 36:26)

My flesh longs for You in a dry... land... (Psalms 63:1)

My heart and my flesh shout aloud for the living God. (Psalms 84:2)

My flesh... will dwell secure. (Psalms 16:9)

When you see the naked and cover him, and do not hide yourself from your own flesh... (Isaiah 58:7)

脚注:

1. "I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world." The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, "How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?" Then Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me. This is the bread which came down from heaven - not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever."

  
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Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.

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