Arcana Coelestia#9776
9776. 'And as for all the vessels of the dwelling-place, in all [its] service' means the truths and the forms of good on the level of factual knowledge which the external man possesses. This is clear from the meaning of 'the vessels' as factual knowledge, dealt with in 3068, 3079, 9394, 9544; from the meaning of 'the dwelling-place' as heaven, dealt with in 9594, 9596, 9632; and from the meaning of 'service' as the external or natural level in a person, dealt with in 3019, 3020, 5305, 7998. The external or natural level in a person is a servant because it ought to serve the internal or spiritual level in a person. For the human being has been created to conform to an image of heaven and to an image of the world, the internal or spiritual man to an image of heaven and the external or natural man to an image of the world, 9279. Just as the world ought to serve heaven, so the external or natural level in a person ought to serve his internal or spiritual. The external has also been created to be a servant; for it has no life of its own and so cannot do anything by itself. It is dependent on the internal or spiritual, that is, through this on the Lord. From this it is also evident that the external or natural level in a person is not anything unless it is a servant to the internal or spiritual, and that so far as it does serve the internal it is something. To be a servant is to be obedient, and the external is obedient when it does not take ideas stored in the understanding and use them as reasons to justify the evils of self-love and love of the world, but complies with reason and the teachings of the Church which dictate that what is good and true should be done not for selfish and worldly reasons but for goodness and truth's own sake. When all this is so, the Lord - acting through the person's heaven, that is, through the person's internal man - is the doer of those things. For all goodness and truth spring from the Lord, so much so that what is good and true in anyone is the Lord Himself. From all this it becomes clear why it is that the external man must be a servant to the internal.
Exodus第27章
1
"You shall make the altar of acacia wood, five cubits long, and five cubits broad; the altar shall be foursquare: and its height shall be three cubits.
2
You shall make its horns on its four corners; its horns shall be of one piece with it; and you shall overlay it with brass.
3
You shall make its pots to take away its ashes, its shovels, its basins, its flesh hooks, and its fire pans: all its vessels you shall make of brass.
4
You shall make a grating for it of network of brass: and on the net you shall make four bronze rings in its four corners.
5
You shall put it under the ledge around the altar beneath, that the net may reach halfway up the altar.
6
You shall make poles for the altar, poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with brass.
7
Its poles shall be put into the rings, and the poles shall be on the two sides of the altar, when carrying it.
8
You shall make it with hollow planks. They shall make it as it has been shown you on the mountain.
9
"You shall make the court of the tabernacle: for the south side southward there shall be hangings for the court of fine twined linen one hundred cubits long for one side:
10
and its pillars shall be twenty, and their sockets twenty, of brass; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets shall be of silver.
11
Likewise for the north side in length there shall be hangings one hundred cubits long, and its pillars twenty, and their sockets twenty, of brass; the hooks of the pillars, and their fillets, of silver.
12
For the breadth of the court on the west side shall be hangings of fifty cubits; their pillars ten, and their sockets ten.
13
The breadth of the court on the east side eastward shall be fifty cubits.
14
The hangings for the one side of the gate shall be fifteen cubits; their pillars three, and their sockets three.
15
For the other side shall be hangings of fifteen cubits; their pillars three, and their sockets three.
16
For the gate of the court shall be a screen of twenty cubits, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, the work of the embroiderer; their pillars four, and their sockets four.
17
All the pillars of the court around shall be filleted with silver; their hooks of silver, and their sockets of brass.
18
The length of the court shall be one hundred cubits, and the breadth fifty every where, and the height five cubits, of fine twined linen, and their sockets of brass.
19
All the instruments of the tabernacle in all its service, and all its pins, and all the pins of the court, shall be of brass.
20
"You shall command the children of Israel, that they bring to you pure olive oil beaten for the light, to cause a lamp to burn continually.
21
In the Tent of Meeting, outside the veil which is before the testimony, Aaron and his sons shall keep it in order from evening to morning before Yahweh: it shall be a statute forever throughout their generations on the behalf of the children of Israel.
