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出エジプト記第23章:20

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20 見よ、わたしは使をあなたのにつかわし、あなたを道で守らせ、わたしが備えた所に導かせるであろう。

来自斯威登堡的著作

 

Arcana Coelestia#9261

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9261. 'You shall keep yourself well away from the word of a lie' means detesting falsity that arises from evil. This is clear from the meaning of 'a lie' as falsity arising from evil, dealt with in 8908, 9248, falsity arising from evil being meant since it is the falsity people should keep well away from because it derives its essential nature from evil, and evil and good are contrary to each other because evil comes from hell and good comes from heaven, where it is received from the Lord (but falsity which does not arise from evil, being falsity due to lack of knowledge, is not the same, see 1679, 2863, 4551, 4552, 4729, 4736, 6359, 7272, 7574, 8149, 8311, 8318 (end), 9258); and from the meaning of 'keeping oneself well away from' as detesting. The origin of this meaning of 'keeping well away from' as detesting lies with things seen in the spiritual world, where people's differences, disagreements, and detestations in regard to aspects of spiritual life keep them apart from one another. For in that world people seen together in the same place are in a like state in regard to their feelings and consequently their thoughts. But as soon as there is disagreement among them they are separated and kept apart from one another, as far away as the degree of disagreement determines. This is what happens because in the spiritual world extensions of space, like periods of time, are states also, and therefore distances are differences between states. Nevertheless states manifest themselves visually there as extensions of space, and the differences between them as distances. Regarding extensions of space and distances, and also periods of time, that they are states, see 1273-1277, 1376-1381, 2625, 3356, 3387, 3404, 3638-3641, 4321, 4882, 7381, 9104. Yet nevertheless there appear to be extensions of space and distances, but such appearances are the direct product of the changes of the state which things on more internal levels undergo, 5605. From all this it is now evident that 'keeping well away from' in the internal sense means detesting.

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

来自斯威登堡的著作

 

Arcana Coelestia#3373

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3373. 'And to your seed' means truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'seed' as truth, dealt with in 29, 255, 1025, 1447, 1610, 1940, 2848, 3310, and so truth from the Lord's Divine, which is 'your seed'. Those who understand the Word solely according to the sense of the letter can know no more than this, that 'seed' means descendants - here Isaac's descendants through Esau and Jacob, primarily through Jacob since the Word existed among that nation and so many of its historical descriptions have to do with them. But in the internal sense 'seed' is not used to mean any descendants from Isaac but all who are the Lord's 'sons', and so who are 'the sons of His kingdom', or what amounts to the same, those in whom good and truth which come from the Lord are present. And as these constitute 'the seed' it follows that good and truth themselves from the Lord are 'the seed', for these are what make people His 'sons'. This is also the reason why truths themselves which come from the Lord are called 'the sons of the kingdom' in Matthew,

He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man, the field is the world, the seed are the sons of the kingdom. Matthew 13:37-38.

And for this reason also 'sons' generally means truths, 489, 491, 533, 1147, 2623.

[2] Anyone who thinks rather more deeply or inwardly may recognize that the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, mentioned so many times, and spoken of so many times as those who were to be blessed, and more so than all nations and peoples in all the world, cannot in the Divine Word mean the descendants of those three. For among all nations they least of all were moved by the good that flows from love to the Lord and from charity towards the neighbour. Nor indeed did any truth of faith exist with them. Who the Lord is, what His kingdom is, and so what heaven is and what the life after death, they did not know at all. They did not know these things because for one thing they did not wish to know and for another because if they had come to know about them they would have denied them completely in their hearts and so would have profaned interior goods and truths, as they did exterior by becoming on so many occasions open idolaters. This is the reason why any interior truths are rarely visible in the literal sense of the Old Testament Word. Because the nature of those people was such, the Lord therefore said about them, quoting Isaiah,

He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes and understand with their heart, and are converted and I heal them. John 12:40.

What He said about them when they declared they were 'the seed of Abraham',

They said, We are the seed of Abraham. Our father is Abraham. Jesus said to them, If you were Abraham's sons, you would do the works of Abraham. You are from your father the devil, and the desires of your father you will to do. John 8:33, 39, 44.

Here also 'Abraham' is used to mean the Lord, as in every other instance in the Word. The Lord explicitly states that they were not His seed or sons but came from the devil. From this it is quite evident that 'the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob' in both the historical part and the prophetical part of the Word is in no way used to mean such descendants, for the Word is Divine in every detail Instead it means all who constitute 'the Lord's seed', that is, those with whom the good and truth of faith in Him are present. The fact that heavenly seed, that is, all good and truth, comes from the Lord alone, see 1438, 1614, 2016, 2803, 2882, 2883, 2891, 2892, 2904, 3195.

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