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အာမုတ်第4章:1

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1 ဆင်းရဲသောသူတို့ကို ညှဉ်းဆဲလျက်၊ ငတ်မွတ်သောသူတို့ကိုနှိပ်စက်လျက်၊ မိမိသခင်တို့အား ငါတို့ သောက်ဘို့ယူခဲ့ကြဟုဆိုတတ်လျက်၊ ရှမာရိတောင်ပေါ်မှာနေသော ဗာရှန်နွားတို့၊ ဤစကားတော်ကိုနားထောင် ကြလော့။

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Exploring the Meaning of Amos 4

原作者: Helen Kennedy

In chapter 4 of the Book of Amos, verses 1-3 are talking about people who pervert the truths of the church. They will fall into falsities in outermost things.

In the Bible, fish represent "lower" things than mammals, so we can interpret the fishhooks in verse 2 as meaning being caught and held fast in natural or lower things.

Verses 4-6 are about acts of worship such as tithes and sacrifices. These look similar to genuine worship, but are only external sorts of things. We can tell because ‘teeth’ (in verse 6) represent ultimates or outermost things (see Secrets of Heaven 6380). It follows that “cleanness of teeth” would mean outermost things that look good but only imitate genuine worship. The Lord exhorts, “Yet you have not returned to me.”

Verses 7-8. Some things true will remain, when where there are too many false ideas, the truths don't get through. This can be seen where the Lord says, “I made it rain on one city; I withheld rain from another city... where it did not rain the part withered.” Again the Lord exhorts, “Yet you have not returned to me.”

Verse 9. Afterward all things of the church are falsified, shown by blight attacking the gardens, vineyards, fig tree and olive trees. The last three represent spiritual, natural and celestial things, or all the things of spiritual life. “Yet you have not returned to me,” says the Lord.

Verses 10-11. The Lord explains the devastating things he allowed to happen: plague in Egypt, death of young men by swords, stench in the camps, Sodom and Gomorrah. This is because they are profaned by sensual knowledges. Profanation means the mixing of good and evil together. (See Secrets of Heaven 1001[2]).

This extends to all things of the church, with the church being the Lord’s kingdom on earth (Secrets of Heaven 768[3]).

With profanation “as soon as any idea of what is holy arises, the idea of what is profane joins immediately to it,” (Secrets of Heaven 301).

Now there is hardly anything left. “Yet you have not returned to Me,” says the Lord again.

Verses 12-13: Because people adamantly remain in their profane ways, they are warned, “Prepare to meet your God!”. This is the God powerful and mighty, “who forms mountains, and creates the wind,” and even more close to home, “Who declares to man what his thought is.” As intimately a knowing as that is, the Lord’s love for all humanity is contained in His exhortations for them to turn themselves to Him.

See, for example, Luke 6:44-45, and True Christian Religion 373.

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Arcana Coelestia#10001

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10001. 'You shall bring to the door of the tent of meeting' means the joining together of the two, in heaven. This is clear from the meaning of 'bringing' as presence and togetherness, as above in 9997, at this point the joining together of Divine Good and Divine Truth from the Lord, in heaven; from the meaning of 'the door' as introduction, dealt with in 8989; and from the representation of 'the tent of meeting' as heaven, dealt with in 9457, 9481, 9485, 9963. The reason why the young bull and the rams, the unleavened bread, cakes, and wafers in the basket, and Aaron together with his sons were presented at the door of the tent of meeting, and why the latter were then clothed with the garments and anointed there, and the former were offered on the altar there, was that the place where the door of the tent of meeting was, represented the marriage of Divine Good to Divine Truth. For the altar, which also was positioned before the door of the tent, represented the Lord in respect of Divine Good, while the tent of meeting represented the Lord in respect of Divine Truth. Consequently the place before the door of the tent represented the joining together of goodness and truth, a joining together that is called the heavenly marriage. Regarding the altar of burnt offering, that it represented the Lord in respect of Divine Good, see 9964; and regarding the tent of meeting, that it represented the Lord in respect of Divine Truth, 9963. The fact that the altar was positioned there is clear in Moses,

And Moses placed the altar of burnt offering at the door of the tent. Exodus 40:29.

As for the joining together of goodness and truth, that this is the heavenly marriage, and that in that marriage heaven consists, see 2173, 2508, 2618, 2803, 3004 and following paragraphs, 3132, 952, 4434, 6179. From all this it is now evident that bringing Aaron and his sons to the door of the tent of meeting means the joining together of the two, that is to say, of Divine Good and Divine Truth from the Lord, in heaven.

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