圣经文本

 

Exodus第33章

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1 And Jehovah speaketh unto Moses, `Go, ascend from this [place], thou and the people, whom thou hast brought up out of the land of Egypt, unto the land which I have sworn to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, To thy seed I give it,'

2 (and I have sent before thee a messenger, and have cast out the Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite,)

3 unto a land flowing with milk and honey, for I do not go up in thy midst, for thou [art] a stiff-necked people -- lest I consume thee in the way.'

4 And the people hear this sad thing, and mourn; and none put his ornaments on him.

5 And Jehovah saith unto Moses, `Say unto the sons of Israel, Ye [are] a stiff-necked people; one moment -- I come up into thy midst, and have consumed thee; and now, put down thine ornaments from off thee, and I know what I do to thee;'

6 and the sons of Israel take off their ornaments at mount Horeb.

7 And Moses taketh the tent, and hath stretched it out at the outside of the camp, afar off from the camp, and hath called it, `tent of Meeting;' and it hath come to pass, every one seeking Jehovah goeth out unto the tent of meeting, which [is] at the outside of the camp.

8 And it hath come to pass, at the going out of Moses unto the tent, all the people rise, and have stood, each at the opening of his tent, and have looked expectingly after Moses, until his going into the tent.

9 And it hath come to pass, at the going in of Moses to the tent, the pillar of the cloud cometh down, and hath stood at the opening of the tent, and He hath spoken with Moses;

10 and all the people have seen the pillar of the cloud standing at the opening of the tent, and all the people have risen and bowed themselves, each at the opening of his tent.

11 And Jehovah hath spoken unto Moses face unto face, as a man speaketh unto his friend; and he hath turned back unto the camp, and his minister Joshua, son of Nun, a youth, departeth not out of the tent.

12 And Moses saith unto Jehovah, `See, Thou art saying unto me, Bring up this people, and Thou hast not caused me to know whom Thou dost send with me; and Thou hast said, I have known thee by name, and also thou hast found grace in Mine eyes.

13 `And now, if, I pray Thee, I have found grace in Thine eyes, cause me to know, I pray Thee, Thy way, and I know Thee, so that I find grace in Thine eyes, and consider that this nation [is] Thy people;'

14 and He saith, `My presence doth go, and I have given rest to thee.'

15 And he saith unto Him, `If Thy presence is not going -- take us not up from this [place];

16 and in what is it known now, that I have found grace in Thine eyes -- I and Thy people -- is it not in Thy going with us? and we have been distinguished -- I and Thy people -- from all the people who [are] on the face of the ground.'

17 And Jehovah saith unto Moses, `Even this thing which thou hast spoken I do; for thou hast found grace in Mine eyes, and I know thee by name.'

18 And he saith, `Shew me, I pray Thee, Thine honour;'

19 and He saith, `I cause all My goodness to pass before thy face, and have called concerning the Name of Jehovah before thee, and favoured him whom I favour, and loved him whom I love.'

20 He saith also, `Thou art unable to see My face, for man doth not see Me, and live;'

21 Jehovah also saith, `Lo, a place [is] by Me, and thou hast stood on the rock,

22 and it hath come to pass, in the passing by of Mine honour, that I have set thee in a cleft of the rock, and spread out My hands over thee, until My passing by,

23 and I have turned aside My hands, and thou hast seen My back parts, and My face is not seen.'

   

来自斯威登堡的著作

 

True Christianity#691

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691. Moses said to Jehovah, "'Show me your glory. ' Jehovah replied, 'You cannot see my face, because no one can see me and live. ' And he said, 'Here is a place where you are to stand on the rock, and I will put you in a crevice in the rock and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. When I remove my hand, you will see my back, but my face will not be seen'" (Exodus 33:18-23).

The reason why we cannot see God and live is that God is love itself. In the spiritual world, love itself or divine love appears before the angels as a sun. It is at a distance from them just as the sun of our world is at a distance from us. If God, who is within that sun, were to come near the angels, they would perish, just as we would if the sun of our world came near us. The sun of that world is every bit as intense.

[2] Because of this there are continuous protective layers that modify and moderate the burning fire of that love and prevent it from flowing into heaven in its full strength, because the angels would be consumed by it. When the Lord makes himself more present in heaven, the godless spirits who are beneath heaven begin to wail, to be tormented, and to lose consciousness, so they run away into caves and crevices in the mountains, crying, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of the One sitting on the throne!" (Revelation 6:16; Isaiah 2:19, 21).

In fact, it is not the Lord himself who comes down; it is an angel surrounded by a sphere of love from the Lord. Several times I have seen that godless spirits were terrified by an angel coming down like that, as if they had seen death itself right before their eyes. I have seen some of them hurl themselves headlong farther and farther down into hell; others were driven insane with rage.

[3] This explains why the children of Israel had to prepare themselves for three days before Jehovah the Lord came down on Mount Sinai; this is also why the mountain was fenced all around to prevent anyone from dying as a result of approaching it (Exodus 19).

Similar situations occurred in regard to the holiness of Jehovah the Lord that was captured in the Ten Commandments. They were delivered on that mountain, written by the finger of God on two tablets of stone, and stored away in the ark. The mercy seat was placed on top of the ark in the tabernacle, and the angel guardians were placed on top of the mercy seat, to keep anyone's eye or hand from directly contacting that holiness. Not even Aaron could draw near it except once a year, and only when he had ritually purged himself by offering sacrifices and burning incense.

[4] This also explains why many thousands of people from Ekron and Beth-shemesh died for the sole reason that they saw the ark with their eyes (1 Samuel 5:11-12; 6:19), and Uzzah died because he touched the ark (2 Samuel 6:6-7).

Just these few examples illustrate the kind of curse and slaughter that would have befallen the Jews (a) if the baptism of John had not prepared them to accept the Messiah, who was Jehovah God in human form, and (b) if God had not taken on a human manifestation and revealed himself in this way. These examples also show that what prepared them was their being assigned to heaven and counted among those who were awaiting and desiring the Messiah; therefore angels were sent to protect them.

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