ACV9 S46 7993-8032

CLICK TO PRINT READING CLICK TO GO TO COMMENTS 7993 Verses 43-49. And Jehovah said unto Moses and Aaron, This is the statute of the passover; no son of an alien shall eat of it. And every man's servant that is bought with silver, when thou hast circumcised him, then shall he eat of it. A lodger and a hireling shall not eat of it. In one house shall it be eaten; thou shalt not bring out of the flesh abroad from the house; and ye shall not break a bone thereof. All the assemblage of Israel shall perform it. And when a sojourner shall sojourn with thee, and performeth the passover to Jehovah, every male of his shall be circumcised, and then let him come near to perform it; and he shall be as a native of the land; and no uncircumcised person shall eat of it. One law shall there be for the native, and for the sojourner that sojourneth in the midst of you. "And Jehovah said unto Moses and Aaron," signifies information by means of truth Divine; "This is the statute of the passover," signifies the laws of order for those who are liberated from damnation and infestations; "no son of an alien shall eat of it," signifies that those who are not in truth and good are to be separated from them; "and every man's servant," signifies a man who is still natural; "that is bought with silver," signifies who has any spiritual truth; "when thou hast circumcised him," signifies purification from unclean loves; "then he shall eat of it," signifies that he shall be with them; "a lodger and a hireling shall not eat of it," signifies that they who do what is good from mere natural disposition, and those who do it for the sake of their own advantage, are not to be with them; "in one house shall it be eaten," signifies consociations of accordant goods, that they may together make one good; "thou shalt not bring out of the flesh abroad from the house," signifies that this good shall not be mixed together with the good of another; "and ye shall not break a bone in it," signifies the truth of memory-knowledge, that this also must be sound; "all the assemblage of Israel shall perform it," signifies that this law of order is for all who are in the good of truth and in the truth of good; "and when a sojourner shall sojourn with thee," signifies those who have been instructed in the truth and good of the church, and have received them; "and performeth the passover to Jehovah," signifies if he desires to be together with them; "every male of his shall be circumcised," signifies that his truth must be cleansed from impure loves; "and then let him come near to perform it," signifies that then he shall be with them; "and he shall be as a native of the land," signifies that he shall be received as he who is in that truth and good, and has been purified from unclean loves; "and no uncircumcised person shall eat of it," signifies that he who is in the loves of self and of the world cannot be together with them; "one law shall there be for the native, and for the sojourner that sojourneth in the midst of you," signifies that he who on being instructed receives the truth and good of the church, and lives according to them, shall be as he who, being already instructed, is within the church, and lives a life in agreement with the precepts of faith and of charity. 7994 And Jehovah said unto Moses and Aaron. That this signifies information by means of truth Divine, is evident from the signification of "Jehovah said," when the statutes of the church are treated of, as being information or instruction (see n. 7186, 7267, 7304, 7380, 7517, 7769, 7793, 7825); and from the representation of Moses and Aaron, as being truth Divine; Moses internal, and Aaron external (n. 7009, 7010, 7089, 7382). 7995 This is the statute of the passover. That this signifies the laws of order for those who are liberated from damnation and infestations, is evident from the signification of a "statute," as being that which is from order (of which below); and from the signification of "the passover," as being the presence of the Lord and liberation from damnation (see n. 7093e, 7867). As regards that which is of order, which is signified by "statute," be it known that all the statutes commanded to the sons of Israel were laws of order in the external form, but those things which they represented and signified were laws of order in the internal form. Laws of order are truths which are from good; the complex of all the laws of order is the Divine truth proceeding from the Divine good of the Lord. From this it is evident that the Divine Itself of the Lord in heaven is order, the Divine good the essential of order, and the Divine truth its formal. 7996 No son of an alien shall eat of it. That this signifies that those who are not in truth and good are to be separated from them, is evident from the signification of "an alien," as being those out of the church who do not acknowledge anything of the truth and good of faith, as was the case with the nations in the land of Canaan (see n. 2049, 2115), thus who are not in truth and good; and from the signification of "not eating of it," as being to communicate and be conjoined with them, thus to be separated from them. In what now follows those are treated of who should eat the passover together, and those who should not. The supper of the passover represented the consociations of the good in heaven; and in the statutes which follow, it is declared who could be consociated and who could not. In general, feasts, both dinners and suppers, in ancient times were made within the church in order that they might be consociated and conjoined as to love, and that they might instruct one another in those things which are of love and faith, thus in the things of heaven (see n. 3596, 3832, 5161). Such at that time were the delights attending their banquets, and such was the end for the sake of which were their dinners and suppers. Thus the mind and the body also were nourished unanimously and correspondently; and from this they had health and long life, and from it they had intelligence and wisdom; and also from this they had communication with heaven, and some had open communication with angels. But as in course of time all internal things vanish away and pass into external ones, so also did the purposes of the feasts and banquets, which at this day are not for the sake of any spiritual conjunction, but for the sake of worldly conjunctions, namely, for the sake of gain, for the sake of the pursuit of honors, and for the sake of pleasures, from which there is nourishment of the body, but none of the mind. 7997 That the paschal supper represented the consociations of angels in the heavens in respect to goods and truths, see above (n. 7836, 7996); and because it represented these, it was ordained that not only every house by itself should then be together and eat, but also that no others should be consociated except those who represent the conjunction of love such as is that of the heavenly societies, and thus that the rest were to be separated. They who are to be separated were the aliens, for by them were signified those who are not in the good and truth of the church; also the lodgers and hirelings, because by these were represented those who from mere natural disposition, and those who for the sake of gain, did good and truth, and made a boast of them. Neither the latter nor the former can be consociated with the angels in the heavens; but when they are allowed to wander about, as is the case when they first come into the other life, before they undergo vastations of good and truth, then when they come toward any angelic society and feel the sphere of sanctity from the truth of the good of innocence which is signified by the blood of the paschal lamb (n. 7846, 7877), they cannot approach, but forthwith flee away because of fear and aversion. 7998 And every man's servant. That this signifies a man who is still natural, is evident from the signification of "servant," as being what is natural (see n. 3019, 3020, 3191, 3192, 3204, 3206, 3209, 5305), thus the natural man. The natural man is called a "servant" because it was made to minister to the spiritual man, and also to obey it, as a servant his lord. 7999 That is bought with silver. That this signifies who has any spiritual truth, is evident from the signification of "buying," as being acquisition and appropriation (see n. 4397, 4487, 5374, 5397, 5406, 5410, 5426); and from the signification of "silver," as being truth (n. 1551, 2954, 5658), here spiritual truth, because the servant that is bought is in the internal sense the natural man, and therefore the lord who buys is the spiritual man. How this is cannot be known unless it is known how the spiritual buys for itself-that is, acquires and appropriates-the natural. When man is being regenerated, his internal and external, that is, the spiritual and the natural, at first are at variance, for the spiritual wills what is of heaven, but the natural what is of the world. But the spiritual then continually inflows into the natural and brings it into agreement; this is effected by means of truth; and what the spiritual brings to itself in the natural is called "bought with silver," that is, acquired and appropriated by means of truth. 8000 When thou hast circumcised him. That this signifies purification from unclean loves, is evident from the signification of "to be circumcised," as being purification from the loves of self and of the world, thus from unclean loves (see n. 2039, 2056, 2632, 3412, 3413, 3462, 7045). 8001 Then shall he eat of it. That this signifies that he shall be with them, is evident from the signification of "eating," that is, the paschal lamb, together with the rest, as being to communicate and be conjoined (see n. 2187, 5643). For as before said (n. 7836, 7850, 7996, 7997), the paschal supper represented the angelic consociations in respect to goods and truths; and by the statutes concerning aliens,...