Spiritual Meaning of EXODUS 35:1-3
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AC 10726. Verses 1-3. And Moses gathered together all the assemblage of the sons of Israel, and said unto them, These are the words which Jehovah hath commanded, to do them. Six days shall work be done, and on the seventh day there shall be to you holiness, a sabbath of sabbath to Jehovah; everyone doing work therein shall die. Ye shall not kindle a fire in all your dwellings on the sabbath day. "And Moses gathered together all the assemblage of the sons of Israel," signifies all the truths and goods of the church in the complex; "and said unto them, These are the words which Jehovah hath commanded, to do them," signifies instruction concerning the primary things of the church, to which all things bear relation; "six days shall work be done," signifies the first state of the regeneration of man by the Lord, and in the supreme sense the first state of the glorification of the Lord’s Human; "and on the seventh day there shall be to you holiness, a sabbath of sabbath to Jehovah," signifies the second state of the regeneration of man, when he has conjunction with the Lord, and in the supreme sense the union of the Lord‘s Human with the Divine Itself; "everyone doing work therein shall die," signifies spiritual death for those who are led by themselves and their loves, and not by the Lord; "ye shall not kindle a fire in all your dwellings on the sabbath day," signifies that nothing of man’s own love, which is the love of self and of the world, must appear in each and all things of man which are from the Lord.

AC 10727. And Moses gathered together all the assemblage of the sons of Israel. That this signifies all the truths and goods of the church in the complex, is evident from the signification of "the assemblage of the sons of Israel," as being all the truths and goods of the church in the complex (n. 7830, 7843). Thus by "gathering together the assemblage" is signified the enumeration of all things, for in what follows all the things are enumerated which the sons of Israel brought, to make the tabernacle with all that it contained, also the altar of burnt-offering, and likewise the garments of Aaron and of his sons; and by these things are signified all the kinds of good and truth from which is the church.

AC 10728. And said unto them, These are the words which Jehovah hath commanded, to do them. That this signifies instruction concerning the primary thing of the church, to which all things bear relation, is evident from the signification of "saying," as being instruction (n. 10280); and from the signification of "the words which Jehovah hath commanded, to do them," as being the primary truth which was by all means to be observed. This is signified because these things are said of the sabbath, which was the primary representative of all, thus the primary truth to which all things bear relation. For the representatives of the church among the Israelitish nation were truths in the ultimate of order. The case with representatives is this. All things that appear in the three kingdoms of nature are ultimates of Divine order, because in these close all the things of heaven, which are called spiritual and celestial. Hence a representative church was instituted, and such things were commanded as, in ultimates, completely represented heaven, together with all the truths and goods there; and the things that represented were the forms of such things as are in nature; as the Tabernacle encompassed with curtains, the table therein on which were the breads of faces, the lampstand with the lamps, the altar on which incense was offered, the garments of Aaron together with the breastplate of precious stones, besides other things. What such things represented has been shown in what goes before.

AC 10729. Six days shall work be done. That this signifies the first state of the regeneration of man by the Lord, and in the supreme sense the first state of the glorification of the Lord‘s Human, is evident from the signification of the "six days" which precede the seventh or sabbath, and in which work is to be done, as being the first state of the regeneration of man by the Lord, which state is when the man is in truths, and is led by means of truths to good, and is then in combats (n. 8510, 8888, 9431, 10360). That it also denotes the state of the glorification of the Lord’s Human while He was in the world and fought from Divine truth against the hells, and reduced all things there and in the heavens into order, (n. 10360). For man has two states while he is being regenerated by the Lord. The former is when he is in truths, and is being led by means of truths to good. The latter is when he is in good, and from good sees and loves truths. In the former state the man is indeed led by the Lord, but by means of what is his own. For to act from truths is to act from those things which are with man; but to act from good is to act from the Lord. From this it is evident that in so far as a man suffers himself to be led by means of good to truths, so far he is led by the Lord and to the Lord.

[2] For are is action and reaction in all things that are conjoined. The agent is good, and the reagent is truth. But truth never reacts from itself; but from good, consequently in so far as truth receives good, so far it reacts; and in so far as it reacts, so far it is conjoined with good. From this it also follows that before a man is being conjoined with the Lord, the Lord impels him to Himself by means of truths; and in so far as the man suffers himself to be brought to Him, so far he is conjoined. For truths Divine are of such a nature that they can be fitted to good, because truths come forth from good. From this the man now has perception, which in itself is a reacting. To suffer one‘s self to be impelled (agi), or brought to good by means of truths, is to live according to them. These things have been said in order that it may in some measure be known how the case is in regard to the first state of the man who is being regenerated, which is signified by the "six days of labor."

AC 10730. And on the seventh day there shall be to you holiness, a sabbath of sabbath to Jehovah. That this signifies the second state of the regeneration of man, when he has conjunction with the Lord; and that in the supreme sense it signifies the union of the Lord’s Human with the Divine Itself; is evident from the representation of the sabbath, as being the second state of the regeneration of man, when he is in good, and thus is led by the Lord (n. 8510, 8890, 8893, 9274); and as being in the supreme sense the union of the Human with the Divine Itself in the Lord (n. 8495, 10367, 10374). For when the Lord was in the world, He first made His Human Divine truth; but when He went out from the world, He made His Human Divine good through a union with the Divine Itself that was in Him. In the supreme sense this is represented by the sabbath, and therefore it is called "a sabbath of sabbath to Jehovah." The Lord does the like with the man whom He is regenerating. He first imbues him with truths, and afterward by means of the truths He conjoins him with good, thus with Himself. This is represented by the sabbath in the relative sense; for the regeneration of man is an image of the glorification of the Lord; that is, as the Lord glorified His Human, so He regenerates man.

[2] By the "sabbath" in its proper sense is signified rest and peace, because when the Lord united His Human to the Divine Itself He had peace, for the combats then ceased, and all things in the heavens and in the hells had been reduced into order. And accordingly there was peace not for Him only; but also for the angels in the heavens, and for men on earth, there were peace and salvation.

[3] As these two truths here treated of are the very universals on which all other things of the church depend, therefore the hallowing of the sabbath, by which these two are signified, is the only thing here set forth. For the universal truth of all is that the Lord united His Human to the Divine Itself, and that from this man has peace and salvation. And it is also a universal truth that man must be conjoined with the Lord, in order that he may have peace and salvation, and this is effected by means of regeneration. For this reason also, among the Israelitish nation the sabbath was the chief representative and the chief sign of a covenant with Jehovah, that is, of conjunction with the Lord (n. 10357, 10372); a "covenant" denotes conjunction.

AC 10731. Everyone doing work therein shall die. That this signifies spiritual death for those who are led by themselves and their own loves, and not by the Lord, is evident from the signification of "doing works on the sabbath day," as being to be led by self and one‘s own loves, and not by the Lord (n. 8495, 10360, 10362, 10364); and from the signification of "dying," as being damnation, or spiritual death (n. 6119, 9008). Those who are led by themselves and by their own loves do not believe in the Lord, for to believe in the Lord is from Him, and not from self. From this it is also that such persons make of no account the union of His Human with the Divine Itself, and also of regeneration by the Lord; and thus also make of no account the truths of the church; for they say to themselves, of what value are such things? or, What does it matter whether we know them? or even think them, and desire them? Are we not still alive, like other people? What difference is there? The reason why they so think is that they think from the life of the world, and not from the life of heaven. The life of heaven is a thing unknown to them, and no one can think from what is unknown; and therefore such people cannot be saved, because they have not heaven in them, and therefore they cannot be in heaven, for their interiors are not in agreement with it. For unless these have been disposed by the Lord according to the image of heaven, there is no conjunction with heaven. Such are those who deny these universal truths. It is this state of man which is signified by "works done on the sabbath day;" and the spiritual death of such persons is signified by their natural "death."

AC 10732. Ye shall not kindle a fire in all your dwellings on the sabbath day. That this signifies that nothing of man’s own love, which is the love of self and of the world, must appear in each and all things of man which are from the Lord, is evident from the signification of "fire," as being love in both senses (n. 6832, 7324, 7575, 9141), here man‘s own love, which is the love of self and of the world, from which come all concupiscence, and all evil and falsity; and from the signification of the "dwellings of the sons of Israel," as being the goods and truths of the church that are with man from the Lord; for "dwellings" denote the interior things in man, thus those which belong to his mind (n. 7719, 7910, 8269, 8309, 10153); here therefore the goods and truths that are from the Lord; and "the sons of Israel" denote the church (n. 9340). As such things were signified by "fire," it was therefore forbidden to kindle a fire on the sabbath day. How the case is in regard to being led by one’s self and one‘s own loves, and not by the Lord, (n. 10731).

Author:  E. Swedenborg (1688-1772).

Design:  I.J. Thompson, Feb 2002.

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