Week 3    Day 2

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The Inheritance of Ephraim—Shiloh, Bethel

Shiloh

Joshua 18:1

And all the congregation of the sons of Israel assembled at Shiloh, and they caused the tent of congregation to abide there. And the land was subdued before them.

AC 6373. In the original language, “Shiloh” is derived from a word which means tranquility.

AC 2009:6. In Moses: The place which Jehovah your God shall choose out of all the tribes to put His name there, and to cause His name to dwell there, thither shall you bring all that I command you (Deut. 12:5, 11, 14; 16:2, 6, 11). Here also by “putting His name,” and “making His name dwell there,” is not signified the name, but the worship, and thus the quality of Jehovah, that is, the Lord, by reason of which He is to be worshiped. His quality is the good of love and the truth of faith; and “the name of Jehovah dwells” with those who are in these. [As] in Jeremiah:

Go ye unto My place which was in Shiloh, where I caused My name to dwell in the beginning (Jer. 7:12).

Here in like manner “name” [stands] for worship, and thereby the doctrine of true faith. Everyone can see that Jehovah does not dwell with him who merely knows and speaks His name, for the name alone, without any idea, knowledge, or faith concerning His quality is a mere word. Hence it is evident that the “name” is the quality, and the knowledge of the quality.

AC 4763. When the ark of God was taken by the Philistines, and the two sons of Eli were slain... there ran a man out of the army to Shiloh with his garments rent and dust upon his head (1 Sam. 4:11, 12). This signified mourning over lost Divine truth and Divine good; for, as the ark represented the Lord’s kingdom, and in the supreme sense the Lord Himself, and hence the holy of the church, the rent garments signified mourning over lost Divine truth; and dust upon the head, over lost Divine good.

Bethel

AC 1453. That “Bethel” signifies the knowledges of celestial things, may be seen from other passages in the Word where Bethel is named; as... where it is said that Abram went on his journeys from the south even to Bethel, to the place where his tent was in the beginning, between Bethel and Ai, to the place of the altar which he made there (Gen. 13:3-4). Here “on his journeys from the south to Bethel,” signifies progression into the light of knowledges. On this account it is not said here that Bethel was on the west and Ai on the east.

When Jacob saw the ladder, he said: “This is none other than the House of God, and this is the gate of heaven; and he called the name of that place Bethel” (Gen. 28:17, 19). Here the knowledge of celestial things is in like manner signified by “Bethel.” For man is a Bethel, that is a House of God, and also a gate of heaven, when he is in the celestial things of knowledges. When a man is being regenerated, he is introduced by means of the knowledges of spiritual and celestial things. But when he has been regenerated, he has then been introduced, and is in the celestial and spiritual things of the knowledges.

Afterwards, “God said to Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there; make there an altar to God who appeared to thee” (Gen. 35:1, 6-7). Here in like manner “Bethel” signifies knowledges.

That the ark of Jehovah was in Bethel, and that the sons of Israel came there and inquired of Jehovah (Judges 20:18, 26, 27; 1 Sam. 7:16, 10:3) signify similar things. Also, that the king of Assyria sent back one of the priests whom he had brought from Samaria, and he dwelt in Bethel, and taught them how they should fear Jehovah (2 Kings 17:27, 28).

In Amos, Amaziah said to Amos, “O thou seer, go flee thee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and there thou shalt prophesy; but do not prophesy again any more at Bethel, for this is the king’s sanctuary, and this is the house of the kingdom (Amos 7:12-13). After Jeroboam had profaned Bethel [with the golden calves] (1 Kings 12:32; 13:1-8; 2 Kings 23:15) it had an opposite representation (see Hosea 10:15; Amos 3:14-15; 4:5-7).

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