Week 3
Day 5

    Listen:

The Vastation of the Church

The vastation of the Israelitish Church

Psalm 78, part 1

And He raised up a testimony in Jacob,

And set a law in Israel,

Which He commanded our fathers,

To make them known to their sons.

And it will not be as with their fathers,

A defiant and rebellious generation,

A generation that prepared not its heart,

And whose spirit was not faithful with God.

He split open the sea, and caused them to cross through;

And He made the waters to stand up as a heap...

But they added still to sin against Him,

To rebel against the Most High in the arid place.

And they spoke against God;

They said, Is God able to arrange a table in the wilderness?

Behold, He smote the rock, and waters flowed and brooks overflowed.

Is He also able to give bread? Can He prepare meat for His people?

For they did not believe in God,

And did not trust in His salvation.

And He commanded the ethers from above,

And He opened the doors of the heavens.

And He rained down upon them manna to eat,

And grain of the heavens He gave to them.

A man◦ did eat the bread of the powerful ones⁸;

He sent to them provisions to their satisfaction.

He caused the east wind to journey in the heavens,

And by His strength He drove the south wind,

And He rained meat upon them as the dust,

And winged fowl as the sand of the seas;

And He let it fall in the midst of their camp,

All around their habitations.

And they ate, and were very satisfied;

And that for which they lusted, He brought to them.

They were not estranged from their lusting,

Their food was still in their mouth,

And the anger of God went up among them,

And killed among their fat ones, and made the young men of Israel stoop down.

And they remembered that God was their Rock,

And God Most High was their Redeemer.

But they enticed Him with their mouth,

And with their tongue they lied to Him.

And their heart was not right with Him,

Neither were they faithful in His covenant.

He rained down upon them manna to eat, And grain of the heavens He gave to them.

AE 146:4. The delight of heavenly love is signified by “eating of the hidden manna” ...It is called the “bread of the heavens” because it rained down from heaven with the dew. But in the spiritual sense it is called the “bread of the heavens” because it flows down from the Lord through the angelic heaven. In that sense... no other bread is meant than that which nourishes the soul of man. That “bread” is to be understood here in this sense is evident from the words of the Lord Himself in John, That He is the manna, or bread, that came down out of heaven (John 6:31-58).

⁸I.e., the bread of angels

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