Matthew 3:1,4-6 John the Baptist

 

¹In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea...

 ⁴And the same John had his raiment of camel's hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey.

 ⁵Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan,

 ⁶And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins. Bible, King James Version (KJV)

The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ by Levi H. Dowling

SECTION III

GIMEL

Education of Mary and Elizabeth in Zoan [which was according to the Hebrew Bible, a city of Egypt in the eastern Nile delta. Psalm 78:12,43 identifies the "field of Zoan" as where Moses performed miracles before Pharaoh to persuade him to release Israel from his service.]

Chapter 7

4. Now Joseph, Mary and their sons were down in Egypt in Zoan, and John was with his mother in the Judean Hills.
5. Elihu and Salome sent messengers in haste to find Elizabeth and John. They found them and they brought them to Zoan...
9. Elihu and Salome took Mary and Elizabeth out to the sacred grove near by where they were wont to teach.
10. Elihu said to Mary and Elizabeth, You may esteem yourself thrice blest, for you are chosen mothers of long promised sons,
11. Who are ordained to lay in solid rock a sure foundation stone on which the temple of the perfect man shall rest--a temple that shall never be destroyed.
12. We measure time by cycle ages, and the gate to every age we deem a mile stone in the journey of the race.
13. An age has passed; the gate unto another age flies open at the touch of time. This is the preparation age of soul, the kingdom of Immanuel, of God in man;
14. And these, your sons, will be the first to tell the news, and preach the gospel of good will to men, and peace on earth.
15. A mighty work is theirs; for carnal men want not the light, they love the dark, and when the light shines in the dark they comprehend it not.
16. We call these sons, Revealers of the Light; but they must have the light before they can reveal the light.
17. And you must teach your sons, and set their souls on fire with love and holy zeal, and make them conscious of their missions to the sons of men.
18. Teach them that God and man are one; but that through carnal thoughts and words and deeds, man tore himself away from God; debased himself.
19. Teach that the Holy Breath would make them one again, restoring harmony and peace;
20. That naught can make them one but Love; that God so loved the world that he has clothed his son in flesh that man may comprehend.
21. The only Saviour of the world is love, and Jesus, son of Mary, comes to manifest that love to men.
22. Now, love cannot manifest until its way has been prepared, and naught can rend the rocks and bring down lofty hills and fill the valleys up, and thus prepare the way, but purity.
23. But purity in life men do not comprehend; and so, it, too, must come in flesh.
24. And you, Elizabeth, are blest because your son is purity made flesh, and he shall pave the way for love.
25. This age will comprehend but little of the works of Purity and Love; but not a word is lost, for in the Book of God's Remembrance a registry is made of every thought, and word, and deed;
26. And when the world is ready to receive, lo, God will sent a messenger to open up the book and copy from its sacred pages all the messages of Purity and Love.
27. Then every man of earth will read the words of life in language of his native land, and men will see the light, walk in the light and be the light.
28. And man again will be at one with God.

CHAPTER 13.

¹Elizabeth was blest; she spent her time with John, and gave to him the lessons that Elihu and Salome had given her.

²And John delighted in the wildness of his home and in the les­sons that he learned.

³Now in the hills were many caves. The cave of David was a-near in which the Hermit of En­gedi lived.

⁴This hermit was Matheno, priest of Egypt, master from the temple of Sakara.

⁵When John was seven years of age Matheno took him to the wil­derness and in the cave of David they abode.

⁶Matheno taught, and John was thrilled with what the master said, and day by day Matheno opened up to him the mysteries of life.

⁷John loved the wilderness; he loved his master and his simple fare. Their food was fruits, and nuts, wild honey and the carob bread.

CHAPTER 15.

² Matheno said...

¹⁰Your mission here is that of harbinger; for you will go before Messiah’s face to pave his way, and make the people ready to receive their king.

¹¹This readiness is purity of heart; none but the pure in heart can recognize the king.

¹²To teach men to be pure in heart you must yourself be pure in heart, and word, and deed.

¹³In infancy the vow for you was made and you became a Naza­rite. The razor shall not touch your face nor head, and you shall taste not wine nor fiery drinks.

¹⁷Men... come to God through ceremonies and forms.

¹⁸And so when you would make men know that sins are washed away by purity in life, a rite symbolic may be introduced.

¹⁹In water wash the bodies of the people who would turn away from sin and strive for purity in life.

²⁰This rite of cleansing is a preparation rite and they who thus are cleansed comprise the Church of Purity.

²¹And you shall say, You men of Israel, hear; Reform and wash; become the sons of purity, and you shall be forgiven.

²²This rite of cleansing and this church are but symbolic of the cleansing of the soul by purity in life, and of the kingdom of the soul, which does not come with outward show, but is the church within.

²⁴You are to teach that men must wash; so you must lead the way, your body must be washed, symbolic of the cleansing of the soul.

²⁷Matheno taught the har­binger, and he explained to him the inner meaning of the cleansing rite and how to wash himself and how to wash the multitude.

²⁹Now in Engedi’s hills Ma­theno’s work was done and he and John went down to Egypt. They rested not until they reached the temple of Sakara in the valley of the Nile.

³⁰For many years Matheno was a master in this temple of the Brotherhood, and when he told about the life of John and of his mission to the sons of men, the hier­ophant with joy received the har­binger and he was called the Brother Nazarite.

³¹For eighteen years John lived and wrought within these tem­ple gates; and here he conquered self, became a master mind and learned the duties of the harbinger.

In this day and age the Beloved Master Jesus teaches us that; "Purity alone is the Passport to the Immortality of Perfection." (The Voice of the I AM 1951 February p21)

Arcana Coelestia, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1749-56], tr. by John F. Potts [1905-10], at sacred-texts.com

9372

...[8] ...Moreover, the Word in the ultimate [outer lowest,] or such as it is in the external form in which it appears before man in the world, is described by the "clothing" and "food" of John the Baptist, in Matthew: John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, had His clothing of camel's hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his food was locusts and wild honey (Matt. 3:1, 4). In like manner it is described by Elijah in the second book of Kings: He was a hairy man, and girt with a girdle of leather about his loins (2 Kings 1:8). By "clothing," or a "garment," when said of the Word, is signified truth Divine there in the ultimate form; by "camel's hair" are signified memory-truths such as appear there before a man in the world; by the "leathern girdle" is signified the external bond connecting and keeping in order all the interior things; by "food" is signified spiritual nourishment from the knowledges of truth and of good out of the Word; by "locusts" are signified ultimate or most general truths; and by "wild honey" their pleasantness. [9] That such things are signified by "clothing" and "food" has its origin in the representatives of the other life, where all appear clothed according to truths from good, and where food also is represented according to the desires of acquiring knowledge and growing wise. From this it is that "clothing," or a "garment," denotes truth (as may be seen from the citations above; and that "food" or "meat" denotes spiritual nourishment, n. 3114, 4459, 4792, 5147, 5293, 5340, 5342, 5576, 5579, 5915, 8562, 9003; that "a girdle" denotes a bond which gathers up and holds together interior things, n. 9341; that "leather" denotes what is external, n. 3540; and thus "a leathern girdle" denotes an external bond; that "hairs" denote ultimate or most general truths, n. 3301, 5569-5573; that "a camel" denotes memory-knowledge in general, n. 3048, 3071, 3143, 3145, 4156; that "a locust" denotes nourishing truth in the extremes, n. 7643; and that "honey" denotes the pleasantness thereof, n. 5620, 6857, 8056). It is called "wild honey," or "honey of the field," because by "a field" is signified the church (n. 2971, 3317, 3766, 7502, 7571, 9139, 9295). He who does not know that such things are signified, cannot possibly know why Elijah and John were so clothed. And yet that these things signified something peculiar to these prophets, can be thought by everyone who thinks well about the Word. [10] Because John the Baptist represented the Lord as to the Word, therefore also when he spoke of the Lord, who was the Word itself, he said of himself that he was "not Elias, nor the prophet," and that he was "not worthy to loose the latchet of the Lord's shoe," as in John: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word. And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory. The Jews from Jerusalem, priests and Levites, asked John who he was. And he confessed, and denied not, I am not the Christ. Therefore they asked him, What then? Art thou Elias? But he said, I am not. Art thou the prophet? He answered, No. They said therefore unto him, Who art thou? He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said Isaiah the prophet. They said therefore, Why then baptizest thou, if thou art not the Christ, nor Elias, nor the prophet? He answered, I baptize with water; in the midst of you standeth one whom ye know not; He it is who is to come after me, who was before me, the latchet of whose shoe I am not worthy to unloose. When he saw Jesus, he said, Behold the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world! This is He of whom I said, After me cometh a man who was before me; for he was before me (John 1:1, 14, 19-30). From these words it is plain that when John spoke about the Lord Himself, who was Truth Divine itself, or the Word, he said that he himself was not anything, because the shadow disappears when the light itself appears, that is, the representative disappears when the original itself makes its appearance. (That the representatives had in view holy things, and the Lord Himself, and not at all the person that represented, see n. 665, 1097, 1361, 3147, 3881, 4208, 4281, 4288, 4292, 4307, 4444, 4500, 6304, 7048, 7439, 8588, 8788, 8806.) One who does not know that representatives vanish like shadows at the presence of light, cannot know why John denied that he was Elias and the prophet. [11] From all this it can now be seen what is signified by Moses and Elias, who were seen in glory, and who spoke with the Lord when transfigured, of His departure which He should accomplish at Jerusalem (Luke 9:29-31); namely, that they signified the Word ("Moses" the historic Word, and "Elias" the prophetic Word), which in the internal sense throughout treats of the Lord, of His coming into the world, and of His departure out of the world; and therefore it is said that "Moses and Elias were seen in glory," for "glory" denotes the internal sense of the Word, and the "cloud" its external sense (see the preface to Genesis 18, and n. 5922, 8427).