Sunday, 18 March 2012

Luke 21:34 The spiritual sense is for the angels

 
                 Daniel refuses the food and drink from the king's table 

34 And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.

Apocalypse Explained, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1757-9], tr. by John Whitehead [1911], at sacred-texts.com

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...[32] In Luke: The rich man said to his soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thy rest, eat, drink (12:19). If that servant shall say in his heart, The Lord delayeth to come; and shall begin to beat the servants, to eat, to drink, and to be drunken (12:45). So, too, by surfeiting and drunkenness, in the same: Jesus said, Take heed to yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with surfeiting and drunkenness (Luke 21:34). It seems as if "eating and drinking" and "surfeiting [consume too much of something] in these passages mean such luxury and intemperance [excessive indulgence, especially in alcohol] as those indulge in who follow appetite only; this is indeed the natural literal sense of these words; but in their spiritual sense they mean the appropriation of evil and falsity, as can be seen from the passages cited above, where this is signified by "eating and drinking," also from this, that the Word in the letter is natural, but interiorly is spiritual; the spiritual sense is for the angels, and the natural for men.

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