THE NEW JERUSALEM AND ITS HEAVENLY DOCTRINE

ACCORDING TO WHAT HAS BEEN HEARD FROM HEAVEN

WITH AN INTRODUCTION CONCERNING THE NEW HEAVEN AND THE NEW EARTH

"Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all things shall be added unto you." (Matthew 6:33)

9428. Verses 16-18 And the glory of Jehovah lay over Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days; and He called to Moses on the seventh day from the middle of the cloud. And the sight of Jehovah's glory was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the children of Israel. And Moses went into the midst of the cloud and went up into ¹ the mountain; and Moses was in the mountain forty days and forty nights.

'And the glory of Jehovah lay over Mount Sinai' means the more internal levels of the Lord's Word in heaven. 'And the cloud covered it' means the lowest level of the Word, which is obscure, comparatively so. 'Six days' means when passing through the state of truth. 'And He called to Moses on the seventh day' means the Lord's coming when truth has been joined to good. 'From the middle of the cloud' means from the obscurity which existed before. 'And the sight of Jehovah's glory was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the children of Israel' means Divine Truth beaming brightly with the good of love in heaven itself, but harmful and ruinous with those restricted to its outward level, separated from the inward. 'And Moses went into the midst of the cloud' means the Word in its outward sense. 'And went up into the mountain' means being raised up to heaven. 'And Moses was in the mountain forty days and forty nights' means the instructions given and influx in their completeness.

Footnotes:

9717. 'Square shall the altar be' means that which for this reason is righteous. This is clear from the meaning of 'square' as what is righteous, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'the altar' as what is representative of the Lord and of the worship of Him, so that 'square shall the altar be' means what is righteous within the Lord, and consequently within worship. Worship is called righteous when the good and the truth contained within it spring from the Lord and not from the person, for the Lord alone is the source of that which is righteous, 9263. The meaning of 'square' as what is righteous has its origin in representative signs in the next life. There forms of good present themselves as round shapes, and forms of good belonging to the external man, which are called righteous acts, as square shapes. Truths and right ideas however present themselves as linear and triangular ones. So it is then that 'square' means what is righteous, as does the squareness of the altar of incense, Exodus 30:2; also the squareness of the breastplate of judgement when doubled, Exodus 28:16; as well as the new Jerusalem's being square-shaped, Revelation 21:16. The new Jerusalem there is the Lord's New Church which will take the place of the one that is ours at the present day, its external good, which is righteous, being meant by 'square-shaped'.