270. Having seven horns. This symbolizes the Lord's omnipotence.

The Word often mentions horns, and a horn everywhere symbolizes power. Consequently, when a horn is mentioned in connection with the Lord, it symbolizes omnipotence. Seven horns are specified, because seven symbolizes all (no. 10), thus all power or omnipotence.

That a horn symbolizes power, and when mentioned in connection with the Lord, omnipotence, can be seen from the following passages:

You who rejoice over nothing, who say, "Have we not taken horns for ourselves by our own strength?" (Amos 6:13)

I said... to the wicked, "Do not lift up the horn. Do not lift up your horn on high...." All the horns of the wicked I will cut off; the horns of the righteous shall be exalted. (Psalms 75:4-5, 10)

Jehovah... has exalted the horn of your adversaries. (Lamentations 2:17)

The horn of Moab is cut off, and his arm is broken... (Jeremiah 48:25)

...you have pushed with side and shoulder, and struck all the weak sheep with your horns... (Ezekiel 34:21)

(Jehovah) has exalted the horn of His people... (Psalms 148:14)

(Jehovah God of hosts,) the glory of their strength..., He has exalted our horn. (Psalms 89:17)

The brightness (of Jehovah God) will be like the light; He will have horns ¹ coming from His hand, and the hiding of His power there. (Habakkuk 3:4)

...My arm shall strengthen (David)..., and in My name his horn shall be exalted. (Psalms 89:21, 24)

...Jehovah, my strength..., my rock...(my) horn... (Psalms 18:1-2, cf. 2 Samuel 22:3)

Arise..., O daughter of Zion; for I will make your horn iron..., that you may break in pieces many peoples. (Micah 4:13)

(The Lord) has destroyed in His wrath the strongholds of the daughter of Judah..., (and) He has cut off... every horn of Israel. (Lamentations 2:2-3)

Powers are also symbolized by the horns of the dragon in Revelation 12:3; by the horns of the beast rising up out of the sea in Revelation 13:1; by the horns of the scarlet beast upon which the woman sat in Revelation 17:3, 7, 12; by the horns of the ram and the goat in Daniel 8:3-12, 20-22. The last symbolized the power of Divine truth in the church. And conversely, that that power would perish, by the horns of the altars in Bethel, in Amos:

...I will visit punishment on the transgressions of Israel, I will visit destruction on the altars of Bethel, so that the horns of the altar are cut off and fall to the ground. (Amos 3:14)

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2706. That 'God was with the boy' means the Lord's presence with those who are spiritual is clear from the meaning of 'God being with someone' and from the meaning of 'the boy'.

With regard to 'God's being with someone' meaning the Lord's presence, this may be seen without any explanation. The Lord is indeed present with everyone, for from no other source does life flow, and He governs every specific detail of it. This is so even with the worst of men, and in hell itself. But the nature of His presence varies according to the way His life is received. In the case of those who receive the life of the love of His good and truth wrongfully and who pervert it into the loves of what is evil and false, the Lord is present and as far as possible overrules for good their ends in view. But His presence with them is called 'absence' - an absence to the degree that evil is distant from good, and falsity from truth. With those however who do receive the life of the love of the Lord's good and truth it is referred to as 'presence', a presence to the degree of reception. The Lord's presence may be compared to the sun which is present with its heat and light in all plant life according to the reception of it.

With regard to 'the boy' meaning the spiritual as regards truth, this has been stated above. But here he means those who are spiritual because he represents the member of the spiritual Church, also the spiritual Church itself, and in the universal sense the Lord's spiritual kingdom. For when it is said that anyone means that which is spiritual, as here where 'the boy' means the spiritual as regards truth, those who are spiritual are included in the meaning, since the spiritual does not exist without a subject. The same applies to everything else spoken of in the abstracted sense.