635. Lastly I will reveal this secret. Seven chapters of Revelation describe the termination of the present church, in terms similar to the devastation of Egypt. In both cases this was by similar plagues, each of which stands in the spiritual sense for some falsity advancing its devastation to the point of destruction. This church, therefore, which is at the present time lost, is also called Egypt as spiritually understood (Revelation 11:8). The plagues in Egypt were as follows.

The waters were turned to blood, so that all the fish died and the river stank (Exodus 7; similar language in Revelation 8:8; 16:3). Blood means Divine truth falsified (see Apocalypse Revealed 379, 404, 681, 687-688). The fish that died mean likewise truths in the natural man (Apocalypse Revealed 290, 405).

Frogs came forth upon the land of Egypt (Exodus 8). There is also a mention of frogs in Revelation 16:13. Frogs mean reasonings as a result of a longing for the falsification of truth (see Apocalypse Revealed 702).

In Egypt foul ulcers appeared upon men and beasts (Exodus 9); similar language in Revelation 16:2. Ulcers mean inward evils and falsities which can destroy the good and truth in the church (see Apocalypse Revealed 678).

In Egypt hail fell mixed with fire (Exodus 9); similar language in Revelation 8:7; 16:21. Hail means hellish falsity (see Apocalypse Revealed 399, 714).

Locusts were sent upon Egypt (Exodus 10); similar language in Revelation 9:1-11. Locusts mean falsities in outermost things (see Apocalypse Revealed 424, 430).

Oppressive darkness was brought upon Egypt (Exodus 10:21); similar language in Revelation 8:12. Darkness means falsities arising from ignorance, or from false ideas of religion, or from evil living (see Apocalypse Revealed 110, 413, 695).

The Egyptians finally perished in the sea of Suph ¹ (Exodus 14). In Revelation the dragon and the false prophet perished in the lake of fire and brimstone (Revelation 19:20; 20:10). Both the sea of Suph and that lake have the same meaning, hell.

The reason why similar language is used of Egypt and of the church, the termination and end of which is described in Revelation, is that Egypt stands for the church, which in its beginnings was outstanding. So before its church was devastated, Egypt is equated with the Garden of Eden and the garden of Jehovah (Genesis 13:10; Ezekiel 31:8). It is also called 'the corner-stone of the tribes', and 'the sons of wise men and of the kings of ancient time' (Isaiah 19:11, 13). More about Egypt in its earliest state and in its devastation will be found in Apocalypse Revealed 503.

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678. And an evil and noxious sore formed. This symbolizes interior evils and falsities destructive of every good and truth in the church.

The sore here symbolizes nothing else than evil arising from a life in accordance with this chief point of the doctrine, that faith alone justifies and saves without works of the law. For we are told next that it formed in people who had the mark of the beast and worshiped its image, which symbolizes that faith and a life in accordance with it. Therefore an evil and noxious sore symbolizes interior evils and falsities destructive of every good and truth in the church. Its being noxious symbolizes its destructiveness, and evil cannot but destroy goodness, and falsity truth.

This is the symbolic meaning of the sore because sores of the body arise from a vitiated condition of the blood or some other internal malignancy. So, too, with sores viewed according to their meaning in the spiritual sense. Those sores arise from lusts and their accompanying delights, which are their internal causes. The evil itself symbolized by the sore, which in its outward expressions seems to be delightful, inwardly conceals in itself lusts, from which it arises and of which it consists.

[2] It should rightly be known, however, that the interior constituents of the human mind in everyone exist in a sequential order and in a concurrent one. They exist in sequential order from its higher or prior constituents to ones lower or subsequent. They exist in concurrent order in their outmost or final expressions, though they range in these from interior elements to outer ones, as from a center to the peripheries. The reality of this is something we showed many times in Angelic Wisdom Regarding Divine Love and Wisdom, nos. 173-281, in a section on degrees. It is apparent from those numbers that the outmost degree embraces all the prior ones.

It follows, therefore, that all lusts for evil exist inwardly in a concurrent order in the evil itself that a person perceives in himself. Every evil that a person perceives in himself exists in its outmost expressions. Consequently, when a person rejects evil, he at the same time rejects also its lusts, though he still does not do this on his own, but from the Lord. A person can indeed on his own reject evil, but not its lusts. Therefore, when he wishes to reject some evil and is fighting against it, he must look to the Lord, since the Lord operates from inmost elements to outmost ones. For He enters through a person's soul and purifies him.

We have said this much to make known that a sore symbolizes evil appearing in its outmost or final expressions, arising from an internal malignancy. This is the case with all people who persuade themselves that faith alone saves, and for that reason do not reflect upon any evil in themselves or look to the Lord.

[3] Sores and wounds symbolize evils in outmost expressions arising from interior ones, or lusts, also in the following places:

From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness... A wound and a scar, and a fresh blow, have not been expressed, have not been bound up, have not been softened with oil. (Isaiah 1:6-7)

...my iniquities have passed through my head... My wounds have putrefied, have decayed, because of my foolishness. (Psalms 38:4-5)

In the day that Jehovah binds up the fracture of His people... He will heal the blow's wound. (Isaiah 30:26)

...if you do not obey the voice of Jehovah..., being careful to do... His commandments... Jehovah will strike you with the sore of Egypt, with hemorrhoids and scabies, and itching... and with an evil sore upon the knees and upon the legs... from which you cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the top of your head. (Deuteronomy 28:15, 27, 35)

The sore of the boils that broke out on man and beast in Egypt (Exodus 9:8-11) has just this symbolic meaning; for the miracles done there symbolized the evils and falsities with which the Egyptians were taken up.

Moreover, because the Jewish nation engaged in a profanation of the Word, and this is the symbolic meaning of leprosy, therefore leprosy occurred not only in their flesh, but also in their garments, houses, and vessels. The various kinds of profanation were also symbolized by the various evil consequences of leprosy, namely swellings, the sores of the swellings, white and reddish pimples, abscesses, burning feelings, losses of skin pigmentation, scaly patches of skin, and so on (see Leviticus 13). For the church with that nation was a representational church, in which internal things were represented by external ones that corresponded to them.