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Matthew 4

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1 Then Jesus was sent by the Spirit into the waste land to be tested by the Evil One.

2 And after going without food for forty days and forty nights, he was in need of it.

3 And the Evil One came and said to him, If you are the Son of God, give the word for these stones to become bread.

4 But he made answer and said, It is in the Writings, Bread is not man's only need, but every word which comes out of the mouth of God.

5 Then the Evil One took him to the holy town; and he put him on the highest point of the Temple and said to him,

6 If you are the Son of God, let yourself go down; for it is in the Writings, He will give his angels care over you; and, In their hands they will keep you up, so that your foot may not be crushed against a stone.

7 Jesus said to him, Again it is in the Writings, You may not put the Lord your God to the test.

8 Again, the Evil One took him up to a very high mountain, and let him see all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them;

9 And he said to him, All these things will I give you, if you will go down on your face and give me worship.

10 Then said Jesus to him, Away, Satan: for it is in the Writings, Give worship to the Lord your God and be his servant only.

11 Then the Evil One went away from him, and angels came and took care of him.

12 Now when it came to his ears that John had been put in prison, he went away to Galilee;

13 And going away from Nazareth, he came and made his living-place in Capernaum, which is by the sea, in the country of Zebulun and Naphtali:

14 So that the word of the prophet Isaiah might come true,

15 The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, by the way of the sea, the other side of Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles,

16 The people who were in the dark saw a great light, and to those in the land of the shade of death did the dawn come up.

17 From that time Jesus went about preaching and saying, Let your hearts be turned from sin, for the kingdom of heaven is near.

18 And when he was walking by the sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, whose other name was Peter, and Andrew, his brother, who were putting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen.

19 And he said to them, Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.

20 And straight away they let go the nets and went after him.

21 And going on from there he saw two other brothers, James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother, in the boat with their father, stitching up their nets; and he said, Come.

22 And they went straight from the boat and their father and came after him.

23 And Jesus went about in all Galilee, teaching in their Synagogues and preaching the good news of the kingdom, and making well those who were ill with any disease among the people.

24 And news of him went out through all Syria; and they took to him all who were ill with different diseases and pains, those having evil spirits and those who were off their heads, and those who had no power of moving. And he made them well.

25 And there went after him great numbers from Galilee and Decapolis and Jerusalem and Judaea and from the other side of Jordan.

   

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Apocalypse Revealed # 413

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413. And a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, and a third of them was darkened. This symbolically means that because of their evils springing from falsities and their falsities springing from evils, they did not know what love is, or what faith is, or any truth.

A third means, symbolically, all (no. 400). The sun symbolizes love (no. 53). The moon symbolizes intelligence and faith (no. 332). The stars symbolize concepts of truth and goodness from the Word (no. 51). To be darkened means, symbolically, to be unseen and unknown because of evils springing from falsities and falsities springing from evils.

Evils springing from falsities are found in people who adopt falsities having to do with religion and defend them to the point that they appear to be true. Then, when they live in accordance with them, they do evils as a result of the falsities, or the evils of falsity.

On the other hand, falsities springing from evils are found in people who do not regard evils as being sins, and still more in people who employ reasonings issuing from their natural self, and moreover from the Word, to establish in themselves that evils are not sins. Their very arguments are falsities springing from evils, and what we call the falsities of evil.

[2] Darkness symbolizes these falsities because light symbolizes truth, and when the light has been extinguished, darkness is left.

To confirm this we will first cite passages where things similar to those here in the book of Revelation are said regarding the sun, moon and stars, and darkness ensuing upon their being extinguished:

The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and terrible day of Jehovah. (Joel 2:31)

...the stars of heaven and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be darkened in its rising, and the moon will not cause its light to shine. (Isaiah 13:10, cf. 24:21, 24:23)

When I extinguish you, I will cover the heavens..., I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give its light. All the luminaries of light in the heavens I will make dark over you, and bring darkness upon your land... (Ezekiel 32:7-8)

...the day of Jehovah... is at hand... The sun and moon grow dark, and the stars diminish their brightness. (Joel 2:1, 10)

Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven... (Matthew 24:29, cf. Mark 13:24-25)

Who, if he elevates his mind, cannot see that in these places it is not the world's sun, moon and stars that are meant.

[3] That darkness symbolizes falsities of various kinds is clear from these passages:

Woe to you who desire the day of Jehovah! ...It will be one of darkness, and not light... Is not the day of Jehovah darkness and not light? Very dark, without any brightness? (Amos 5:18, 20)

(The day of Jehovah will be) a day of darkness and thick darkness, a day of clouds and overcast... (Zephaniah 1:15)

In that day... it will look to the land, which, behold, will be darkness...; and the light will grow dark in its ruins. (Isaiah 5:30, cf. 8:22)

...behold, the darkness covers the earth, and thick darkness the peoples. (Isaiah 60:2)

Give glory to Jehovah... before He causes darkness...; you look for light, but He turns it into thick darkness. (Jeremiah 13:16)

We look for light, but there is darkness and no brightness; we walk in thick darkness... We stumble at noonday as at twilight; among the living we are as dead men. (Isaiah 59:9-10)

Woe to those... who put darkness for light, and light for darkness. (Isaiah 5:20)

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. (Isaiah 9:2, cf. Matthew 4:16)

...the rising sun from on high (has appeared) to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death... (Luke 1:78-79)

If you give your soul to the hungry..., your light shall rise in the darkness, and your thick darkness shall be as the noonday. (Isaiah 58:10)

In that day... the eyes of the blind who are in thick darkness and gloom shall see. (Isaiah 29:18, cf. 42:16; 49:9)

(Jesus said,) "I am the light of the world; he who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." (John 8:12)

Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you... I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness. (John 12:35, 46)

When I sit in darkness, Jehovah is a light to me. (Micah 7:8)

This is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, but men loved the darkness more than light... (John 3:19, cf. 1:4-5)

If... the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness! (Matthew 6:23, cf. Luke 11:34-36)

...this is your hour, and the power of darkness. (Luke 22:53)

Darkness in these places symbolizes falsity arising either from ignorance of truth or from some false tenet of religion, or from a life of evil.

Regarding people caught up in falsities having to do with religion, who are therefore caught up in evils in life, the Lord says that they should be "cast out into outer darkness" (Matthew 8:12, cf. 22:13; 25:30).

  
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Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.