Arcana Coelestia # 8624
8624. And called the name of it Jehovah-nissi. That this signifies continual warfare, and the Lord’s protection, against those who are in the falsity of interior evil, is evident from the fact that the names bestowed by the ancients in the church signified the quality and the state of the thing then in question, and these they also wrapped up in the very names (see n. 340, 1946, 3422, 4298). The quality and the state of the thing here treated of is that Jehovah would have war against Amalek from generation to generation; in the internal sense, that there should be perpetual war against those who are in the falsity of interior evil; this also is signified by “Jehovah-nissi.” In the original tongue “Jehovah-nissi” means “Jehovah my banner,” or “ensign,” and by “an ensign,” or “banner,” in the Word is signified a calling together for war; and as it is said that “Jehovah shall have war,” protection by Him is also signified.
[2] That by “a banner” or “ensign” is signified a calling together for war, is evident from the fact that when they were called together, whether for journeyings, or for festivals, or for war, they sounded a trumpet, and then also lifted up an ensign or banner upon the mountains. That they sounded a trumpet see Numbers 10:1-11; that they lifted up an ensign or banner see the following passages:
Declare ye in Judah, and make it heard in Jerusalem, and say, and blow ye the trumpet in the land, proclaim, fill full, say, Gather yourselves together, and let us enter into the defensed cities, set up a banner toward Zion, assemble yourselves, stay not (Jeremiah 4:5-6).
All ye inhabitants of the world, and ye dwellers on the earth, when a banner is lifted up, see ye; and when a trumpet is sounded, hear ye (Isaiah 18:3).
He hath lifted up a banner to the nations from far, and hath hissed for him from the extremity of the earth; and behold he shall come with speed swiftly (Isaiah 5:26).
Lift ye up a banner upon the lofty mountain, lift up the voice unto them, wave the hand, that they may come to the gate of the princes (Isaiah 13:2).
Thus said the Lord Jehovih, Behold I will lift up My hand toward the nations, and set up My banner to the peoples; and they shall bring thy sons in their bosom, and thy daughters they shall carry upon their shoulder (Isaiah 49:22).
From these passages it is plain that by “a banner” is signified a gathering together.
[3] That “a banner” or “ensign,” when predicated of the Lord, signifies also protection, is evident in these passages:
They shall fear the name of Jehovah from the west, and His glory from the rising of the sun; because it will come as a pent-up stream, the spirit of Jehovah shall lift up a banner against him; then shall the Redeemer come to Zion (Isaiah 59:19).
It shall come to pass in that day that the root of Jesse, which standeth for a banner of the people, shall the nations seek; and his rest shall be glory (Isaiah 11:10).
[4] Inasmuch as “an ensign” which in the original tongue is expressed by the same term as “a banner,” signified a gathering together, and when said of the Lord, protection also, therefore it was expressly commanded that a brazen serpent should be set upon an ensign, of which we read in Moses:
Jehovah said unto Moses, Make thee a serpent, and set it upon an ensign; and it shall come to pass that everyone that is bitten, and looketh at it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and set it upon an ensign; whence it came to pass that if a serpent had bitten a man, and he looked at the serpent of brass, he lived again (Numbers 21:8-9).
That the brazen serpent represented the Lord, see John 3:14-15; that it also signified protection, is plain; for the healing effected by looking on the serpent that was on the ensign signified healing from evils of falsity by the looking of faith to the Lord. For the Lord says in the passage as quoted from John:
As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth in Him may not perish, but may have eternal life (John 3:14-15).
John 4
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Therefore when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John
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(although Jesus himself didn't baptize, but his disciples),
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he left Judea, and departed into Galilee.
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He needed to pass through Samaria.
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So he came to a city of Samaria, called Sychar, near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son, Joseph.
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Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being tired from his journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
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A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink."
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For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.
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The Samaritan woman therefore said to him, "How is it that you, being a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?" (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)
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Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water."
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The woman said to him, "Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. From where then have you that living water?
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Are you greater than our father, Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself, as did his children, and his livestock?"
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Jesus answered her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again,
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but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst again; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life."
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The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water, so that I don't get thirsty, neither come all the way here to draw."
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Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come here."
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The woman answered, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You said well, 'I have no husband,'
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for you have had five husbands; and he whom you now have is not your husband. This you have said truly."
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The woman said to him, "Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.
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Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship."
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Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour comes, when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, will you worship the Father.
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You worship that which you don't know. We worship that which we know; for salvation is from the Jews.
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But the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such to be his worshippers.
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God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth."
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The woman said to him, "I know that Messiah comes," (he who is called Christ). "When he has come, he will declare to us all things."
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Jesus said to her, "I am he, the one who speaks to you."
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At this, his disciples came. They marveled that he was speaking with a woman; yet no one said, "What are you looking for?" or, "Why do you speak with her?"
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So the woman left her water pot, and went away into the city, and said to the people,
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"Come, see a man who told me everything that I did. Can this be the Christ?"
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They went out of the city, and were coming to him.
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In the meanwhile, the disciples urged him, saying, "Rabbi, eat."
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But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you don't know about."
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The disciples therefore said one to another, "Has anyone brought him something to eat?"
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Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work.
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Don't you say, 'There are yet four months until the harvest?' Behold, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and look at the fields, that they are white for harvest already.
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He who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit to eternal life; that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together.
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For in this the saying is true, 'One sows, and another reaps.'
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I sent you to reap that for which you haven't labored. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor."
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From that city many of the Samaritans believed in him because of the word of the woman, who testified, "He told me everything that I did."
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So when the Samaritans came to him, they begged him to stay with them. He stayed there two days.
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Many more believed because of his word.
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They said to the woman, "Now we believe, not because of your speaking; for we have heard for ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world."
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After the two days he went out from there and went into Galilee.
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For Jesus himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country.
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So when he came into Galilee, the Galileans received him, having seen all the things that he did in Jerusalem at the feast, for they also went to the feast.
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Jesus came therefore again to Cana of Galilee, where he made the water into wine. There was a certain nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum.
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When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to him, and begged him that he would come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death.
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Jesus therefore said to him, "Unless you see signs and wonders, you will in no way believe."
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The nobleman said to him, "Sir, come down before my child dies."
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Jesus said to him, "Go your way. Your son lives." The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went his way.
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As he was now going down, his servants met him and reported, saying "Your child lives!"
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So he inquired of them the hour when he began to get better. They said therefore to him, "Yesterday at the seventh hour, the fever left him."
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So the father knew that it was at that hour in which Jesus said to him, "Your son lives." He believed, as did his whole house.
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This is again the second sign that Jesus did, having come out of Judea into Galilee.
