Apocalypse Revealed # 913
913. Gold symbolizes the goodness of love because metals, like everything else found in the natural world, have a correspondence - gold to the goodness of love, silver to truths of wisdom, copper or bronze to the goodness of charity, and iron to truths of faith. For that reason these metals are found also in the spiritual world, since everything found there has a correspondence, inasmuch as they all correspond to the angels' affections and thoughts, which in themselves are spiritual.
That gold, owing to its correspondence, symbolizes the goodness of love, may be seen from the following passages:
I urge you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be enriched... (Revelation 3:18)
How dim the gold has become! How changed the finest gold! The stones of the sanctuary are scattered at the head of every street. The precious sons of Zion, valuable as pure gold... (Lamentations 4:1-2)
He will... save the souls of the poor... And He will give them some of the gold of Sheba. (Psalms 72:13, 15)
Instead of bronze I will bring gold, instead of iron, silver, instead of wood, bronze, and instead of stones, iron. I will also make your registration peaceful, and your tax gatherers righteous. (Isaiah 60:17)
Behold, you are wise...! No secret has been hidden from you! With your wisdom and your intelligence you have gained for yourself... gold and silver in your treasuries... You were in Eden, the garden...; every precious stone was your covering..., also gold. (Ezekiel 28:3-4, 13)
The multitude of camels shall cover you...; all those from Sheba shall come; they shall bring gold and incense, and they shall proclaim the praises of Jehovah. (Isaiah 60:6, cf. 60:9, Matthew 2:11)
...I will fill this house with glory... The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine... The glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former... (Haggai 2:7-9)
Kings' daughters are among Your precious ones. At Your right hand stands the queen in the finest gold of Ophir... Her clothing is woven with gold. (Psalms 45:9, 13, cf. Ezekiel 16:13)
You have taken vessels for your adornment from My gold and My silver that I had given you, and made for yourself male images... (Ezekiel 16:17)
...you have taken My silver and My gold, and have carried My valuable possessions into your temples. (Joel 3:5)
[2] Since gold symbolized the goodness of love, therefore when Belshazzar with his great men was drinking wine from vessels of gold taken from the temple in Jerusalem, and at the same time was praising gods of gold, silver, bronze and iron, writing appeared on the wall, and that night he was slain (Daniel 5). And so on in many other places.
Since gold symbolized the goodness of love, therefore the Ark that contained the Law was overlaid inside and out with gold (Exodus 25:11). Therefore the mercy seat and the cherubim over the Ark were also of made of pure gold (Exodus 25:17-18).
[3] Since gold symbolized the goodness of love, silver the truth of wisdom, bronze the goodness of the natural love called charity, and iron the truth of faith, therefore people in ancient times called the succeeding periods of time from the most ancient period to the concluding one the golden, silver, bronze and iron ages. A similar symbolism is exhibited by the statue that Nebuchadnezzar saw in a dream, whose head was fine gold, its breast and arms silver, its belly and thighs bronze, its lower legs iron, and its feet part iron and part clay (Daniel 2:32-33). This symbolizes the succeeding states of the church in this world, from most ancient times to the present day. The state of the church today is described in this way:
As you saw iron mixed with miry clay, they will mingle with the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, just as iron does not mix with clay. (Daniel 2:43)
Iron symbolizes the truth of faith, as we have said, yet when there is no truth of faith, but faith without truth, then it is iron mixed with miry clay, the two of which do not bond together. The seed of men with which they will mingle symbolizes the truth in the Word. This is the state of the church today. What it will be hereafter is briefly described in Daniel 2:45, but at more length in chapter 7, verses 13-18, 27.
詩篇 106
1
你們要讚美耶和華!要稱謝耶和華,因他本為善;他的慈愛永遠長存!
4
耶和華啊,你用恩惠待你的百姓;求你也用這恩惠記念我,開你的救恩眷顧我,
5
使我見你選民的福,樂你國民的樂,與你的產業一同誇耀。
6
我們與我們的祖宗一同犯罪;我們作了孽,行了惡。
7
我們的祖宗在埃及不明白你的奇事,不記念你豐盛的慈愛,反倒在紅海行了悖逆。
9
並且斥責紅海,海便乾了;他帶領他們經過深處,如同經過曠野。
14
反倒在曠野大起慾心,在荒地試探神。
23
所以,他說要滅絕他們;若非有他所揀選的摩西站在當中(原文是破口),使他的忿怒轉消,恐怕他就滅絕他們。
26
所以,他對他們起誓:必叫他們倒在曠野,
27
叫他們的後裔倒在列國之中,分散在各地。
28
他們又與巴力•毗珥連合,且吃了祭死神(或譯:人)的物。
29
他們這樣行,惹耶和華發怒,便有瘟疫流行在他們中間。
30
那時,非尼哈站起,刑罰惡人,瘟疫這才止息。
33
是因他們惹動他的靈,摩西(原文是他)用嘴說了急躁的話。
35
反與他們混雜相合,學習他們的行為,
36
事奉他們的偶像,這就成了自己的網羅,
37
把自己的兒女祭祀鬼魔,
38
流無辜人的血,就是自己兒女的血,把他們祭祀迦南的偶像,那地就被血污穢了。
39
這樣,他們被自己所做的污穢了,在行為上犯了邪淫。
43
他屢次搭救他們,他們卻設謀背逆,因自己的罪孽降為卑下。
45
為他們記念他的約,照他豐盛的慈愛後悔。
46
他也使他們在凡擄掠他們的人面前蒙憐恤。