Apocalypse Explained # 1081
1081. And shall make her desolate and naked, signifies rejection of its falsities, which are falsified truths, and then the manifestation that they were without any truth. This is evident from the signification of "making desolate and naked," as being to reject its falsities, which are falsified truths; and when these have been rejected it is manifest that there is no truth, this also is signified. "To be desolate and naked" signifies to be without any truth, for spiritual vastation and nakedness are signified; and spiritual vastation is like that in a desert where there is no grain and no fruit trees, and spiritual nakedness is like that of a man who has no garments. "Grain and fruit trees" signify knowledges of truth and good, and "garments" signify truths investing; therefore to be without these means to be without any truth. That "nakedness" means deprivation of truth may be seen (n. 240, 1008); and that "vastation," such as exists in a desert, means where there is no truth may be seen n. 730.
(Continuation respecting the Word)
[2] What the Word is as to influx and correspondences can now be illustrated. It is said in John:
He hath blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they should see with their eyes and understand with their heart, and should turn themselves and I should heal them (John 12:40).
The "eyes" that are blinded signify the understanding of truth and the belief in it; the "heart" that is hardened signifies the will and the love of good; and "to be healed" signifies to be reformed. They were not permitted "to turn themselves and be healed" lest they should commit profanation; for an evil man who is healed and who returns to his evil and falsity commits profanation; and so it would have been with the Jewish nation.
[3] In Matthew:
Blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for they hear (Matthew 13:16).
Here, too, the "eyes" signify the understanding of truth and the belief in it; so "to see" signifies to understand and believe, and the "ears" signify obedience, thus a life according to the truths of faith, and "to hear" signifies to obey and live. For no one is blessed because he sees and hears, but because he understands, believes, obeys, and lives.
[4] In the same:
The lamp of the body is the eye; if the eye be sound the whole body is lucid; if the eye be evil the whole body is darkened. If, therefore, the light [lumen] is darkness, how great is the darkness (Matthew 6:22-23).
Here, again, the "eye" signifies the understanding of truth and the belief in it, which is called a lamp from the light of truth that man has from understanding and belief. And because a man becomes wise from understanding and believing in truth, it is said "if the eye be sound the whole body is lucid." The "body" means the man, and "to be lucid" means to be wise. But it is the reverse with the "evil eye," that is, understanding and believing in falsity. "Darkness" means falsities, "if the light [lumen] be darkness" signifies if the truth be false or falsified, and because truth falsified is worse than any other falsity, it is said, "If the light [lumen] be darkness, how great is the darkness."
[5] These few examples make clear what correspondence is and what influx is, namely, that the eye is a correspondence of the understanding and faith, the heart a correspondence of the will and love, the ears a correspondence of obedience, the lamp and light [lumen] correspondences of truth, and darkness a correspondence of falsity, and so on; and as the one is spiritual and the other natural, and the spiritual acts into the natural and forms it to an image of itself that it may appear before the eyes or before the world, therefore that action is influx. Such is the Word in each and every particular.
Ezekiel 39
1
You, son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I am against you, Gog, prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal:
2
and I will turn you around, and will lead you on, and will cause you to come up from the uttermost parts of the north; and I will bring you on the mountains of Israel;
3
and I will strike your bow out of your left hand, and will cause your arrows to fall out of your right hand.
4
You shall fall on the mountains of Israel, you, and all your hordes, and the peoples who are with you: I will give you to the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the animals of the field to be devoured.
5
You shall fall on the open field; for I have spoken it, says the Lord Yahweh.
6
I will send a fire on Magog, and on those who dwell securely in the islands; and they shall know that I am Yahweh.
7
My holy name will I make known in the midst of my people Israel; neither will I allow my holy name to be profaned any more: and the nations shall know that I am Yahweh, the holy One in Israel.
8
Behold, it comes, and it shall be done, says the Lord Yahweh; this is the day about which I have spoken.
9
Those who dwell in the cities of Israel shall go forth, and shall make fires of the weapons and burn them, both the shields and the bucklers, the bows and the arrows, and the war clubs, and the spears, and they shall make fires of them seven years;
10
so that they shall take no wood out of the field, neither cut down any out of the forests; for they shall make fires of the weapons; and they shall plunder those who plundered them, and rob those who robbed them, says the Lord Yahweh.
11
It shall happen in that day, that I will give to Gog a place for burial in Israel, the valley of those who pass through on the east of the sea; and it shall stop those who pass through: and there shall they bury Gog and all his multitude; and they shall call it The valley of Hamon Gog.
12
Seven months shall the house of Israel be burying them, that they may cleanse the land.
13
Yes, all the people of the land shall bury them; and it shall be to them a renown in the day that I shall be glorified, says the Lord Yahweh.
14
They shall set apart men of continual employment, who shall pass through the land, and, with those who pass through, those who bury those who remain on the surface of the land, to cleanse it: after the end of seven months shall they search.
15
Those who pass through the land shall pass through; and when any sees a man's bone, then shall he set up a sign by it, until the undertakers have buried it in the valley of Hamon Gog.
16
Hamonah shall also be the name of a city. Thus shall they cleanse the land.
17
You, son of man, thus says the Lord Yahweh: Speak to the birds of every sort, and to every animal of the field, Assemble yourselves, and come; gather yourselves on every side to my sacrifice that I do sacrifice for you, even a great sacrifice on the mountains of Israel, that you may eat flesh and drink blood.
18
You shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams, of lambs, and of goats, of bulls, all of them fatlings of Bashan.
19
You shall eat fat until you be full, and drink blood until you are drunk, of my sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you.
20
You shall be filled at my table with horses and chariots, with mighty men, and with all men of war, says the Lord Yahweh.
21
I will set my glory among the nations; and all the nations shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid on them.
22
So the house of Israel shall know that I am Yahweh their God, from that day and forward.
23
The nations shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity; because they trespassed against me, and I hid my face from them: so I gave them into the hand of their adversaries, and they fell all of them by the sword.
24
According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions did I to them; and I hid my face from them.
25
Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Now will I bring back the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy on the whole house of Israel; and I will be jealous for my holy name.
26
They shall bear their shame, and all their trespasses by which they have trespassed against me, when they shall dwell securely in their land, and none shall make them afraid;
27
when I have brought them back from the peoples, and gathered them out of their enemies' lands, and am sanctified in them in the sight of many nations.
28
They shall know that I am Yahweh their God, in that I caused them to go into captivity among the nations, and have gathered them to their own land; and I will leave none of them any more there;
29
neither will I hide my face any more from them; for I have poured out my Spirit on the house of Israel, says the Lord Yahweh.
