238. Before the throne there was a sea of glass, like crystal. (4:6) This symbolizes a new heaven formed of Christians who possessed general truths taken from the literal sense of the Word.

Atmospheres are seen in the spiritual world, and also bodies of water, as in our world - ethereal atmospheres seemingly where angels of the highest heaven dwell, airy atmospheres seemingly where angels of the intermediate heaven dwell, and watery ones seemingly where angels of the lowest heaven dwell. These watery atmospheres, moreover, are seas that are seen at the borders of heaven, and the inhabitants there are people who possess general truths taken from the literal sense of the Word. To be shown that waters symbolize truths, see no. 50 above.

As the place where waters terminate and are collected, a sea therefore symbolizes Divine truth in its terminal expressions.

Accordingly, since the One sitting on the throne means the Lord (no. 230), and since the seven lamps which are the seven spirits of God before the throne mean a new church which will possess Divine truth from the Lord (no. 237), it is apparent that the sea of glass that was before the throne means the church with people who are at its peripheries.

[2] Seas at the borders of the heavens are something I have been granted to see, and it has been given me to speak with the inhabitants there and so to learn the truth of this matter through personal experience. The inhabitants appeared to me to be living in a sea, but they said that they did not live in a sea but in an atmosphere. It was apparent to me from this that a sea is an appearance of the Divine truth emanating from the Lord in its terminal expressions.

The existence of seas in the spiritual world is clearly apparent from the fact that they were often seen by John, as in the present instance, and in 5:13 verses; 7:1-3; 8:8-9; 10:2, 8; 13:1; 14:7; 15:2; 16:3; 18:17, 19, 21; 20:13.

The sea is called a sea of glass like crystal owing to the translucence of the Divine truth emanating from the Lord.

[3] Since Divine truth in its terminal expressions produces the appearance of a sea in the spiritual world, therefore a sea elsewhere in the Word has a similar symbolic meaning, as in the following passages:

On that day living waters shall flow out from Jerusalem, part of them to the eastern sea and part of them to the western sea. (Zechariah 14:8)

Living waters from Jerusalem are the church's Divine truths from the Lord. The sea is consequently where they terminate.

(Jehovah,) Your way was in the sea, and Your path in many waters. (Psalms 77:19)

Thus said Jehovah, who made a way in the sea, and a path through the many waters... (Isaiah 43:16)

(Jehovah) has founded (the world) on the seas, and established it on the rivers. (Psalms 24:2)

(Jehovah) set the earth on its foundations, so that it should not be moved to eternity. You covered it with the deep (or sea) as with a garment. (Psalms 104:5-6)

The earth was "founded on the sea" because the church, which is meant by the earth, is founded on general truths. For these are its footings and foundations.

[4] I will dry up (Babylon's) sea and make her spring dry... The sea will come up over Babylon; she will be covered with the multitude of its waves. (Jeremiah 51:36, 42)

To dry up Babylon's sea and make her spring dry means, symbolically, to extinguish all the church's truth from the firsts to the lasts of it.

They shall walk after Jehovah..., and His sons shall come with honor from the sea. (Hosea 11:10)

The sons from the sea are people who possess general truths or truths in their terminal expressions.

(Jehovah,) who builds His ascents in the heavens..., who calls the waters of the sea and pours them over the face of the earth... (Amos 9:6)

By the word of Jehovah the heavens were made... He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap, putting the depths in storehouses. (Psalms 33:6-7)

...by My rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness. (Isaiah 50:2)

And so likewise in other places.

[5] Since a sea symbolizes Divine truth with people who live on the borders of heaven, therefore Tyre and Sidon, which were on the seacoast, symbolized the church in respect to its learned concepts of goodness and truth. And therefore "the islands of the sea" ¹ likewise symbolize people engaged in a relatively remote Divine worship (no. 34).

For the same reason, too, the word used for the sea in Hebrew is "the west," that is, the direction in which the sun's light turns into its evening state, or truth into haziness.

We will see in subsequent discussions that a sea also symbolizes the natural component of a person divorced from his spiritual one, thus also hell.

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43. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands. This symbolizes a new church, which will have an enlightenment from the Lord from the Word.

We are told in the last verse of this chapter that the seven lampstands are the seven churches, and it may be seen in no. 10 above that the seven churches mean all in the Christian world who turn to the church - and this in every case according to each one's state of reception (no. 41).

The seven lampstands mean a new church because the Lord is in it and in the midst of it. For we are told that in the midst of the seven lampstands John saw one like the Son of Man, and the Son of Man means the Lord in relation to the Word.

The lampstands appeared golden, because gold symbolizes goodness, and every church is a church by virtue of the goodness that is formed through truths. That gold symbolizes goodness will be seen in subsequent explanations.

[2] These lampstands were not next to one another or placed so as to touch each other, but stood at some intervals forming a kind of circle, as it apparent from this statement in the following chapter,

These things says He who... walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands. (Revelation 2:1)

We are not told anything about the lamps on the lampstands, but later it is said that the Holy Jerusalem, which is to say, the New Church, "has no need of the sun or of the moon," because "its lamp is the Lamb, and the nations that are saved shall walk in its light" (Revelation 21:23-24). And furthermore,

They need no lamp..., for the Lord God gives them light. (Revelation 22:5)

For those people who will be constituents of the Lord's New Church are the only "lampstands" that will shine with light from the Lord.

[3] The golden lampstand in the Tabernacle represented nothing else than the church in relation to its enlightenment by the Lord. Regarding this lampstand, see Exodus 25:31-40; 37:17-24; 26:35, Numbers 8:2-4. That it represented the Lord's church as to Divine spiritual love, which is love for the neighbor, see Arcana Coelestia (The Secrets of Heaven), nos. 9548, 9555, 9558, 9561, 9570, 9783. See also no. 493 below.

The lampstand in Zechariah 4 also symbolizes a new church to be established by the Lord, since it symbolizes a new house of God or temple, as is apparent from what follows there; and a house of God or temple symbolizes the church, and in the highest sense, the Lord's Divine humanity, as He Himself teaches in John 2:19-21, ¹ and elsewhere.

But we will say what in turn is symbolically meant in Zechariah 4, when the lampstand appeared to him:

The particulars contained in verses 1-7 symbolize the Lord's enlightenment of a new church from the goodness of love by means of truth. The olive trees there symbolize the church in regard to the goodness of love.

The particulars from 8-10 verse there mean, symbolically, that the enlightenment comes from the Lord. Zerubbabel there, who is to build the house, thus the church, represents the Lord.

The particulars from verse 11-14 mean, symbolically, that that the church will also have in it truths from a heavenly origin.

This explanation of that chapter was given to me by the Lord through heaven.

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