Apocalypse Explained # 1159
1159. And all fat and splendid things are departed from thee, signifies that all things good and true and satisfying and grand, which they were persuaded they would secure through that religious persuasion, are turned into opposites. This is evident from the signification of "fat things," as being what is good and thus satisfying (of which presently); also from the signification of "splendid things," as being what is true and thus grand. This is the signification of "splendid things," because splendor is from light, and the light of heaven is the Divine truth or the Divine wisdom, from which all things in the heavens shine with a splendor such as does not exist in the world; it may be compared with the splendor of a diamond turned to the sun, although the splendor seen in heaven exceeds this beyond measure, as the light of heaven exceeds the light of the world, with a difference so great that while it may be illustrated by comparisons it cannot be described. From that light all things magnificent in the heavens exist, which consist principally of forms corresponding to wisdom, which are such as can in no way be pictured in the world, and consequently cannot be described, for in them art itself is in its art, and knowledge in its wisdom, consequently they are of ineffable beauty. From all this it is clear why "splendid things" signify what is true and thus grand.
[2] "Fat things" signify what is good and thus satisfying, because the fat is the best part of flesh and because it resembles oil, which signifies the good of love. That "fatness" signifies good and things pertaining to good, thus satisfactions and joys, can be seen from the following passages in the Word. In Isaiah:
In hearkening hearken unto Me, and eat ye that which is good, that your soul may be delighted in fatness (Isaiah 55:2).
"To eat that which is good" signifies to appropriate good to oneself; therefore "to be delighted in fatness" signifies to be in a state of satisfaction and blessedness. In Jeremiah:
I will fill the soul of the priests with fatness, and My people shall be satisfied with good (Jeremiah 31:14).
Here, too, "fatness" signifies satisfaction and blessedness from the good of love. In David:
With fat and fatness my soul shall be satisfied, and my mouth will praise Thee with lips of songs (Psalms 63:5).
"To have the soul satisfied with fat and fatness" signifies to be filled with the good of love and consequent joy; "to praise with lips of songs" signifies to worship by truths that gladden the mind. In the same:
They shall be filled with the fatness of Thy house, and Thou shalt make them drink of the river of Thy pleasures (Psalms 36:8).
The "fatness" with which the house shall be filled signifies the good of love and consequent satisfaction, "house" being the things of the mind; "the river of pleasures" that he will make them to drink of signifies intelligence and consequent happiness.
[3] In Isaiah:
In this mountain shall Jehovah of Hosts make to all peoples a feast of fat things, a feast of lees, of fat things of marrows, and of lees well refined (Isaiah 25:6).
This is said of the state of those who will acknowledge and worship the Lord. That "mountain" signifies a new church from these, "a feast of fat things, of fat things of marrows," signifies both natural and spiritual good with joy of heart, and "lees, and lees well refined" signify truths from that good with happiness from them. In the same:
Jehovah shall give the rain of thy seed with which thou shalt sow the land, and bread of the produce of the land, and it shall be fat and plenteous (Isaiah 30:23).
"Rain of seed" signifies the multiplication of truth, and "bread of produce" signifies fructification of good; "fat and plenteous" signifies good and truth with all satisfaction and happiness. In David:
They shall still have increase in old age, they shall be fat and green, to proclaim that Jehovah is upright (Psalms 92:14-15).
"To be fat and green" signifies to be in the goods and truths of doctrine. In the same:
Jehovah shall remember all thy offerings and shall make fat thy burnt-offering (Psalms 20:3).
"Offerings and burnt-offering" signify worship, and to "make fat" signifies worship from the good of love. "Fatness" has the same signification in Ezekiel 34:3; Genesis 27:39 elsewhere. As "fat and fatness" signified the good of love, and all worship which is truly worship must be from the good of love, therefore:
It was appointed that all the fat and fatness in the sacrifices should be burnt on the altar (Exodus 29:13, 22; Leviticus 1:8; 3:3-16; 4:8-35; 7:3-4, 30-31; 17:6; Numbers 18:17-18).
For "sacrifices and burnt-offerings" signified worship.
[4] As the Jewish and Israelitish nation was only in external worship, and not also in internal worship, and in consequence was in no good of love and in no good of charity and faith:
It was forbidden them to eat the fat and blood, and it was declared that they would be cut off if they should eat them (Leviticus 3:17; 7:23, 25).
But to those who are in internal worship and from that in external worship, such as those must be who will be of the Lord's New Church, it is said:
That they shall eat fat till they be full, and drink blood till they be drunken (Ezekiel 39:19);
"fat" here signifying all the good of heaven and of the church, and "blood" all their truth. In the contrary sense those who are "fat" signify those who are nauseated at good, or who at least despise and reject it (Deuteronomy 32:15; Jeremiah 5:28; 50:11; Psalms 17:10; 20:4; 68:31; 119:70 elsewhere).
(Continuation)
[5] But such is not the lot of those who are permanently evil. All who are permanently evil are in hell according to the loves of their life; and there they think and speak from thought, although they speak falsities, and they will and from will do, although they do evils. Moreover, to one another they appear like men, although in the light of heaven they have monstrous forms. From this it can be seen why it is according to a law of order relating to reformation, which is called a law of Divine providence, that man is not let into the truths of faith and the goods of love except so far as he can be withheld from evils and held in goods even to the end of life, and that it is better for a man to be permanently evil than that he be good and afterwards evil, for thus he becomes profane. It is for this reason that the Lord, who provides all things and foresees all things, hides the operations of His providence, even to the extent that man scarcely knows whether there be any providence whatever, and man is permitted to attribute what he does to prudence, and what happens to him to fortune, and even to ascribe many things to nature, rather than that he should, through conspicuous and clear indications of the Divine providence and presence, plunge unseasonably into sanctities in which he will not continue. The Lord also permits like things by other laws of His providence, namely, by these, that man should have freedom, and that he should do whatever he does according to reason, thus wholly as if of himself, for it is better for a man to ascribe the workings of the Divine providence to prudence and fortune than to acknowledge them and still live as a devil. From this it is clear that the laws of permission, which are many, proceed from the laws of providence.
Deuteronomy 32
1
Give ear, you heavens, and I will speak. Let the earth hear the words of my mouth.
2
My doctrine shall drop as the rain. My speech shall condense as the dew, as the small rain on the tender grass, as the showers on the herb.
3
For I will proclaim the name of Yahweh. Ascribe greatness to our God!
4
The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice: a God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and right is he.
5
They have dealt corruptly with him, [they are] not his children, [it is] their blemish. [They are] a perverse and crooked generation.
6
Do you thus requite Yahweh, foolish people and unwise? Isn't he your father who has bought you? He has made you, and established you.
7
Remember the days of old. Consider the years of many generations. Ask your father, and he will show you; your elders, and they will tell you.
8
When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the children of men, he set the bounds of the peoples according to the number of the children of Israel.
9
For Yahweh's portion is his people. Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.
10
He found him in a desert land, in the waste howling wilderness. He surrounded him. He cared for him. He kept him as the apple of his eye.
11
As an eagle that stirs up her nest, that flutters over her young, he spread abroad his wings, he took them, he bore them on his feathers.
12
Yahweh alone led him. There was no foreign god with him.
13
He made him ride on the high places of the earth. He ate the increase of the field. He caused him to suck honey out of the rock, oil out of the flinty rock;
14
Butter of the herd, and milk of the flock, with fat of lambs, rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the finest of the wheat. Of the blood of the grape you drank wine.
15
But Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked. You have grown fat. You have grown thick. You have become sleek. Then he forsook God who made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.
16
They moved him to jealousy with strange [gods]. They provoked him to anger with abominations.
17
They sacrificed to demons, [which were] no God, to gods that they didn't know, to new [gods] that came up of late, which your fathers didn't dread.
18
Of the Rock who became your father, you are unmindful, and have forgotten God who gave you birth.
19
Yahweh saw [it], and abhorred [them], because of the provocation of his sons and his daughters.
20
He said, "I will hide my face from them. I will see what their end shall be; for they are a very perverse generation, children in whom is no faithfulness.
21
They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God. They have provoked me to anger with their vanities. I will move them to jealousy with those who are not a people. I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.
22
For a fire is kindled in my anger, Burns to the lowest Sheol, Devours the earth with its increase, and sets the foundations of the mountains on fire.
23
"I will heap evils on them. I will spend my arrows on them.
24
[They shall be] wasted with hunger, and devoured with burning heat and bitter destruction. I will send the teeth of animals on them, With the poison of crawling things of the dust.
25
Outside the sword shall bereave, and in the rooms, terror; on both young man and virgin, The nursing infant with the gray-haired man.
26
I said, I would scatter them afar. I would make the memory of them to cease from among men;
27
were it not that I feared the provocation of the enemy, lest their adversaries should judge wrongly, lest they should say, 'Our hand is exalted, Yahweh has not done all this.'"
28
For they are a nation void of counsel. There is no understanding in them.
29
Oh that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!
30
How could one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, and Yahweh had delivered them up?
31
For their rock is not as our rock, even our enemies themselves being judges.
32
For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, of the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are grapes of gall, Their clusters are bitter.
33
Their wine is the poison of serpents, The cruel venom of asps.
34
"Isn't this laid up in store with me, sealed up among my treasures?
35
Vengeance is mine, and recompense, at the time when their foot slides; for the day of their calamity is at hand. The things that are to come on them shall make haste."
36
For Yahweh will judge his people, and have compassion on his servants, when he sees that [their] power is gone, There is none [remaining], shut up or left at large.
37
He will say, "Where are their gods, The rock in which they took refuge;
38
Which ate the fat of their sacrifices, And drank the wine of their drink offering? Let them rise up and help you! Let them be your protection.
39
"See now that I, even I, am he, There is no god with me. I kill, and I make alive. I wound, and I heal. There is no one who can deliver out of my hand.
40
For I lift up my hand to heaven, And say, As I live forever,
41
if I whet my glittering sword, My hand take hold on judgment; I will render vengeance to my adversaries, and will recompense those who hate me.
42
I will make my arrows drunk with blood. My sword shall devour flesh with the blood of the slain and the captives, from the head of the leaders of the enemy."
43
Rejoice, you nations, [with] his people, for he will avenge the blood of his servants. He will render vengeance to his adversaries, And will make expiation for his land, for his people.
44
Moses came and spoke all the words of this song in the ears of the people, he and Joshua the son of Nun.
45
Moses made an end of speaking all these words to all Israel;
46
He said to them, "Set your heart to all the words which I testify to you this day, which you shall command your children to observe to do, [even] all the words of this law.
47
For it is no vain thing for you; because it is your life, and through this thing you shall prolong your days in the land, where you go over the Jordan to possess it."
48
Yahweh spoke to Moses that same day, saying,
49
"Go up into this mountain of Abarim, to Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, that is over against Jericho; and see the land of Canaan, which I give to the children of Israel for a possession;
50
and die on the mountain where you go up, and be gathered to your people, as Aaron your brother died on Mount Hor, and was gathered to his people:
51
because you trespassed against me in the midst of the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah of Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin; because you didn't sanctify me in the midst of the children of Israel.
52
For you shall see the land before you; but you shall not go there into the land which I give the children of Israel."
