Apocalypse Revealed # 20
20. And makes us kings and priests. (1:6) This symbolically means, who grants those who are born from Him, that is, who are reborn or regenerated, to be governed by wisdom from Divine truths, and by love from Divine goods.
People know that in the Word the Lord is called a king and also a priest. He is called a king owing to His Divine wisdom, and a priest owing to His Divine love. People who are governed by wisdom from the Lord are consequently called children of the king, and also kings, while people who are governed by love from Him are called ministers and priests. For the wisdom and the love in them do not originate from them, and so are not theirs but the Lord's. It is these people who are therefore meant in the Word by kings and priests. Not that they are kings and priests, but that they have the Lord in them, and He causes them to be termed such.
Such people are called also children born of Him, children of the kingdom, children of the Father, and heirs - children born of Him in John 1:12-13ff.), children of the kingdom in Matthew 8:12; 13:38, children of their Father in heaven in Matthew 5:45, and heirs in Psalms 127:3, 1 Samuel 2:8, Matthew 25:34. And being heirs, children of the kingdom, and children born of the Lord as their Father, they are therefore called kings and priests. Moreover, in Revelation 3:21 it is also said that they will sit with the Lord on His throne.
[2] The whole of heaven has been divided into two kingdoms - the spiritual kingdom and the celestial kingdom. The spiritual kingdom is what is called the Lord's kingship, and because all who are in it are governed by wisdom founded on truths, therefore it is they who are meant by the kings that the Lord will make those people who are governed by wisdom from Him. The celestial kingdom, on the other hand, is what is called the Lord's priesthood, and because all who are in it are governed by love arising from goodness, therefore it is they who are meant by the priests that the Lord will make those people who are governed by love from Him. The Lord's church on earth is likewise divided into two kingdoms. Regarding these two kingdoms, see nos. 24, 226 in the book Heaven and Hell, published in London, 1758.
[3] Someone who does not know the spiritual meaning of kings and priests may be deluded in regard to many things said in the prophets and in the book of Revelation about them. For example, in regard to these statements in the prophets:
The sons of foreigners shall build up your walls, and their kings shall minister to you... You shall suck the milk of gentiles, even the breasts of kings you shall suck, that you may know that I, Jehovah, am your Savior and your Redeemer... (Isaiah 60:10, 16)
Kings shall be your foster fathers, and their princesses your wet nurses. (Isaiah 49:23)
Also elsewhere, as in Genesis 49:20; Psalms 2:10; Isaiah 14:9; 24:21; 52:15; Jeremiah 2:26; 4:9; 49:3; Lamentations 2:6, 9; Ezekiel 7:26-27; Hosea 3:4; Zephaniah 1:8. Kings there do not mean kings, but people who are governed by Divine truths from the Lord, and abstractly, Divine truths themselves, from which comes wisdom.
"The king of the south" and "the king of the north" who waged war with each other in Daniel 11 do not mean kings either, but the king of the south means people who are governed by truths, and the king of the north people who are caught up in falsities.
[4] Likewise in the book of Revelation, which many times mentions kings, as in the following passages:
The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, so that the way of the kings from the rising of the sun might be prepared. (Revelation 16:12)
(With) the great harlot who sits on many waters... the kings of the earth committed whoredom... (Revelation 17:1-2)
...of the wine of the wrath of (Babylon's) whoredom all the nations have drunk, and the kings of the earth have committed whoredom with her... (Revelation 18:3)
And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war with Him who sat on the (white) horse... (Revelation 19:19)
And the nations that are saved shall walk in His light, and the kings of the earth shall bring their glory and honor into (the New Jerusalem). (Revelation 21:24)
Elsewhere also, as in Revelation 16:14; 17:9-14; 18:9-10. The kings there means people who are governed by truths, and in an opposite sense, people caught up in falsities, and abstractly, truths or falsities themselves. The whoredom of Babylon with the kings of the earth means the falsification of the truth of the church. Obviously Babylon, or the woman who sat on the scarlet beast, did not commit whoredom with kings, but rather falsified truths of the Word.
[5] It is apparent from this that the Lord's going to make people who are wise from Him kings does not mean that they will be kings, but that they will be wise. The reality of this is also something that enlightened reason sees.
Likewise in the following:
You have made us kings and priests to our God, that we may reign on the earth. (Revelation 5:10)
That by king the Lord meant truth is apparent from His words to Pilate:
Pilate... said to Him, "Are You a king then?"
Jesus answered, "As you have said, because I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice."
Pilate said to Him, "What is truth?" (John 18:27, 38)
To bear witness to the truth is to be Himself the embodiment of truth. And because He called Himself a king by virtue of it, Pilate said, "What is truth?" - which is to say, "Is truth a king?
As for priests, we will see in later explanations that they symbolize people who are governed by the goodness of love, and abstractly, goods of love themselves.
Ezekiel 8
1
It happened in the sixth year, in the sixth [month], in the fifth [day] of the month, as I sat in my house, and the elders of Judah sat before me, that the hand of the Lord Yahweh fell there on me.
2
Then I saw, and behold, a likeness as the appearance of fire; from the appearance of his waist and downward, fire; and from his waist and upward, as the appearance of brightness, as it were glowing metal.
3
He put forth the form of a hand, and took me by a lock of my head; and the Spirit lifted me up between earth and the sky, and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the gate of the inner [court] that looks toward the north; where there was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provokes to jealousy.
4
Behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, according to the appearance that I saw in the plain.
5
Then he said to me, Son of man, lift up your eyes now the way toward the north. So I lifted up my eyes the way toward the north, and see, northward of the gate of the altar this image of jealousy in the entry.
6
He said to me, Son of man, do you see what they do? even the great abominations that the house of Israel do commit here, that I should go far off from my sanctuary? But you shall again see yet other great abominations.
7
He brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, behold, a hole in the wall.
8
Then he said to me, Son of man, dig now in the wall: and when I had dug in the wall, behold, a door.
9
He said to me, Go in, and see the wicked abominations that they do here.
10
So I went in and saw; and see, every form of creeping things, and abominable animals, and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed around on the wall.
11
There stood before them seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel; and in the midst of them stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan, every man with his censer in his hand; and the odor of the cloud of incense went up.
12
Then he said to me, Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in his rooms of imagery? for they say, Yahweh doesn't see us; Yahweh has forsaken the land.
13
He said also to me, You shall again see yet other great abominations which they do.
14
Then he brought me to the door of the gate of Yahweh's house which was toward the north; and see, there sat the women weeping for Tammuz.
15
Then he said to me, Have you seen [this], son of man? You shall again see yet greater abominations than these.
16
He brought me into the inner court of Yahweh's house; and see, at the door of the temple of Yahweh, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men, with their backs toward the temple of Yahweh, and their faces toward the east; and they were worshipping the sun toward the east.
17
Then he said to me, Have you seen [this], son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here? for they have filled the land with violence, and have turned again to provoke me to anger: and behold, they put the branch to their nose.
18
Therefore will I also deal in wrath; my eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity; and though they cry in my ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them.
