Apocalypse Revealed # 468
468. And his feet like pillars of fire. This symbolizes the Lord's Divinity on the natural plane in respect to His Divine love, which sustains all things.
This, too, is apparent, from the explanation in no. 49 above, where it is said of the Son of Man that "His feet were like fine brass, as though fired in a furnace."
The angel's feet looked like pillars of fire because the Lord's Divinity on the natural plane - which fundamentally is the Divine humanity that He took on in the world - supports His Divinity from eternity, as the body does the soul, and likewise as the Word's natural meaning supports its spiritual and celestial meanings, on which subject see The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Sacred Scripture, nos. 27-49. To be shown that feet symbolize something natural, see no. 49, and a pillar something that supports, no. 191.
Fire symbolizes love because spiritual fire is nothing else. Therefore it is customary in worship to pray that heavenly fire, that is to say, heavenly love, may kindle the worshipers' hearts. People know that there is a correspondence between fire and love from the fact that a person grows warm with love, and cold with its loss. Nothing else produces vital warmth but love, in both senses. The origin of these correspondences is owing to the existence of two suns, one in the heavens, which is pure love, and the other in the world, which is nothing but fire. This, too, is the reason for the correspondence between all spiritual and natural things.
[2] Since fire symbolizes Divine love, therefore on Mount Horeb Jehovah appeared to Moses in a bush on fire (Exodus 3:1-3). Moreover He descended upon Mount Sinai in fire (Deuteronomy 4:36). For this reason, too, the seven lamps of the lampstand in the Tabernacle were lit every evening, so as to burn before Jehovah (Leviticus 24:2-4). For the same reason fire burned continually on the altar and was not extinguished (Leviticus 6:13), and the priests took fire from the altar in their censers and burned incense (Leviticus 16:12-13).
Therefore Jehovah went before the children of Israel by night in a pillar of fire (Exodus 13:21-22). Fire from heaven consumed the burnt offerings on the altar, as a sign of His being well pleased (Leviticus 9:24, 1 Kings 18:38). The burnt offerings were called offerings by fire to Jehovah, and offerings by fire for a restful aroma to Jehovah (Exodus 29:18; Leviticus 1:9, 13, 17; 2:2, 9-11; 3:5, 16; 4:35; 5:12; 7:30; 21:6; Numbers 28:2; Deuteronomy 18:1).
Therefore in the book of Revelation the Lord's eyes looked like a flame of fire (Revelation 1:14; 2:18; 19:12, cf. Daniel 10:5-6). And seven lamps of fire burned before the throne (Revelation 4:5).
It is apparent from this what lamps containing oil and lamps without oil symbolize (Matthew 25:1-11). The oil means fire, and thus love.
And so on in many other places.
In an opposite sense fire symbolizes hellish love, and this is plain from so many passages in the Word that it would be impossible to cite them all because of their number. See something on the subject in the book Heaven and Hell, published in London, nos. 566-575.
Leviticus 1
1
Yahweh called to Moses, and spoke to him out of the Tent of Meeting, saying,
2
"Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, 'When anyone of you offers an offering to Yahweh, you shall offer your offering of the livestock, from the herd and from the flock.
3
"'If his offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he shall offer a male without blemish. He shall offer it at the door of the Tent of Meeting, that he may be accepted before Yahweh.
4
He shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him.
5
He shall kill the bull before Yahweh. Aaron's sons, the priests, shall present the blood and sprinkle the blood around on the altar that is at the door of the Tent of Meeting.
6
He shall flay the burnt offering, and cut it into pieces.
7
The sons of Aaron the priest shall put fire on the altar, and lay wood in order on the fire;
8
and Aaron's sons, the priests, shall lay the pieces, the head, and the fat in order on the wood that is on the fire which is on the altar;
9
but its innards and its legs he shall wash with water. The priest shall burn the whole on the altar, for a burnt offering, an offering made by fire, of a pleasant aroma to Yahweh.
10
"'If his offering is from the flock, from the sheep, or from the goats, for a burnt offering, he shall offer a male without blemish.
11
He shall kill it on the north side of the altar before Yahweh. Aaron's sons, the priests, shall sprinkle its blood around on the altar.
12
He shall cut it into its pieces, with its head and its fat. The priest shall lay them in order on the wood that is on the fire which is on the altar,
13
but the innards and the legs he shall wash with water. The priest shall offer the whole, and burn it on the altar. It is a burnt offering, an offering made by fire, of a pleasant aroma to Yahweh.
14
"'If his offering to Yahweh is a burnt offering of birds, then he shall offer his offering of turtledoves, or of young pigeons.
15
The priest shall bring it to the altar, and wring off its head, and burn it on the altar; and its blood shall be drained out on the side of the altar;
16
and he shall take away its crop with its filth, and cast it beside the altar on the east part, in the place of the ashes.
17
He shall tear it by its wings, but shall not divide it apart. The priest shall burn it on the altar, on the wood that is on the fire. It is a burnt offering, an offering made by fire, of a pleasant aroma to Yahweh.
