221. (v) LIKEWISE, THE EXTERNAL FEATURES OF THE TEMPLE AT JERUSALEM.

This was because the Temple, exactly like the Tabernacle, represented heaven and the church; but the Temple represented the heaven of the spiritual angels, the Tabernacle that of the celestial angels. Spiritual angels are those who possess wisdom from the Word, celestial angels are those who possess love from the Word. The Lord Himself teaches us in John that the Temple at Jerusalem means in the highest sense the Lord's Divine Human:

Break up this Temple, and in three days I will raise it again. He was speaking about the temple of His body, John 2:19, 21.

When the Lord is meant, so too is the Word, for He is the Word. Now since the interior parts of the Temple represented the interiors of heaven and the church, and so those of the Word, therefore its external parts also represented and stood for the exteriors of heaven and the church, and so those of the Word, that is, its literal sense. We read of the exterior of the Temple that it was built of whole, undressed stones, and inside of cedar-wood; all its walls were carved inside with cherubim, palms and open flowers, and the floor was overlaid with gold (1 Kings 6:7, 29-30). All these things too stand for the externals of the Word, which are the holy things in its literal sense.