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Exodus 13

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1 And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,

2 Hallow unto me every firstborn, whatever breaketh open the womb among the children of Israel, of man and of cattle: it is mine.

3 And Moses said to the people, Remember this day, in which ye came out from Egypt, out of the house of bondage; for with a powerful hand hath Jehovah brought you out from this; and nothing leavened shall be eaten.

4 Ye come out to-day, in the month Abib.

5 And it shall be when Jehovah hath brought thee into the land of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, which he swore to thy fathers to give thee, a land flowing with milk and honey, that thou shalt keep this service in this month.

6 Seven days shalt thou eat unleavened bread; and in the seventh day is a feast to Jehovah.

7 Unleavened bread shall be eaten the seven days; and leavened bread shall not be seen with thee, neither shall there be leaven seen with thee in all thy borders.

8 And thou shalt inform thy son in that day, saying, It is because of what Jehovah did to me when I came out of Egypt.

9 And it shall be for a sign to thee on thy hand, and for a memorial between thine eyes, that the law of Jehovah may be in thy mouth; for with a powerful hand hath Jehovah brought thee out of Egypt.

10 And thou shalt keep this ordinance at its set time from year to year.

11 And it shall be when Jehovah hath brought thee into the land of the Canaanites, as he hath sworn to thee and to thy fathers, and hath given it thee,

12 that thou shalt offer unto Jehovah all that breaketh open the womb, and every firstling that cometh of cattle which is thine: the males [shall be] Jehovah's.

13 And every firstling of an ass shalt thou ransom with a lamb; and if thou do not ransom it, thou shalt break its neck; and every firstborn of a man among thy sons shalt thou ransom.

14 And it shall be when thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, What is this? that thou shalt say to him, With a powerful hand Jehovah brought us out from Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

15 And it came to pass, when Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, that Jehovah slew all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of men and the firstborn of cattle: therefore I sacrifice to Jehovah all that breaketh open the womb -- being males; and every firstborn of my children I ransom.

16 And it shall be for a sign on thy hand, and for frontlets between thine eyes, for with a powerful hand Jehovah brought us forth out of Egypt.

17 And it came to pass, when Pharaoh let the people go, that God did not lead them the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, That the people may not repent when they see conflict, and return to Egypt.

18 And God led the people about, the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea; and the children of Israel went arrayed out of the land of Egypt.

19 And Moses took the bones of Joseph with him; for he had made the children of Israel swear an oath, saying, God will be sure to visit you; then ye shall carry my bones with you hence.

20 And they took their journey from Succoth, and encamped in Etham, at the end of the wilderness.

21 And Jehovah went before their face by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them [in] the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; so that they could go day and night.

22 The pillar of the cloud did not remove [from] before the people by day, nor the pillar of fire by night.

   

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Apocalypse Revealed # 468

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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.

  
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Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.