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Hosea 3

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1 And the Lord said to me: Go yet again, and love a woman beloved of her friend, and an adulteress : as the Lord loveth the children of Israel, and they look to strange gods, and love the husks of the grapes.

2 And I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for a core of barley, and for half a core of barley.

3 And I said to her: Thou shalt wait for me many days: thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou shalt be no man's, and I also will wait for thee.

4 For the children of Israel shall sit many days without king, and without prince, and without sacrifice, and without altar, and without ephod, and without theraphim.

5 And after this the children of Israel shall return, and shall seek the Lord their God, and David their king: and they shall fear the Lord, and his goodness in the last days.

   

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Apocalypse Revealed # 649

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649. And he cried with a loud cry to him who had the sharp sickle, saying, "Thrust in your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of grapes of the vine of the earth." This symbolizes the Lord's operation from the goodness of His love through the Word's Divine truth into the works of charity and faith among people belonging to the Christian Church.

This is the spiritual meaning of these words, inasmuch as the two angels symbolize the heavens of the Lord's spiritual and celestial kingdoms (nos. 647, 648), and the heavens do nothing of themselves, but from the Lord. For the angels in the heavens are only recipient vessels. Consequently in the spiritual sense nothing else is symbolized but the Lord's operation, here His operation into the church in the Christian world and into the works of charity and faith among the people in it. The vine, indeed, symbolizes that church, as we shall see after this in number 651, and grapes and clusters of grapes symbolize works of charity. This is the symbolism of grapes and clusters of grapes because they are the fruits of the vine in a vineyard, and fruits in the Word symbolize good works.

[2] The angel who came out from the altar told the angel who came out of the temple to thrust in his sickle and gather the grapes because, as we said before, the angel who came out from the altar symbolizes the heavens of the celestial kingdom, or heavens characterized by the goodness of love, while the angel who came out of the temple symbolizes the heavens of the spiritual kingdom, or heavens characterized by truths of wisdom; and the goodness of love does nothing by itself, but only through the truth of wisdom, and the truth of wisdom does nothing by itself, but only in response to the goodness of love. The reality of this is something we showed many times in Angelic Wisdom Regarding Divine Love and Wisdom. That is why the angel who came out from the altar told the angel who came out of the temple to thrust in his sickle and gather the clusters of grapes of the vine of the earth.

That now is why this description symbolizes the Lord's operation from the goodness of His love through the Divine truth of His Word.

[3] That grapes and clusters of grapes symbolize goods and the works of charity can be seen from the following passages:

Woe is me! ...I have become like the gatherings of summer, like the gleanings of vintage grapes; there is no cluster to eat; first-ripe fruit my soul desires. The holy man has perished from the earth, and the upright among men. (Micah 7:1-2)

Their grapes are grapes of gall, they have bitter clusters. (Deuteronomy 32:32)

My beloved had a vineyard... He expected it to produce good grapes, but it produced wild grapes. (Isaiah 5:1-2, 4)

They look to other gods, they love flagons of grapes. (Hosea 3:1)

...every tree is known by its own fruit. ...people do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they gather grapes from a bramble bush. (Luke 6:44)

...in the midst of the land... it shall be... like the gleanings of grapes when the grape harvest is done. (Isaiah 24:12-13)

If the gatherers of the grapes come to you, they will not leave any gleanings. (Jeremiah 49:9, cf. Obadiah verses 4, 5)

The plunderer has fallen on... your grape harvest. (Jeremiah 48:32-33)

You will be troubled, you complacent ones, for the grape harvest is failing, the gathering will not come. (Isaiah 32:9-10)

And so on elsewhere where the fruit of the vineyard and the fruit of the vine are mentioned.

Some goods are the goods of a celestial love, and some are the goods of a spiritual love. The goods of a celestial love are those of love toward the Lord, and the goods of a spiritual love are those of a love for the neighbor. The latter goods are called goods of charity and are those meant by the fruits of the vineyard, which are grapes and clusters of grapes. But the goods of love toward the Lord are meant in the Word by the fruits of trees, primarily olives.

[4] "For her grapes are ripe." This symbolically means, because the Christian Church has reached its last state.

The ripening of the vineyard's grapes has the same symbolic meaning as the drying of the harvest above, but a harvest is mentioned in reference to the church in general, while a vineyard is mentioned in reference to the church in particular. The drying of the harvest symbolizes the last state of the church, as may be seen in no. 645 above, and so likewise does the ripening of the grapes of the vineyard.

A vineyard symbolize the church which has the Word's Divine truth and where the Lord is thereby known, since wine symbolizes the interior truth that comes from the Lord through the Word. The vineyard here accordingly symbolizes the Christian Church.

That wine symbolizes truth springing from the goodness of love, thus from the Lord, may be seen in no. 316 above.

  
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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.

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Matthew 12

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1 At that time, Jesus went on the Sabbath day through the grain fields. His disciples were hungry and began to pluck heads of grain and to eat.

2 But the Pharisees, when they saw it, said to him, "Behold, your disciples do what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath."

3 But he said to them, "Haven't you read what David did, when he was hungry, and those who were with him;

4 how he entered into the house of God, and ate the show bread, which was not lawful for him to eat, neither for those who were with him, but only for the priests?

5 Or have you not read in the law, that on the Sabbath day, the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are guiltless?

6 But I tell you that one greater than the temple is here.

7 But if you had known what this means, 'I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the guiltless.

8 For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath."

9 He departed there, and went into their synagogue.

10 And behold there was a man with a withered hand. They asked him, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath day?" that they might accuse him.

11 He said to them, "What man is there among you, who has one sheep, and if this one falls into a pit on the Sabbath day, won't he grab on to it, and lift it out?

12 Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath day."

13 Then he told the man, "Stretch out your hand." He stretched it out; and it was restored whole, just like the other.

14 But the Pharisees went out, and conspired against him, how they might destroy him.

15 Jesus, perceiving that, withdrew from there. Great multitudes followed him; and he healed them all,

16 and commanded them that they should not make him known:

17 that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through Isaiah the prophet, saying,

18 "Behold, my servant whom I have chosen; my beloved in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my Spirit on him. He will proclaim justice to the nations.

19 He will not strive, nor shout; neither will anyone hear his voice in the streets.

20 He won't break a bruised reed. He won't quench a smoking flax, until he leads justice to victory.

21 In his name, the nations will hope."

22 Then one possessed by a demon, blind and mute, was brought to him and he healed him, so that the blind and mute man both spoke and saw.

23 All the multitudes were amazed, and said, "Can this be the son of David?"

24 But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, "This man does not cast out demons, except by Beelzebul, the prince of the demons."

25 Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said to them, "Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand.

26 If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand?

27 If I by Beelzebul cast out demons, by whom do your children cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges.

28 But if I by the Spirit of God cast out demons, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you.

29 Or how can one enter into the house of the strong man, and plunder his goods, unless he first bind the strong man? Then he will plunder his house.

30 "He who is not with me is against me, and he who doesn't gather with me, scatters.

31 Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men.

32 Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, neither in this age, nor in that which is to come.

33 "Either make the tree good, and its fruit good, or make the tree corrupt, and its fruit corrupt; for the tree is known by its fruit.

34 You offspring of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.

35 The good man out of his good treasure brings out good things, and the evil man out of his evil treasure brings out evil things.

36 I tell you that every idle word that men speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment.

37 For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned."

38 Then certain of the scribes and Pharisees answered, "Teacher, we want to see a sign from you."

39 But he answered them, "An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, but no sign will be given it but the sign of Jonah the prophet.

40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

41 The men of Nineveh will stand up in the judgment with this generation, and will condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, someone greater than Jonah is here.

42 The queen of the south will rise up in the judgment with this generation, and will condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, someone greater than Solomon is here.

43 But the unclean spirit, when he is gone out of the man, passes through waterless places, seeking rest, and doesn't find it.

44 Then he says, 'I will return into my house from which I came out,' and when he has come back, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order.

45 Then he goes, and takes with himself seven other spirits more evil than he is, and they enter in and dwell there. The last state of that man becomes worse than the first. Even so will it be also to this evil generation."

46 While he was yet speaking to the multitudes, behold, his mother and his brothers stood outside, seeking to speak to him.

47 One said to him, "Behold, your mother and your brothers stand outside, seeking to speak to you."

48 But he answered him who spoke to him, "Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?"

49 He stretched out his hand towards his disciples, and said, "Behold, my mother and my brothers!

50 For whoever does the will of my Father who is in heaven, he is my brother, and sister, and mother."