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Zechariah 4

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1 And the angel that spoke in me came again: and he waked me, as a man that is wakened out of his sleep.

2 And he said to me: What seest thou? And I said: I have looked, and behold a candlestick all of gold, and its lamp upon the top of it: and the seven lights thereof upon it: and seven funnels for the lights that were upon the top thereof.

3 And two olive trees over it: one upon the right side of the lamp, and the other upon the left side thereof.

4 And I answered, and said to the angel that spoke in me, saying: What are these things, my lord?

5 And the angel that spoke in me answered, and said to me: Knowest thou not what these things are? And I said: No, my lord.

6 And he answered, and spoke to me, saying: This is the word of the Lord to Zorobabel, saying: Not with an army, nor by might, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.

7 Who art thou, O great mountain, before Zorobabel? thou shalt become a plain: and he shall bring out the chief stone, and shall give equal grace to the grace thereof.

8 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

9 The hands of Zorobabel have laid the foundations of this house, and his hands shall finish it: and you shall know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me to you.

10 For who hath despised little days? and they shall rejoice, and shall see the tin plummet in the hand of Zorobabel. These are the seven eyes of the Lord, that run to and fro through the whole earth.

11 And I answered, and said to him: What are these two olive trees upon the right side of the candlestick, and upon the left side thereof?

12 And I answered again, and said to him: What are the two olive branches, that are by the two golden beaks, in which are the funnels of gold?

13 And he spoke to me, saying: Knowest thou not what these are? And I said: No, my lord.

14 And he said: These are two sons of oil who stand before the Lord of the whole earth.

   

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Apocalypse Revealed # 334

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334. As a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind. This symbolically means, by reasonings of the natural self divorced from the spiritual self.

We say that this is its symbolic meaning even though the characterization is a metaphor, because all metaphors in the Word are at the same time correspondent expressions, and they cohere in the spiritual sense with the subject being addressed.

Such is the case here. For a fig tree by correspondence symbolizes a person's natural goodness conjoined with his spiritual goodness, and here, in an opposite sense, a person's natural goodness divorced from his spiritual goodness, which is not good. Moreover, because the natural self divorced from the spiritual self corrupts by its reasonings any concepts of goodness and truth, symbolized by the stars, it follows that this is what is symbolized by a fig tree shaken by a mighty wind.

That a wind or a storm symbolizes reasoning is apparent from many passages in the Word, but because we are dealing with a metaphor, it is not necessary for us to cite them here.

A fig tree symbolizes a person's natural goodness because every tree symbolizes some element of the church in a person, and so also the person himself in respect to it. By way of confirmation we cite the following:

All the host of heaven... shall fall down, as the leaf falls from the vine, and as it falls from a fig tree. (Isaiah 34:4)

I will surely consume them... No grapes shall be on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree, and the leaf shall float down. (Jeremiah 8:13)

All your strongholds are as fig trees with their first ripe figs, which, if they are shaken, fall into the mouth of the eater. (Nahum 3:12)

And so also elsewhere, as in Jeremiah 24:2-3, 5, 8; Mark 11:12-14, 20-26; Luke 6:44; 13:6-9. In these places a fig tree has exactly this meaning.

  
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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.