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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 # 335

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335. Then the sky departed like a book rolled up. (6:14) This symbolizes the people's separation from heaven and conjunction with hell.

The text says that the sky departed like a book rolled up because a person's inner intellect and thus thought is as the sky or a kind of heaven, for his intellect can be raised into the light of heaven and can think about God, love and faith, and eternal life on the same elevated level as angels. But if his will is not raised at the same time into the warmth of heaven, the person is not yet united with the angels of heaven, thus is not a kind of heaven. The reality of this may be seen in Angelic Wisdom Regarding Divine Love and Wisdom, Part Five.

Through this faculty of the intellect, the evil people who are the subject here could be associated with angels of the lowest heaven. But when the two were separated, their heaven then departed, like a book rolled up.

A book rolled up means a parchment rolled up, since their books were scrolls of parchment, and the comparison is made with a book, since a book also means the Word (no. 256). Consequently, when it is rolled up like a scroll, whatever it contains is not visible, and it is as though gone.

Something similar is accordingly said in Isaiah:

All the host of heaven shall waste away, and the heavens shall be rolled up like a book, and... it falls down as the leaf falls... from a fig tree. (Isaiah 34:4)

The host of heaven is the church's goods and truths from the Word (no. 447).

It can be seen from this that "the sky departed like a book rolled up" symbolizes separation from heaven and conjunction with hell. That separation from heaven means conjunction with hell, is apparent.

  
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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.