Apocalypse Revealed # 492
492. "Clothed in sackcloth." This symbolizes the grief experienced meanwhile over the truth's not being accepted.
Being clothed in sackcloth symbolizes grief over the destruction of truth in the church, for garments symbolize truths (nos. 166, 212, 328, 378, 379). Consequently to be clothed in sackcloth, which is not a garment, symbolizes grief over the lack of truth, and where there is no truth, there is no church.
The children of Israel represented grief in various ways, which, because of their correspondence, were symbolic. For example, they would put ash on their heads, roll around in the dust, sit on the ground for a long time in silence, shave themselves, beat their breasts and wail, rend their garments, and also clothe themselves in sackcloth, and so on. Each action symbolized some evil in the church among them for which they were being punished. Then, when they were being punished, they put on a representation of repentance in these ways, and because of their representation of repentance, and at the same time then of their humbling themselves, they were heard.
[2] That putting on sackcloth represented grief over the destruction of truth in the church may be seen from the following passages:
The lion has come up from his thicket... He has gone forth from his place to make your land desolate... For this, clothe yourself with sackcloth, lament, wail. (Jeremiah 4:7-8)
O daughter of my people, gird yourself in sackcloth and roll about in ashes! ...For the destroyer will suddenly come upon us. (Jeremiah 6:26)
Woe to you, Chorazin (and) Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented... in sackcloth and ashes. (Matthew 11:21, Luke 10:13)
After the king of Nineveh heard the words of Jonah, he "laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes." Moreover, he proclaimed a fast and ordered that "man and beast be covered with sackcloth." (Jonah 3:5-8)
And so on elsewhere, as in Isaiah 3:24; 15:2-3; 22:12; 37:1-2; 50:3; Jeremiah 48:37-38; 49:3; Lamentations 2:10; Ezekiel 7:17-18; 27:31; Daniel 9:3; Joel 1:8, 13; Amos 8:10; Job 16:15-16; Psalms 30:11; Psalms 35:13; 69:10-11; 2 Samuel 3:31; 1 Kings 21:27; 2 Kings 6:30; 19:1-2.
Job 15
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Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,
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"Should a wise man answer with vain knowledge, and fill himself with the east wind?
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Should he reason with unprofitable talk, or with speeches with which he can do no good?
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Yes, you do away with fear, and hinder devotion before God.
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For your iniquity teaches your mouth, and you choose the language of the crafty.
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Your own mouth condemns you, and not I. Yes, your own lips testify against you.
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"Are you the first man who was born? Or were you brought forth before the hills?
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Have you heard the secret counsel of God? Do you limit wisdom to yourself?
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What do you know, that we don't know? What do you understand, which is not in us?
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With us are both the gray-headed and the very aged men, much elder than your father.
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Are the consolations of God too small for you, even the word that is gentle toward you?
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Why does your heart carry you away? Why do your eyes flash,
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That you turn your spirit against God, and let such words go out of your mouth?
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What is man, that he should be clean? What is he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?
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Behold, he puts no trust in his holy ones. Yes, the heavens are not clean in his sight;
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how much less one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks iniquity like water!
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"I will show you, listen to me; that which I have seen I will declare:
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(Which wise men have told by their fathers, and have not hidden it;
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to whom alone the land was given, and no stranger passed among them):
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the wicked man writhes in pain all his days, even the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor.
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A sound of terrors is in his ears. In prosperity the destroyer shall come on him.
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He doesn't believe that he shall return out of darkness. He is waited for by the sword.
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He wanders abroad for bread, saying, 'Where is it?' He knows that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.
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Distress and anguish make him afraid. They prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle.
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Because he has stretched out his hand against God, and behaves himself proudly against the Almighty;
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he runs at him with a stiff neck, with the thick shields of his bucklers;
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because he has covered his face with his fatness, and gathered fat on his thighs.
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He has lived in desolate cities, in houses which no one inhabited, which were ready to become heaps.
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He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue, neither shall their possessions be extended on the earth.
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He shall not depart out of darkness. The flame shall dry up his branches. By the breath of God's mouth shall he go away.
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Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself; for emptiness shall be his reward.
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It shall be accomplished before his time. His branch shall not be green.
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He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine, and shall cast off his flower as the olive tree.
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For the company of the godless shall be barren, and fire shall consume the tents of bribery.
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They conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity. Their heart prepares deceit."
