200. Internal Meaning of Joel, Chapter 3

1 Then the church will be gathered together, (11, 17)

2 and then judgment will be executed upon those who have scattered the goods and truths of the church; (15)

4-8 upon those who are in knowledges [cognitiones] alone and in faith alone, and have thereby destroyed the truths of the Word and of doctrine. (15)

9-12 Combat of good and truth against evils and falsities at that time. (15)

13-15 Then evil is consummated. (3)

16-17 This is from the Lord, whom they will then also acknowledge, and from whom is the church. (11)

18-19 The Lord will then teach them the Word, and falsifications of the Word will be removed. (11)

20-21 Then the church will be the Lord's, and from the Word. (11)

Jerusalem, on Mount Zion, signifies the doctrine of love to the Lord, and how it governs your life. Jerusalem first comes to our attention in 2 Samuel 5, when King David takes the city from the Jebusites and makes it his capital. In the next chapter he brings the Ark of the Covenant there, and later it is where Solomon builds the temple, and his own palace. From then on Jerusalem is the center of worship of the Israelitish church. It is the place where the Lord was presented in the temple as a baby, where He tarried to talk to the priests at age twelve, where He cleansed the temple, had the last supper, was crucified and then rose. It is a central place in both the old and new Testaments. The city was built on Mount Zion, the highest point of the mountains of Judea. A city, in the Word, represents doctrine, the organized knowledge of the truths of the church. Mountains represent love of the Lord and the consequent worship. If you put those things together, Jerusalem on Mount Zion signifies the doctrine of love to the Lord, and how it governs your life. This is why David was led to make Jerusalem the most important city of the land, and why all worship was conducted there. And this is also why Jeroboam was condemned for introducing idol worship in Samaria. In the Book of Revelation, John's vision of the city New Jerusalem descending from God is a prophecy of a new dispensation of doctrine coming from the Lord.

(Odkazy: Arcana Coelestia 4539, 8938; The Apocalypse Explained 365 [35-38])