18
Sinä kuningas! Korkein Jumala antoi sinun isällesi Nebukadnessarille kuninkuuden, voiman, kunnian ja valtasuuruuden.
Daniel 5:18
Apocalypse Revealed # 913
913. Gold symbolizes the goodness of love because metals, like everything else found in the natural world, have a correspondence - gold to the goodness of love, silver to truths of wisdom, copper or bronze to the goodness of charity, and iron to truths of faith. For that reason these metals are found also in the spiritual world, since everything found there has a correspondence, inasmuch as they all correspond to the angels' affections and thoughts, which in themselves are spiritual.
That gold, owing to its correspondence, symbolizes the goodness of love, may be seen from the following passages:
I urge you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be enriched... (Revelation 3:18)
How dim the gold has become! How changed the finest gold! The stones of the sanctuary are scattered at the head of every street. The precious sons of Zion, valuable as pure gold... (Lamentations 4:1-2)
He will... save the souls of the poor... And He will give them some of the gold of Sheba. (Psalms 72:13, 15)
Instead of bronze I will bring gold, instead of iron, silver, instead of wood, bronze, and instead of stones, iron. I will also make your registration peaceful, and your tax gatherers righteous. (Isaiah 60:17)
Behold, you are wise...! No secret has been hidden from you! With your wisdom and your intelligence you have gained for yourself... gold and silver in your treasuries... You were in Eden, the garden...; every precious stone was your covering..., also gold. (Ezekiel 28:3-4, 13)
The multitude of camels shall cover you...; all those from Sheba shall come; they shall bring gold and incense, and they shall proclaim the praises of Jehovah. (Isaiah 60:6, cf. 60:9, Matthew 2:11)
...I will fill this house with glory... The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine... The glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former... (Haggai 2:7-9)
Kings' daughters are among Your precious ones. At Your right hand stands the queen in the finest gold of Ophir... Her clothing is woven with gold. (Psalms 45:9, 13, cf. Ezekiel 16:13)
You have taken vessels for your adornment from My gold and My silver that I had given you, and made for yourself male images... (Ezekiel 16:17)
...you have taken My silver and My gold, and have carried My valuable possessions into your temples. (Joel 3:5)
[2] Since gold symbolized the goodness of love, therefore when Belshazzar with his great men was drinking wine from vessels of gold taken from the temple in Jerusalem, and at the same time was praising gods of gold, silver, bronze and iron, writing appeared on the wall, and that night he was slain (Daniel 5). And so on in many other places.
Since gold symbolized the goodness of love, therefore the Ark that contained the Law was overlaid inside and out with gold (Exodus 25:11). Therefore the mercy seat and the cherubim over the Ark were also of made of pure gold (Exodus 25:17-18).
[3] Since gold symbolized the goodness of love, silver the truth of wisdom, bronze the goodness of the natural love called charity, and iron the truth of faith, therefore people in ancient times called the succeeding periods of time from the most ancient period to the concluding one the golden, silver, bronze and iron ages. A similar symbolism is exhibited by the statue that Nebuchadnezzar saw in a dream, whose head was fine gold, its breast and arms silver, its belly and thighs bronze, its lower legs iron, and its feet part iron and part clay (Daniel 2:32-33). This symbolizes the succeeding states of the church in this world, from most ancient times to the present day. The state of the church today is described in this way:
As you saw iron mixed with miry clay, they will mingle with the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, just as iron does not mix with clay. (Daniel 2:43)
Iron symbolizes the truth of faith, as we have said, yet when there is no truth of faith, but faith without truth, then it is iron mixed with miry clay, the two of which do not bond together. The seed of men with which they will mingle symbolizes the truth in the Word. This is the state of the church today. What it will be hereafter is briefly described in Daniel 2:45, but at more length in chapter 7, verses 13-18, 27.
Ezekiel 29
1
In the tenth year, in the tenth month, in the twelfth day of the month, the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2
Son of man, set thy face against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and prophesy against him, and against all Egypt:
3
Speak, and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers, which hath said, My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself.
4
But I will put hooks in thy jaws, and I will cause the fish of thy rivers to stick unto thy scales, and I will bring thee up out of the midst of thy rivers, and all the fish of thy rivers shall stick unto thy scales.
5
And I will leave thee thrown into the wilderness, thee and all the fish of thy rivers: thou shalt fall upon the open fields; thou shalt not be brought together, nor gathered: I have given thee for meat to the beasts of the field and to the fowls of the heaven.
6
And all the inhabitants of Egypt shall know that I am the LORD, because they have been a staff of reed to the house of Israel.
7
When they took hold of thee by thy hand, thou didst break, and rend all their shoulder: and when they leaned upon thee, thou brakest, and madest all their loins to be at a stand.
8
Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will bring a sword upon thee, and cut off man and beast out of thee.
9
And the land of Egypt shall be desolate and waste; and they shall know that I am the LORD: because he hath said, The river is mine, and I have made it.
10
Behold, therefore I am against thee, and against thy rivers, and I will make the land of Egypt utterly waste and desolate, from the tower of Syene even unto the border of Ethiopia.
11
No foot of man shall pass through it, nor foot of beast shall pass through it, neither shall it be inhabited forty years.
12
And I will make the land of Egypt desolate in the midst of the countries that are desolate, and her cities among the cities that are laid waste shall be desolate forty years: and I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and will disperse them through the countries.
13
Yet thus saith the Lord GOD; At the end of forty years will I gather the Egyptians from the people whither they were scattered:
14
And I will bring again the captivity of Egypt, and will cause them to return into the land of Pathros, into the land of their habitation; and they shall be there a base kingdom.
15
It shall be the basest of the kingdoms; neither shall it exalt itself any more above the nations: for I will diminish them, that they shall no more rule over the nations.
16
And it shall be no more the confidence of the house of Israel, which bringeth their iniquity to remembrance, when they shall look after them: but they shall know that I am the Lord GOD.
17
And it came to pass in the seven and twentieth year, in the first month, in the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
18
Son of man, Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon caused his army to serve a great service against Tyrus: every head was made bald, and every shoulder was peeled: yet had he no wages, nor his army, for Tyrus, for the service that he had served against it:
19
Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will give the land of Egypt unto Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon; and he shall take her multitude, and take her spoil, and take her prey; and it shall be the wages for his army.
20
I have given him the land of Egypt for his labour wherewith he served against it, because they wrought for me, saith the Lord GOD.
21
In that day will I cause the horn of the house of Israel to bud forth, and I will give thee the opening of the mouth in the midst of them; and they shall know that I am the LORD.
