28
Peres: sinun valtakuntasi on pirstottu ja annettu meedialaisille ja persialaisille."
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.
Lamentations 3
1
I am the man that has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.
2
He has led me and caused me to walk in darkness, and not in light.
3
Surely against me he turns his hand again and again all the day.
4
My flesh and my skin has he made old; he has broken my bones.
5
He has built against me, and surrounded me with gall and travail.
6
He has made me to dwell in dark places, as those that have been long dead.
7
He has walled me about, that I can't go forth; he has made my chain heavy.
8
Yes, when I cry, and call for help, he shuts out my prayer.
9
He has walled up my ways with cut stone; he has made my paths crooked.
10
He is to me as a bear lying in wait, as a lion in secret places.
11
He has turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces; he has made me desolate.
12
He has bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.
13
He has caused the shafts of his quiver to enter into my kidneys.
14
I am become a derision to all my people, and their song all the day.
15
He has filled me with bitterness, he has sated me with wormwood.
16
He has also broken my teeth with gravel stones; he has covered me with ashes.
17
You have removed my soul far off from peace; I forgot prosperity.
18
I said, My strength is perished, and my expectation from Yahweh.
19
Remember my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.
20
My soul still remembers them, and is bowed down within me.
21
This I recall to my mind; therefore have I hope.
22
[It is of] Yahweh's loving kindnesses that we are not consumed, because his compassion doesn't fail.
23
They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
24
Yahweh is my portion, says my soul; therefore will I hope in him.
25
Yahweh is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him.
26
It is good that a man should hope and quietly wait for the salvation of Yahweh.
27
It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
28
Let him sit alone and keep silence, because he has laid it on him.
29
Let him put his mouth in the dust, if so be there may be hope.
30
Let him give his cheek to him who strikes him; let him be filled full with reproach.
31
For the Lord will not cast off forever.
32
For though he cause grief, yet he will have compassion according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses.
33
For he does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men.
34
To crush under foot all the prisoners of the earth,
35
To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the Most High,
36
To subvert a man in his cause, the Lord doesn't approve.
37
Who is he who says, and it comes to pass, when the Lord doesn't command it?
38
Doesn't evil and good come out of the mouth of the Most High?
39
Why does a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?
40
Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to Yahweh.
41
Let us lift up our heart with our hands to God in the heavens.
42
We have transgressed and have rebelled; you have not pardoned.
43
You have covered with anger and pursued us; you have killed, you have not pitied.
44
You have covered yourself with a cloud, so that no prayer can pass through.
45
You have made us an off-scouring and refuse in the midst of the peoples.
46
All our enemies have opened their mouth wide against us.
47
Fear and the pit are come on us, devastation and destruction.
48
My eye runs down with streams of water, for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
49
My eye pours down, and doesn't cease, without any intermission,
50
Until Yahweh look down, and see from heaven.
51
My eye affects my soul, because of all the daughters of my city.
52
They have chased me relentlessly like a bird, those who are my enemies without cause.
53
They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and have cast a stone on me.
54
Waters flowed over my head; I said, I am cut off.
55
I called on your name, Yahweh, out of the lowest dungeon.
56
You heard my voice; don't hide your ear at my breathing, at my cry.
57
You drew near in the day that I called on you; you said, Don't be afraid.
58
Lord, you have pleaded the causes of my soul; you have redeemed my life.
59
Yahweh, you have seen my wrong. Judge my cause.
60
You have seen all their vengeance and all their devices against me.
61
You have heard their reproach, Yahweh, and all their devices against me,
62
The lips of those that rose up against me, and their device against me all the day.
63
You see their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their song.
64
You will render to them a recompense, Yahweh, according to the work of their hands.
65
You will give them hardness of heart, your curse to them.
66
You will pursue them in anger, and destroy them from under the heavens of Yahweh.
