191. "'I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God.'" This symbolically means that the truths they possess, springing from goodness derived from the Lord, sustain the Lord's church in heaven.

A temple symbolizes the church, and the temple of My God symbolizes the Lord's church in heaven. It is apparent from this that a pillar symbolizes what sustains and stabilizes the church, and that is the Divine truth in the Word.

In the highest sense, a temple symbolizes the Lord in respect to His Divine humanity, particularly in respect to Divine truth. In a representative sense, however, a temple symbolizes the Lord's church in heaven, and so also the Lord's church in the world.

That a temple in the highest sense symbolizes the Lord in respect to His Divine humanity, and particularly in respect to Divine truth, is apparent from the following passages:

(Jesus said to the Jews,) "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." ...He was speaking of the temple of His body. (John 2:19, 21)

I saw no temple in (the New Jerusalem), for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. (Revelation 21:22)

Behold..., the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple, and the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire. (Malachi 3:1)

I will bow myself toward Your holy temple... (Psalms 138:2)

...I will look again toward Your holy temple... And my prayer went to You, to Your holy temple. (Jonah 2:4, 7)

Jehovah is in His holy temple. (Habakkuk 2:20)

The holy temple of Jehovah or of the Lord is His Divine humanity, for it is to this that people bow, look to, and pray, and not to the temple merely, as the temple is not, in itself, holy. It is called a holy temple, because holiness is predicated of Divine truth (no. 173).

"The temple that sanctifies the gold" in Matthew 23:16-17 means nothing else than the Lord's Divine humanity.

[2] That a temple in a representative sense symbolizes the Lord's church in heaven, is apparent from the following passages:

(The) voice (of Jehovah) from the temple...! (Isaiah 66:6)

...a loud voice came out of the temple of heaven... (Revelation 16:17)

The temple of God was opened in heaven, and the ark of His covenant was seen in His temple. (Revelation 11:19)

...the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened. And out of the temple came the seven angels... And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God... (Revelation 15:5-6, 8)

I called upon Jehovah, and cried out to my God; He heard my voice from His temple... (Psalms 18:6)

I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty, and His skirts filled the temple. (Isaiah 6:1)

[3] That a temple symbolizes the church in the world is apparent from these passages:

Our holy... temple... has become a conflagration... (Isaiah 64:11)

I will shake all nations..., that I may fill this house with glory... The glory of this latter house shall be greater than the former... (Haggai 2:7, 9)

The new temple in Ezekiel 40; 41; 42; 43; 44; 45; 46; 47; 48 describes a church to be established by the Lord. A church is also meant in Revelation 11:1 by the temple that the angel measured. So likewise elsewhere, as in Isaiah 44:28, Jeremiah 7:2-4, 9-11, Zechariah 8:9.

...the disciples (of Jesus) came up to show Him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said to them, ."..Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left... upon another, that shall not be demolished." (Matthew 24:1-2)

The temple here symbolizes the church today; and its demolition means, symbolically, that not one stone would be left upon another. This symbolizes the end of that church, when not any truth would remain. For when the disciples spoke with the Lord about the temple, the Lord foretold the consecutive states of this church, even to its last one, or the end of the age; and the end of the age means the final period of the church, which is the one that exists today. This was represented by the destruction of that temple to its foundations.

[4] A temple has these three symbolic meanings, namely the Lord, the church in heaven, and the church in the world. Because these three are bound up together, they cannot be separated. Consequently one cannot be meant without the other. Therefore anyone who divorces the church in the world from the church in heaven, or the one or the other from the Lord, is without the truth.

The temple here means the church in heaven, because reference to the church in the world follows after this (no. 194).

"Turn again our captivity, O Lord, as the streams of the south." Psalm 126:4

Additional readings: Ezekiel 47:1-12, Revelation 22:1-17, Psalms 121, 124, 125, 126

This week, as usual, our nation will observe November 11 as Armistice Day. It is good to keep in remembrance the close of conflicts and the blessedness of peace and to renew our belief in the final triumph of right.

The world has entered upon a new age. No rational person can doubt it, and in the years to come this will be seen ever more clearly. All peoples look forward to a time in which oppression and poverty will be overcome. For more than a century social forces have been at work to bring about a better world, and these social forces have been contending against mighty adverse forces: individual selfishness, the love of the world and its riches, and the love of dominion. These evil forces destroy the souls of men and bring forth the pernicious theories of the super-race and the super-state, which are the supreme manifestations of selfish and worldly loves.

We should remember also that these loves are not peculiar to the nations with which those theories are especially associated. It is such selfishness that captivates and enslaves men. We can rejoice that those powers which sought - and humanly speaking very nearly with success - to subject the human race to a cruel and wicked tyranny which would have proved calamitous alike to the tyrants and to their victims were defeated. Because of the victory, freedom of religion, freedom of thought, national freedom, freedom of the press, and freedom of the individual have been preserved.

The Psalm from which our text is taken refers to Israel's captivities. Long before the children of Israel had been slaves to Pharaoh and longed for release and freedom. The Psalm brings up the picture of the Nile River flowing into the Mediterranean Sea through many streams, enriching the land and making it productive. Without the Nile, rightly called by the ancients the River of Egypt, lower Egypt would be a desert. About September thirtieth the Nile is at its height; streams and canals are full and the thirsty land is drinking in its life, and soon the parched and desert lands blossom as the rose.

The psalmist says, "Turn again our captivity, O Lord." In the letter this Scripture refers to a physical bondage. Spiritually it tells of captivity to sin. Throughout the Word the wilderness and desert are used as symbols of states of life which are barren and in which no spiritual things can survive. We read, "Make straight in the desert a highway for our God" (Isaiah 40:3, Mark 1:3). This does not mean that we are to build roads in the desert. It means that we are to bring into a life that has been made desolate the living things of God. It means that into a life made barren of good through selfishness we should bring the truth and goodness which will make life happy and abundant.

No evil or selfish person is really happy or beautiful. Though for him life may not be hard in the sense that he lacks an abundance of material things, yet it is in fact a hard life. In such a life nothing really rejoices. The man is in captivity to self. His mind is in darkness and the gentle, loving, and kindly qualities of the heart are held captive.

We read, "There is a river the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God" (Psalm 46:4). Just as the streams of the Nile make glad the people who dwell along its course, so the water of truth from the Word turns the desert of life into beauty and joy. "It shall come to pass that everything that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the rivers shall come, shall live" (Ezekiel 47:9) And the reason is given, "because their waters they issued out of the sanctuary." "Because they issued out of the sanctuary!" (Ezekiel 47:12). That is why they bring life: they are the living truths that issue out of the Word of God.

There are seasons of the soul. The Word brings forth meat for the changing seasons of the spirit. It makes childhood happy and blessed, it gives vision to the youth, strength and victory to the mature, and peace to the aged. Some are in doubt as to whether the world will ever get any better. There will always be wars, they say; men and women will always be selfish. But the Lord through His Word can enlighten the minds of men and break their captivity to self and the world. In the light of the Word one can see the Lord's operation in history; he can see that the Lord reigns over all and that, in His Divine Providence, He is leading the world forward as fast as it will let Him. If we dwell by the banks of this stream we shall not fear for ourselves or for our children, nor shall we be discouraged. It is selfishness that leads to wars and the last Great War has brought about much questioning of the self-centered, self-derived principles in which men have placed their confidence—their confidence in their ability to direct and govern their personal lives and their moral and political life.

During the last war great parts of the world were laid waste and these must be rebuilt on better lines. Yet there would be no cities laid waste if there were no waste places in the human heart. In the realm of thought and conduct a rebuilding on a vast scale is likewise called for, and we have an opportunity such as was never given before to rebuild on better and. saner lines. For there are principles now revealed upon which a new and true human society can be built. But it cannot be built without the Lord. God created man that man might know Him, learn His laws, and living according to them be blessed with happiness and peace. His laws cannot be changed because they are the laws of infinite wisdom and love. To live in violation of them can bring nothing but disaster.

The experience through which the world has passed should lead us to put deeper trust in the Lord and make us more ready to learn of Him and to do His will. It is only in this way that there can be any advancement in individual or in national life. Increased inventions and improved machinery solve some external problems but they do not make better men. Love to the Lord and to the neighbor must supplant the love of self and the world. If Christianity means anything it means the power of the Lord in the human heart to remove evil and to impart new motives. The Israelites had lived in the delta of the Nile and yearly witnessed the transformation made by the "streams of the south," as the returning sun melted the snows, filled the streams, and made the land of Egypt fruitful. So we may, if we will, be witnesses to the power of the spirit of truth from the Word flowing into the mind and heart to free the soul from captivity and make it fruitful.

The prophet writes, "O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments, then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea" (Isaiah 48:18). What the Lord has in store for the world when it turns to Him surpasses the human imagination. The Lord's Word now opened to the understanding is in the world. It is the river of life. It can bring forth the abundant harvest of everything delightful and beautiful. It can heal all our diseases. It is like those streams of the south that turn desolation into beauty and. plenty. "Turn again our captivity, O Lord." Free us from wrong thinking, from desires that lay waste our lives.

"I will hear what God the Lord will speak: for he will speak peace unto his people and to his saints: but let them not turn again unto folly. Turn again our captivity, O Lord, as the streams of the south" (Psalm 85:8).