62. And having turned, I saw seven golden lampstands, signifies a new heaven and a new church, which are in the good of love. This is evident from the signification of "having turned to see," as being to understand from illustration (See just before, n. 61); and from the signification of "seven," as being what is full and all, and as being predicated where the holy things of heaven and the church are treated of (See above, n. 20, 24); and from the signification of "lampstands," as being the new heaven and the new church (as will be seen in what follows); and from the signification of "gold," as being the good of love (See Arcana Coelestia 113, 1551-1552, 5658, 6914, 6917, 9510, 9874, 9881). That "seven lampstands" signify heaven and the church is evident from the last verse of this chapter, where it is said, "The seven lampstands which thou sawest are the seven churches." That "the seven churches" signify all who are of the church of the Lord, thus the church in general, may be seen above n. 20; they also signify heaven, because heaven and the church make one; moreover, those that have the church in them have heaven in them; for the reason that the good of love and of faith makes the church with man, and makes heaven with him, as it does with angels; consequently, those that had the church, that is, the goods and truths of the church, in them in the world, come into heaven after death. (That this is so, see The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem, n. 12; and in the work on Heaven and Hell, (Heaven and Hell 57, 221-227). The "seven lampstands" here mean the new heaven and the new church, for these are treated of at the end of Revelation (See chapter 21), and thus the conclusion of all things therein; and because that which is last is also first, the prediction respecting these is presented at the beginning. Moreover, it is also customary in the Word to mention in the beginning things that are to take place at the end, because intermediates are thus included; for, in the spiritual sense, the first is the end for the sake of which, as that is both first and last, and to it all other things look (See in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem 98).

[2] That "lampstand" signifies heaven and the church is evident from the description of the lampstand which was in the tabernacle, for by the tabernacle the whole heaven in the complex was represented; and by the lampstand therein, the spiritual heaven, which is the second heaven (See Arcana Coelestia n. 3478, 9457, 9481, 9485, 9548-9577, 9783). That this is so is clearly evident from John's seeing "in the midst of the seven lampstands one like unto the Son of man;" "the Son of man" is the Lord in respect to His Divine Human, from which is Divine truth, which is the All in all things of heaven and the church. In the spiritual heaven also lampstands appear in much magnificence; by these that heaven is represented. These it has been given me to see. From this it can be seen what is meant in the Word, in the spiritual sense, by "lampstands" and by "lamps," in the following passages. In Revelation:

I will remove thy lampstand out of its place, except thou repent (Revelation 2:5).

"To remove thy lampstand" is to take away from them heaven or the church. In Zechariah:

The angel said to the prophet, What seest thou? And I said, I have seen, and behold a lampstand all of gold, its bowl on the top of it, and its seven lamps thereon, with seven pipes to the lamps (Zechariah 4:2, 3).

Here Zerubbabel is treated of, who was to lay the foundation of the house of God, and to finish it. By Zerubbabel is represented the Lord, that He was about to come and restore heaven and the church: these are the "lampstands" and the holy truths there are "the seven lamps."

[3] Because a lampstand takes its representative meaning from the lamps, and the lamps from light, which in heaven is Divine truth, so the Lord is also called "a lamp," as in Revelation:

The holy Jerusalem hath no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it; the glory of God shall lighten ¹ it, and the Lamb is the lamp thereof (Revelation 21:23; 22:5).

From this also it is that David, and the kings after him, are called:

Lamps of Israel (2 Samuel 21:17; 1 Kings 11:36; 15:4; 2 Kings 8:19);

for the Lord in respect to His royalty was represented by David, likewise by the kings of Judah and Israel. (For the representation by "David," see Arcana Coelestia 1888, 9954; and by "kings," n. 31, above.) The lampstands that were seen were of gold; because "gold" signifies the good of love, and all that proceeds from the Lord is from Divine love; consequently the Divine of the Lord in the heavens is love to Him and love towards the neighbor, which is charity (as may be seen in the work on Heaven and Hell 13-19). This is why the lampstand here, as well as the lampstand in the tabernacle, was of gold.

Poznámky pod čarou:

Jacob is told twice that his name will now be Israel. The first time is when he wrestles with an angel on his journey to meet Esau, and the angel tells him that his name will be changed. After he is reconciled with Esau, they go their separate ways. Jacob moves to Shechem and then on to Bethel, where he builds an altar to the Lord. The Lord appears to him there, renews the covenant He first made with Abraham and again tells him that his name will be Israel (Genesis 35). The story goes on to tell of Benjamin's birth and Rachel's death in bearing him, and then of Jacob's return to Isaac and Isaac's death and burial. But at that point the main thread of the story leaves Israel and turns to Joseph, and Israel is hardly mentioned until after Joseph has risen to power in Egypt, has revealed himself to his brothers and tells them to bring all of their father's household down to Egypt. There, before Israel dies, he blesses Joseph's sons, plus all his own sons. After his death he is returned to the land of Canaan for burial in Abraham's tomb. In the story of Jacob and Esau, Jacob represents truth, and Esau good. Jacob's stay in Padan-Aram, and the wealth he acquired there, represent learning the truths of scripture, just as we learn when we read the Ten Commandments or the Sermon on the Mount. The change of name from Jacob to Israel represents the realization that what we learn should not simply be knowledge, but should be the rules of our life, to be followed by action. This action is the good that Esau has represented in the story up to that time, but after the reconciliation between Jacob and Esau, Jacob as Israel now represents the truth and the good, together. It is interesting that even after his name change Jacob is rarely called Israel. Sometimes he is called one and sometimes the other, and sometimes he is called both Jacob and Israel in the same verse (Genesis 46:2, 5, & 8 also Psalm 14:7). This is because Jacob represents the external person and Israel the internal person, and even after the internal person comes into being, we spend much of our lives living on the external level.

(Odkazy: Arcana Coelestia 4274, 4292, 4570, 5595, 6225, 6256, Genesis 2:5, 46:8)