1037. Verse 3. And he carried me away in the spirit into a wilderness, signifies into a place appearing in vision that corresponded to the state of that religious persuasion. This is evident from the signification of "wilderness," as being a state of the church in which there is no longer any good or truth (See n. 730). But as a church in which there is no longer any good or truth is not a church, it is called a religious persuasion. Also from the signification of "in the spirit," as being in vision, for what John saw in the spirit he saw in vision. To see in vision is to see such things as exist with angels in heaven, which are representative and thus significative of things spiritual. When these appear to man they do not appear before the sight of his body, but before the sight of his spirit. For the spirit of man has eyes as well as his body; but the eyes of his spirit see the things that are in the spiritual world, because all things that appear there are from a spiritual origin, and the spiritual man sees spiritual things with the understanding, and with the eyes he sees the same in a form like the natural. But the eyes of the body see the things that are in the material world, because all things that appear there are from a natural origin; and with his understanding the material man sees natural things, while with his eyes he sees the same in a material form. So when the eyes of the spirit were opened with the prophets they saw such things as represented and thus signified the celestial Divine and spiritual Divine things of the church, and sometimes such things as represented and thus signified things that were to come to pass in the churches in the future; and such were the things that John saw. He now saw a wilderness, because a "wilderness" signifies a state of the church devastated of all good and truth; and this state corresponds to the church that had become Babylon. This is why Babylon is described in many passages of the Word as a wilderness, as in the following:

Art thou he that hath made the world a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof? (Isaiah 14:17).

Babylon shall be as God's overthrowing Sodom and Gomorrah; it shall not be inhabited forever; it shall not be dwelt in even from generation to generation; that the Arabian may not abide there. The daughters of the owl shall dwell there, and the satyrs shall dance there (Isaiah 13:19-22; also Jeremiah 50:37-40; 51:2, 25-26, 37, 41-43).

Gold means good, and just as gold was the most precious metal known to ancient mankind so it represents the good of the highest and wisest of the angels. These angels foremostly love the Lord, and because they do they act from that love at all times. So the things they do are from love or as the writings for the new church often say, their acts are "goods of love". This is what gold represents. As soon as God planted the garden of Eden, He created a river in it, to water it. This river went out and branched into four, the first branch mentioned, Pishon, encompassed the "…land of Havilah, where there is gold… and the gold…is good". Another mention of gold comes in Exodus where the Lord is telling Moses how to make the Tabernacle. If you pay attention you will see that inside the tabernacle the main thing you see is gold, the boards of the wall are covered with it and all the furniture is either wood covered completely with gold, or is made of solid gold. Then at the end of the Word the holy city descends from God and it is made of gold, "gold like unto clear glass" good of love that can be clearly and completely understood. And it has its river. This is a promise from the Lord that we can come into a state similar to that of the garden of Eden, if we follow Him so as to come into love for Him, and act from that love.