904. 21:15 And he who talked with me had a gold reed to measure the city, its gates, and its wall. This symbolically means that to people who possess the goodness of love, the Lord grants a faculty for understanding and knowing the nature of the Lord's New Church as regards its doctrine and its introductory truths, and as regards the Word from which they are drawn.

He who spoke with me symbolizes the Lord speaking from heaven, because it was an angel speaking, one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls mentioned in verse 9, who means the Lord speaking from heaven (no. 895). A reed symbolizes a power or ability springing from the goodness of love - a reed symbolizing power or ability (no. 485), and gold the goodness of love (nos. 211, 726). To measure means, symbolically, to learn the character of a thing, thus to understand and know it (no. 486). The city, the holy Jerusalem, symbolizes the church in respect to its doctrine (nos. 879, 880). Its gates symbolize concepts of truth and goodness from the Word's literal sense, which are truths and goods owing to the spiritual life in them (no. 899). And the wall symbolizes the Word in its literal sense from which the doctrine and concepts come (no. 898).

It is apparent from this that "he who talked with me had a gold reed to measure the city, its gates, and its wall," symbolically means that to people who possess the goodness of love, the Lord grants a faculty for understanding and knowing the nature of the Lord's New Church as regards its doctrine and its introductory truths, and as regards the Word from which they are drawn.

[2] These symbolic meanings cannot be seen at all in the literal sense, for one sees in it only that an angel speaking with John had a gold reed with which to measure the city and its gates and wall. But even so, that these words contain another meaning, a spiritual meaning, is clearly apparent from the fact that the city Jerusalem does not mean a real city, but the church. Consequently everything said about Jerusalem as a city symbolizes such things as have to do with the church, and everything having to do with the church is, in itself, spiritual.

Such a spiritual meaning is present also in what is said in chapter 11 above, where we are told the following:

I was given a reed like a measuring rod. And the angel stood by, saying, "Rise and measure the temple of God, the altar, and those who worship there." (Revelation 11:1)

A similar spiritual meaning is present, too, in everything that the angel measured with a reed in Ezekiel 40; 41; 42; 43; 44; 45; 46; 47; 48. Also in these verses in Zechariah:

I raised my eyes and looked, and behold, a man with a measuring line in his hand. So I said, "Where are you going?" And he said to me, "To measure Jerusalem, to see what its width is and what its length." (Zechariah 2:1-2)

Indeed, such a spiritual meaning is present in everything connected with the Tabernacle and in everything connected with the Temple in Jerusalem, whose measurements we are told, and also in the measurements themselves. And yet nothing of this can be seen in the literal sense.

907. And he measured the city with the reed at twelve thousand furlongs. Its length, breadth, and height were equal. This symbolizes John shown the character of the New Church arising from its doctrine, that every part of it arose from the goodness of love.

To measure with a reed means, symbolically, to learn the character of a thing (no. 904); and because the angel measured in John's presence, it symbolizes showing it to John so that John might know it. The city here, Jerusalem, symbolizes the Lord's New Church in respect to its doctrine (nos. 879, 880). Twelve thousand furlongs symbolizes all of the goods and truths of that church. Twelve thousand has the same symbolic meaning as twelve, and twelve symbolizes all goods and truths, and is a number used in application to the church, as may be seen in no. 348 above.

Furlongs have the same symbolic meaning as any measures, and measures symbolize the character of a thing (nos. 313, 486).

The city's length, breadth and height are said to be equal in order to symbolize the fact that everything connected with that church springs from the goodness of love. For length symbolizes the goodness of love, and breadth the truth emanating from that love (no. 906), and height symbolizes goodness and truth together in every degree. For height extends from the highest point to the lowest, and the highest descends to the lowest by degrees, degrees we call degrees of height, in which the heavens exist from the highest or third heaven to the lowest or first heaven. A treatment of these degrees may be seen in Angelic Wisdom Regarding Divine Love and Wisdom, Part Three.

The equality of the length, breadth and height symbolizes that everything springs from the goodness of love because the word "length" is put first, which symbolizes the goodness of love, and the breadth is then equal to that, being thus like the length, and so, too, the height. What would it mean otherwise, that the height of the city was 12,000 furlongs, ¹ so immense as to rise above the clouds, even above the atmosphere, whose height does not exceed 30 furlongs? Indeed, it would be so immense as to rise into outer space as far as the eye can see.

That the three dimensions were equal symbolically means that everything connected with the New Church springs from the goodness of love, as is apparent from verses that follow, for we are told that the city was pure gold, like clear glass (verse 18), and that the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass (verse 21). Gold symbolizes the goodness of love.

That everything connected with heaven and the church springs from the goodness of love, and that the goodness of love comes from the Lord, will be seen in the next number.

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