Apocalypse Revealed # 405
405. And a third of the living creatures in the sea died. (8:9) This symbolically means that those who had lived that faith and continued to live it could not be reformed and receive life.
A third symbolizes all such, as said above. Creatures mean people who can be reformed (no. 290). The reason is that to create means, symbolically, to reform (no. 254). Their living means, symbolically, to be able by reformation to receive life. That they died means, symbolically, that people who live that faith alone cannot receive life. They cannot, because people are all reformed by a faith united to charity, thus by a faith accompanying charity, and none by faith alone; for charity is the life of faith.
[2] Since in the spiritual world the affections and consequent perceptions and thoughts of spirits and angels appear at a distance in the forms of animals or creatures on the earth called beasts, of creatures in the air called birds, and of creatures in the sea called fish, therefore the Word so often mentions beasts, birds, and fish, which nevertheless have precisely the meaning stated. So for example in the following places:
...Jehovah has a quarrel with the inhabitants of the land, for there is no truth or mercy or knowledge of God... And everyone who dwells in it will waste away along with the beast of the field and the bird of the air; even the fish of the sea will be gathered up. (Hosea 4:1, 3)
I will consume man and beast..., the bird of the heavens, the fish of the sea, ...the stumbling blocks along with the impious... (Zephaniah 1:3)
There shall be a great earthquake in the land of Israel, and the fish of the sea, the bird of the heavens, and the beast of the field... shall tremble before Me. (Ezekiel 38:18-20)
You have made Him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet... the beasts of the fields, the bird of the air, and the fish of the sea that pass through the path of the seas. (Psalms 8:6-8)
The latter is said of the Lord.
Pray ask the beasts, and they will teach you; or the birds of the air, and they will inform you...; and the fish of the sea will tell you. Who of all these does not know that the hand of Jehovah has done this? (Job 12:7-9)
And in many other places as well.
[3] Fish, moreover, and creatures of the sea, as they are called here, mean the affections and consequent thoughts of such people as are concerned with general truths, and so who take more from a natural source than from a spiritual one. These people are meant by fish in the preceding passages, and also in the following ones:
By My rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness; their fish stink... and die of thirst. (Isaiah 50:2)
...the king of Egypt, a great whale, you who lie in the midst of your rivers, you said, "The river is mine; I made myself..".. (Therefore) I will cause the fish of your rivers to stick to your scales..., and I will leave you in the wilderness, you and all the fish of your rivers. (Ezekiel 29:3-5)
This was addressed to the king of Egypt, because Egypt symbolizes the natural level divorced from the spiritual one, and so the fish of his rivers mean people governed by doctrines, who because of them are caught up in faith separated from charity, a faith that is simply knowledge.
Because of that separation, moreover, one of the miracles in Egypt was the turning of their waters into blood, so that the fish died (Exodus 7:17-25, Psalms 105:29).
[4] Furthermore:
Why do You make mankind like fish of the sea...? Everyone draws them up with a hook, and gathers them in a net... (Habakkuk 1:14-16)
Fish here stand for people concerned with general truths and caught up in faith divorced from charity. In contrast, fish stand for people concerned with general truths and governed by a faith conjoined with charity in Ezekiel:
He said to me: "These waters flowing to the eastern boundary... enter the sea, (from which comes) every living soul that creeps... and very much fish... ...fishermen will stand by it... with a spreading of their nets. Its fish will be of the same kinds as the fish of the Great Sea, exceedingly many. (Ezekiel 47:1, 8-10)
In Matthew:
(Jesus said,) the kingdom of heaven is like a net cast into the sea, and they gathered (fish).... And they put the good ones into vessels and threw the bad away. (Matthew 13:47-49)
And in Jeremiah:
I will bring (the children of Israel) back into their land... And I will send for many fishermen...(who) shall fish them. (Jeremiah 16:15-16)
[5] Consequently, anyone who knows that fish symbolize people and things of the kind stated, can see the following: Why the Lord chose fishermen to be His disciples, and said,
Come after Me, and I will make you fishers of men. (Matthew 4:18-19)
Why the disciples, with the Lord's blessing, caught a huge multitude of fish, and the Lord said to Peter,
Do not be afraid. From now on you will catch men. (Luke 5:2-10)
Why, when they wished to exact tribute from the Lord, He told Peter to go to the sea and draw out a fish, and to give them the coin found in it for Him and for himself (Matthew 16:24-27).
Why, after His resurrection, the Lord gave His disciples fish and bread to eat (John 21:2-13).
And why He told them to "go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature" (Mark 16:15). For the nations they were converting possessed only general truths, and were concerned more with natural things than spiritual ones.
Psalms 105
1
Give thanks to Yahweh! Call on his name! Make his doings known among the peoples.
2
Sing to him, Sing praises to him! Tell of all his marvelous works.
3
Glory in his holy name. Let the heart of those who seek Yahweh rejoice.
4
Seek Yahweh and his strength. Seek his face forever more.
5
Remember his marvelous works that he has done; his wonders, and the judgments of his mouth,
6
you seed of Abraham, his servant, you children of Jacob, his chosen ones.
7
He is Yahweh, our God. His judgments are in all the earth.
8
He has remembered his covenant forever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations,
9
the covenant which he made with Abraham, his oath to Isaac,
10
and confirmed the same to Jacob for a statute; to Israel for an everlasting covenant,
11
saying, "To you I will give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance;"
12
when they were but a few men in number, yes, very few, and foreigners in it.
13
They went about from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another people.
14
He allowed no one to do them wrong. Yes, he reproved kings for their sakes,
15
"Don't touch my anointed ones! Do my prophets no harm!"
16
He called for a famine on the land. He destroyed the food supplies.
17
He sent a man before them. Joseph was sold for a slave.
18
They bruised his feet with shackles. His neck was locked in irons,
19
until the time that his word happened, and Yahweh's word proved him true.
20
The king sent and freed him; even the ruler of peoples, and let him go free.
21
He made him lord of his house, and ruler of all of his possessions;
22
to discipline his princes at his pleasure, and to teach his elders wisdom.
23
Israel also came into Egypt. Jacob lived in the land of Ham.
24
He increased his people greatly, and made them stronger than their adversaries.
25
He turned their heart to hate his people, to conspire against his servants.
26
He sent Moses, his servant, and Aaron, whom he had chosen.
27
They performed miracles among them, and wonders in the land of Ham.
28
He sent darkness, and made it dark. They didn't rebel against his words.
29
He turned their waters into blood, and killed their fish.
30
Their land swarmed with frogs, even in the rooms of their kings.
31
He spoke, and swarms of flies came, and lice in all their borders.
32
He gave them hail for rain, with lightning in their land.
33
He struck their vines and also their fig trees, and shattered the trees of their country.
34
He spoke, and the locusts came, and the grasshoppers, without number,
35
ate up every plant in their land; and ate up the fruit of their ground.
36
He struck also all the firstborn in their land, the first fruits of all their manhood.
37
He brought them forth with silver and gold. There was not one feeble person among his tribes.
38
Egypt was glad when they departed, for the fear of them had fallen on them.
39
He spread a cloud for a covering, fire to give light in the night.
40
They asked, and he brought quails, and satisfied them with the bread of the sky.
41
He opened the rock, and waters gushed out. They ran as a river in the dry places.
42
For he remembered his holy word, and Abraham, his servant.
43
He brought forth his people with joy, his chosen with singing.
44
He gave them the lands of the nations. They took the labor of the peoples in possession,
45
that they might keep his statutes, and observe his laws. Praise Yah!
