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Ezekiel 16:39

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39 And I will also give thee into their hand, and they shall throw down thine eminent place, and shall break down thy high places: they shall strip thee also of thy clothes, and shall take thy fair jewels, and leave thee naked and bare.

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Husband

  
Älteres Paar im Kücheninterieur, by Friedrich Friedländer (1825–1901)

In general, men are driven by intellect and women by affections, and because of this men in the Bible generally represent knowledge and truth and women generally represent love and the desire for good. This generally carries over into marriage, where the man's growing knowledge and understanding and the woman's desire to be good and useful are a powerful combination. In many cases in the Bible, then, "husband" refers to things of truth and understanding, much as "man" does. Magnificent things can happen in a true marriage, though, when both partners are looking to the Lord. If a husband opens his heart to his wife, it's as though she can implant her loves inside him, transforming his intellectual urges into a love of growing wise. She in turn can grow in her love of that blooming wisdom, and use it for joy in their married life and in their caring for children and others in their life. Many couples, even in heaven, stay in that state -- called "Spiritual" -- growing deeper and deeper to eternity. There is the potential, though, for the couple to be transformed: through the nurturing love of his wife the husband can pass from a love of growing wise to an actual love of wisdom itself, and the wife can be transformed from the love of her husband's wisdom into the wisdom of that love -- the actual expression of the love of the Lord they have built together. In that state -- called "Celestial" -- the husband represents love and the desire for good, and the wife represents truth and knowledge.

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Arcana Coelestia # 934

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934. 'Cold' means the absence of love, that is, of charity and faith, 'heat' or 'fire' the presence of love or of charity and faith. This becomes clear from the following places in the Word: In John, in the letter to the Church at Laodicea,

I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were cold or hot! But because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot I will spew you out of My mouth. Revelation 7:15, 16.

Here 'cold' stands for no charity, 'hot' for much. In Isaiah,

Thus said Jehovah, I will be still and I will behold in My place; like clear heat on the light, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest. Isaiah 18:4.

The subject here is a new Church that is to be founded. 'Heat on the light' and 'the heat of harvest' stand for love and charity. In the same prophet,

Jehovah's fire is in Zion, and His furnace in Jerusalem. Isaiah 3:9.

'Fire' stands for love. Concerning the cherubim seen by Ezekiel,

As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, like the appearance of torches, moving between the living creatures. And the five was bright and out of the fire went forth lightning. Ezekiel 1:13.

[2] And concerning the Lord in the same prophet,

Above the firmament that was above the heads of the cherubim, in appearance like a sapphire stone, there was the likeness of a throne, and above the likeness of a throne, there was a likeness as the appearance of a man upon it above. And I saw as it were the shape of fiery coals, as the shape of fire, within it round about, from the appearance of His loins upwards. And from the appearance of His loins and downwards I saw as it were the appearance of fire, whose brightness was round about it. Ezekiel 1:26-27; 8:2.

Here 'fire' stands for love. In Daniel,

The Ancient of Days was seated. His throne was flames of fire, its wheels were burning fire. A stream of fire issued and came forth from before Him, a thousand thousands served Him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him. Daniel 7:9-10.

'Fire' stands for the Lord's love. In Zechariah,

I will be to her, said Jehovah, a wall of fire round about. Zechariah 2:5.

This refers to the New Jerusalem. In David,

Jehovah makes winds His messengers, and flaming fire His ministers. Psalms 104:4.

'Flaming fire' stands for that which is celestial-spiritual.

[3] Because 'fire' meant love, fire also became a representative of the Lord. This is clear from 'the five on the altar of burnt offering that was to be kept burning all the time', Leviticus 6:9, 12-13, representing the Lord's mercy. For this reason 'before Aaron entered the place of atonement he had to burn incense with fire taken from the altar of burnt offering', Leviticus 16:12-14. And also, to signify that worship was acceptable to the Lord, 'fire was sent down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering', as in Leviticus 9:24, and elsewhere. In the Word 'fire' also means self-love and its attendant desire. With that love heavenly love can never agree; consequently it is also said that Aaron's two sons were devoured by fire because they employed strange fire, Leviticus 10:1-2. 'Strange fire' means all self-love and love of the world, and every desire accompanying those loves. In addition heavenly love seems to wicked people like nothing else than a burning and devouring fire; and this is why in the Word devouring fire is attributed to the Lord. The fire on Mount Sinai, for example, which represented the Lord's love or mercy, was perceived by the people as a consuming fire, as a consequence of which they told Moses not to make them hear the voice of Jehovah God, or see the great Fire lest they died, Deuteronomy 18:16. This is how the Lord's love or mercy appears to people engulfed in the fire of self-love and love of the world.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.