630. "And worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water." This symbolically means that the Lord alone is to be worshiped, because He alone is the Creator, Savior, and Redeemer, and because the angelic heaven and the church and everything in them originate from Him alone.

To worship means, symbolically, to acknowledge as holy, as may be seen in nos. 579, 580, 588, 603 above. Consequently, when said in reference to the Lord, to worship means, symbolically, to acknowledge as God of heaven and earth and to worship. To make heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water, in the natural sense means to create them, but in the spiritual sense it symbolically means to form the angelic heaven and the church and everything in them. For heaven symbolizes, in the spiritual sense, the angelic heaven; the earth and the sea symbolize in that sense the internal church and the external church (nos. 403, 404, 420, 470); and springs of water symbolize all the Word's truths that serve the church for its doctrine and life (no. 409).

[2] The Creator, Jehovah, is the Lord from eternity, and the Savior and Redeemer is the Lord born in time, thus the Lord in respect to His Divine humanity, as can be seen from beginning to end in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Lord.

Who cannot understand that one God is the creator of the universe, and that there are not three creators? And that creation has as its goal a heaven and church from the human race? (On which subject see Angelic Wisdom Regarding Divine Providence, nos. 27-45.) So it is that in the spiritual sense to make heaven and the earth means, symbolically, to form the angelic heaven and the church.

This is said for the same reason as in no. 613 above, where we explain what is symbolically meant by having the name of the Father written on their foreheads. And because that was said there, therefore it says here, "worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water."

409. And it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. This symbolically means that consequently all the Word's truths had been completely falsified.

Rivers symbolize truths in abundance, because waters symbolize truths (no. 50); and springs of water or fountains symbolize the Word (no. 384). The meaning is that the Word's truths had been completely falsified, because in the next verse we are told that a third of the waters became wormwood, and wormwood symbolizes hellish falsity (no. 410).

[2] That rivers symbolize truths in abundance can be seen from the following passages:

...I am doing a new thing... ...I will give waters in the wilderness and rivers in the desert, to give drink to My people, My chosen. (Isaiah 43:19-20)

...I will pour water on him who is thirsty, and rivers on the dry ground; I will pour My Spirit on your offspring, and My blessing on your descendants. (Isaiah 44:3)

Then... the tongue of the dumb shall sing; for waters shall burst forth in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert plain. (Isaiah 35:6)

I will open rivers in the heights, and put fountains in the midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water. (Isaiah 41:18)

(Jehovah) has founded (the world) upon the seas, ...established it upon the rivers. (Psalms 24:2)

I will set His hand over the sea, and His right hand on the rivers. (Psalms 89:25)

Was Jehovah angry with the rivers? Was Your anger against the rivers? Was Your wrath against the sea, that You rode on Your horses...? (Habakkuk 3:8)

There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God... (Psalms 46:4)

He showed me a pure river of water of life..., proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. (Revelation 22:1)

He split the rocks in the wilderness, and made the great abysses drink... ...He struck the rock..., and rivers flowed out... (Psalms 78:15-16, 20, cf. 105:41)

The waters will fail in the sea, and the river will be... dried up. (Isaiah 19:5-7; cf. 42:15; 50:2, Nahum 1:4, Psalms 107:33, Job 14:11)

(Jesus said, "If anyone comes to Me,) as the Scripture has said, out of his belly will flow rivers of living water." (John 7:37-38)

And so, too, elsewhere, such as Isaiah 33:21, Jeremiah 17:7-8, Deuteronomy 8:7.

[3] In an opposite sense, however, rivers symbolize falsities in abundance, as can be seen from the following:

(It) will send ambassadors by sea... to a nation... downtrodden, whose land the rivers have despoiled. (Isaiah 18:2)

If not for Jehovah on our side..., ...the waters would have overwhelmed us, (and) the river would have gone over our soul. (Psalms 124:2, 4-5)

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you. (Isaiah 43:2)

The cords of death surrounded me, and the rivers of Belial terrified me. (Psalms 18:5)

(The dragon) spewed water out of its mouth like a river after the woman, that it might cause her to be swallowed up by the stream. (Revelation 12:15)

...behold, Jehovah will cause to rise over them the waters of the river, strong and many..., and it will... overflow and pass through, and reach up to the neck. (Isaiah 8:7-8)

...the floods came, and... rushed upon that house; and (yet) it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. (Matthew 7:25; cf. 7:27, Luke 6:48-49)

Rivers here, too, stand for falsities in abundance, because the rock symbolizes the Lord in relation to Divine truth.

Rivers also symbolize temptations or trials, because temptations or trials are inundations of falsities.