7
내가 내 거룩한 이름을 내 백성 이스라엘 가운데 알게 하여 다시는 내 거룩한 이름을 더럽히지 않게 하리니 열국이 나를 여호와 곧 이스라엘의 거룩한 자인 줄 알리라 하셨다 하라
에스겔 39:7
The Inner Meaning of the Prophets and Psalms # 162
162. Internal Meaning of Ezekiel, Chapter 39
1-6 Those who are in the mere sense of the letter and in external worship, will come into the church, but will perish. These are meant by Gog. (2)
7-8 This will take place when the Lord comes and establishes the church. (3, 1)
9-10 This church will then disperse all the evils and falsities of such, (3)
11-16 and will wholly destroy them. (3, 16)
17-22 The new church that will be established by the Lord will be imbued with goods of all kinds, (11)
23-24 and the former church will be destroyed because of evils and falsities. (3)
25-29 The Lord will then gather together a church from all nations. (11)
True Christian Religion # 306
306. In the spiritual sense honouring one's father and mother means reverencing and loving God and the church. In this sense father means God, who is the Father of all, and mother means the church. Children and angels in the heavens know of no other father or mother, since the Lord causes them to be born anew there by means of the church. This is why the Lord says:
Do not call anyone on earth your father, for you have one Father, who is in the heavens, Matthew 23:9.
This is said for the benefit of children and angels in heaven, not for children and people on earth. The Lord teaches the same lesson in the prayer shared by all Christian churches: 'Our Father in the heavens, may your name be hallowed.'
The reason why mother in the spiritual sense means the church, is that just as a mother on earth feeds her children with natural food, so the church does with spiritual food. This too is why in the Word the church is frequently called mother. For instance, in Hosea:
Strive with your mother; she is not my wife, and I am not her husband, Hosea 2:2, 5.
In Isaiah:
Where is the divorce document of your mother, whom I have sent away? Isaiah 50:1; also Ezekiel 16:45; 19:10.
And in the Gospels:
Jesus, stretching out his hand to the disciples, said, My mother and my brothers are those who hear the Word of God, and do it, Matthew 12:49-50; Mark 3:33-35; Luke 8:21; John 19:25-27.
