In chapter 4 of the Book of Amos, verses 1-3 are talking about people who pervert the truths of the church. They will fall into falsities in outermost things.

In the Bible, fish represent "lower" things than mammals, so we can interpret the fishhooks in verse 2 as meaning being caught and held fast in natural or lower things.

Verses 4-6 are about acts of worship such as tithes and sacrifices. These look similar to genuine worship, but are only external sorts of things. We can tell because ‘teeth’ (in verse 6) represent ultimates or outermost things (see Secrets of Heaven 6380). It follows that “cleanness of teeth” would mean outermost things that look good but only imitate genuine worship. The Lord exhorts, “Yet you have not returned to me.”

Verses 7-8. Some things true will remain, when where there are too many false ideas, the truths don't get through. This can be seen where the Lord says, “I made it rain on one city; I withheld rain from another city... where it did not rain the part withered.” Again the Lord exhorts, “Yet you have not returned to me.”

Verse 9. Afterward all things of the church are falsified, shown by blight attacking the gardens, vineyards, fig tree and olive trees. The last three represent spiritual, natural and celestial things, or all the things of spiritual life. “Yet you have not returned to me,” says the Lord.

Verses 10-11. The Lord explains the devastating things he allowed to happen: plague in Egypt, death of young men by swords, stench in the camps, Sodom and Gomorrah. This is because they are profaned by sensual knowledges. Profanation means the mixing of good and evil together. (See Secrets of Heaven 1001[2]).

This extends to all things of the church, with the church being the Lord’s kingdom on earth (Secrets of Heaven 768[3]).

With profanation “as soon as any idea of what is holy arises, the idea of what is profane joins immediately to it,” (Secrets of Heaven 301).

Now there is hardly anything left. “Yet you have not returned to Me,” says the Lord again.

Verses 12-13: Because people adamantly remain in their profane ways, they are warned, “Prepare to meet your God!”. This is the God powerful and mighty, “who forms mountains, and creates the wind,” and even more close to home, “Who declares to man what his thought is.” As intimately a knowing as that is, the Lord’s love for all humanity is contained in His exhortations for them to turn themselves to Him.

See, for example, Luke 6:44-45, and True Christian Religion 373.

2227. Quod ‘Abraham ¹ essendo erit in gentem magnam et numerosam’ significet quod a Domino erit omne bonum et omne verum inde, constat a repraesentatione ‘Abrahami’ quod sit Dominus, de qua saepius supra; tum a significatione ‘gentis’ quod sit bonum, de qua n. 1159, 1258-1260, 1416, 1849, hic ‘gentis magnae et numerosae’, qua significatur bonum et verum inde; quod ² ‘magnum’ praedicetur de bono et ‘numerosum’ de vero, ex locis aliis in Verbo constare potest, sed illa nunc adducere, supersedendum. Verum inde seu verum ex bono, in sensu genuino est bonum spirituale: sunt duo bona inter se distincta, nempe bonum caeleste et bonum spirituale; bonum caeleste est amoris in Dominum, bonum spirituale est amoris erga proximum; ex illo bono seu caelesti est hoc seu spirituale, nam nemo amare potest Dominum, nisi etiam amet proximum; in amore in Dominum est amor erga proximum; nam amor in Dominum est a Domino, ita ab Ipso Amore erga diversum genus humanum; in amore in Dominum esse, est idem ac esse in Domino, et qui in Domino, non potest aliter quam esse in amore Ipsius qui est erga genus humanum, ita erga proximum; ita est ille in utroque bono, nempe in caelesti et spirituali, illud est ipsissimum bonum, hoc autem verum ejus seu verum inde, quod verum est bonum spirituale, ut dictum; illud est quod significatur per ‘magnum’, hoc autem per ‘numerosum’.

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