496. These have power to shut heaven, so that no rain falls in the days of their prophecy. (11:6) This symbolically means that people who turn away from these two essential elements of the New Church cannot receive any truth from heaven.

Heaven here means the angelic heaven. Thus the rain symbolizes truth for the church from there. Consequently to close heaven so that no rain falls means, symbolically, that people cannot receive any truth for the church from heaven. Truth for the church from heaven is doctrinal truth from the Word.

We are told that the two witnesses have the power to shut heaven, but as in no. 494 above, the meaning here is not that they have that power, but that people who turn away from the two essential elements of the New Church close heaven to themselves, because they continue to be caught up in their falsities.

That rain symbolizes Divine truth from heaven is clear from the following passages:

My doctrine shall drop as the rain, My word shall fall as the dew... (Deuteronomy 32:2)

(If) you... serve other gods..., (Jehovah will) shut up heaven so that there be no rain... (Deuteronomy 11:16-17, see also 11:11, 11:14)

I will lay waste (My vineyard).... I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain on it. (Isaiah 5:6)

The showers have been withheld, and there has been no late rain. Yet you continue to have a harlot's forehead... (Jeremiah 3:3)

For as the rain comes down... from heaven..., so shall My word (go) forth from My mouth. (Isaiah 55:10-11)

Rejoice then, you children of Zion, and be glad in Jehovah... For He has given you seasonable rain in righteousness. (Joel 2:23)

You have caused to drop, O God, a kindly rain... (Psalms 68:9)

He shall come down like rain upon the grass of the meadow... In His days the righteous shall flourish... (Psalms 72:6-7)

He will come to us as rain, as the late... rain waters the earth. (Hosea 6:3)

...my word shall rain down on them, and they will wait for me as for the rain, and they will open their mouth for the late rain. (Job 29:22-23)

Son of man, say...: "You are a land that is not cleansed, which will have no rain in the day of wrath. There is a conspiracy of her prophets in her midst... (Ezekiel 22:24-25)

And so on elsewhere, as in Isaiah 30:23; Jeremiah 5:24; 10:12-13; 14:3-4; 51:16.

A flooding rain stands for the destruction of truth in Ezekiel 13:11, 13-14; 38:22. For temptation or trial in Matthew 7:24-27.

4307. In the internal historical sense 'Jacob asked and said, Tell me, I pray, your name' means evil spirits. This becomes clear from many connections in this sense, in which these words and those that follow have reference to the descendants of Jacob; for the meaning in the internal sense depends on the specific subject under discussion. For not good spirits but evil ones are meant by him who wrestled with Jacob, as becomes clear from the consideration that 'wrestling' means temptation, 3927, 3928, 4274; and no temptation is ever carried out by good spirits, only by evil ones. For temptation consists in the activation of the evil and falsity residing with a person, 741, 751, 761, 1820, 4249, 4299. Good spirits and angels never activate evils and falsities but defend a person against them and turn them to good; for good spirits are led by the Lord, and from the Lord nothing except holy good and holy truth ever proceeds. The Lord does not tempt anyone, as is well known from teaching accepted in the Church; see also 1875, 2768. From this and also from the fact that the descendants of Jacob gave in to every temptation not only in the desert but also after that, it is evident that they were not good spirits but evil ones who are meant by him who wrestled with Jacob. What is more, the nation meant by 'Jacob' here was not governed by any spiritual or celestial love, only by bodily and worldly love, 4281, 4288-4290, 4293. The spirits present with any people depend on the loves governing those people, good spirits and angels being present with those who are governed by spiritual or celestial love, evil spirits with those who are governed solely by bodily or worldly love. So true is this that anyone can know which kind of spirits are present with him merely by noting the nature of his own loves, or what amounts to the same, the nature of his ends in view, since everyone has that which he loves as his end in view.

[2] The reason the one who wrestled with him called himself 'God' is Jacob's own belief that he was. In this he was like his descendants who believed unceasingly that Jehovah was present in their holy external observances, when in fact Jehovah was present solely in what these represented, as will be clear from what follows below. They also believed that Jehovah led them into temptations, was the author of all evil, and was full of anger and fury whenever they were punished. It is because they believed He was like this that such descriptions of Him appear in the Word, when in actual fact Jehovah never leads anyone into temptations, is never the author of anything evil, and is never full of anger, still less of fury, see 223, 245, 592, 696, 1093, 1683, 1874, 1875, 2395, 3605, 3607, 3614. This also explains why the one who wrestled with Jacob was unwilling to reveal his name. The reason why in the internal spiritual sense the one who wrestled with Jacob is used to mean the angelic heaven, 4295, is that the Lord, who in the highest sense is there represented by 'Jacob', allowed even angels to enter in and tempt Him, and that the angels were in that case left alone to their proprium, as has been shown in the paragraph just referred to.