Apocalypse Revealed # 166
166. "'Who have not defiled their garments.'" This symbolically means, who possess truths, and have not soiled their worship by evil practices and the falsities attendant on these.
Garments in the Word symbolize truths that clothe good, and in an opposite sense, falsities that clothe evil. For a person embodies either his goodness or his evilness. Truths or falsities are therefore his garments.
Angels and spirits all appear dressed in clothing that reflects the truths of their goodness or the falsities of their evilness - on which subject, see the book Heaven and Hell, published in London, nos. 177-182. It is apparent from this that not defiling their garments symbolizes their possessing truths and not soiling their worship by evil practices and the falsities attendant on these.
[2] It is apparent from the following passages that garments in the Word symbolize truths, and in an opposite sense, falsities:
Awake, awake! Put on your strength, O Zion; put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem... (Isaiah 52:1)
(Jerusalem), I clothed you in embroidered cloth, gave you sandals of badger skin, clothed you with fine linen..., and adorned you with ornaments... You were adorned with gold and silver, and your clothing was of fine linen, silk, and embroidered cloth..., (so that) you became exceedingly beautiful... But you took some of your garments and made for yourself multicolored high places, so as to play the harlot on them... You took your embroidered garments... and made for yourself male images with which you played the harlot. 1 (Ezekiel 16:10-18)
The Jewish Church is described here, as having been given truths, because they had the Word, but that they falsified them. To play the harlot means to falsify (no. 134).
[3] The king's daughter is all glorious within, (and) her clothing is woven with gold. She shall be brought to the King in embroidered garments. (Psalms 45:13-14)
The king's daughter is the church in relation to its affection for truth.
O daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed you in scarlet elegantly, and put ornamentation of gold on your apparel. (2 Samuel 1:24)
This is said of Saul because as a king he symbolized Divine truth (no. 20).
...I will visit judgment on the princes and the king's children, and on all clothed with foreign apparel. (Zephaniah 1:8)
(Your enemies) shall also strip you of your garments, and take away your adornments. (Ezekiel 23:26)
Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and was standing (thus) before the Angel, (who said) "Take away the filthy garments from him (and clothe him with other garments). (Zechariah 3:3-5)
...the king came in and saw the guests, and he saw a man... who did not have on a wedding garment. So he said to him, "Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?" (Matthew 22:11-13)
A wedding garment is Divine truth from the Word.
[4] Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing... (Matthew 7:15)
No one puts a piece of cloth from a new garment on an old garment; otherwise the new one tears (the old), and the piece from the new one does not match the old. (Luke 5:36-37)
Because a garment symbolizes truth, therefore the Lord compares the truths of the previous church, which were external and representative of spiritual ones, to a piece of cloth belonging to an old garment, while comparing the truths of the new church, which were internal and spiritual, to a piece of cloth from a new garment.
...on the thrones... twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white garments. (Revelation 4:4)
(Those who stood) before the throne... in the presence of the Lamb (were) clothed with white robes..., and they washed their robes and made their robes white in the blood of the Lamb. (Revelation 7:9, 13-14)
...white robes were given to each (of those who were under the altar). (Revelation 6:11)
...the armies (of Him who sat on the white horse) followed Him..., clothed in fine linen, white and clean. (Revelation 19:14)
[5] Because angels symbolize Divine truths, therefore angels seen in the Lord's sepulchre appeared in white and shining garments (Matthew 28:3, Luke 24:4).
Because the Lord is Divine good and Divine truth, and truths are meant by garments, therefore when He was transfigured "His face shone like the sun, and His garments became [as white] as the light" (Matthew 17:2), or "blazing white (Luke 9:29), or "shining white, like snow, such that no launderer on earth can whiten them" (Mark 9:3).
Of the Ancient of Days, which also is the Lord, it is said that "His garment was as white as snow" (Daniel 7:9).
Moreover we find the following, too, said of the Lord:
He has anointed... all your garments with myrrh, aloes and cassia. (Psalms 45:7-8)
...He washed his clothing in wine, and his vesture in the blood of grapes. (Genesis 49:11)
Who is this who comes from Edom, having sprinkled his garments from Bozrah? This One honorable in His apparel...? ...Why are You red in Your apparel? Your garments as though of one who treads in the winepress...? Their victory is sprinkled upon My garments, and I have polluted all My vesture. (Isaiah 63:1-3)
This also is said of the Lord. His garments there are the Word's truths.
...He who sat on (the white horse)...was clothed with a garment dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. (Revelation 19:11, 13)
[6] From the symbolic meaning of garments it can be seen why the Lord's disciples put their garments upon the donkey and its colt when the Lord was ready to enter Jerusalem, and why the people spread their garments on the road (Matthew 21:7-9, Mark 11:7-8), thus what is symbolically meant by this verse in the Psalms,
They divided My garments..., and over My vesture they cast lots. (Psalms 22:18)
[7] The symbolism of garments makes it apparent moreover why the people rent their garments whenever someone spoke against the Divine truth of the Word (Isaiah 37:1 and elsewhere). Also why they washed their garments in order to purify themselves (Exodus 19:14, Leviticus 11:25, 40; 14:8-9).
Someone who knows what garments symbolize in general and in particular can know what the vestments of Aaron and his sons symbolized - the ephod, the robe, the lace tunic, the girdle, the breeches, and the turban.
Since light symbolizes Divine truth, and a garment likewise, therefore we find it said in the Psalms that Jehovah covers Himself "with light as a with garment" (Psalms 104:2).
Poznámky pod čarou:
1. The last two clauses are reversed from the order in which they appear in the original Hebrew.
Matthew 21
1
When they drew near to Jerusalem, and came to Bethsphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples,
2
saying to them, "Go into the village that is opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them, and bring them to me.
3
If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, 'The Lord needs them,' and immediately he will send them."
4
All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through the prophet, saying,
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"Tell the daughter of Zion, behold, your King comes to you, humble, and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey."
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The disciples went, and did just as Jesus commanded them,
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and brought the donkey and the colt, and laid their clothes on them; and he sat on them.
8
A very great multitude spread their clothes on the road. Others cut branches from the trees, and spread them on the road.
9
The multitudes who went before him, and who followed kept shouting, "Hosanna to the son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!"
10
When he had come into Jerusalem, all the city was stirred up, saying, "Who is this?"
11
The multitudes said, "This is the prophet, Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee."
12
Jesus entered into the temple of God, and drove out all of those who sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the money changers' tables and the seats of those who sold the doves.
13
He said to them, "It is written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer,' but you have made it a den of robbers!"
14
The blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them.
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But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children who were crying in the temple and saying, "Hosanna to the son of David!" they were indignant,
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and said to him, "Do you hear what these are saying?" Jesus said to them, "Yes. Did you never read, 'Out of the mouth of babes and nursing babies you have perfected praise?'"
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He left them, and went out of the city to Bethany, and lodged there.
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Now in the morning, as he returned to the city, he was hungry.
19
Seeing a fig tree by the road, he came to it, and found nothing on it but leaves. He said to it, "Let there be no fruit from you forever!" Immediately the fig tree withered away.
20
When the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, "How did the fig tree immediately wither away?"
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Jesus answered them, "Most certainly I tell you, if you have faith, and don't doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you told this mountain, 'Be taken up and cast into the sea,' it would be done.
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All things, whatever you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive."
23
When he had come into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching, and said, "By what authority do you do these things? Who gave you this authority?"
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Jesus answered them, "I also will ask you one question, which if you tell me, I likewise will tell you by what authority I do these things.
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The baptism of John, where was it from? From heaven or from men?" They reasoned with themselves, saying, "If we say, 'From heaven,' he will ask us, 'Why then did you not believe him?'
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But if we say, 'From men,' we fear the multitude, for all hold John as a prophet."
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They answered Jesus, and said, "We don't know." He also said to them, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.
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But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first, and said, 'Son, go work today in my vineyard.'
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He answered, 'I will not,' but afterward he changed his mind, and went.
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He came to the second, and said the same thing. He answered, 'I go, sir,' but he didn't go.
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Which of the two did the will of his father?" They said to him, "The first." Jesus said to them, "Most certainly I tell you that the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering into the Kingdom of God before you.
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For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you didn't believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. When you saw it, you didn't even repent afterward, that you might believe him.
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"Hear another parable. There was a man who was a master of a household, who planted a vineyard, set a hedge about it, dug a winepress in it, built a tower, leased it out to farmers, and went into another country.
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When the season for the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the farmers, to receive his fruit.
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The farmers took his servants, beat one, killed another, and stoned another.
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Again, he sent other servants more than the first: and they treated them the same way.
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But afterward he sent to them his son, saying, 'They will respect my son.'
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But the farmers, when they saw the son, said among themselves, 'This is the heir. Come, let's kill him, and seize his inheritance.'
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So they took him, and threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.
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When therefore the lord of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those farmers?"
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They told him, "He will miserably destroy those miserable men, and will lease out the vineyard to other farmers, who will give him the fruit in its season."
42
Jesus said to them, "Did you never read in the Scriptures, 'The stone which the builders rejected, the same was made the head of the corner. This was from the Lord. It is marvelous in our eyes?'
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"Therefore I tell you, the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you, and will be given to a nation bringing forth its fruit.
44
He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but on whoever it will fall, it will scatter him as dust."
45
When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he spoke about them.
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When they sought to seize him, they feared the multitudes, because they considered him to be a prophet.
