350. Of the tribe of Judah twelve thousand were sealed. (7:5) This symbolizes celestial love, which is love toward the Lord, and this in all those people who will be in the Lord's New Heaven and New Church.

In the highest sense Judah symbolizes the Lord in relation to celestial love; in the spiritual sense, the Lord's celestial kingdom and the Word; and in the natural sense, the doctrine of a celestial church drawn from the Word. Here, however, Judah symbolizes celestial love, which is love toward the Lord; and because it is named first in the series, it symbolizes that love in all those people who will be in the New Heaven and in the Lord's New Church. For the tribe named first is everything in the rest, being to them as though their head and serving as a universal property entering into all those that follow, tying them together, qualifying them and affecting them. This property is love toward the Lord.

To be shown that twelve thousand symbolizes all who possess that love, see no. 348 above.

[2] People know that after the death of Solomon the twelve tribes of Israel were divided into two kingdoms: the kingdom of Judah and the kingdom of Israel. The kingdom of Judah represented the celestial kingdom or the Lord's priestly kingdom, while the kingdom of Israel represented the spiritual kingdom or the Lord's royal kingdom. But the latter was destroyed when the people had nothing spiritual left in them, whereas the kingdom of Judah was preserved, for the sake of the Word, and because the Lord would be born there. However, when the people adulterated the Word completely, and thus could not recognize the Lord, then their kingdom was destroyed.

It can be seen from this that the tribe of Judah symbolizes celestial love, which is love toward the Lord. But because the people were of the character they were with respect to the Word and with respect to the Lord, the tribe of Judah symbolizes also the opposite love, which is love of self - properly speaking, a love of dominating springing from a love of self - a love which we call diabolical love.

[3] The fact that Judah and his tribe symbolize the celestial kingdom and its love, which is love toward the Lord, follows from these passages:

Judah, your brothers shall praise you... The scepter shall not be taken from Judah... until Shiloh comes; and to Him shall be the obedience of the people. Binding his donkey's foal to the vine, his donkey's colt to the choice vine, he washes his garment in wine... His eyes are redder than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk. (Genesis 49:8-12)

...David shall be their prince forever, and I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them..., and I will set My sanctuary in their midst forevermore. (Ezekiel 37:25-26)

Exult and rejoice, O daughter of Zion! ...Jehovah will make Judah an inheritance for Himself, His portion on the holy land. (Zechariah 2:10-12)

O Judah, celebrate your feasts, perform your vows. For Belial ¹ shall no more pass through you; he is utterly cut off. (Nahum 1:15)

The Lord... will suddenly come to His temple... Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be sweet to Jehovah as in the days of old... (Malachi 3:1, 4)

Judah shall abide forever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation. (Joel 3:20)

Behold, the days are coming..., that I will raise to David a righteous Branch... In His days Judah will be saved... (Jeremiah 23:5-6)

I will bring forth offspring from Jacob, and from Judah an heir of My mountains, that My elect may possess it... (Isaiah 65:9)

Judah became His sanctuary, and Israel His dominion. (Psalms 114:2)

Behold, the days are coming..., when I will make a new covenant... with the house of Judah... ...this will be the covenant...: I will put My law within them, and write it on their heart... (Jeremiah 31:27, 31, 33-34)

In those days ten men... shall grasp the sleeve of a Jewish man, saying, "We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you." (Zechariah 8:23)

...as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make shall remain before Me..., so shall your offspring and your name remain.

Kings (of the nations) shall be your foster fathers, their princesses your nursing mothers. They shall bow down to you, their faces to the ground, and lick the dust of your feet. (Isaiah 66:22; 49:23)

[4] From these and many other passages, which we do not have the space to cite because of their number, it can be clearly seen that Judah means not Judah but the church. We are told, for example, that the Lord would make a new and eternal covenant with that nation, that He would make it His heir and His sanctuary forevermore, and that kings of the nations and their princesses would bow down to them, licking the dust of their feet, and so on.

[5] That the tribe of Judah, regarded in itself, means the diabolic kingdom, which is one of a love of dominating springing from a love of self, can be seen from the following passages:

I will hide My face from them, I will see what their posterity will be. ...they are a perverse generation, children in whom is no faith... ...they are a nation void of counsel... ...their vine is of the vine of Sodom and of the fields of Gomorrah; its grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter. Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps. Is this not laid up in store with Me, sealed up in My treasuries? (Deuteronomy 32:20-34)

(Know that) it is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart... that Jehovah... is... giving you (the land of Canaan)..., for you are a stiff-necked people. (Deuteronomy 9:5-6)

...according to the number of your cities have been your gods, O Judah... ...according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem you have set up altars... to burn incense to Baal. (Jeremiah 2:28; 11:13)

You are of your father the devil, and you choose to do the desires of your father. (John 8:44)

Jews are said to be full of hypocrisy, iniquity, and uncleanness (Matthew 23:27-28.

Poznámky pod čarou:

790. 18:20 "Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you holy apostles and prophets, for God has visited your judgment on her!" This symbolically means, so that angels in heaven, and people in the church who possess goods and truths from the Word, now rejoice at heart that those caught up in the evils and falsities of the Roman Catholic religion have been removed and cast out.

Rejoice over her, O heaven, symbolically means, so that angels in heaven now rejoice at heart, for rejoicing is a joy of the heart. And you holy apostles and prophets means, symbolically, together with them, also people in the church who possess goods and truths from the Word - apostles symbolizing people who possess the church's goods and consequent truths from the Word, and abstractly the church's goods themselves and consequent truths themselves from the Word (no. 79), and prophets symbolizing truths springing from goodness from the Word (nos. 8, 133). They are called holy because, as we said, apostles and prophets symbolize abstractly the Word's goods and truths, which in themselves are holy, being the Lord's (nos. 586, 666). For God has visited your judgment on her, symbolically means, because those caught up in the evils and falsities of the Roman Catholic religion have been removed and cast out. That no others are meant may be seen in no. 786 above.

The joy of angels in heaven over the removal and casting down of people caught up in the evils and falsities of the Roman Catholic religion is the subject of the next chapter, verses 1 to 9. Here they are only told to rejoice. The angels' joy, however, is not a joy because of these people's damnation, but because of the new heaven and new church, and the salvation of the faithful, which could not come into being before the aforesaid people were removed, whose removal is achieved and was achieved by a last judgment, something that will be seen in our exposition of verses 7 to 9 of the next chapter.

It can be seen from this that "Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you holy apostles and prophets, for God has visited your judgment on her!" symbolically means that angels in heaven, and people in the church who possess goods and truths from the Word, should now rejoice at heart that those caught up in the evils and falsities of the Roman Catholic religion have been removed and cast out.

Who cannot see that it is not the apostles and prophets found in the Word that are meant here? They were few in number and men no better than others. But the apostles and prophets meant here are all in the Lord's church who possess goods and truths from the Word, as are meant also by the twelve tribes of Israel, as explained in no. 349 above. The apostle Peter means the church's truth or faith; the apostle James the church's charity; and the apostle John the charitable works of the people in the church.