565. And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and it went off to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. (12:17) This symbolizes the hatred ignited in those people who believe themselves wise because of their arguments in support of the mystical union of the Divine and the human in the Lord and in support of justification by faith alone, against those who acknowledge the Lord alone as God of heaven and earth and the Ten Commandments as law to be lived, and their attacking new converts with the intention of leading them astray.

All of this is contained in these few words, because they follow in sequence from those of the preceding verse, where we are told that the earth helped the woman, and opened its mouth and swallowed up the river which the dragon had spewed out of its mouth, which means, symbolically, that their reasonings flowing from falsities came to nothing (no. 564), and accordingly that they tried in vain to destroy the New Church. The dragon's being enraged with the woman symbolizes, therefore, hatred ignited and a longing for vengeance seething against the Church. The rage or wrath of the dragon symbolizes hatred (no. 558). To make war means, symbolically, to attack and assail with reasonings flowing from falsities (no. 500).

The rest of her offspring or seed who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ means newcomers who accept the doctrine regarding the Lord and the Ten Commandments. What the testimony of Jesus Christ is may be seen in nos. 6 and 490 above.

[2] The dragon here means people who believe themselves wise because of their arguments in support of the mystical union of the Divine and the human in the Lord and in support of justification by faith alone, because they pride themselves on their wisdom and know how to reason. From that pride or conceit then springs hatred, and from that hatred rage and a longing for vengeance against people who do not believe as they do. By the mystical union, also called a hypostatic union, we mean their fictions regarding the influx and operation of the Lord's Divinity into His humanity as though into another entity, their not knowing that God and man, or the Divine and the human in the Lord, are not two persons, but one, united like soul and body, in accordance with the doctrine accepted throughout the Christian world which has its name from Athanasius. But this is not the place to cite their fictions regarding the mystical union, as they are absurd.

[3] That the offspring or seed of the woman here means people of the New Church, who possess its doctrinal truths, can be seen from the symbolic meaning of offspring in the following passages:

Their offspring shall be known among the nations, and their descendants among peoples. All who see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the offspring whom Jehovah has blessed. (Isaiah 61:9)

...they are the offspring of the blessed of Jehovah... (Isaiah 65:23)

...as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make shall remain before Me..., so shall your offspring... remain. (Isaiah 66:22)

Offspring that will serve Him shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation... (Psalms 22:30)

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and the offspring (of the woman). (Genesis 3:15)

Does the one seek the offspring of God? (Malachi 2:15)

Behold, the days are coming..., (when) I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man... (Jeremiah 31:27)

If he makes His soul a guilt offering, he shall see his offspring... (Isaiah 53:10)

Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east... (Isaiah 43:5-6)

...you shall break out to the right and to the left, and your offspring will inherit the nations... (Isaiah 54:3)

I had planted you a noble vine, the offspring of truth. How then have you turned before Me into the offshoots of an alien vine? (Jeremiah 2:21)

Their fruit You shall destroy from the earth, and their offspring from among the children of men. (Psalms 21:10)

...the... seeds are the children of the kingdom... (Matthew 13:38)

The offspring or seed of Israel has the same symbolic meaning, because "Israel" is the church (Isaiah 41:8-9; 44:3). So likewise the seed of the field, in many places, because a field symbolizes the church.

On the other hand, the offspring or seed of evil people has an opposite meaning (Isaiah 1:4; 14:20; 57:3-4).

565. [repeated]. Then I stood on the sand of the sea. ¹ (12:18) This symbolizes John's spiritual state now natural, like that of people in the first or lowest heaven.

The sand of the sea symbolizes that state, because the sea symbolizes the external component of the church. We call this state spiritually natural, like the state of people in the first or lowest heaven.

John had previously been up above in heaven when he saw the dragon, its battle with Michael, its being cast down, and its pursuing the woman. But now that the dragon has been cast down, and it continues to be dealt with in the following chapter, John was conveyed down in spirit in order to see the further events involving the dragon beneath the heavens and describe them. In that state he saw the two beasts, one rising up out of the sea and the other coming up out of the earth, which he could not have seen from heaven, since it is not granted to any angel to look down from heaven into lower regions, though if he wishes, he may descend.

It should be known that a place in the spiritual world corresponds to the inhabitants' state, for no one can be anywhere else than where his state of life is found. And because John now stood on the sand of the sea, it follows that his state was now a spiritually natural one.

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6832. 'In a flame of fire from the middle of a bramble bush' means God's love present in true factual knowledge. This is clear from the meaning of 'a flame of fire' as God's love, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'a bramble bush' as true factual knowledge. The reason why 'a bramble bush' means true factual knowledge is that all shrubs of every kind mean factual knowledge, whereas actual plantations of trees, being larger, mean cognitions and perceptions. Because it produces flower and berries 'a bramble bush' means true factual knowledge. True factual knowledge that the Church possesses consists in nothing else than the Word as it exists in the sense of the letter and also every one of the Church's representative forms and meaningful signs that existed among the descendants of Jacob. These in the external form they take are called true factual knowledge; but in their internal form they are spiritual truths. But truths in their internal or spiritual form could not be made visible to those descended from Jacob, for the reason that they were interested solely in things of an external nature and had no wish whatever to know about anything internal. Therefore the Lord appeared in a bramble bush (when the Lord appears to people He does so in a way suited to the kind of people they are, for a person cannot receive the Divine in any way other than that which is a way suited to the kind of person he is); and therefore also, when the Lord appeared on Mount Sinai He appeared to the people' as a fire burning even to the heart of heaven, and as darkness, cloud, and pitch darkness', Deuteronomy 4:11; 5:22-25; also Exodus 19:18. He would have appeared in an altogether different way if the people below the mountain who beheld Him had not been the kind of people they were. And because those people were interested solely in things of an external nature, when Moses went in to the Lord on Mount Sinai, it is said that he went into the cloud, Exodus 20:21; 24:2, 18; 34:2-5, 'the cloud' being the external aspect of the Word, see Preface to Genesis 18, and 4060, 4391, 5922, 6343 (end), and also consequently representatives in the Church which are seen in outward form.

[2] The truth that the Lord appears to each individual person in a way suited to the kind of person he is may be recognized from the consideration that the Lord appears to those in the inmost or third heaven as the Sun from which light beyond description radiates, the reason being that those there are governed by the good of love to the Lord. He appears to those in the middle or second heaven as the Moon, the reason being that there they are governed by love to the Lord in a more remote and obscure way; for they are governed by love towards the neighbour. But the Lord does not appear to those in the lowest or first heaven either as the Sun or the Moon, only as Light, a light far more brilliant than light in the world. And since the Lord appears to each in a way suited to the kind of person he is, He cannot appear to those in hell as anything other than dark cloud and pitch darkness. For as soon as the light of heaven which comes from the Lord shines into any hell, darkness and thick darkness are produced there. From all this one may now recognize that the Lord appears to each individual person in a way suited to the kind of person he is, for this is suited to the way he receives the Lord. And since the descendants of Jacob were interested solely in things of an external nature, the Lord appeared to Moses in a bramble bush, and also in a cloud when Moses went in to the Lord on Mount Sinai.

[3] The reason why 'a flame' is God's love is that love in its earliest origin is nothing other than fire or flame from the Lord as the Sun. The fire or flame of this sun is what supplies each individual person with the being (esse) of his life; it is that life-giving fire which fills a person's interiors with warmth, as one may recognize from what happens with love. To the extent that love increases in a person he warms up; but to the extent that it diminishes he cools off. This explain s why, when the Lord appeared in a vision, He appeared as fire and flame, as in Ezekiel,

The appearance of the four living creatures (who were cherubs) was like burning coals of fire, like the appearance of lamps. It was moving between the living creatures as a bright fire, and out of the fire went forth lightning. Above the firmament that was over their heads, in appearance like a sapphire stone, there was the likeness of a throne, and over the likeness of a throne there was a likeness as the appearance of a man upon it, above. And I saw the shape of burning coals, as the shape of fire, within it round about, from the appearance of His loins and upwards. But from the appearance of His loins and downwards I saw as it were the appearance of fire, whose brightness was round about it. Ezekiel 1:13, 26-28.

[4] Nobody can deny that all the several details of this vision are signs that represent aspects of the Divine; but unless one knows what is meant by 'the cherubs', 'the burning coals of fire, like the appearance of lamps', 'a throne', 'the appearance of a man upon it', 'his loins from which fire emanated upwards and downwards, and the brightness radiating from the fire', one can have no knowledge of the real holiness hidden within all those several details. 'The cherubs' are the Lord's Providence, see 308; 'the throne' is heaven, or - to be exact - Divine Truth that emanates from the Lord to form heaven, 5313; 'the appearance of a man upon the throne above' is plainly the Lord's Divine Human; and 'loins' are conjugial love and all heavenly love that derives from it, 3021, 4277, 4280, 4575, 5050, 5062. This love was represented by 'the shape of burning coal, as the shape of fire, whose brightness was round about it'.

[5] In Daniel,

I saw, until thrones had been placed, and the Ancient of Days was seated. His clothing was white as snow, and the hair of His head like pure wool. His throne was a flame of fire; His wheels were burning fire. A river of five issued and came forth from before Him. Daniel 7:9-10.

The Divine Good of the Lord's Divine Love was seen in this vision too as a flame of fire. In John,

He who sat on the white horse, His eyes were like aflame of fire. Revelation 19:11-12.

'He who sat on the white horse' is the Lord in respect of the Word, as is explicitly stated in verses 13, 16, of that chapter. Thus 'the flame of fire' is Divine Truth contained in the Word, which radiates from the Lord's Divine Goodness. In the same book,

In the midst of the seven lampstands one like the Son of Man, clothed with a long robe. His head and hair were white, like white wool, like snow; but His eyes were like a flame of fire. Revelation 1:13-14.

Here also 'eyes like a flame of fire' is Divine Truth emanating from the Lord's Divine Goodness.

[6] The meaning of 'a flame of fire' as Divine Truth emanating from the Lord is also evident in David,

The voice of Jehovah falls like a flame of fire. Psalms 29:7.

'The voice of Jehovah' stands for Divine Truth. In order that Divine Truth emanating from the Lord's Divine Good might be represented, the people were commanded to make a lampstand of pure gold with seven lamps and to place it in the tent of meeting by the table where the loaves of the presence were, and to keep the lamps burning unceasingly before Jehovah, Exodus 25:31-end; 37:17-24; 40:24-25; Leviticus 24:4; Numbers 8:2; Zechariah 4:2. The lampstand with its seven lamps served to represent Divine Truth emanating from the Lord's Divine Good.

[7] In order also that Divine Good itself might be represented they were commanded to have perpetual fire on the altar,

Fire shall burn on the altar and not be put out; the priest shall kindle pieces of wood on it at every dawn. Fire shall burn unceasingly on the altar and not be put out. Leviticus 6:12-13.

The fact that the ancients were very well acquainted with the use of fire to represent Divine Love may be recognized from the spread of that representative from the Ancient Church even to nations far away whose worship was idolatrous and who, as is well known, established an everlasting sacred fire and placed in charge of it virgins, who were called the vestal virgins.

[8] In the contrary sense 'fire' and 'flame' mean filthy kinds of love, such as those of vengeance, cruelty, hatred, and adultery, and in general the cravings that spring from self-love and love of the world. This too is clear from very many places in the Word, of which let just the following be quoted: In Isaiah,

Behold, they have become as stubble, the fire has burned them; they do not save themselves from the power of the flame. ¹ There will be no coal to be warmed by [nor] fire to sit in front of. Isaiah 47:14.

In Ezekiel,

Behold, I will kindle in you a five, which will devour in you every green tree and every dry tree. The blazing flame ² will not be put out, and all faces from south to north will be scorched by it. Ezekiel 20:47.

Here 'fire' and 'flame' mean desires for what is evil and false which annihilate everything good and true in the Church, and thereby lay it waste.

[9] In Luke,

The rich man said to Abraham, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame. Luke 16:24.

People who do not know that a person's vital heat has a different origin from that which is the source of elemental fire cannot possibly do anything else but think that by hell fire is meant fire like that found in the world. In the Word however this latter kind of fire is not meant but the fire of love, thus the fire of a person's life, emanating from the Lord as a Sun. And when this fire comes among those engrossed in pursuits contrary to it, it is turned into the fire of evil desires which, as stated above, belong to vengeance, hatred, and cruelty, and which well up from self-love and love of the world. This is the fire that torments those who are in hell, for when the restraint placed on their evil desires is relaxed, one sets upon another and they torment one another in dreadful and indescribable ways. For each has the wish for supremacy and wants to take from the other the things he has by hidden or open devices. When one or two have such desires hatreds consequently develop within the group, and these lead to the savage deeds that are performed, especially by the use of devices involving magic and the use of figments of the imagination, devices which are countless and totally unknown in the world.

[10] People who do not believe in the existence of spiritual things, especially those who worship nature, cannot at all be led to believe that the warmth present in living persons, which constitutes the actual life within them, has a different origin from that which is the source of worldly heat. For they are not even aware, let alone able to acknowledge, that there is a heavenly fire radiating from the Lord as a Sun, and that this Fire is pure love. Consequently they are unaware of countless instances in the Word in which no other kind of fire is meant; nor are they aware of countless manifestations of it in the human being, who is an organ made to receive that fire.

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