829. He treads the winepress of the fury and wrath of Almighty God. This symbolically means that the Lord alone has endured all the church's evils and all the violence done to the Word, thus to Him.

The wine of the fury and wrath of God symbolizes the church's goods and truths that it has from the Word, profaned and adulterated, thus the church's evils and falsities (nos. 316, 632, 635, 758). To tread the press of that wine symbolizes to endure those evils and falsities, to fight against them and condemn them, and thus to free angels in heaven and people on earth from being assailed by them. For the Lord came into the world in order to conquer the hells, which had by then risen up to the point that they were beginning to assail the angels, and He conquered them by combats against them, thus through temptations or trials. For spiritual temptations or trials are nothing else than combats against the hells. And because every person associated with spirits in respect to his affections and consequent thoughts - an evil person with spirits from hell, and a good one with angels from heaven - therefore when the Lord conquered the hells, He freed from assault not only angels in heaven, but also people on earth.

[2] This is consequently what is symbolized by these declarations in Isaiah:

...He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows... He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities... and by His wound we were healed... Jehovah has caused to fall on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed..., He was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of My people, a plague upon them... He has... made His soul guilty... (Isaiah 53:4-10)

The subject here is the Lord and His temptations or trials by the hells, and lastly by the Jews who crucified Him.

The Lord's combats are also described in Isaiah 63:1-10, where we also find the following declarations:

...Your garments like those of one who treads in the winepress. I have trodden the winepress alone... (Isaiah 63:2-3)

This symbolically means that the Lord endured the church's evils and falsities, and all the violence done to the Word, thus to Himself, alone.

We say "the violence done to the Word, thus to Himself," because the Lord embodies the Word, and violence was done to the Word and to the Lord Himself by the Roman Catholic religion and by the faith-alone religion among the Protestant Reformed. The Lord endured the evils and falsities of both when He executed the Last Judgment, by which He conquered the hells again. If He had not conquered them again, no flesh could have been saved, as He Himself says in Matthew 24:21-22. ¹

Poznámky pod čarou:

635. 14:10 "He himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed with pure wine in the cup of His indignation." This symbolically means that they falsify the Word's goods and truths and steep themselves in a life in accordance with their falsification of them.

This is the symbolic meaning of this declaration, because the wine of the wrath of God mixed with pure wine symbolizes the Word's truth falsified. The cup of His indignation symbolizes truth which leads to good, likewise falsified. And to drink means, symbolically, to adopt these falsified truths, or to steep oneself in a life in accordance with them.

That wine symbolizes the Word's truth may be seen in no. 316. That the wine of the wrath of God symbolizes the Word's truth adulterated and falsified may be seen in no. 632. Being mixed with pure wine clearly symbolizes its falsification. The cup also has the same symbolic meaning as the wine, because the cup is its containing vessel.

To drink means, symbolically, to steep one's life in the falsifications, because this declaration is made to people who live in accordance with the doctrine of justification by faith alone, as may be seen just above in no. 634.

Mixing wine, or wine mixed, symbolizes the falsification of truth also in the book of Psalms:

...in the hand of Jehovah there is a cup, and He has mixed it with wine; He has filled it with mixed wine and poured it out, and... all the impious of the earth shall drink it. (Psalms 75:8)

[2] The Word in many places mentions wrath and indignation together, and wrath there is predicated of evil, while indignation is predicated of falsity, because people caught up in evil are wrathful, while people caught up in falsity are indignant. Both characteristics, moreover, are in the Word attributed to Jehovah, that is, to the Lord, but it means that someone is wrathful or indignant at the Lord (see no. 525 above).

That the Word mentions wrath and indignation together is apparent from the following passages there:

...Jehovah comes... with indignation and wrath... ...the earth will move out of her place... in the day (of the indignation) of His wrath. (Isaiah 13:5, 9, 13)

...Assyria, the rod of My wrath... I will order him... against the people of My indignation (Isaiah 10:4-7)

I... will fight against you... in wrath... and in... indignation. (Jeremiah 21:5)

Behold, I am gathering them... in My wrath and in My indignation... (Jeremiah 32:37)

...the wrath of Jehovah is against all nations, and His indignation against the whole host of them. (Isaiah 34:2)

...Jehovah... will repay in His indignation and wrath... (Isaiah 66:15)

I have trodden down the peoples in My wrath, and made them drunk in My indignation... (Isaiah 63:6)

...My wrath and My indignation will be poured out on this place... (Jeremiah 7:20)

And so on elsewhere, as in Jeremiah 33:5, Ezekiel 5:13, Deuteronomy 29:28. Also the indignation of wrath, Isaiah 13:13.

But in Isaiah:

Only in Jehovah... righteousness and strength... And all shall be ashamed who are indignant against Him. (Isaiah 45:24)