In a general sense, "rod" and "staff" both represent power -- in particular, the power of true ideas coming from the Lord. There are a number of reasons for this. For one thing, rods and staves were typically branches of trees, and trees represent thoughts and ideas coming from the Lord. For another, they are held in the hand, which also represents power. Finally, it's not hard to see how sticks gave people power in primitive times. To some extent "rod" and "staff" are interchangeable, but there are subtle differences in meaning; "staff" in the original language meant more of a stick to lean on, and "rod" meant more of a stick to hit things with. When they're used together, then, "rod" represents power from a higher level of truth and "staff" the power of a lower, more external truth.

In Exodus 4:2, this signifies the power of the Lord's Divine Human -- the hand, that power from His Divine Rational, and the rod, power from His Divine Natural. (Arcana Coelestia 6947, Apocalypse Explained 518[30]) In Ezekiel 29:6, a rod signifies a weakened form of this power. (Arcana Coelestia 1085[2])

In Hosea 4:12, a rod signifies the imaginary power of their own understanding. (Arcana Coelestia 2466[10])

In Isaiah 11:4, this signifies the divine truth from which judgment comes. (Arcana Coelestia 6119[2])

705. THE INTERNAL SENSE

Here the subject in particular is the Flood, which means not only the temptations that the member of the Church called Noah had to undergo before he could be regenerated, but also the desolation of those who were incapable of being regenerated. In the Word both temptations and desolations are compared to floods or deluges of waters, and are actually called such.

TEMPTATIONS

In Isaiah,

For a brief moment I forsook you, and with great compassion I will regather you. In a deluge of wrath I hid My face ¹ from you for a moment, but with everlasting mercy I will have mercy on you, said Jehovah your Redeemer, for this is the waters of Noah to Me, to whom I swore that the waters of Noah should go no more over the earth. Thus have I sworn that I will not be angry with you and rebuke you. O afflicted one and storm-tossed, and receiving no comfort! Isaiah 54:7, 9, 11.

This refers to the Church that is to be regenerated, and to temptations which are called 'the waters of Noah'.

[2] Besides this the Lord Himself calls temptations 'a deluge', in Luke,

Jesus said, Every one who comes to Me, and hears My words and does them, is like a man building a house, who dug and went down deep, and laid the foundations upon rock; and when a deluge came, a stream broke against that house but was not strong enough to move it because it had been founded upon the rock. Luke 6:47-48.

The fact that 'a deluge' here is used to mean temptations may be clear to anyone.

DESOLATIONS

In Isaiah,

The Lord is causing to rise up over them the waters of the river, mighty and many, the king of Asshur and all his glory; and it is rising over all its channels, and will go over all its banks, and it will go through Judah, it will deluge it and pass through and will reach even to the neck. Isaiah 8:7-8.

Here 'the king of Asshur' stands for the delusions, false assumptions, and reasonings based on these, which desolate a person and which desolated the people before the Flood.

[3] In Jeremiah,

Thus said Jehovah, Behold, waters rising out of the north, they will be a deluging stream, and they will deluge the land and all that fills it, the city and those who dwell in it. Jeremiah 47:2-3.

This refers to the Philistines who represent people who adopt false assumptions and from them engage in reasonings about spiritual matters, which reasonings overwhelm a person as they did the people before the Flood.

The reason why in the Word both temptations and desolations are compared to floods or deluges of waters, and are actually called such, is that there is a similarity between the two, it being evil spirits who flow in with their persuasions and false assumptions which dwell with them and who activate the things of a like nature in man. With someone who is being regenerated they are temptations, but with someone who is not they are desolations.

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