316. "And do not harm the oil and the wine." This symbolizes the Lord's provision that they not violate and profane the goods and truths concealed inwardly in the Word.

Oil symbolizes the goodness of love, and wine the truth springing from that goodness. Thus the oil here symbolizes sacred goodness, and the wine sacred truth. The Lord's provision that these not be violated and profaned is symbolized by the people's being told not to harm them. For this instruction came from the midst of the four living creatures, thus from the Lord (no. 314). Whatever the Lord says He also provides. That this is something He provides may be seen in nos. 314 and 255 above.

That oil symbolizes the goodness of love - this we will see in nos. 778, 779 below.

That wine symbolizes the truth springing from that goodness is clear from the following passages:

Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Yes..., buy wine and milk without money... (Isaiah 55:1)

It shall come to pass in that day that the mountains will drip new wine, and the hills flow with milk... (Joel 3:18, cf. Amos 9:13-14)

Joy is taken away... from Carmel, and in the vineyards there will be no singing... No treaders will tread out wine in the presses; I have made their shouting cease. (Isaiah 16:10, cf. Jeremiah 48:32-33)

Carmel symbolizes the spiritual church, because it had vineyards there.

[2] ...wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the new wine, for it has been cut off from your mouth... The vinedressers have wailed... (Joel 1:5, 10-11)

Almost the same images occur in Hosea 9:2-3.

He washes his clothing in wine, and His vesture in the blood of grapes. His eyes are red with wine... (Genesis 49:11-12)

The subject is the Lord, and the wine symbolizes Divine truth. That is why the Lord instituted the Holy Supper, in which the bread symbolizes the Lord in respect to Divine good, and the wine the Lord in respect to Divine truth; and in their recipients the bread symbolizes a sacred goodness, and the wine sacred truth, received from the Lord. Therefore He said,

I say to you, that I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you... in My Father's kingdom. (Matthew 26:29, cf. Luke 22:18)

Because bread and wine have these symbolic meanings, so too Melchizedek, going to meet Abram, brought out bread and wine, he being a priest of God Most High, and he blessed Abram (Genesis 14:18-19).

[3] The grain offering and drink offering used in sacrifices had similar symbolic meanings, as described in Exodus 29:40, Leviticus 23:12-13, 18-19ff. The grain offering was an offering of wheat flour, thus taking the place of bread, and the drink offering was an offering of wine.

It can be seen from this what these words of the Lord symbolize:

Nor do they put new wine into old wineskins... But they put the... wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved. (Matthew 9:17, cf. Luke 5:37-38)

New wine is the Divine truth in the New Testament, thus in the New Church, and the old wine is the Divine truth in the Old Testament, thus in the old church.

A similar idea is symbolized by these words of the Lord at the wedding in Cana of Galilee:

Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior. You have kept the good wine until now! (John 2:1-10)

[4] Something similar is symbolized by the wine in the Lord's parable concerning the man wounded by thieves, on whose wound the Samaritan poured oil and wine (Luke 10:33-34); for the man wounded by thieves means people whom the Jews wounded spiritually by evils and falsities, and to whom the Samaritan brought aid by pouring oil and wine on their wounds, that is, by teaching them goodness and truth, and as far as possible, healing them.

Sacred truth is symbolized by wine and new wine also elsewhere in the Word, as in Isaiah 1:21-22; 25:6; 36:17.

[5] Because of this, a vineyard in the Word symbolizes a church that possesses truths from the Lord.

That wine symbolizes sacred truth can be seen also from its opposite meaning, in which it symbolizes truth falsified and profaned, as in the following places:

Harlotry, wine, and new wine have taken hold of the heart... Their wine is gone, they commit harlotry continually. (Hosea 4:11, 18)

Harlotry symbolizes the falsification of truth, and so, too, do the wine and new wine here.

...in the hand of Jehovah a cup, and He mixed it with wine; He filled it with the mixture and poured it out, and its dregs shall all the wicked of the earth, sucking, drink. (Psalms 75:8)

Babylon was a golden cup in Jehovah's hand, that made all the earth drunk. The nations drank her wine; therefore they are deranged. (Jeremiah 51:7)

Babylon has fallen..., because she has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication... If anyone worships the beast..., he shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed with undiluted wine in the cup of the wrath (of God). (Revelation 14:8-10)

(Babylon has made) all the nations (drink) of the wine... of her fornication. (Revelation 18:3)

...great Babylon was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of the fury of His wrath. (Revelation 16:19)

...the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication. (Revelation 17:1-2)

[6] The wine that Belshazzar, the king of Babylon, and his lords and wives and concubines drank from the vessels of the Temple in Jerusalem, while they praised the gods of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone (Daniel 5:2-4) - that wine symbolized nothing else but the sacred truth of the Word and church profaned, which is why the writing then appeared on the wall, and the king that very night was slain (Daniel 5:25, 30)

Wine symbolizes truth falsified also in Isaiah 5:11-12, 21-22; 28:1, 3, 7; 29:9; 56:11-12.

The drink offering that they poured out as an offering to idols has the same symbolic meaning in Isaiah 65:11; 57:6; Jeremiah 7:18; 44:17-19; Ezekiel 20:28; Deuteronomy 32:38.

It is owing to its correspondence that wine symbolizes sacred truth, and in an opposite sense, truth profaned. For when a person reads "wine" in the Word, angels - who apprehend everything spiritually - have just this interpretation of it. Such is the correspondence between the natural thoughts of people and the spiritual thoughts of angels. The case is the same with the wine in the Holy Supper. That is why the Holy Supper occasions an introduction into heaven (no. 224 at the end).

257. 4. Strict materialists justify their rejection of divine providence by observing that in many nations where Christianity is accepted, there are people who claim divine power for themselves and want to be worshiped as gods and who call upon the dead. They do actually say that they are not claiming divine power and wanting to be worshiped as gods, but they still say that they can open and close heaven, forgive or bind sins, and essentially save or damn people, and this is strictly divine doing. The only goal of divine providence is our reformation and salvation. This is what it is constantly working for with each one of us. Salvation comes only through belief in the divine nature of the Lord and a trust that he saves us when we live by his commandments.

[2] Can anyone fail to see that this is the Babylon described in the Book of Revelation and the Babel that we find throughout the prophets? We can see that it is the Lucifer of Isaiah 14 if we read verses 4 and 22 of that chapter. It says in verse 4, "You will proclaim this parable about the king of Babel," and goes on to say, "I will cut down the name and remainder of Babel" in verse 22. This makes it very clear that "Babel" there is "Lucifer" when it says, "How have you fallen from heaven, Lucifer, child of the dawn. And you said in your heart, 'I will scale the heavens, I will raise my throne above the stars of God and sit on the mountain of the meeting in the northern regions; I will rise above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High'" (verses 12, 13, 14).

It is widely recognized that they call upon the dead and pray for their help. We refer to this as invocation because the practice was established by the Papal Bull that confirmed the decisions of the Council of Trent, where it states explicitly that they are to be invoked. Is anyone unaware that we should pray only to God and not to any dead mortal?

[3] Now, though, I need to explain why the Lord let things like this happen. There is no denying that it was for the sake of the goal, our salvation. We know that there is no salvation apart from the Lord; and because this is true, it was vital that the Lord be preached from the Word and that the Christian church be established by this means. This called for leaders who would do this with passion, and the only ones available were people who would preach with the kind of flaming passion that comes from self-love. It was primarily this fire that roused them to proclaim the Lord and preach the Word. It is because their initial state was like this that Lucifer is called "the child of the dawn" in verse 12.

However, once they realized that they could use the holy nature of the Word and the church to gain power, the self-love that had at first roused them to proclaim the Lord broke loose from within and eventually rose to such a height that they transferred all of the Lord's divine power to themselves, leaving nothing unclaimed.

[4] This could not be prevented by the Lord's divine providence, because if it had been, they would have preached that the Lord was not God and that the Word was not holy, and would have become Socinians or Arians, thereby destroying the whole church. The church, though, despite the quality of its leadership, did survive among its subject people. All the people of that religion who turn to the Lord and abstain from evils as sins are saved; so they make up many heavenly communities in the spiritual world. It has also been provided that one of these nations should not accept the yoke of this kind of control, because they regarded the Word as holy. These noble people are the French.

But what has happened?

[5] When self-love has promoted its power all the way to the Lord's throne, has removed him from it and set itself there, then the only thing that can happen is that the other love, the Lucifer, will profane everything that has to do with the Word and the church. To prevent this, the Lord in his divine providence made sure that they would distance themselves from worship of him; invoke the dead by praying to their statues, kissing their bones, and kneeling at their tombs; prohibit the reading of the Word; ascribe holiness to a Mass that ordinary people do not understand; and sell salvation for cash. They were allowed to do this because otherwise they would have profaned the holy nature of the Word and the church. As explained in the preceding section, we cannot profane what is holy unless we know about it.

[6] To prevent the profanation of the Most Holy Supper, it has happened under the Lord's divine providence that they have divided it. They give the bread to the congregation and drink the wine themselves. The wine in the Holy Supper means what is holy and true, while the bread means what is holy and good. When they are separated, the wine means truth profaned and the bread means what is good adulterated. Particularly, they have made the Supper physical and material and focused on it as the primary feature of religion.

Anyone who looks closely at these individual items and weighs them in some mental enlightenment can see the marvelous workings of divine providence in protecting what is holy in the church and in saving everyone who can be saved, virtually snatching from the flames everyone who is willing to be rescued.