936. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. This symbolizes the resulting rational truths by which people caught up in evils and the accompanying falsities are brought to think sanely and to live decently.

The leaves of the tree symbolize rational truths, as will be seen below. Nations symbolize people governed by goods and the accompanying truths, and in an opposite sense people caught up in evils and the accompanying falsities (no. 483). Here they symbolize people caught up in evils and the accompanying falsities, because we are told that the leaves were for healing them, and people caught up in evils and the accompanying falsities cannot be healed by the Word, because they do not read it. However, if they have the judgment, they can be healed by rational truths.

The same symbolic meanings found in this verse are found in the following verses in Ezekiel:

Behold, there was water, flowing from under the threshold of the temple (which turned into a river), along (whose) bank... were very many trees (good for food) on one side and the other..., (whose) leaves do not fall, and whose fruit is not consumed. They bear fruit again every month..., (on which account) their fruit is good for food, and their leaves for healing. (Ezekiel 47:1, 7, 12)

The subject there is also a new church.

Leaves symbolize rational truths because a tree symbolizes a person (nos. 89, 400), and every part of the tree - its branches, leaves, flowers, fruits, and seeds - then symbolizes accordant elements in the person. The branches symbolizes a person's sensory and natural truths, the leaves his rational truths, the flowers the first spiritual truths in his rational mind, the fruits the goods of love and charity, and seeds the final elements in the person and also the first.

[2] That leaves symbolize rational truths is clearly apparent from things seen in the spiritual world. For trees are also seen there, with leaves and fruits. Gardens and parks are found there that consist of trees. In the case of people possessing goods of love and at the same time truths of wisdom, fruit trees are seen with an abundance of beautiful leaves. But in the case of people who possess the truths of some wisdom, and who speak in accordance with reason, but lack goods of love, the trees appear full of leaves, but without any fruits. And in the case of people without any goods or truths of wisdom, the only trees seen are bare of any leaves, like trees in winter in the world. An irrational person is just such a tree.

[3] Rational truths are truths which most readily welcome spiritual truths, for a person's rational mind is the first receptacle of spiritual truths. Indeed, seated in a person's rational mind is his perception of truth in a form that the person does not himself see by deliberation, as he does the ideas that reside beneath his rational mind in a lower level of thought that is connected with his outer sight.

Leaves also symbolize rational truths in Genesis 3:7; 8:11; Isaiah 34:4; Jeremiah 8:13; 17:8; Ezekiel 47:12; Daniel 4:12, 14; Psalm 1:3; Leviticus 26:36; Matthew 21:19, 24:32; Mark 13:28. However, their symbolic meanings vary according to the kinds of trees. The leaves of the olive tree and grape vine symbolize rational truths seen as a result of celestial and spiritual light; the leaves of the fig tree symbolize rational truths seen as a result of a natural sight, and the leaves of the fir tree, poplar, oak, and pine symbolize rational truths seen a a result of a sensual sight. The leaves of the latter strike terror in the spiritual world when blown to and fro by a strong wind. These are the leaves meant in Leviticus 26:36 and Job 13:25. However, not so the leaves of the former.

476. That there should be no more time. This symbolically means that there will be no church or any state of the church unless people acknowledge one God, and that the Lord is that God.

Time symbolizes state, and because the church is the subject here, it symbolizes a state of the church. Consequently, that there should be no more time means, symbolically, that there should be no state of the church.

It follows also that it means there would be no church unless people acknowledge one God, and that the Lord is that God. But what is the case today? No one denies that there is one God, but people do deny that the Lord is that God. And yet there cannot be one God in whom there is at the same time a Trinity unless that God is the Lord. No one denies that the church originates from Him who is the Savior and Redeemer, but people do deny that they should turn to Him directly as their Savior and Redeemer.

It is apparent from this that the church will die unless a new one arises, one that acknowledges the Lord alone as God of heaven and earth and accordingly turns to Him directly (see Matthew 28:18 ¹ ). Consequently the statement here that there should be no more time, that is to say, no church, is related to what is said in verse 7 of this chapter, ² and verse 7 in turn is related to what is said in chapter 11:15, ³ where we are told that there would be a church which would be the Lord's alone.

[2] Time symbolizes state because in the spiritual world time is not measured by days, weeks, months and years, but instead by states which are progressions of the inhabitants' lives, by which they recall the past. (On which subject, see the book Heaven and Hell, published in London in 1758, nos. 162-169, where we dealt with time in heaven.)

The state of the church is meant here by time because although day and night, morning and evening, summer and winter mark periods of time in the world, when interpreted in the spiritual sense they mark states of the church. Consequently, when these states come to an end, there is no church; and that is the case when there is no longer any good and truth, thus when the light of truth has become dark, and the warmth of goodness cold. That is what is meant by the statement that there should be no more time.

The following passages in the Word have similar meanings:

(The fourth beast) shall think to change times... (Daniel 7:25)

There shall be one day which is known to Jehovah - neither day nor night (and so not a period of time). (Zechariah 14:7)

...I will make the sun go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in broad daylight (and so not in a period of time). (Amos 8:9)

...a single evil, behold, it has come! An end has come, the end has come... The morning has come upon you, who dwell in the land; the time has come... (Ezekiel 7:5-7)

The morning is the commencement of the New Church (no. 151), which is why it says, "The time has come."

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