134. "'To teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality.'" This symbolically means, in consequence of which faith the truths of the church are falsified.

To teach and seduce the Lord's servants means, symbolically, to teach and seduce people who can be and are willing to be instructed in truths from the Word. That servants of the Lord are what people governed by truths are called may be seen in nos. 3 and 128 above; and to commit sexual immorality means, symbolically, to adulterate and falsify the Word. To commit sexual immorality has this symbolic meaning because every particular of the Word contains a marriage of good and truth, and this marriage is broken when goodness is divorced and estranged from truth.

To be shown that every particular of the Word contains a marriage of good and truth, see The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Sacred Scripture, nos. 80-90. It is because of this that to commit sexual immorality means, symbolically, to adulterate the goods of the Word and falsify its truths. Moreover, because this is spiritual licentiousness, therefore people who have employed their own reason to falsify the Word become sexually licentious people when they enter the spiritual world after death. And something as yet unrecognized in the world is the fact that people who have affirmed faith alone to the exclusion of any works of charity are prompted by the lust of an adultery of a son with his mother. In the spiritual world I have often perceived them to be impelled by the lust of so unspeakable an adultery. Remember this and inquire into it after death, and you will be convinced. I have not dared to reveal this previously, because it offends the ears.

[2] This adultery is symbolized by the adultery of Reuben with Bilhah, his father's concubine (Genesis 35:22), inasmuch as Reuben symbolizes that faith. Therefore he was cursed by his father Israel, and the birthright was subsequently taken from him. For in prophesying concerning his sons, his father Israel said of Reuben,

Reuben, you are my firstborn, My might and the beginning of my strength... Unstable as water, you shall not excel, because you went up to your father's bed, then defiled it. He went up to my pallet. (Genesis 49:3-4)

And therefore the birthright was taken from him:

...Reuben (was) the firstborn of Israel..., but because he defiled his father's pallet, his birthright was given to the sons of Joseph... (1 Chronicles 5:1)

We will see in the explanation of Revelation 7:5 that Reuben represented truth arising from good or faith springing from charity, and afterward truth divorced from good or faith divorced from charity.

[3] That references to sexual licentiousness in the Word symbolize adulterations of good and falsifications of truth can be seen from the following passages:

...when Joram saw Jehu, he said, "Is it peace, Jehu?" And he said, "What peace, as long as the harlotries of your mother Jezebel and her witchcraft are many?" (2 Kings 9:22)

The harlotries of Jezebel do not mean any acts of licentiousness, but her deeds, as cited in no. 132 above.

Your sons shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms... (Numbers 14:33)

The person who has regard to mediums and soothsayers, to go whoring after them..., I will cut him off... (Leviticus 20:6)

(Do not) make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, (lest) they go whoring after their gods... (Exodus 34:15).

(Jerusalem,) you trusted in your own beauty and played the harlot because of your fame, (so that) you poured out your harlotries on everyone passing by... You also committed harlotry with the Egyptians, your very carnal neighbors, and multiplied your acts of harlotry... You also played the harlot with the Assyrians, because you were insatiable, (with whom) you played the harlot... You multiplied your harlotry as far as... Chaldea... The adulterous woman, who in place of her husband takes strangers. All men give payment to their harlots, but you made your payments to them all, (that they may) come to you from all around for your harlotries... Therefore, harlot, hear the word of Jehovah. (Ezekiel 16:15-16, 26, 28-29, 32-33, 35ff.)

Jerusalem there is the Israelite and Jewish Church. Its harlotries mean adulterations and falsifications of the Word. And because Egypt symbolizes the knowledge of the natural self, Assyria reasoning on the basis of it, Chaldea the profanation of truth, and Babel the profanation of good, therefore the passage says that it played the harlot with them.

[4] ...two women, the daughters of one mother, committed harlotry in Egypt; in their youth they committed harlotry... (One,) my subject, played the harlot, and she doted on her lovers, the neighboring Assyrians... She committed her harlotries with them... (Yet) she has not given up her harlotries in Egypt....

(The other) became more corrupt in her loving than she, and in her harlotries more corrupt than her sister's harlotries... She increased her harlotries... She loved (Chaldeans).... Then the Babylonians came to her, to the bed of love, and they defiled her with their harlotry. (Ezekiel 23:2-3, 5, 7-8, 11, 14, 16-17ff.)

The two daughters of the same mother are likewise the Israelite and Jewish Church, whose adulterations and falsifications of the Word are described here, as above, by harlotries.

[5] So, too, in the following passages:

...you have played the harlot with many lovers... You have profaned the land with your harlotries and your wickedness... Have you seen what backsliding Israel has done? She has gone up on every high mountain and... played the harlot... Treacherous Judah... went and played the harlot also. So that... by the report of her harlotry she defiled the land; ...she committed adultery with stone and wood. (Jeremiah 3:1-2, 6, 8-9)

And elsewhere:

Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see... if you can find a man... who executes judgment and seeks the truth... I satiated them, and they committed harlotry and came by troops into the harlots' house. (Jeremiah 5:1, 7)

I have seen your adulteries... your neighings, the wickedness of your harlotry, your abominations on the hills in the fields. Woe to you, O Jerusalem! You will not be made clean... (Jeremiah 13:27)

I have seen a horrible obstinacy in the prophets of Jerusalem: they commit adultery and walk in a lie. (Jeremiah 23:14)

...they have committed folly in Israel, have committed adultery..., and have spoken (My) word in My name falsely... (Jeremiah 29:23)

...they sinned against Me; I will change their glory into disrepute... They committed harlotry..., because they have forsaken Jehovah. Harlotry... enslaved (their) heart... ...your daughters commit harlotry, and your daughters-in-law commit adultery. (Hosea 4:7, 10-11, 13)

I know Ephraim..., (that) he has (altogether) committed harlotry, (and) Israel is defiled. (Hosea 5:3)

I have seen a horrible thing in the house of Israel: Ephraim committed harlotry there, (and) Israel is defiled. (Hosea 6:10)

Israel there is the church, and Ephraim is its understanding of the Word, from which and in accordance with which the church is formed. Therefore Ephraim is said to have committed harlotry and Israel to be defiled.

[6] Since the church had falsified the Word, the prophet Hosea was commanded to take himself a harlot as a wife, as follows:

...take yourself a woman of harlotries and children of harlotries, for the land has committed great harlotry behind Jehovah. (Hosea 1:2).

Again:

...love a woman who is loved by a companion and is an adulteress... (Hosea 3:1)

Since the Jewish Church was such as described, therefore the Lord called the Jewish nation an adulterous generation (Matthew 12:39; 16:4, Mark 8:38); and in Isaiah, the offspring of an adulterer (Isaiah 57:3).

In Nahum:

Woe to the bloody city! Full of lying... The multitude of the slain... because of the multitude of the harlotries of the harlot..., who sells nations through her harlotries... (Nahum 3:1, 3-4)

[7] Since Roman Catholicism adulterates and falsifies the Word more than any others in the Christian world, it is therefore called Babylon, the Great Harlot, and the following things are said of it in the book of Revelation:

Babylon... has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her harlotry. (Revelation 14:8)

(Babylon has made) all the nations (drink) of the wine of the wrath of her harlotry, and the kings of the earth have committed harlotry with her... (Revelation 18:3)

(The angel said,) "Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot... with whom the kings of the earth committed harlotry. (Revelation 17:1-2)

...He has judged the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her harlotry. (Revelation 19:2)

It is apparent from this now that to commit adultery and to commit sexual immorality mean, symbolically, to adulterate and falsify the goods and truths of the Word.

932. ¹ REVELATION: CHAPTER 22

1. And he showed me a pure river of water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb.

2. In between the street and the river on the one side and the other was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, yielding its fruit according to the month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

3. And nothing accursed shall be there, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him.

4. They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads.

5. There shall be no night there: They have no need of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever.

6. Then he said to me, "These words are faithful and true." And the Lord God of the holy prophets sent His angel to show His servants the things which must shortly take place.

7. "Behold, I am coming quickly! Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book."

8. Now I, John, saw and heard these things. And when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel who showed me these things.

9. Then he said to me, "See that you do not do that. For I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren the prophets, and of those who keep the words of this book. Worship God."

10. And he said to me, "Do not seal the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand.

11. He who is unjust, let him be unjust still; he who is filthy, let him be filthy still; he who is righteous, let him be righteous still; he who is holy, let him be holy still."

12. "And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work.

13. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last."

14. Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have their power in the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city.

15. But outside are dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie.

16. "I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things in the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star."

17. And the spirit and the bride say, "Come!" And let him who hears say, "Come!" And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.

18. For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add upon him the plagues that are written in this book;

19. and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

20. He who testifies to these things says, "Surely I am coming quickly." Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

21. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

THE SPIRITUAL MEANING

The Contents of the Whole Chapter

The New Church is further described as to its intelligence gained from Divine truths received from the Lord (Revelation 22:1-5). This revelation has been presented by the Lord, and in its own time its meaning will be revealed (Revelation 22:6-10). The Lord's advent and His conjunction with people who believe in Him and live according to His commandments (Revelation 22:11-17). What has been revealed must altogether be kept (Revelation 22:18-19). The betrothal (Revelation 22:17, 20-21).

The Contents of the Individual Verses:

THE EXPOSITION

22:1 And he showed me a pure river of water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb. This symbolizes the book of Revelation, now opened and expounded as to its spiritual meaning, in which the Lord has revealed an abundance of Divine truths for people who will be in His New Church, which is the New Jerusalem.

A pure river of water of life, bright as crystal, symbolizes an abundance of Divine truth in the Word shining through from its spiritual sense, which exists in the light of heaven. A river symbolizes an abundance of Divine truth (no. 409), because the water of which a river consists symbolizes truths (nos. 50, 685, 719), and water of life symbolizes those truths received from the Lord through the Word, of which hereafter. Bright as crystal then symbolizes those truths shining through from the spiritual sense, which exists in the light of heaven (no. 897). The river's being seen to flow from the throne of God and of the Lamb means, symbolically, that it flows out of heaven from the Lord; for a throne symbolizes the Lord in respect to judgment, government and heaven - in respect to judgment, see nos. 229, 845, 865; in respect to government, nos. 694, 808; and in respect to heaven, nos. 14, 221, 222 - and so here, out of heaven from the Lord. God and the Lamb symbolize here, as often before, the Lord in respect to the Divine itself from which flows all else, and in respect to His Divine humanity.

[2] That the river of water of life here means in particular an abundance of Divine truths in the book of Revelation, which the Lord has now revealed, is apparent from verses 6-7, 10, 14, 16-19 in this chapter. The subject of these verses is the book of this prophecy, and we are told that the things written in it must be kept. ² They could not be kept before the things contained in it were revealed by showing their spiritual meaning, because they would not have been understood before then.

The book of Revelation, moreover, is also the Word, like the prophetic Word of the Old Testament, and disclosed now in the book of Revelation are the evils and falsities of the church that one must refrain from and avoid, and the goods and truths of the church that one must do, especially those regarding the Lord and eternal life from Him. These same things, indeed, are taught in the books of the prophets, but not so plainly as in the Gospels and the book of Revelation. These Divine truths regarding the Lord as being God of heaven and earth - truths which then emanate from Him and are received by people who will be in the New Jerusalem, truths that are contained in the book of Revelation - are those meant in particular by the river of water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb.

This can also be seen from the following passages:

(Jesus said,) "Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his belly will flow rivers of living water." (John 7:38)

(Jesus said,) "Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life." (John 4:14)

To him who thirsts I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely. (Revelation 21:6, cf. 22:17)

(And) the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters. (Revelation 7:17)

In that day... waters shall flow from Jerusalem... ...Jehovah shall become (the only) King over all the earth. In that day Jehovah will be one, and His name one. (Zechariah 14:8-9)

Living waters or waters of life in these verses symbolize Divine truth from the Lord.

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