383. "For the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them." (7:17) This symbolically means that the Lord alone will teach them.

The Lamb in the midst of the throne symbolizes the Lord in respect to His Divine humanity in the inmost of heaven and thus in everything connected with it (no. 44). The throne is heaven (no. 14), and the Lamb is the Lord in respect to His Divine humanity (nos. 269, 291). And He who is in the inmost of heaven and thus in everything connected with it is the only one who shepherds all people, that is, who teaches them.

If a question is raised as to how He alone can shepherd all, be it known that it is because He is God, and because He is present in the whole of heaven like the soul in its body; for heaven, arising from Him, is like a single person.

To shepherd means to teach because in the Word the church is called a flock, and the people in the church are called sheep and lambs. Therefore to shepherd means, symbolically, to teach, and the shepherd one who teaches, and this in many places, as for example:

On that day your flocks will graze in a broad meadow. (Isaiah 33:23)

He will feed His flock like a shepherd. (Isaiah 40:11)

They shall graze along the roads, and have their pasture on all the hillsides. (Isaiah 49:9)

(Israel) shall graze on Carmel and Bashan. (Jeremiah 50:19)

...I will seek out My sheep... I will feed them in good pasture, and... in rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. (Ezekiel 34:12-14)

You, Bethlehem Ephrathah, it is a small thing that you are among the thousands of Judah. Out of you shall come forth to Me One who will be Ruler in Israel... He shall stand and graze in the strength of Jehovah... (Micah 5:2, 4)

Feed Your people... Let them graze in Bashan and Gilead... (Micah 7:14)

The remnant of Israel... shall graze and lie down... (Zephaniah 3:13)

Jehovah is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in pastures of tender grass. (Psalms 23:1-2)

(The Lord) chose David... to shepherd Jacob... and Israel... and he shepherded them... (Psalms 78:70-72)

Jesus said to Peter, "Feed My lambs." And a second and third time He said, "Feed my sheep." (John 21:15-17)

6371. 'The sceptre will not be removed from Judah' means that power and control will not depart from the celestial kingdom. This is clear from the meaning of 'being removed' as departing; from the meaning of 'the sceptre' as power and control, in particular the power and control of truth from good, dealt with in 4876 (end), for the sceptre is an emblem of royal power and control, and truth is meant by royal power, 1672, 1728, 2015, 2069, 3009, 4575, 6148; and from the representation of' Judah' as the celestial kingdom, dealt with above in 6363. From all this it is evident that 'the sceptre will not be removed from Judah' means that power and control will not depart from the celestial kingdom.

[2] Viewed from the sense of the letter the contents of this verse will be seen to mean that the kingdom was not going to be removed from the Jewish people before the Lord came. That understanding of the verse is quite correct; but even so, this historical consideration, like every other, has an inner meaning. For the removal of the kingdom from the Jewish people when the Lord came is a worldly matter; but the spiritual content that belongs to the inner meaning is evident when one understands power and control by 'the sceptre' and the celestial kingdom by 'Judah'. Yet the notion that power and control would depart from the celestial kingdom when the Lord came is an arcanum that no one can know unless it is revealed to him. And what that arcanum entails is this: Prior to the Lord's Coming into the world there was among men and among spirits an influx of life from Jehovah or the Lord which came by way of the celestial kingdom, that is, through the angels who were in that kingdom. This was the source of their power at that time. But when the Lord came into the world, and by so doing made the Human within Himself Divine, He took to Himself what had rested with angels of the celestial kingdom, namely that power and control. For what flowed from God and passed through that heaven had until then been the Divine human. ¹ That influx was also the Divine Person who presented Himself, when Jehovah revealed Himself in this way. But this Divine human came to an end when the Lord made the Human within Himself Divine. From this one may now see what this arcanum entails. Angels of that kingdom do, it is true, still exercise great power and control, but only in the measure that the Lord's Divine Human resides in them through their love for Him. See what has been stated and shown already on these matters in 1990, 2803, 3061, 4180, 4687, 5110, 6280.

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