Apocalypse Revealed # 437
437. And the sound of their wings was like the sound of many horse-drawn chariots rushing into battle. This symbolizes their reasonings, as though founded on doctrinal truths from the Word fully understood, which they had to ardently defend.
The sound of wings symbolizes reasonings, because to fly means, symbolically, to perceive and teach (nos. 245, 415). Chariots symbolize doctrinal teachings, as we are about to show. Horses symbolize an understanding of the Word (no. 298), and many horses a full understanding. Plainly to rush into battle symbolizes an ardor to fight.
That a chariot symbolizes doctrine is clear from the following passages:
The chariots of God are twenty thousand, thousands of peaceful ones, the Lord among them... (Psalms 68:17)
(Jehovah) makes the clouds His chariots, He walks on the wings of the wind. (Psalms 104:3)
O Jehovah..., ...You ride on Your horses, Your chariots are salvation. (Habakkuk 3:8)
...behold, Jehovah will come with fire, and like a whirlwind His chariots... (Isaiah 66:15)
You shall be filled at My table with horses and chariots... (Thus) I will set My glory among the nations. (Ezekiel 39:20-21)
I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem. (Zechariah 9:10)
I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms... I will overthrow the chariots and those who ride in them. (Haggai 2:22)
...set a watchman, let him declare what he sees. He saw therefore a chariot, a pair of horsemen..., a chariot of camels..., and... the chariot of a man... And he... said, "Babylon is fallen, is fallen!" (Isaiah 21:6-7, 9)
Since Elijah and Elisha represented the Lord in respect to the Word and thus symbolized doctrine drawn from the Word, as did all the prophets (no. 8), therefore they were called "the chariots of Israel and its horsemen;" and for the same reason Elisha saw Elijah taken up into heaven in a chariot of fire, and Elisha's servant saw chariots and horses of fire around Elisha (2 Kings 2:11-12; 6:17; 13:14).
See also elsewhere where chariots are mentioned, as in Isaiah 31:1; 37:24; 66:20; Jeremiah 17:25; 22:4; 46:2-3, 8-9; 50:37-38; 51:20-21.
Genesis 1
1
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
2
Now the earth was formless and empty. Darkness was on the surface of the deep. God's Spirit was hovering over the surface of the waters.
3
God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.
4
God saw the light, and saw that it was good. God divided the light from the darkness.
5
God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." There was evening and there was morning, one day.
6
God said, "Let there be an expanse in the middle of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters."
7
God made the expanse, and divided the waters which were under the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so.
8
God called the expanse "sky." There was evening and there was morning, a second day.
9
God said, "Let the waters under the sky be gathered together to one place, and let the dry land appear;" and it was so.
10
God called the dry land "earth," and the gathering together of the waters he called "seas." God saw that it was good.
11
God said, "Let the earth put forth grass, herbs yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit after their kind, with its seed in it, on the earth;" and it was so.
12
The earth brought forth grass, herbs yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit, with its seed in it, after their kind; and God saw that it was good.
13
There was evening and there was morning, a third day.
14
God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of sky to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years;
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and let them be for lights in the expanse of sky to give light on the earth;" and it was so.
16
God made the two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He also made the stars.
17
God set them in the expanse of sky to give light to the earth,
18
and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. God saw that it was good.
19
There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.
20
God said, "Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of sky."
21
God created the large sea creatures, and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed, after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind. God saw that it was good.
22
God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth."
23
There was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.
24
God said, "Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind, livestock, creeping things, and animals of the earth after their kind;" and it was so.
25
God made the animals of the earth after their kind, and the livestock after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind. God saw that it was good.
26
God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."
27
God created man in his own image. In God's image he created him; male and female he created them.
28
God blessed them. God said to them, "Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth."
29
God said, "Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed, which is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree, which bears fruit yielding seed. It will be your food.
30
To every animal of the earth, and to every bird of the sky, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food;" and it was so.
31
God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. There was evening and there was morning, a sixth day.
