Apocalypse Revealed # 282
282. "Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation." This symbolically means that the Lord has redeemed those in the church or in any other religion who are impelled by truths in respect to their doctrine and by goods in respect to their life.
Tribes mean, symbolically, the church in respect to religion. Tongues symbolize its doctrine, as we will see presently. People mean, symbolically, people impelled by doctrinal truths, and abstractly doctrinal truths themselves (no. 483). And nations mean, symbolically, people who are impelled by goods of life, and abstractly goods of life themselves (no. 483). It is apparent from this that every tribe and tongue and people and nation has the symbolic meaning stated, as it does also in no. 627.
[2] We will now confirm here that tongues in the spiritual sense symbolize the doctrine possessed by a church and by every religion. This is apparent from the following:
My tongue ponders Your righteousness, Your praise all the day long. (Psalms 35:28)
My tongue shall ponder Your righteousness all the day long. (Psalms 71:24)
Then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb sing. For waters shall burst forth in the wilderness... (Isaiah 35:6)
...the tongue of stammerers will be swift to speak... (Isaiah 32:4)
It seems as though tongue there means speech, but in the spiritual sense it means that which is spoken, which is the doctrinal truth that they will have from the Lord.
So likewise:
I have sworn... that to Me every knee shall bow, every tongue swear an oath. (Isaiah 45:23)
The time will come to gather all nations and tongues, that they may come and see My glory. (Isaiah 66:18)
In those days ten men from all the tongues of the nations shall take hold of the sleeve of a Jewish man, saying, "We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you." (Zechariah 8:23)
These passages describe as well the Lord's conversion of the nations to doctrinal truth.
[3] On the other hand, in the following places tongues in an opposite sense symbolize doctrinal falsities:
A smooth-tongued man shall not continue to exist in the land. (Psalms 140:11)
You hide them... in Your tabernacle from the strife of tongues. (Psalms 31:20)
...I will bring a nation against you... whose language you do not know... (Jeremiah 5:15)
(To be sent to peoples heavy in tongue.) (Ezekiel 3:5-6). (To a people barbarous in tongue.) (Isaiah 33:19).
It should be known that the tongue as an organ symbolizes doctrine, while as speech it symbolizes also religion.
[4] Someone who knows that the tongue symbolizes doctrine can understand what is symbolically meant by the plea of the rich man in hell to Abraham to send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool his tongue, to keep him from being tormented in the flame (Luke 16:24). The water symbolizes truth, and the tongue doctrine, by whose falsities the rich man was being tormented, and not by any flame. For no one in hell is on fire, but a flame there is how a love of falsity appears, and fire how a love of evil appears.
Revelation 5
1
I saw, in the right hand of him who sat on the throne, a book written inside and outside, sealed shut with seven seals.
2
I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, "Who is worthy to open the book, and to break its seals?"
3
No one in heaven above, or on the earth, or under the earth, was able to open the book, or to look in it.
4
And I wept much, because no one was found worthy to open the book, or to look in it.
5
One of the elders said to me, "Don't weep. Behold, the Lion who is of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome; he who opens the book and its seven seals."
6
I saw in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, having seven horns, and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God, sent out into all the earth.
7
Then he came, and he took it out of the right hand of him who sat on the throne.
8
Now when he had taken the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each one having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.
9
They sang a new song, saying, "You are worthy to take the book, and to open its seals: for you were killed, and bought us for God with your blood, out of every tribe, language, people, and nation,
10
and made us kings and priests to our God, and we will reign on earth."
11
I saw, and I heard something like a voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousands of ten thousands, and thousands of thousands;
12
saying with a loud voice, "Worthy is the Lamb who has been killed to receive the power, wealth, wisdom, strength, honor, glory, and blessing!"
13
I heard every created thing which is in heaven, on the earth, under the earth, on the sea, and everything in them, saying, "To him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb be the blessing, the honor, the glory, and the dominion, forever and ever! Amen!"
14
The four living creatures said, "Amen!" The elders fell down and worshiped.
