270. Having seven horns. This symbolizes the Lord's omnipotence.

The Word often mentions horns, and a horn everywhere symbolizes power. Consequently, when a horn is mentioned in connection with the Lord, it symbolizes omnipotence. Seven horns are specified, because seven symbolizes all (no. 10), thus all power or omnipotence.

That a horn symbolizes power, and when mentioned in connection with the Lord, omnipotence, can be seen from the following passages:

You who rejoice over nothing, who say, "Have we not taken horns for ourselves by our own strength?" (Amos 6:13)

I said... to the wicked, "Do not lift up the horn. Do not lift up your horn on high...." All the horns of the wicked I will cut off; the horns of the righteous shall be exalted. (Psalms 75:4-5, 10)

Jehovah... has exalted the horn of your adversaries. (Lamentations 2:17)

The horn of Moab is cut off, and his arm is broken... (Jeremiah 48:25)

...you have pushed with side and shoulder, and struck all the weak sheep with your horns... (Ezekiel 34:21)

(Jehovah) has exalted the horn of His people... (Psalms 148:14)

(Jehovah God of hosts,) the glory of their strength..., He has exalted our horn. (Psalms 89:17)

The brightness (of Jehovah God) will be like the light; He will have horns ¹ coming from His hand, and the hiding of His power there. (Habakkuk 3:4)

...My arm shall strengthen (David)..., and in My name his horn shall be exalted. (Psalms 89:21, 24)

...Jehovah, my strength..., my rock...(my) horn... (Psalms 18:1-2, cf. 2 Samuel 22:3)

Arise..., O daughter of Zion; for I will make your horn iron..., that you may break in pieces many peoples. (Micah 4:13)

(The Lord) has destroyed in His wrath the strongholds of the daughter of Judah..., (and) He has cut off... every horn of Israel. (Lamentations 2:2-3)

Powers are also symbolized by the horns of the dragon in Revelation 12:3; by the horns of the beast rising up out of the sea in Revelation 13:1; by the horns of the scarlet beast upon which the woman sat in Revelation 17:3, 7, 12; by the horns of the ram and the goat in Daniel 8:3-12, 20-22. The last symbolized the power of Divine truth in the church. And conversely, that that power would perish, by the horns of the altars in Bethel, in Amos:

...I will visit punishment on the transgressions of Israel, I will visit destruction on the altars of Bethel, so that the horns of the altar are cut off and fall to the ground. (Amos 3:14)

Poznámky pod čarou:

76. "'I know your works.'" (2:2) This symbolically means that the Lord sees all a person's inner and outer qualities simultaneously.

Works are often mentioned in the book of Revelation, but few know what works mean. This much is known, that ten people may do works which outwardly appear alike, but which are nevertheless not alike within them all, because the works emanate from different ends and different causes, and it is the end and cause that make works to be either good or evil. For every work is a work of the mind. Consequently whatever the character of the mind, such is the character of the work. If the mind is an embodiment of charity, the work becomes an expression of charity. But if the mind is not an embodiment of charity, the work does not become an expression of charity. Yet the two may appear alike outwardly.

Works are visible in their outward form to people, but in their inward form to angels, and to the Lord they appear as they are from their inmost elements to their outmost ones.

Works in their outward form have an appearance not unlike that of unpeeled fruit, while works in their inward form have an appearance like that of the fruit inside the peel, where one finds countless edible parts, and at the center seeds containing once again countless constituents, which are far too small to be seen by the eyes, indeed which surpass the scope of the human intellect.

Such is the nature of all works, whose inward character the Lord alone sees, and which angels also perceive from the Lord when a person is doing them.

But more on this subject may be seen in Angelic Wisdom Regarding Divine Love and Wisdom, nos. 209-220 and nos. 277-281; and also here below, nos. 141, 641, 868.

It can be seen from this that the declaration, "I know your works," means, symbolically, that the Lord sees all a person's inner and outer qualities simultaneously.