62. And having turned, I saw seven golden lampstands, signifies a new heaven and a new church, which are in the good of love. This is evident from the signification of "having turned to see," as being to understand from illustration (See just before, n. 61); and from the signification of "seven," as being what is full and all, and as being predicated where the holy things of heaven and the church are treated of (See above, n. 20, 24); and from the signification of "lampstands," as being the new heaven and the new church (as will be seen in what follows); and from the signification of "gold," as being the good of love (See Arcana Coelestia 113, 1551-1552, 5658, 6914, 6917, 9510, 9874, 9881). That "seven lampstands" signify heaven and the church is evident from the last verse of this chapter, where it is said, "The seven lampstands which thou sawest are the seven churches." That "the seven churches" signify all who are of the church of the Lord, thus the church in general, may be seen above n. 20; they also signify heaven, because heaven and the church make one; moreover, those that have the church in them have heaven in them; for the reason that the good of love and of faith makes the church with man, and makes heaven with him, as it does with angels; consequently, those that had the church, that is, the goods and truths of the church, in them in the world, come into heaven after death. (That this is so, see The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem, n. 12; and in the work on Heaven and Hell, (Heaven and Hell 57, 221-227). The "seven lampstands" here mean the new heaven and the new church, for these are treated of at the end of Revelation (See chapter 21), and thus the conclusion of all things therein; and because that which is last is also first, the prediction respecting these is presented at the beginning. Moreover, it is also customary in the Word to mention in the beginning things that are to take place at the end, because intermediates are thus included; for, in the spiritual sense, the first is the end for the sake of which, as that is both first and last, and to it all other things look (See in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem 98).

[2] That "lampstand" signifies heaven and the church is evident from the description of the lampstand which was in the tabernacle, for by the tabernacle the whole heaven in the complex was represented; and by the lampstand therein, the spiritual heaven, which is the second heaven (See Arcana Coelestia n. 3478, 9457, 9481, 9485, 9548-9577, 9783). That this is so is clearly evident from John's seeing "in the midst of the seven lampstands one like unto the Son of man;" "the Son of man" is the Lord in respect to His Divine Human, from which is Divine truth, which is the All in all things of heaven and the church. In the spiritual heaven also lampstands appear in much magnificence; by these that heaven is represented. These it has been given me to see. From this it can be seen what is meant in the Word, in the spiritual sense, by "lampstands" and by "lamps," in the following passages. In Revelation:

I will remove thy lampstand out of its place, except thou repent (Revelation 2:5).

"To remove thy lampstand" is to take away from them heaven or the church. In Zechariah:

The angel said to the prophet, What seest thou? And I said, I have seen, and behold a lampstand all of gold, its bowl on the top of it, and its seven lamps thereon, with seven pipes to the lamps (Zechariah 4:2, 3).

Here Zerubbabel is treated of, who was to lay the foundation of the house of God, and to finish it. By Zerubbabel is represented the Lord, that He was about to come and restore heaven and the church: these are the "lampstands" and the holy truths there are "the seven lamps."

[3] Because a lampstand takes its representative meaning from the lamps, and the lamps from light, which in heaven is Divine truth, so the Lord is also called "a lamp," as in Revelation:

The holy Jerusalem hath no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it; the glory of God shall lighten ¹ it, and the Lamb is the lamp thereof (Revelation 21:23; 22:5).

From this also it is that David, and the kings after him, are called:

Lamps of Israel (2 Samuel 21:17; 1 Kings 11:36; 15:4; 2 Kings 8:19);

for the Lord in respect to His royalty was represented by David, likewise by the kings of Judah and Israel. (For the representation by "David," see Arcana Coelestia 1888, 9954; and by "kings," n. 31, above.) The lampstands that were seen were of gold; because "gold" signifies the good of love, and all that proceeds from the Lord is from Divine love; consequently the Divine of the Lord in the heavens is love to Him and love towards the neighbor, which is charity (as may be seen in the work on Heaven and Hell 13-19). This is why the lampstand here, as well as the lampstand in the tabernacle, was of gold.

Poznámky pod čarou:

'A lion' signifies the good of celestial love and the truth from that good.

(Odkazy: Arcana Coelestia 6367, Genesis 49:8-12)

940. 22:5 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. This symbolically means that in the New Jerusalem there will be no falsity in its faith, and the people in that church will not acquire their concepts of God from any natural sight, namely from their own intelligence, or out of a desire for glory springing from conceit, but they will acquire those concepts from the Lord alone in a state of spiritual light from the Word.

There being no night there has the same symbolic meaning as verse 25 in chapter 21, which says, "Its gates shall not be shut by day, for there shall be no night there," which symbolically means that the New Jerusalem continually receives into it people who possess truths that spring from the goodness of love from the Lord, because it has no falsity in its faith (no. 922).

The people's having no need of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light, has the same symbolic meaning as verse 23 in chapter 21, which says, "The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it, and the Lamb is its lamp," which symbolically means that people of the New Church will not be caught up in self-love and their own intelligence so as to possess a natural sight only, but from the Word's Divine truth will possess a spiritual light from the Lord alone (no. 919). Only instead of the moon there, the verse here says a lamp, and instead of the sun there, the verse here says the light of the sun, and a lamp, like the moon, symbolizes the natural sight of one's own intelligence, and the light of the sun symbolizes a natural sight out of a desire for glory springing from conceit.

[2] But we must briefly explain what we mean by a natural sight out of a desire for glory springing from conceit:

A natural sight may be due to a desire for glory springing from conceit, or it may be due to a desire for glory that does not spring from conceit. A sight out of a desire for glory springing from conceit is found in people caught up in a love of self and so in evils of every kind. If they do not do those evils for fear of losing their good name, and if they also condemn them as being destructive of morality and the public good, still they do not regard them as sins. Such people possess a natural sight due to a desire for glory springing from conceit; for a love of self in the will becomes conceit in the intellect, and this conceit, owing to that love, is capable of raising the intellect even into the light of heaven. Such a capability is granted to a person in order for him to be human and to be capable of being reformed.

I have seen and heard many absolute devils who, when they heard them or read them, understood secrets of angelic wisdom as well angels themselves. Yet as soon as they returned to their self-love and their accompanying conceit, not only did they not understand any of those secrets, but they had the opposite sight in the light of the affirmation of falsity in them.

On the other hand, a natural sight due to a desire for glory that does not spring from conceit is present in people who find a delight in useful endeavors out of a genuine love for the neighbor. Their natural sight is also a rational sight that has inwardly in it a spiritual light from the Lord. The desire for glory in them comes from the brilliance of the light flowing in from heaven, where everything is radiant and harmonious, for all useful endeavors in heaven shine. From them arises a gratification in the ideas of their thoughts which they perceive as a glorious one. The glory enters through the will and its goods into the intellect and its truths and presents itself in them.