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Apocalypse Revealed # 360

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360. Of the tribe of Joseph twelve thousand were sealed. This symbolizes a doctrine of goodness and truth in those people who will be part of the New Heaven and of the Lord's New Church.

In the highest sense Joseph symbolizes the Lord in respect to His Divinity on the spiritual plane; in the spiritual sense, the spiritual kingdom; and in the natural sense, reproduction and multiplication. Here, however, Joseph symbolizes the doctrine of goodness and truth that is found in people who are in the Lord's spiritual kingdom. Joseph has this symbolism here because he is named after the tribe of Zebulun and before the tribe of Benjamin, thus in between them, and the tribe mentioned first in a series or group symbolizes some love pertaining to the will; the tribe mentioned after that symbolizes some aspect of wisdom pertaining to the intellect; and the tribe mentioned last symbolizes some useful outcome or effect resulting from them. Every series is thus a complete one.

Since Joseph symbolized the Lord's spiritual kingdom, therefore He was made ruler in Egypt (Genesis 41:38-44, Psalms 105:17-22), where every particular has a symbolic meaning that has to do with the Lord's spiritual kingdom.

The spiritual kingdom is the Lord's royal one, while the celestial kingdom is His priestly one.

[2] Joseph here symbolizes a doctrine of goodness and truth because he is substituted here for Ephraim, and Ephraim symbolizes the intellectual component of the church (see The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Sacred Scripture 79), the intellectual component of the church being everything derived from the doctrine of goodness and truth drawn from the Word.

Joseph is substituted here for Ephraim because Manasseh, Joseph's second son, who symbolized the volitional component of the church, was already included among the tribes (no. 355).

Because the intellectual component of the church is derived from a doctrine of goodness and truth, therefore Joseph symbolizes this intellectual component and also that doctrine in the following places:

Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a spring... His bow remained in strength... (He will be blessed) with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lies beneath... (Genesis 49:22-26)

The spring symbolizes the Word, and the bow doctrine (no. 299).

Blessed of Jehovah is (Joseph's) land, with the precious things of heaven, with the dew, and the deep lying beneath, and with the precious fruits of the sun, with the precious produce of the months, and... with the precious things of the earth and its fullness... Let it come on the head of Joseph... (Deuteronomy 33:13-17)

The precious things symbolize concepts of goodness and truth, from which comes doctrine.

...who drink from goblets of wine, and... are not grieved over the shattering of Joseph. (Amos 6:6)

I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph... (Hence) they shall be like mighty Ephraim, and their heart shall rejoice as if with wine. (Zechariah 10:6-7)

Here, too, Joseph stands for doctrine, the wine symbolizing its truth springing from goodness (no. 316).

  
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Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.

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Hosea 4

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1 Hear the word of the LORD, ye children of Israel: for the LORD hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land.

2 By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood.

3 Therefore shall the land mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish, with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven; yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away.

4 Yet let no man strive, nor reprove another: for thy people are as they that strive with the priest.

5 Therefore shalt thou fall in the day, and the prophet also shall fall with thee in the night, and I will destroy thy mother.

6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.

7 As they were increased, so they sinned against me: therefore will I change their glory into shame.

8 They eat up the sin of my people, and they set their heart on their iniquity.

9 And there shall be, like people, like priest: and I will punish them for their ways, and reward them their doings.

10 For they shall eat, and not have enough: they shall commit whoredom, and shall not increase: because they have left off to take heed to the LORD.

11 Whoredom and wine and new wine take away the heart.

12 My people ask counsel at their stocks, and their staff declareth unto them: for the spirit of whoredoms hath caused them to err, and they have gone a whoring from under their God.

13 They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains, and burn incense upon the hills, under oaks and poplars and elms, because the shadow thereof is good: therefore your daughters shall commit whoredom, and your spouses shall commit adultery.

14 I will not punish your daughters when they commit whoredom, nor your spouses when they commit adultery: for themselves are separated with whores, and they sacrifice with harlots: therefore the people that doth not understand shall fall.

15 Though thou, Israel, play the harlot, yet let not Judah offend; and come not ye unto Gilgal, neither go ye up to Beth-aven, nor swear, The LORD liveth.

16 For Israel slideth back as a backsliding heifer: now the LORD will feed them as a lamb in a large place.

17 Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone.

18 Their drink is sour: they have committed whoredom continually: her rulers with shame do love, Give ye.

19 The wind hath bound her up in her wings, and they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices.

   

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