Apocalypse Revealed #350
350. Of the tribe of Judah twelve thousand were sealed. (7:5) This symbolizes celestial love, which is love toward the Lord, and this in all those people who will be in the Lord's New Heaven and New Church.
In the highest sense Judah symbolizes the Lord in relation to celestial love; in the spiritual sense, the Lord's celestial kingdom and the Word; and in the natural sense, the doctrine of a celestial church drawn from the Word. Here, however, Judah symbolizes celestial love, which is love toward the Lord; and because it is named first in the series, it symbolizes that love in all those people who will be in the New Heaven and in the Lord's New Church. For the tribe named first is everything in the rest, being to them as though their head and serving as a universal property entering into all those that follow, tying them together, qualifying them and affecting them. This property is love toward the Lord.
To be shown that twelve thousand symbolizes all who possess that love, see no. 348 above.
[2] People know that after the death of Solomon the twelve tribes of Israel were divided into two kingdoms: the kingdom of Judah and the kingdom of Israel. The kingdom of Judah represented the celestial kingdom or the Lord's priestly kingdom, while the kingdom of Israel represented the spiritual kingdom or the Lord's royal kingdom. But the latter was destroyed when the people had nothing spiritual left in them, whereas the kingdom of Judah was preserved, for the sake of the Word, and because the Lord would be born there. However, when the people adulterated the Word completely, and thus could not recognize the Lord, then their kingdom was destroyed.
It can be seen from this that the tribe of Judah symbolizes celestial love, which is love toward the Lord. But because the people were of the character they were with respect to the Word and with respect to the Lord, the tribe of Judah symbolizes also the opposite love, which is love of self - properly speaking, a love of dominating springing from a love of self - a love which we call diabolical love.
[3] The fact that Judah and his tribe symbolize the celestial kingdom and its love, which is love toward the Lord, follows from these passages:
Judah, your brothers shall praise you... The scepter shall not be taken from Judah... until Shiloh comes; and to Him shall be the obedience of the people. Binding his donkey's foal to the vine, his donkey's colt to the choice vine, he washes his garment in wine... His eyes are redder than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk. (Genesis 49:8-12)
...David shall be their prince forever, and I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them..., and I will set My sanctuary in their midst forevermore. (Ezekiel 37:25-26)
Exult and rejoice, O daughter of Zion! ...Jehovah will make Judah an inheritance for Himself, His portion on the holy land. (Zechariah 2:10-12)
O Judah, celebrate your feasts, perform your vows. For Belial 1 shall no more pass through you; he is utterly cut off. (Nahum 1:15)
The Lord... will suddenly come to His temple... Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be sweet to Jehovah as in the days of old... (Malachi 3:1, 4)
Judah shall abide forever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation. (Joel 3:20)
Behold, the days are coming..., that I will raise to David a righteous Branch... In His days Judah will be saved... (Jeremiah 23:5-6)
I will bring forth offspring from Jacob, and from Judah an heir of My mountains, that My elect may possess it... (Isaiah 65:9)
Judah became His sanctuary, and Israel His dominion. (Psalms 114:2)
Behold, the days are coming..., when I will make a new covenant... with the house of Judah... ...this will be the covenant...: I will put My law within them, and write it on their heart... (Jeremiah 31:27, 31, 33-34)
In those days ten men... shall grasp the sleeve of a Jewish man, saying, "We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you." (Zechariah 8:23)
...as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make shall remain before Me..., so shall your offspring and your name remain.
Kings (of the nations) shall be your foster fathers, their princesses your nursing mothers. They shall bow down to you, their faces to the ground, and lick the dust of your feet. (Isaiah 66:22; 49:23)
[4] From these and many other passages, which we do not have the space to cite because of their number, it can be clearly seen that Judah means not Judah but the church. We are told, for example, that the Lord would make a new and eternal covenant with that nation, that He would make it His heir and His sanctuary forevermore, and that kings of the nations and their princesses would bow down to them, licking the dust of their feet, and so on.
[5] That the tribe of Judah, regarded in itself, means the diabolic kingdom, which is one of a love of dominating springing from a love of self, can be seen from the following passages:
I will hide My face from them, I will see what their posterity will be. ...they are a perverse generation, children in whom is no faith... ...they are a nation void of counsel... ...their vine is of the vine of Sodom and of the fields of Gomorrah; its grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter. Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps. Is this not laid up in store with Me, sealed up in My treasuries? (Deuteronomy 32:20-34)
(Know that) it is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart... that Jehovah... is... giving you (the land of Canaan)..., for you are a stiff-necked people. (Deuteronomy 9:5-6)
...according to the number of your cities have been your gods, O Judah... ...according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem you have set up altars... to burn incense to Baal. (Jeremiah 2:28; 11:13)
You are of your father the devil, and you choose to do the desires of your father. (John 8:44)
Jews are said to be full of hypocrisy, iniquity, and uncleanness (Matthew 23:27-28.
Fußnoten:
1. In the Old Testament, the personification of wickedness and destruction, originally conceived perhaps as some sort of spirit demon.
Numbers 34
1
Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
2
"Command the children of Israel, and tell them, 'When you come into the land of Canaan (this is the land that shall fall to you for an inheritance, even the land of Canaan according to its borders),
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then your south quarter shall be from the wilderness of Zin along by the side of Edom, and your south border shall be from the end of the Salt Sea eastward;
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and your border shall turn about southward of the ascent of Akrabbim, and pass along to Zin; and the goings out of it shall be southward of Kadesh Barnea; and it shall go forth to Hazar Addar, and pass along to Azmon;
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and the border shall turn about from Azmon to the brook of Egypt, and the goings out of it shall be at the sea.
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"'For the western border, you shall have the great sea and the border [of it]: this shall be your west border.
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"'This shall be your north border: from the great sea you shall mark out for you Mount Hor;
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from Mount Hor you shall mark out to the entrance of Hamath; and the goings out of the border shall be at Zedad;
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and the border shall go forth to Ziphron, and the goings out of it shall be at Hazar Enan: this shall be your north border.
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"'You shall mark out your east border from Hazar Enan to Shepham;
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and the border shall go down from Shepham to Riblah, on the east side of Ain; and the border shall go down, and shall reach to the side of the sea of Chinnereth eastward;
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and the border shall go down to the Jordan, and the goings out of it shall be at the Salt Sea. This shall be your land according to its borders around it.'"
13
Moses commanded the children of Israel, saying, "This is the land which you shall inherit by lot, which Yahweh has commanded to give to the nine tribes, and to the half-tribe;
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for the tribe of the children of Reuben according to their fathers' houses, and the tribe of the children of Gad according to their fathers' houses, have received, and the half-tribe of Manasseh have received, their inheritance:
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the two tribes and the half-tribe have received their inheritance beyond the Jordan at Jericho eastward, toward the sunrise."
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Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
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"These are the names of the men who shall divide the land to you for inheritance: Eleazar the priest, and Joshua the son of Nun.
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You shall take one prince of every tribe, to divide the land for inheritance.
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These are the names of the men: Of the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephunneh.
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Of the tribe of the children of Simeon, Shemuel the son of Ammihud.
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Of the tribe of Benjamin, Elidad the son of Chislon.
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Of the tribe of the children of Dan a prince, Bukki the son of Jogli.
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Of the children of Joseph: of the tribe of the children of Manasseh a prince, Hanniel the son of Ephod.
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Of the tribe of the children of Ephraim a prince, Kemuel the son of Shiphtan.
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Of the tribe of the children of Zebulun a prince, Elizaphan the son of Parnach.
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Of the tribe of the children of Issachar a prince, Paltiel the son of Azzan.
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Of the tribe of the children of Asher a prince, Ahihud the son of Shelomi.
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Of the tribe of the children of Naphtali a prince, Pedahel the son of Ammihud."
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These are they whom Yahweh commanded to divide the inheritance to the children of Israel in the land of Canaan.
