Apocalypse Revealed #501
501. And their bodies will lie in the street of the great city. (11:8) This symbolically means that these two essential elements of the New Church have been utterly rejected by people inwardly caught up in the doctrinal falsities connected with justification by faith alone.
The bodies of the two witnesses symbolize the two essential elements of the New Church, namely, an acknowledgment of the Lord as the only God of heaven and earth, and conjunction with Him by a life in accordance with the Ten Commandments (nos. 490ff.). The street of the great city symbolizes doctrinal falsity connected with justification by faith alone - the street symbolizing falsity, as we shall see next, and the city symbolizing doctrine (no. 194). It is called a great city because the doctrine is the prevailing doctrine throughout the Protestant Reformed Christian world among the clergy, though not in the same way among the laity.
Streets in the Word have almost the same symbolic meaning as ways, because streets are a city's ways. Still, streets symbolize doctrinal truths or falsities, because a city symbolizes doctrine (no. 194), while ways symbolize a church's truths or falsities, because the earth symbolizes the church (no. 285).
[2] That streets symbolize doctrinal truths or falsities can be seen from the following passages:
Justice has been rejected, and righteousness stands afar off, for truth has stumbled in the street, and rectitude cannot enter. (Isaiah 59:14)
The chariots raced madly in the streets, they rushed in every direction in the town squares. (Nahum 2:4)
In the days of Jael, the ways were deserted... The town squares were deserted... in Israel... (Judges 5:6-7)
How the glorious city is forsaken...! Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets... (Jeremiah 49:25-26, cf. 50:30)
Those who ate delicacies are devastated in the streets... Darker than black is the appearance (of the Nazirites); they go unrecognized in the streets... They wandered blind in the streets... They tracked our steps so that we could not go into our streets. (Lamentations 4:5, 8, 14, 18)
I will cut off nations, their corners will be devastated; I will make their streets desolate... (Zephaniah 3:6)
(After) sixty-two weeks, the street (of Jerusalem) shall be built again..., but in distressful times. (Daniel 9:25)
...the street of the city (New Jerusalem) was pure gold, like transparent glass. (Revelation 21:21)
In the middle of its street... on this side and that, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits... (Revelation 22:1-2)
And so on elsewhere, as in Isaiah 15:3; 24:10-11; 51:20.
As streets symbolize the church's doctrinal truths, therefore they taught in the streets (2 Samuel 1:20). And we are told,
We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets. (Luke 13:26)
For this reason also hypocrites prayed on street corners (Matthew 6:2, 5). And for this reason the master of the house in Luke 14:21 ordered his servants to go out into the streets and squares and bring people in.
For the same reason, too, anything false or falsified is called mire, filth and excrement in the streets (Isaiah 5:25; 10:6, Micah 7:10, Psalms 18:42).
Prophets who prophesied falsely were cast out into the streets of Jerusalem, and no one buried them (Jeremiah 14:16).
Luke 14
1
It happened, when he went into the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees on a Sabbath to eat bread, that they were watching him.
2
Behold, a certain man who had dropsy was in front of him.
3
Jesus, answering, spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?"
4
But they were silent. He took him, and healed him, and let him go.
5
He answered them, "Which of you, if your son or an ox fell into a well, wouldn't immediately pull him out on a Sabbath day?"
6
They couldn't answer him regarding these things.
7
He spoke a parable to those who were invited, when he noticed how they chose the best seats, and said to them,
8
"When you are invited by anyone to a marriage feast, don't sit in the best seat, since perhaps someone more honorable than you might be invited by him,
9
and he who invited both of you would come and tell you, 'Make room for this person.' Then you would begin, with shame, to take the lowest place.
10
But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when he who invited you comes, he may tell you, 'Friend, move up higher.' Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you.
11
For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted."
12
He also said to the one who had invited him, "When you make a dinner or a supper, don't call your friends, nor your brothers, nor your kinsmen, nor rich neighbors, or perhaps they might also return the favor, and pay you back.
13
But when you make a feast, ask the poor, the maimed, the lame, or the blind;
14
and you will be blessed, because they don't have the resources to repay you. For you will be repaid in the resurrection of the righteous."
15
When one of those who sat at the table with him heard these things, he said to him, "Blessed is he who will feast in the Kingdom of God!"
16
But he said to him, "A certain man made a great supper, and he invited many people.
17
He sent out his servant at supper time to tell those who were invited, 'Come, for everything is ready now.'
18
They all as one began to make excuses. "The first said to him, 'I have bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please have me excused.'
19
"Another said, 'I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I must go try them out. Please have me excused.'
20
"Another said, 'I have married a wife, and therefore I can't come.'
21
"That servant came, and told his lord these things. Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant, 'Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor, maimed, blind, and lame.'
22
"The servant said, 'Lord, it is done as you commanded, and there is still room.'
23
"The lord said to the servant, 'Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.
24
For I tell you that none of those men who were invited will taste of my supper.'"
25
Now great multitudes were going with him. He turned and said to them,
26
"If anyone comes to me, and doesn't disregard his own father, mother, wife, children, brothers, and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he can't be my disciple.
27
Whoever doesn't bear his own cross, and come after me, can't be my disciple.
28
For which of you, desiring to build a tower, doesn't first sit down and count the cost, to see if he has enough to complete it?
29
Or perhaps, when he has laid a foundation, and is not able to finish, everyone who sees begins to mock him,
30
saying, 'This man began to build, and wasn't able to finish.'
31
Or what king, as he goes to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?
32
Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends an envoy, and asks for conditions of peace.
33
So therefore whoever of you who doesn't renounce all that he has, he can't be my disciple.
34
Salt is good, but if the salt becomes flat and tasteless, with what do you season it?
35
It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile. It is thrown out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear."
