Apocalypse Revealed #378
378. "And have washed their robes." This symbolically means, who have cleansed their religious beliefs of the evils accompanying falsity.
Washing in the Word symbolizes a cleansing oneself of evils and falsities, and robes symbolize general truths (no. 328). General truths are concepts of goodness and truth drawn from the literal sense of the Word, in accordance with which these people have lived, so that they are religious beliefs. And because every matter of religion has relation to goodness and truth, therefore robes are mentioned twice - "have washed their robes" and "have made their robes white."
Robes or religious beliefs are cleansed only in the case of people who fight against evils and so reject falsities, who thus undergo temptations or trials, which are symbolically meant by "the great tribulation" (no. 377).
That to be washed means, symbolically, to be cleansed of evils and falsities, and so to be reformed and regenerated, can be seen from the following passages:
When the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and rinsed away the blood of Jerusalem... by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of purification... (Isaiah 4:4)
Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; put away the evil of your doings from My eyes. Cease to do evil... (Isaiah 1:16)
Wash your heart of its wickedness, O Jerusalem, that you may be saved. (Jeremiah 4:14)
Wash me clean of my iniquity..., and I shall be whiter than snow. (Psalms 51:2, 7)
...if you wash yourself with soda, and use much soap, your iniquity will still retain its spots. (Jeremiah 2:22)
If I wash myself with melted snow, and cleanse my hands with soap..., yet... my own clothes will abhor me. (Job 9:30-31)
Who... has washed his clothing in wine, and his vesture in the blood of grapes. (Genesis 49:11)
This is said of the celestial church, from which come people prompted by love toward the Lord, and in the highest sense it is said of the Lord Himself. Wine and the blood of grapes are spiritual and celestial Divine truth.
I washed you with water, and rinsed off your blood from upon you... (Ezekiel 16:9)
This is said of Jerusalem. Water is truth, and blood is an adulteration of truth.
[2] It can be seen from this what washing in the Israelite Church represented and thus symbolized. As, for example, that Aaron was to wash himself before he put on the vestments of his ministry (Leviticus 16:4, 24), and before he approached the altar to minister (Exodus 30:18-21; 40:30-31).
[3] It can be seen from this that among the children of Israel washing represented a spiritual washing, which is a cleansing from evils and falsities, and thus reformation and regeneration.
It is apparent also from the aforesaid what baptism by John in the Jordan symbolized (Matthew 3, Mark 1:4-13), and what the symbolic meaning of the following words by John regarding the Lord is, that He baptized with the Holy Spirit and with fire (Luke 3:16, John 1:33), and regarding himself, that he baptized with water (John 1:26). The meaning is that the Lord washes or purifies a person by Divine truth and Divine goodness, and that John by his baptism represented this. For the Holy Spirit is Divine truth, the fire is Divine goodness, and the water is representative of these. For water symbolizes the truth in the Word, which becomes goodness by one's living in accordance with it (no. 50).
Job 10
1
"My soul is weary of my life. I will give free course to my complaint. I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
2
I will tell God, 'Do not condemn me. Show me why you contend with me.
3
Is it good to you that you should oppress, that you should despise the work of your hands, and smile on the counsel of the wicked?
4
Do you have eyes of flesh? Or do you see as man sees?
5
Are your days as the days of mortals, or your years as man's years,
6
that you inquire after my iniquity, and search after my sin?
7
Although you know that I am not wicked, there is no one who can deliver out of your hand.
8
"'Your hands have framed me and fashioned me altogether, yet you destroy me.
9
Remember, I beg you, that you have fashioned me as clay. Will you bring me into dust again?
10
Haven't you poured me out like milk, and curdled me like cheese?
11
You have clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews.
12
You have granted me life and loving kindness. Your visitation has preserved my spirit.
13
Yet you hid these things in your heart. I know that this is with you:
14
if I sin, then you mark me. You will not acquit me from my iniquity.
15
If I am wicked, woe to me. If I am righteous, I still shall not lift up my head, being filled with disgrace, and conscious of my affliction.
16
If my head is held high, you hunt me like a lion. Again you show yourself powerful to me.
17
You renew your witnesses against me, and increase your indignation on me. Changes and warfare are with me.
18
"'Why, then, have you brought me forth out of the womb? I wish I had given up the spirit, and no eye had seen me.
19
I should have been as though I had not been. I should have been carried from the womb to the grave.
20
Aren't my days few? Cease then. Leave me alone, that I may find a little comfort,
21
before I go where I shall not return from, to the land of darkness and of the shadow of death;
22
the land dark as midnight, of the shadow of death, without any order, where the light is as midnight.'"
