Apocalypse Revealed #496
496. These have power to shut heaven, so that no rain falls in the days of their prophecy. (11:6) This symbolically means that people who turn away from these two essential elements of the New Church cannot receive any truth from heaven.
Heaven here means the angelic heaven. Thus the rain symbolizes truth for the church from there. Consequently to close heaven so that no rain falls means, symbolically, that people cannot receive any truth for the church from heaven. Truth for the church from heaven is doctrinal truth from the Word.
We are told that the two witnesses have the power to shut heaven, but as in no. 494 above, the meaning here is not that they have that power, but that people who turn away from the two essential elements of the New Church close heaven to themselves, because they continue to be caught up in their falsities.
That rain symbolizes Divine truth from heaven is clear from the following passages:
My doctrine shall drop as the rain, My word shall fall as the dew... (Deuteronomy 32:2)
(If) you... serve other gods..., (Jehovah will) shut up heaven so that there be no rain... (Deuteronomy 11:16-17, see also 11:11, 11:14)
I will lay waste (My vineyard).... I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain on it. (Isaiah 5:6)
The showers have been withheld, and there has been no late rain. Yet you continue to have a harlot's forehead... (Jeremiah 3:3)
For as the rain comes down... from heaven..., so shall My word (go) forth from My mouth. (Isaiah 55:10-11)
Rejoice then, you children of Zion, and be glad in Jehovah... For He has given you seasonable rain in righteousness. (Joel 2:23)
You have caused to drop, O God, a kindly rain... (Psalms 68:9)
He shall come down like rain upon the grass of the meadow... In His days the righteous shall flourish... (Psalms 72:6-7)
He will come to us as rain, as the late... rain waters the earth. (Hosea 6:3)
...my word shall rain down on them, and they will wait for me as for the rain, and they will open their mouth for the late rain. (Job 29:22-23)
Son of man, say...: "You are a land that is not cleansed, which will have no rain in the day of wrath. There is a conspiracy of her prophets in her midst... (Ezekiel 22:24-25)
And so on elsewhere, as in Isaiah 30:23; Jeremiah 5:24; 10:12-13; 14:3-4; 51:16.
A flooding rain stands for the destruction of truth in Ezekiel 13:11, 13-14; 38:22. For temptation or trial in Matthew 7:24-27.
Job 28
1
"Surely there is a mine for silver, and a place for gold which they refine.
2
Iron is taken out of the earth, and copper is smelted out of the ore.
3
Man sets an end to darkness, and searches out, to the furthest bound, the stones of obscurity and of thick darkness.
4
He breaks open a shaft away from where people live. They are forgotten by the foot. They hang far from men, they swing back and forth.
5
As for the earth, out of it comes bread; Underneath it is turned up as it were by fire.
6
Sapphires come from its rocks. It has dust of gold.
7
That path no bird of prey knows, neither has the falcon's eye seen it.
8
The proud animals have not trodden it, nor has the fierce lion passed by there.
9
He puts forth his hand on the flinty rock, and he overturns the mountains by the roots.
10
He cuts out channels among the rocks. His eye sees every precious thing.
11
He binds the streams that they don't trickle. The thing that is hidden he brings forth to light.
12
"But where shall wisdom be found? where is the place of understanding?
13
Man doesn't know its price; Neither is it found in the land of the living.
14
The deep says, 'It isn't in me.' The sea says, 'It isn't with me.'
15
It can't be gotten for gold, neither shall silver be weighed for its price.
16
It can't be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire.
17
Gold and glass can't equal it, neither shall it be exchanged for jewels of fine Gold.
18
No mention shall be made of coral or of crystal. Yes, the price of wisdom is above rubies.
19
The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it, Neither shall it be valued with pure gold.
20
Where then does wisdom come from? Where is the place of understanding?
21
Seeing it is hidden from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the birds of the sky.
22
Destruction and Death say, 'We have heard a rumor of it with our ears.'
23
"God understands its way, and he knows its place.
24
For he looks to the ends of the earth, and sees under the whole sky.
25
He establishes the force of the wind. Yes, he measures out the waters by measure.
26
When he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the thunder;
27
then he saw it, and declared it. He established it, yes, and searched it out.
28
To man he said, 'Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom. To depart from evil is understanding.'"
