932. 1
REVELATION: CHAPTER 22
1. And he showed me a pure river of water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb.
2. In between the street and the river on the one side and the other was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, yielding its fruit according to the month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
3. And nothing accursed shall be there, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him.
4. They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads.
5. There shall be no night there: They have no need of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever.
6. Then he said to me, "These words are faithful and true." And the Lord God of the holy prophets sent His angel to show His servants the things which must shortly take place.
7. "Behold, I am coming quickly! Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book."
8. Now I, John, saw and heard these things. And when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel who showed me these things.
9. Then he said to me, "See that you do not do that. For I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren the prophets, and of those who keep the words of this book. Worship God."
10. And he said to me, "Do not seal the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand.
11. He who is unjust, let him be unjust still; he who is filthy, let him be filthy still; he who is righteous, let him be righteous still; he who is holy, let him be holy still."
12. "And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work.
13. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last."
14. Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have their power in the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city.
15. But outside are dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie.
16. "I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things in the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star."
17. And the spirit and the bride say, "Come!" And let him who hears say, "Come!" And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.
18. For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add upon him the plagues that are written in this book;
19. and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.
20. He who testifies to these things says, "Surely I am coming quickly." Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
21. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.
THE SPIRITUAL MEANING
The Contents of the Whole Chapter
The New Church is further described as to its intelligence gained from Divine truths received from the Lord (Revelation 22:1-5). This revelation has been presented by the Lord, and in its own time its meaning will be revealed (Revelation 22:6-10). The Lord's advent and His conjunction with people who believe in Him and live according to His commandments (Revelation 22:11-17). What has been revealed must altogether be kept (Revelation 22:18-19). The betrothal (Revelation 22:17, 20-21).
The Contents of the Individual Verses:
| Verse Contents | Spiritual Meaning |
|---|
| 1. And he showed me a pure river of water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb. | The book of Revelation, now opened and expounded as to its spiritual meaning, in which the Lord has revealed an abundance of Divine truths for people who will be in His New Church, which is the New Jerusalem. |
| 2. In between the street and the river on the one side and the other was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, | Inmostly present within the doctrinal truths and consequent life in the New Church is the Lord in His Divine love, from whom flow all the goods that a person in that church does, apparently as though of himself. |
| yielding its fruit according to the month. | The Lord produces the goods in a person in accordance with every state of truth in him. |
| The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. | The resulting rational truths by which people caught up in evils and the accompanying falsities are brought to think sanely and to live decently. |
| 3. And nothing accursed shall be there, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him. | In the church that is the New Jerusalem, people will not live apart from the Lord, because the Lord Himself will reign there, and people who are governed by truths acquired from Him through the Word and keep His commandments will abide with Him, being conjoined with Him. |
| 4. They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads. | They will turn to the Lord and the Lord to them, being conjoined by love. |
| 5. There shall be no night there: They have no need of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. | In the New Jerusalem there will be no falsity in its faith, and the people in that church will not acquire their concepts of God from any natural sight, namely from their own intelligence, or out of a desire for glory springing from conceit, but they will acquire those concepts from the Lord alone in a state of spiritual light from the Word. |
| And they shall reign forever and ever. | They will be in the Lord's kingdom and live in conjunction with Him to eternity. |
| 6. Then he said to me, "These words are faithful and true." | People may know this for certain, because the Lord Himself has attested to it and said it. |
| And the Lord God of the holy prophets sent His angel to show His servants the things which must shortly take place. | The Lord who gave the Word contained in both Testaments has revealed through heaven to people who possess truths from Him what must surely come to pass. |
| 7. "Behold, I am coming quickly! Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book." | The Lord will surely come and give eternal life to people who keep and obey the doctrinal truths or precepts in this book, now laid open by the Lord. |
| 8. Now I, John, saw and heard these things. And when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel who showed me these things. | John supposed that the angel sent to him by the Lord to keep him in a state of the spirit was the God who revealed these things, when in fact that was not the case, as the angel only showed him what the Lord presented. |
| 9. Then he said to me, "See that you do not do that. For I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren the prophets, and of those who keep the words of this book. Worship God." | Angels in heaven are not to be worshiped or invoked, because they have nothing Divine in them, but are affiliated as brethren with brethren with people who have the doctrine of the New Jerusalem and obey its commandments, and the Lord alone is to be worshiped in fellowship with them. |
| 10. And he said to me, "Do not seal the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand. | The meaning of the book of Revelation shall not remain hidden, but must be disclosed, and that this is necessary at the end of the church for anyone to be saved. |
| 11. He who is unjust, let him be unjust still; he who is filthy, let him be filthy still; he who is righteous, let him be righteous still; he who is holy, let him be holy still." | The state of everyone in particular after death and before being judged, and in general before the Last Judgment, that those caught up in evils will have their goods taken away, and those caught up in falsities will have their truths taken away, and conversely, that people prompted by goods will have their evils taken away, and those prompted by truths will have their falsities taken away. |
| 12. "And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work. | The Lord will surely come, and His presence is heaven and the felicity of eternal life for everyone in accordance with his faith in the Lord and his life in obedience to the Lord's commandments. |
| 13. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last." | For the Lord is God of heaven and earth, and He created all things in heaven and earth, and they are governed by His Divine providence and take place in accordance with it. |
| 14. Blessed are those who do His commandments, that their power may be in the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city. | Eternal happiness awaits those who live in accordance with the Lord's commandments, in order that through love, and in His New Church through concepts of Him, they may be in the Lord and have the Lord in them. |
| 15. But outside are dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie. | No one is received into the New Jerusalem who disregards the Ten Commandments and does not refrain from any of the evils listed there as being sins, and therefore lives caught up in them. |
| 16. "I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things in the churches. | A testification by the Lord before the whole Christian world of the truth that the Lord alone has presented the visions described in this book, and that their meaning is now disclosed. |
| I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star." | He is the same Lord who was born into the world and who then was its light, and who is about to come with new light, which will arise before the eyes of His New Church, which is the Holy Jerusalem. |
| 17. And the spirit and the bride say, "Come!" | Heaven and the church long for the Lord's advent. |
| And let him who hears say, "Come!" And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely. | Anyone who has any knowledge of the Lord's coming and of the New Heaven and New Church, thus of the Lord's kingdom, let him pray for the Lord's coming; and anyone who desires truths, let him pray for the Lord to come with light. And anyone who loves truths will then receive them from the Lord apart from any endeavors of his own. |
| 18. For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add upon him the plagues that are written in this book; | People who read and know the doctrinal truths in this book now laid open by the Lord, and yet acknowledge some other God than the Lord and some other faith than faith in the Lord by adding something which destroys these two tenets, cannot but perish as a result of the falsities and evils symbolized by the plagues described in this book. |
| 19. and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book. | People who read and know the doctrinal truths in this book now laid open by the Lord, and yet acknowledge some other God than the Lord, and some other faith than faith in the Lord, by taking away something in order to destroy these two tenets, cannot perceive or acquire for themselves anything from the Word or be received into the New Jerusalem, or have their lot with people in the Lord's kingdom. |
| 20. He who testifies to these things says, "Surely I am coming quickly." Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus! | The Lord, who presented the visions in the book of Revelation and has now laid the book open, testifying to the gospel that He is coming as a bridegroom and husband in His Divine humanity which He assumed in the world and glorified, and that the church longs for Him as His bride and wife. |
THE EXPOSITION
22:1 And he showed me a pure river of water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb. This symbolizes the book of Revelation, now opened and expounded as to its spiritual meaning, in which the Lord has revealed an abundance of Divine truths for people who will be in His New Church, which is the New Jerusalem.
A pure river of water of life, bright as crystal, symbolizes an abundance of Divine truth in the Word shining through from its spiritual sense, which exists in the light of heaven. A river symbolizes an abundance of Divine truth (no. 409), because the water of which a river consists symbolizes truths (nos. 50, 685, 719), and water of life symbolizes those truths received from the Lord through the Word, of which hereafter. Bright as crystal then symbolizes those truths shining through from the spiritual sense, which exists in the light of heaven (no. 897). The river's being seen to flow from the throne of God and of the Lamb means, symbolically, that it flows out of heaven from the Lord; for a throne symbolizes the Lord in respect to judgment, government and heaven - in respect to judgment, see nos. 229, 845, 865; in respect to government, nos. 694, 808; and in respect to heaven, nos. 14, 221, 222 - and so here, out of heaven from the Lord. God and the Lamb symbolize here, as often before, the Lord in respect to the Divine itself from which flows all else, and in respect to His Divine humanity.
[2] That the river of water of life here means in particular an abundance of Divine truths in the book of Revelation, which the Lord has now revealed, is apparent from verses 6-7, 10, 14, 16-19 in this chapter. The subject of these verses is the book of this prophecy, and we are told that the things written in it must be kept. 2
They could not be kept before the things contained in it were revealed by showing their spiritual meaning, because they would not have been understood before then.
The book of Revelation, moreover, is also the Word, like the prophetic Word of the Old Testament, and disclosed now in the book of Revelation are the evils and falsities of the church that one must refrain from and avoid, and the goods and truths of the church that one must do, especially those regarding the Lord and eternal life from Him. These same things, indeed, are taught in the books of the prophets, but not so plainly as in the Gospels and the book of Revelation. These Divine truths regarding the Lord as being God of heaven and earth - truths which then emanate from Him and are received by people who will be in the New Jerusalem, truths that are contained in the book of Revelation - are those meant in particular by the river of water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb.
This can also be seen from the following passages:
(Jesus said,) "Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his belly will flow rivers of living water." (John 7:38)
(Jesus said,) "Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life." (John 4:14)
To him who thirsts I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely. (Revelation 21:6, cf. 22:17)
(And) the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters. (Revelation 7:17)
In that day... waters shall flow from Jerusalem... ...Jehovah shall become (the only) King over all the earth. In that day Jehovah will be one, and His name one. (Zechariah 14:8-9)
Living waters or waters of life in these verses symbolize Divine truth from the Lord.
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