52. 6. Jehovah himself - that is, the Lord - spoke the Word through prophets.

We read of the prophets that they had visions and that Jehovah talked with them. When they had visions, they were not focused on their bodies but on the spirit, in which state they saw things of a heavenly nature. When Jehovah talked with them, though, they were conscious of their bodies and heard Jehovah speaking.

We need to draw a clear distinction between these two states. In a visionary state, the eyes of their spirit were open and the eyes of their body were closed; and at such times they seemed to themselves to be taken from place to place while their bodies stayed where they were. Ezekiel, Zechariah, and Daniel were in this state at times, and so was John when he wrote the Book of Revelation. They were then said to be in a vision or in the spirit. In fact, Ezekiel says,

The spirit lifted me up and brought me back into Chaldea, to the captivity, in a vision from God, in the spirit of God. In this way the vision that I saw came over me. (Ezekiel 11:1, 24)

He says that the spirit lifted him up and that he heard an earthquake and other things behind him (Ezekiel 3:12, 14). He also said that the spirit lifted him up between earth and heaven and took him off into Jerusalem in visions from God, and he saw abominations (Ezekiel 8:3 and following).

That is why (again in a vision of God or in the spirit) Ezekiel saw the four beasts that were angel guardians (chapters 1; 10), and he saw a new earth and a new temple with the angel measuring them, as we are told in chapters 40-48. He says in chapter 40:2, that he was then in visions from God; and in chapter 43:5, he says that the spirit lifted him up at that time.

The same thing happened with Zechariah. There was an angel inwardly present with him when he saw a man riding among myrtle trees (Zechariah 1:8 and following); when he saw four horns and then a man with a measuring line in his hand (Zechariah 1:18; 2:1); when he saw Joshua the high priest (Zechariah 3:1 and following); when he saw a lampstand and two olive trees (Zechariah 4:1 and following); when he saw a flying scroll and a measuring basket (Zechariah 5:1, 6); and when he saw four chariots coming from between two mountains, along with horses (Zechariah 6:1 and following).

Daniel was in the same kind of state when he saw four beasts come up from the sea (Daniel 7:3) and when he saw battles between a ram and a goat (Daniel 8:1 and following).

We read in Daniel 7:1-2, 7, 13; 8:2; 10:1, 7-8 that he saw these things in visions. We read in Daniel 9:21 that he saw the angel Gabriel in a vision and talked with him.

Much the same happened with John when he wrote the Book of Revelation. He says that he was in the spirit on the Lord’s day (Revelation 1:10), that he was carried away in the spirit into the wilderness (17:3), to a high mountain in the spirit (21:10), that he saw horses in a vision (9:17), and elsewhere that he saw what he described, being therefore in the spirit or in a vision (1:2; 4:1; 5:1; 6:1; and in the particular chapters that follow).

1463. That 'sojourning' means receiving instruction becomes clear from the meaning in the Word of 'sojourning' as receiving instruction, and it has this meaning because sojourning and passing on, or moving from one place to another, is in heaven nothing else than a change of state, as shown already in 1376, 1379. Therefore every time travelling, sojourning, or transferring from one place to another occurs in the Word nothing else suggests itself to angels than a change of state such as takes place with them. There are changes of state both of thoughts and of affections. Changes of the state of thoughts are cognitions, which in the world of spirits are represented by means of forms of instruction. This also explains why members of the Most Ancient Church, having communication with the angelic heaven, did not perceive anything else by 'sojourning'. Thus the statement here that 'Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn' does not mean anything other than the Lord's being instructed.

[2] Something similar is meant by Jacob and his sons going down into Egypt, as in Isaiah,

Thus said the Lord Jehovih, My people went down to Egypt at first to sojourn there, and Asshur oppressed them without cause. Isaiah 52:4.

Here 'Asshur' stands for reasonings. This is also why in the Jewish Church people who were receiving instruction were called 'sojourners, sojourning in their midst' who, it was commanded, were to receive the same treatment as the native-born, Exodus 12:48-49; Leviticus 24:22; Numbers 15:13-16, 26, 29; 19:10. Regarding sojourners it is said in Ezekiel,

You shall divide this land among you according to the tribes of Israel. You shall divide it by lot as an inheritance for yourselves and for sojourners, sojourning in your midst. They shall be to you as native-born among the children of Israel, they shall cast lots with you for an inheritance in the midst of the tribes of Israel. In the tribe with which the sojourner has sojourned, there shall you give him his inheritance. Ezekiel 47:21-23.

This refers to the new Jerusalem, or the Lord's kingdom. 'Sojourners sojourning' is used to mean people who allow themselves to receive instruction, consequently the gentiles. That 'sojourners' stands for people who are receiving instruction is clear from the fact that it is said 'in the tribe with which he has sojourned, there shall an inheritance be given him'. 'Tribes' stands for the things that constitute faith.

[3] 'Sojourning' is also similar in meaning to travelling and dwelling. 'Travelling' means the established patterns and order of life, while 'dwelling' means living, both dealt with already in 1293. For the same reasons the land of Canaan is also called 'the land of the sojournings of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob', in Genesis 28:4; 36:7; 37:1; Exodus 6:4. And Jacob said to Pharaoh,

The days of the years of my sojournings; few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their sojournings. Genesis 47:9.

Here 'sojourning' stands for life and for forms of instruction.