Apocalypse Revealed＃336
336. And every mountain and island was moved out of its place. This symbolically means that all goodness of love and truth of faith vanished.
No one can see that this is the symbolic meaning except by recourse to the spiritual sense. It is the symbolic meaning because mountains mean people who possess the goodness of love, inasmuch as angels dwell upon mountains - those motivated by love toward the Lord on loftier mountains, and those motivated by love for the neighbor on less lofty ones. Consequently "every mountain" symbolizes all goodness of love. Islands mean people relatively removed from the worship of God, as may be seen in no. 34 above - here people who are impelled by faith, and not so much by the goodness of love. Therefore in an abstract sense "every island" means, symbolically, all truth of faith. To be moved out of their places means, symbolically, to go away.
It derives from the abodes of angels on mountains and hills, therefore, that mountains and hills in the Word symbolize heaven and the church where love toward the Lord and love for the neighbor are found, and in an opposite sense, hell where self-love and love of the world are found.
[2] It is apparent from the following passages that mountains and hills symbolize heaven and the church where love toward the Lord and love for the neighbor are found, thus where the Lord is present:
Lift up your eyes to the mountains, whence comes your help. (Psalms 121:1)
Behold, on the mountains the feet of him who proclaims... peace! (Nahum 1:15, cf. Isaiah 52:7)
Praise Jehovah..., you mountains and... hills...! (Psalms 148:7, 9)
A mountain of God is the mountain of Bashan; a mountain of hills is the mountain of Bashan. Why do you leap, you mountains, you hills of the mountain? Jehovah has desired to inhabit them; (Jehovah) also will inhabit them forever. (Psalms 68:15-16)
The mountains skipped like rams, the hills like the young of the flock... You travail, O earth, at the presence of the Lord... (Psalms 114:4-7)
I will bring forth a seed from Jacob, and from Judah an heir of My mountains, that My elect may inherit them, and My servants dwell there. (Isaiah 65:9)
(In the consummation of the age:) then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. (Matthew 24:16)
(O Jehovah,) Your righteousness is as the mountains of God. (Psalms 36:6)
Jehovah will go forth and fight... In that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, opposite Jerusalem on the east. (Zechariah 14:3-4)
[3] Since the Mount of Olives symbolized Divine love, therefore during the days the Lord preached in the Temple, but during the nights He went out and spent the night on the Mount of Olives (Luke 21:37; 22:39, John 8:1). And therefore the Lord spoke upon that mountain with His disciples regarding His coming and the end of the age (Matthew 24:3, Mark 13:3-4).
Since a mountain symbolized heaven and love, therefore Jehovah came down upon the top of Mount Sinai and proclaimed the Law (Exodus 19:20; 24:17). And therefore the Lord was transfigured before Peter, James and John on a high mountain (Matthew 17:1). Therefore Zion also was located on a mountain, and so, too, Jerusalem, and the two were called the mountain of Jehovah and the mountain of holiness in many places in the Word.
Mountains and hills have similar symbolic meanings elsewhere, as in Isaiah 7:25; 30:25; 40:9; 44:23; 49:11, 13; 55:12; Jeremiah 16:15-16; Psalms 65:6; 80:10; 104:5-10, 13.
[4] That mountains and hills symbolize these loves can be seen still more clearly from their opposite meaning, in which they symbolize hellish loves, namely, self-love and a love of the world, as is apparent from the following passages:
...the day of Jehovah... shall come... upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up... (Isaiah 2:12, 14)
Every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and hill brought low. (Isaiah 40:4)
The mountains shall be overthrown, and its ascents shall fall... (Ezekiel 38:20-21)
Behold, I am against you, O... mountain, that destroys all the earth... ...I will make you a burnt mountain. (Jeremiah 51:25)
I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they are shaken, and all the hills are overthrown. (Jeremiah 4:23-25)
...a fire is kindled in my anger..., and it will set on fire the foundations of the mountains. (Deuteronomy 32:22)
I will lay waste the mountains and hills... (Isaiah 42:15)
Behold, (O Jacob,) I will make you like a threshing sledge... that you may thresh the mountains and crush them, and make the hills like chaff..., that the wind may carry them away. (Isaiah 41:15-16)
Give glory to Jehovah... before your feet stumble on the dark mountains... (Jeremiah 13:16)
Nor is anything else meant by the seven mountains on which the woman - namely Babylon - sat (Revelation 17:9). And so also elsewhere, as in Isaiah 14:13; Jeremiah 50:6; 9:10; Ezekiel 6:2-3; 34:6.
It can now be seen from this what is meant by the statement that "every mountain and island was moved out of its place," and later by the statement that "every island fled away, and the mountains were not found" (Revelation 16:20, no. 714).
Jeremiah 3
1
"They say, 'If a man puts away his wife, and she goes from him, and become another man's, will he return to her again?' Wouldn't that land be greatly polluted? But you have played the prostitute with many lovers; yet return again to me," says Yahweh.
2
"Lift up your eyes to the bare heights, and see! Where have you not been lain with? You have sat for them by the ways, as an Arabian in the wilderness. You have polluted the land with your prostitution and with your wickedness.
3
Therefore the showers have been withheld, and there has been no latter rain; yet you have a prostitute's forehead, you refused to be ashamed.
4
Will you not from this time cry to me, 'My Father, you are the guide of my youth?'
5
"'Will he retain [his anger] forever? Will he keep it to the end?' Behold, you have spoken and have done evil things, and have had your way."
6
Moreover, Yahweh said to me in the days of Josiah the king, "Have you seen that which backsliding Israel has done? She has gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree, and there has played the prostitute.
7
I said after she had done all these things, 'She will return to me;' but she didn't return; and her treacherous sister Judah saw it.
8
I saw, when, for this very cause that backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a bill of divorce, yet treacherous Judah, her sister, didn't fear; but she also went and played the prostitute.
9
It happened through the lightness of her prostitution, that the land was polluted, and she committed adultery with stones and with stocks.
10
Yet for all this her treacherous sister, Judah, has not returned to me with her whole heart, but only in pretense," says Yahweh.
11
Yahweh said to me, "Backsliding Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah.
12
Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, 'Return, you backsliding Israel,' says Yahweh; 'I will not look in anger on you; for I am merciful,' says Yahweh. 'I will not keep [anger] forever.
13
Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have transgressed against Yahweh your God, and have scattered your ways to the strangers under every green tree, and you have not obeyed my voice,' says Yahweh."
14
"Return, backsliding children," says Yahweh; "for I am a husband to you. I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion.
15
I will give you shepherds according to my heart, who shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.
16
It shall come to pass, when you are multiplied and increased in the land, in those days," says Yahweh, "they shall say no more, 'The ark of the covenant of Yahweh!' neither shall it come to mind; neither shall they remember it; neither shall they miss it; neither shall it be made any more.
17
At that time they shall call Jerusalem 'The throne of Yahweh;' and all the nations shall be gathered to it, to the name of Yahweh, to Jerusalem. Neither shall they walk any more after the stubbornness of their evil heart.
18
In those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land that I gave for an inheritance to your fathers.
19
"But I said, 'How I would put you among the children, and give you a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the armies of the nations!' and I said, 'You shall call me "My Father," and shall not turn away from following me.'
20
"Surely as a wife treacherously departs from her husband, so you have dealt treacherously with me, house of Israel," says Yahweh.
21
A voice is heard on the bare heights, the weeping [and] the petitions of the children of Israel; because they have perverted their way, they have forgotten Yahweh their God.
22
Return, you backsliding children, I will heal your backsliding. "Behold, we have come to you; for you are Yahweh our God.
23
Truly in vain is [the help that is looked for] from the hills, the tumult on the mountains. Truly the salvation of Israel is in Yahweh our God.
24
But the shameful thing has devoured the labor of our fathers from our youth, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.
25
Let us lie down in our shame, and let our confusion cover us; for we have sinned against Yahweh our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day. We have not obeyed the voice of Yahweh our God."
