435. And their teeth were like lions' teeth. This symbolically means that matters of the senses, which constitute the lowest elements of the natural self's life, appeared to them to have power over all else.

Teeth symbolize the lowest elements of the natural self's life, which are called sensual, as discussed in no. 424 above. These sensual elements are of two kinds, one having to do with the will, the other with the intellect. Sensual elements having to do with the will are symbolized by women's hair, as said just above in no. 434; and sensual elements having to do with the intellect are symbolized by teeth. The latter, which is to say, sensual people caught up in falsities by conviction, appear to themselves to have power over everything, so that they cannot be overcome. Therefore the locusts' teeth, which symbolize such sensual elements, were like lions' teeth - a lion symbolizing power (no. 241).

That teeth symbolize the lowest elements of a person's life - those elements called sensual - and that when these are divorced from the interior levels of the mind, they are caught up in nothing but falsities and attack truths and destroy them, can be seen from the following passages:

With my soul I lie down among lions...; their teeth are a spear and arrows... (Psalms 57:4)

O God, destroy their teeth in their mouth! Turn aside the molars of the young lions... (Psalms 58:6)

...a nation has come up against My land, strong..., its teeth the teeth of a lion, and it has the molars of a fierce lion. (Joel 1:6)

...O Jehovah..., You have broken the teeth of the impious. (Psalms 3:7)

...a beast (came up from the sea), terrible, dreadful, and exceedingly strong, which had huge iron teeth; it was devouring and breaking in pieces... (Daniel 7:3, 7).

Blessed be Jehovah, who has not given us as prey to their teeth. (Psalms 124:6)

Since sensual people do not see any truth in its own light, but reason and argue about everything as to whether it is so, and since these altercations in the hells sound outside the hells like the gnashing of teeth, which regarded in itself is a colliding of falsity and truth, it is apparent what the gnashing of teeth symbolizes in Matthew 8:12; 13:42, 50; 22:13; 24:51; 25:30, and Luke 13:28; and in some measure what to gnash with the teeth symbolizes in Job 16:9, Psalms 35:15-16; 37:12; 112:10, Micah 3:5, and Lamentations 2:16.

419. CHAPTER 9

1. Then the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fallen from heaven to the earth, and to him was given the key to the bottomless pit.

2. And he opened the bottomless pit, and smoke arose out of the pit like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke of the pit.

3. Then out of the smoke came locusts upon the earth, and to them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.

4. They were told not to harm the grass of the earth, or any green thing, or any tree, but only those men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.

5. And it was given them not to kill them, but to torment them for five months, and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it strikes a man.

6. In those days men will seek death and will not find it; they will desire to die, and death will flee from them.

7. The locusts in appearance were like horses prepared for battle, and on their heads were what looked like crowns of gold, and their faces were like the faces of men.

8. They had hair like women's hair, and their teeth were like lions' teeth.

9. And they had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the sound of many horse-drawn chariots rushing into battle.

10. They had tails like scorpions, and there were stings in their tails, and their power was to hurt men five months.

11. And they had as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, but who in Greek has the name Apollyon.

12. One woe is past. Behold, still two more woes are coming after these things.

13. Then the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,

14. saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, "Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates."

15. And the four angels were released, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, to kill a third of mankind.

16. Now the number of the army of the horsemen was two hundred million, and I heard the number of them.

17. And thus I saw the horses in the vision and those who sat on them, having breastplates that were fiery, hyacinthine and sulfurous; and the heads of the horses were like the heads of lions; and out of their mouths came fire, smoke, and brimstone.

18. By these three a third of mankind was killed - by the fire and smoke and brimstone coming out of their mouths.

19. Their power was in their mouth [and in their tails]; for their tails were like serpents, having heads, and with them they do harm.

20. But the rest of mankind, who were not killed in these plagues, still did not repent of the works of their hands, so as not to worship demons, and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk.

21. And they did not repent of their murders or their enchantments or their sexual immorality or their thefts.

THE SPIRITUAL MEANING

The Contents of the Whole Chapter

An examination and disclosure of the state of life of those people in the Protestant Reformed church who are called learned and wise because of their defense of faith divorced from charity and of justification and salvation by it alone. This is the subject of verses 1-12.

An examination and disclosure of the state of life of those people in that church who are not so learned and wise, who are caught up in faith alone and live as they please. This is the subject of verses 13-19.

Finally, concerning people in that church who know only that faith is the whole means by which a person is saved, and nothing more beyond that. Verses 20, 21.

The Contents of the Individual Verses:

THE EXPOSITION

Then the fifth angel sounded. (9:1) This symbolizes an examination and disclosure of the state of life of those people in the Protestant Reformed Church who are called learned and wise because of their defense of faith divorced from charity and of justification and salvation by it alone.

That this is the subject in what follows now up to verse 12, is clear from the several particulars, understood in their spiritual sense.

To sound a trumpet means, symbolically, to examine and expose the state of the church and consequent life in people for whom religion is faith alone, as may be seen in no. 397 above.