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).
Deuteronomy 32
1
Give ear, you heavens, and I will speak. Let the earth hear the words of my mouth.
2
My doctrine shall drop as the rain. My speech shall condense as the dew, as the small rain on the tender grass, as the showers on the herb.
3
For I will proclaim the name of Yahweh. Ascribe greatness to our God!
4
The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice: a God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and right is he.
5
They have dealt corruptly with him, [they are] not his children, [it is] their blemish. [They are] a perverse and crooked generation.
6
Do you thus requite Yahweh, foolish people and unwise? Isn't he your father who has bought you? He has made you, and established you.
7
Remember the days of old. Consider the years of many generations. Ask your father, and he will show you; your elders, and they will tell you.
8
When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the children of men, he set the bounds of the peoples according to the number of the children of Israel.
9
For Yahweh's portion is his people. Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.
10
He found him in a desert land, in the waste howling wilderness. He surrounded him. He cared for him. He kept him as the apple of his eye.
11
As an eagle that stirs up her nest, that flutters over her young, he spread abroad his wings, he took them, he bore them on his feathers.
12
Yahweh alone led him. There was no foreign god with him.
13
He made him ride on the high places of the earth. He ate the increase of the field. He caused him to suck honey out of the rock, oil out of the flinty rock;
14
Butter of the herd, and milk of the flock, with fat of lambs, rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the finest of the wheat. Of the blood of the grape you drank wine.
15
But Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked. You have grown fat. You have grown thick. You have become sleek. Then he forsook God who made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.
16
They moved him to jealousy with strange [gods]. They provoked him to anger with abominations.
17
They sacrificed to demons, [which were] no God, to gods that they didn't know, to new [gods] that came up of late, which your fathers didn't dread.
18
Of the Rock who became your father, you are unmindful, and have forgotten God who gave you birth.
19
Yahweh saw [it], and abhorred [them], because of the provocation of his sons and his daughters.
20
He said, "I will hide my face from them. I will see what their end shall be; for they are a very perverse generation, children in whom is no faithfulness.
21
They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God. They have provoked me to anger with their vanities. I will move them to jealousy with those who are not a people. I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.
22
For a fire is kindled in my anger, Burns to the lowest Sheol, Devours the earth with its increase, and sets the foundations of the mountains on fire.
23
"I will heap evils on them. I will spend my arrows on them.
24
[They shall be] wasted with hunger, and devoured with burning heat and bitter destruction. I will send the teeth of animals on them, With the poison of crawling things of the dust.
25
Outside the sword shall bereave, and in the rooms, terror; on both young man and virgin, The nursing infant with the gray-haired man.
26
I said, I would scatter them afar. I would make the memory of them to cease from among men;
27
were it not that I feared the provocation of the enemy, lest their adversaries should judge wrongly, lest they should say, 'Our hand is exalted, Yahweh has not done all this.'"
28
For they are a nation void of counsel. There is no understanding in them.
29
Oh that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!
30
How could one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, and Yahweh had delivered them up?
31
For their rock is not as our rock, even our enemies themselves being judges.
32
For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, of the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are grapes of gall, Their clusters are bitter.
33
Their wine is the poison of serpents, The cruel venom of asps.
34
"Isn't this laid up in store with me, sealed up among my treasures?
35
Vengeance is mine, and recompense, at the time when their foot slides; for the day of their calamity is at hand. The things that are to come on them shall make haste."
36
For Yahweh will judge his people, and have compassion on his servants, when he sees that [their] power is gone, There is none [remaining], shut up or left at large.
37
He will say, "Where are their gods, The rock in which they took refuge;
38
Which ate the fat of their sacrifices, And drank the wine of their drink offering? Let them rise up and help you! Let them be your protection.
39
"See now that I, even I, am he, There is no god with me. I kill, and I make alive. I wound, and I heal. There is no one who can deliver out of my hand.
40
For I lift up my hand to heaven, And say, As I live forever,
41
if I whet my glittering sword, My hand take hold on judgment; I will render vengeance to my adversaries, and will recompense those who hate me.
42
I will make my arrows drunk with blood. My sword shall devour flesh with the blood of the slain and the captives, from the head of the leaders of the enemy."
43
Rejoice, you nations, [with] his people, for he will avenge the blood of his servants. He will render vengeance to his adversaries, And will make expiation for his land, for his people.
44
Moses came and spoke all the words of this song in the ears of the people, he and Joshua the son of Nun.
45
Moses made an end of speaking all these words to all Israel;
46
He said to them, "Set your heart to all the words which I testify to you this day, which you shall command your children to observe to do, [even] all the words of this law.
47
For it is no vain thing for you; because it is your life, and through this thing you shall prolong your days in the land, where you go over the Jordan to possess it."
48
Yahweh spoke to Moses that same day, saying,
49
"Go up into this mountain of Abarim, to Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, that is over against Jericho; and see the land of Canaan, which I give to the children of Israel for a possession;
50
and die on the mountain where you go up, and be gathered to your people, as Aaron your brother died on Mount Hor, and was gathered to his people:
51
because you trespassed against me in the midst of the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah of Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin; because you didn't sanctify me in the midst of the children of Israel.
52
For you shall see the land before you; but you shall not go there into the land which I give the children of Israel."
