79. There are many passages in the prophets about our understanding of the Word, passages about the church, where it tells us that the church exists only where the Word is properly understood, and that the quality of a church depends on the quality of the understanding of the Word among its members. There are also many passages in the prophets that describe the church among the Israelite and Jewish people, a church that was utterly destroyed and annihilated by the distortion of the Word’s meaning or message, for this is exactly what destroys a church.

[2] The name Ephraim in the prophets, especially in Hosea, symbolizes both true and false understandings of the Word, because Ephraim in the Word means the understanding of the Word in the church. It is because the understanding of the Word makes a church that Ephraim is called “a precious child, and one born of delights” (Jeremiah 31:20), “the firstborn” (Jeremiah 31:9), “the strength of Jehovah’s head” (Psalms 60:7; 108:8), “powerful” (Zechariah 10:7), and “filled with a bow” (Zechariah 9:13); and the children of Ephraim are called “armed” and “bow-shooters” (Psalms 78:9). The bow means a body of teaching from the Word fighting against what is false.

So too, Ephraim was transferred to the right of Israel and blessed, and accepted in place of Reuben (Genesis 48:5, 11, and following; [1 Chronicles 5:1]). And therefore Ephraim, together with his brother Manasseh, was exalted over all by Moses in his blessing of the children of Israel in the name of their father Joseph (Deuteronomy 33:13-17).

[3] The prophets, especially Hosea, also use “Ephraim” to describe what the church is like when its understanding of the Word has been lost, as we can see from the following:

Israel and Ephraim will stumble. Ephraim will be desolate. Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgment. I will be like a lion to Ephraim: I will tear them and leave; I will carry them off and no one will rescue them. (Hosea 5:5, 9, 11, 14)

What shall I do to you, Ephraim? Your holiness goes away like a cloud at dawn and like the morning dew that falls. (Hosea 6:4)

[4] They will not dwell in the land of Jehovah: Ephraim will go back to Egypt and will eat what is unclean in Assyria. (Hosea 9:3)

The land of Jehovah is the church, Egypt is the preoccupation of the earthly self with mere facts, and Assyria is rationalizing based on those facts; all of which lead to distortion of the Word in regard to the way it is understood. That is why it says that Ephraim will go back to Egypt and will eat what is unclean in Assyria.

[5] Ephraim feeds on the wind and chases the east wind. Every day he increases lies and devastation. He makes a covenant with Assyria, and oil is carried down into Egypt. (Hosea 12:1)

To feed on the wind, chase the east wind, and increase lies and devastation is to distort what is true and in this way destroy the church.

[6] Much the same is also meant by Ephraim’s whoredom, since whoredom means distortion of the way the Word is understood - that is, distortion of its genuine truth. See the following passages:

I know Ephraim; he has committed whoredom in every way and Israel has been defiled. (Hosea 5:3)

I have seen something foul in the house of Israel: Ephraim has committed whoredom there, and Israel has been defiled. (Hosea 6:10)

Israel is the church itself and Ephraim is the understanding of the Word that is the source of the church and that determines its quality, so it says that Ephraim has committed whoredom and Israel has been defiled.

[7] Since the church among Jews had been completely destroyed because of its distortions, it says of Ephraim,

Am I to give you up, Ephraim? Am I to hand you over, Israel? Like Admah? Shall I make you like Zeboiim? (Hosea 11:8)

Since the book of the prophet Hosea, from the first chapter to the last, is about the distortion of the Word and the consequent destruction of the church, and since whoredom means the distortion of truth in the church, the prophet was commanded to represent that state of the church by taking a whore as his wife and fathering children by her (chapter 1); and also by forming a relationship with a woman who was committing adultery (chapter 3).

[8] These instances have been presented so that readers may know and be assured from the Word that the quality of a church depends on the quality of the understanding of the Word in it - outstanding and priceless if its understanding comes from genuine truths from the Word, but in ruins, actually filthy, if it comes from distortions.

For further evidence that Ephraim means the understanding of the Word, and in its opposite sense a distorted understanding leading to the destruction of the church, you may check some other passages that deal with Ephraim: Hosea 4:17-18; 7:1, 11; 8:9, 11; 9:11-13, 16; 10:11; 11:3; 12:1, 8, 14; 13:1, 8, 14; Isaiah 17:3; 28:1; Jeremiah 4:15; 31:6, 18; 50:19; Ezekiel 37:16; 48:5; Obadiah verse 19; Zechariah 9:10.

197. It follows from this that, in the Word, by places and spaces and by all things that in any way relate to space are signified such things as relate to states, as by distances, near, far off, ways, journeys, sojournings, miles, furlongs, plains, fields, gardens, cities, streets, movements, measurements of various kinds, by long, broad, high and deep and innumerable other things. For most things that a man has in his thought from the world take on something from space and time. I would mention here only what, in the Word, length, breadth and height signify.

[2] In the world, that is called long or broad which is long or broad spatially, the same being true of height. But in heaven, where there is no thought from space, by length is understood a state of good, by breadth a state of truth, and by height the distinction between them in accordance with degrees (concerning which see 38). The reason why such things are understood by these three dimensions is that "long" in heaven is from east to west where dwell those who are in the good of love, while "broad" in heaven is from south to north and those who dwell there are in truth from good, as may be seen above (148), and "high" in heaven applies to both of these according to degrees. This is why, in the Word, such things are signified by length, breadth and height, as in Ezekiel from chapter Ezekiel 40; 41; 42; 43; 44; 45; 46; 47; 48, where by measurements giving length, breadth and height are described the new temple and the new earth with courts, chambers, gates, doors, windows and surroundings by all of which are signified a new Church and the goods and truths that are in it.

[3] Otherwise, to what purpose would be all these measurements? In a similar way, the New Jerusalem is described in the Revelation in these words:

The city lieth foursquare, and the length thereof is as great as the breadth; and he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs, and the length, the breadth and the height of it are equal. Revelation 21:16.

Because by the New Jerusalem here is signified a new Church, so by these measurements are signified the things of the Church, by "length" the good of its love, by "breadth", truth from that good, by "height", the degrees of good and truth, by "twelve thousand furlongs", all good and truth in the complex. What else could be meant by a height of twelve thousand furlongs, the same as the length and the breadth? That truth is signified in the Word by "breadth" is evident in David:

Jehovah, Thou hast not shut me up into the hand of the enemy, Thou hast made my feet to stand in a broad place. Psalm 31:8.

(Thou hast set my feet in a large room. A.V.)

Out of a narrow place I called upon Jah; He answereth me in a broad place. Psalm 118:5.

(I called upon the Lord in distress; the Lord answered me, and set me in a large place. A.V.)

Besides other passages, as in Isaiah 8:8, and in Habakkuk 1:6, so also in other passages.