Title: Nowhere to Lay His Head

Topic: The Word

Summary: How can we provide the Lord a place to lay his head?

References:
Judges 15:3-5
Nehemiah 4:1-3
Lamentations 5:15-18
Ezekiel 13:3-5
Luke 13:31-33
Isaiah 2:19; 42:21-22
Jeremiah 16:16-17
Ezekiel 8:6-10
Micah 7:16-17
2 Samuel 21:9-10
1 Kings 14:11
Job 12:7-8
Hosea 7:11-12
Luke 8:5
Acts 10:9-14
Proverbs 27:8
Isaiah 34:8-11, 13-16
Jeremiah 49:15-16
Mark 10:33-34
Matthew 25:31-33
Luke 19:9-10
Isaiah 35:10
Ezekiel 9:10; 16:43
Job 16:15-16
Matthew 8:18-20

This video is a part of the Spirit and Life Bible Study series, whose purpose is to look at the Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible through a Swedenborgian lens.

151. "'And I will give him the morning star.'" (2:28) This symbolizes intelligence and wisdom then.

Stars symbolize concepts of goodness and truth, as may be seen in no 51 above; and because concepts of goodness and truth are the means to intelligence and wisdom, therefore these concepts are symbolically meant by the morning star. It is called the morning star, because the people meant here will be given intelligence and wisdom by the Lord when He comes to establish the New Church, which is the New Jerusalem; for He says, "Hold fast what you have till I come" (verse 25), which symbolically means, "so that they may retain the few truths that they know from the Word about charity and its resulting faith, and live according to them, until the New Heaven and New Church are formed, which are the Lord's advent" (no. 145).

[2] It is called the morning star because the morning symbolizes the Lord's advent, when the New Church is formed. That this is the meaning of the morning in the Word is apparent from the following passages:

Till the two thousand three hundredth evening and morning, then the sanctuary shall be made right... The vision of the evening and the morning... is the truth. (Daniel 8:14, 26)

One is calling to me from Seir, "Watchman..., watchman, what of the night?" The watchman said, "The morning comes, and also the night. (Isaiah 21:11-12)

Evening and night symbolize the final period of the old church, and morning the initial period of a new church.

An end has come... The morning has come upon you, you who dwell in the land... Behold, the day... has come! The morning has gone forth. (Ezekiel 7:6-7, 10)

Jehovah... every morning will bring His judgment to light, and it shall not be lacking. (Zephaniah 3:5)

God is in the midst of her...; God shall help her when He beholds the morning. (Psalms 46:5)

I have waited for Jehovah... My soul waits for the Lord more than those who watch for the morning, [indeed] than those who watch for the morning... For... with Him is abundant redemption, and He shall redeem Israel... (Psalms 130:5-8)

[3] And elsewhere. Morning in these passages means the Lord's advent, when He came into the world and established a new church, and likewise now. Moreover, because the Lord alone imparts intelligence and wisdom to the people who will be people of His New Church, and as everything that the Lord imparts embody Him because they are His, therefore the Lord says that He is the morning star:

I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star. (Revelation 22:16)

He is also called the morning in 2 Samuel:

The God of Israel said, The Rock of Israel spoke to me: .".. He is as the light of the morning..., a morning without clouds...." (2 Samuel 23:3-4)