14. Where the Lord speaks with His disciples about the end of the age, which is the final period of the church, at the end of His predictions concerning its successive changes in state, He says:

Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn; and they will see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send out His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. (Matthew 24:29-31)

[2] This, in the spiritual sense, does not mean that the sun and moon will be darkened, that the stars will fall from heaven, and that a sign of the Lord will appear in the sky. Nor does it mean that people will see Him on the clouds, or at the same time angels with trumpets. Rather each of these predictions has some spiritual meaning having to do with the church, regarding whose state at its end these predictions were made.

Indeed, in the spiritual sense the sun that will be darkened means the Lord in relation to love. The moon that will not give its light means the Lord in relation to faith. The stars that will fall from heaven mean concepts of goodness and truth that will perish. The sign of the Son of man in heaven means an appearance of Divine truth. The tribes of the earth that will mourn mean an absence of any truth as a matter of faith, and of any goodness as a matter of love. The coming of the Son of man on the clouds of heaven with power and glory means the Lord’s presence in the Word and a revelation of Him. The clouds symbolize the Word’s literal sense, and glory the Word’s spiritual sense. The angels with a great sound of a trumpet symbolize heaven and Divine truth coming from it. Gathering the elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other, symbolizes a renewal of the church as regards love and faith.

[3] That this prediction does not mean a darkening of the sun and moon and a falling of the stars to earth is quite clear from the Prophets, in which similar predictions occur regarding the state of the church when the Lord would come into the world. As in Isaiah:

Behold, the day of Jehovah is coming, cruel..., one of wrathful anger.... ...the stars of heaven and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be darkened in its rising, and the moon will not cause its light to shine. I will visit upon the world its malice.... (Isaiah 13:9-11, cf. 24:21, 23)

In Joel:

(Behold, ) the day of Jehovah is coming..., a day of gloom and pitch darkness.... The sun and moon will darken, and the stars diminish their brightness. (Joel 2:1-2, 10, cf. 2:31, 3:15)

In Ezekiel:

...I will cover the heavens and darken the stars; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine. All the shining lights of the heavens I will darken..., and bring darkness upon (the) land.... (Ezekiel 32:7-8)

The day of Jehovah means the Lord’s advent, which occurred when there was no longer any goodness and truth left in the church, and no knowledge of the Lord.

9868. 'A chrysoprase, a sapphire, and a diamond' means the celestial love of truth, from which the things that follow spring. This is clear from the meaning of these stones as the celestial love of truth, dealt with below. The reason for saying 'from which the things that follow spring' is that all the forms of good and truths that follow emanate in order from those that go before; for the existence of anything unconnected with others prior to itself is not possible. First in order is the celestial love of good; second is the celestial love of truth; third is the spiritual love of good; and fourth is the spiritual love of truth. This order is what was represented in the rows of stones in the breastplate of judgement, and it is the actual order of the forms of good and the truths in the heavens. In the inmost heaven there is the celestial love of good and the celestial love of truth, the celestial love of good constituting the internal part of that heaven, and the celestial love of truth the external part of it. But in the second heaven there is the spiritual love of good, which constitutes the internal part of it, and the spiritual love of truth, which constitutes the external part of it. Each love furthermore flows into the next in the same order, and they constitute a unified whole so to speak. From this it is evident what should be understood by 'from which the things that follow spring'.

[2] As regards the stones belonging to this row, they derive their meaning, as the previous ones and also all the others do, from their colours. For the meaning of precious stones is determined by their colours, see above in 9865; colours in heaven are modifications of the light and shade there, and so are diverse forms of intelligence and wisdom among angels, 3993, 4530, 4677, 4742, 4922, 9466, the light in heaven being Divine Truth emanating from the Lord, the source of all intelligence and wisdom. Being of different shades of red the stones belonging to the first row mean the celestial love of good; but the stones belonging to the present row are of different shades of blue that is the product of red. For there is blue which is the product of red and blue which is the product of white. Blue which is the product of red shines inwardly from a source that is flaming; this is the kind of blue by which the celestial love of truth is meant. But blue which is the product of white, such as is present in the stones belonging to the next row, which means the spiritual love of good, does not shine inwardly from a source that is flaming but from one that is clear and bright.

[3] Whether chrysoprase, the first stone belonging to this row, was of a blue colour cannot be proved from the derivation of that word in the original language. But the fact that it means the celestial love of truth is evident in Ezekiel,

Syria was your merchant because of the multitude of your handiworks; [they exchanged for your wares] chrysoprase, purple, and embroidered work. Ezekiel 27:16.

This refers to Tyre, by which wisdom and intelligence arising from cognitions or knowledge of goodness and truth are meant, 1201. Chrysoprase is linked here with purple, and since 'purple' means the celestial love of good, 9467, it follows that 'chrysoprase' means the celestial love of truth; for wherever good is spoken of in the prophetical part of the Word, truth belonging to the same class is also spoken of, on account of the heavenly marriage in every detail there, 9263, 9314. 'Syria' too, which was 'the merchant', means cognitions of good, 1232, 1234, 3249, 4112, the cognitions of good being the truths of celestial love.

[4] A sapphire, the second stone belonging to this row, is - as is well known - of a blue colour, like that of the sky; therefore it says in the Book of Exodus,

Seventy of the elders saw the God of Israel, and under His feet there was so to speak a work of sapphire, and it was like the substance of the sky for clearness. Exodus 24:10.

This stone means what is translucent with inner truths, which are the truths of celestial love, see 9407.

[5] But a diamond, the third stone belonging to this row, means the truth of celestial love, on account of its translucence that tends to have a blueness in it. Thus it is through this stone, being the last, that the colours of the stones belonging to this row and also the previous one shine, and are then brought in contact with those in the next row. The situation is similar with the goodness and truths in the inmost heaven and the goodness and truths in the heavens that come after it. The latter goodness and truths derive their life of charity and faith from the former by transmission, as if by a shining through.