Apocalypse Revealed #437
437. And the sound of their wings was like the sound of many horse-drawn chariots rushing into battle. This symbolizes their reasonings, as though founded on doctrinal truths from the Word fully understood, which they had to ardently defend.
The sound of wings symbolizes reasonings, because to fly means, symbolically, to perceive and teach (nos. 245, 415). Chariots symbolize doctrinal teachings, as we are about to show. Horses symbolize an understanding of the Word (no. 298), and many horses a full understanding. Plainly to rush into battle symbolizes an ardor to fight.
That a chariot symbolizes doctrine is clear from the following passages:
The chariots of God are twenty thousand, thousands of peaceful ones, the Lord among them... (Psalms 68:17)
(Jehovah) makes the clouds His chariots, He walks on the wings of the wind. (Psalms 104:3)
O Jehovah..., ...You ride on Your horses, Your chariots are salvation. (Habakkuk 3:8)
...behold, Jehovah will come with fire, and like a whirlwind His chariots... (Isaiah 66:15)
You shall be filled at My table with horses and chariots... (Thus) I will set My glory among the nations. (Ezekiel 39:20-21)
I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem. (Zechariah 9:10)
I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms... I will overthrow the chariots and those who ride in them. (Haggai 2:22)
...set a watchman, let him declare what he sees. He saw therefore a chariot, a pair of horsemen..., a chariot of camels..., and... the chariot of a man... And he... said, "Babylon is fallen, is fallen!" (Isaiah 21:6-7, 9)
Since Elijah and Elisha represented the Lord in respect to the Word and thus symbolized doctrine drawn from the Word, as did all the prophets (no. 8), therefore they were called "the chariots of Israel and its horsemen;" and for the same reason Elisha saw Elijah taken up into heaven in a chariot of fire, and Elisha's servant saw chariots and horses of fire around Elisha (2 Kings 2:11-12; 6:17; 13:14).
See also elsewhere where chariots are mentioned, as in Isaiah 31:1; 37:24; 66:20; Jeremiah 17:25; 22:4; 46:2-3, 8-9; 50:37-38; 51:20-21.
Jeremiah 47
1
The word of Yahweh that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning the Philistines, before that Pharaoh struck Gaza.
2
Thus says Yahweh: Behold, waters rise up out of the north, and shall become an overflowing stream, and shall overflow the land and all that is therein, the city and those who dwell therein; and the men shall cry, and all the inhabitants of the land shall wail.
3
At the noise of the stamping of the hoofs of his strong ones, at the rushing of his chariots, at the rumbling of his wheels, the fathers don't look back to their children for feebleness of hands;
4
because of the day that comes to destroy all the Philistines, to cut off from Tyre and Sidon every helper who remains: for Yahweh will destroy the Philistines, the remnant of the isle of Caphtor.
5
Baldness is come on Gaza; Ashkelon is brought to nothing, the remnant of their valley: how long will you cut yourself?
6
You sword of Yahweh, how long will it be before you be quiet? Put up yourself into your scabbard; rest, and be still.
7
How can you be quiet, since Yahweh has given you a command? Against Ashkelon, and against the seashore, there has he appointed it.
