Apocalypse Revealed #53
53. And His countenance as the sun shining in its power. This symbolizes the Divine love and wisdom which are the Lord and which emanate from Him.
The fact that the face of Jehovah or of the Lord means the Divine itself in its essence, which is Divine love and wisdom, thus Himself, will be seen in explanations below where the face of God is mentioned. "The sun shining in its power" has the same symbolic meaning.
In the sight of angels the Lord is seen as the sun in heaven, and it is His Divine love accompanied by Divine wisdom that so appears. This may be seen in the book Heaven and Hell (London, 1758), nos. 116-125 and in Angelic Wisdom Regarding Divine Love and Wisdom, 83-172.
[2] It remains here simply to confirm from the Word that when the subject is the Lord, the sun is His Divine love and at the same time His Divine wisdom. This can be seen from the following passages:
...in (that) day... the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, as the light of seven days... (Isaiah 30:25-26)
That day is the Lord's advent, when the old church has been destroyed and a new one is about to be established. The light of the moon is faith arising from charity, and the light of the sun is intelligence and wisdom arising from love emanating then from the Lord.
Your sun shall no longer go down, nor shall your moon wane; for Jehovah will be your everlasting light... (Isaiah 60:20)
The sun that will not go down is love and wisdom from the Lord.
...the Rock of Israel spoke to me... like the light of the morning when the sun rises... (2 Samuel 23:3-4)
The Rock of Israel is the Lord.
...his throne (shall be) as the sun... (Psalms 89:36-37)
This is said in reference to David, but David there means the Lord.
They shall fear You as long as the sun endures... In His days the righteous shall flourish, and abundance of peace, until the moon is no more... Before the sun He will have the name of Son, and all nations shall be blessed in Him... (Psalms 72:5, 7, 17)
These statements, too, are made in reference to the Lord.
[3] Because the Lord appears in heaven to angels as the sun, therefore when He was transfigured,
His face shone like the sun, and His garments became... as the light. (Matthew 17:1-2)
Moreover, in Revelation 10:1 it is said of the mighty angel coming down from heaven that he was "clothed with a cloud," and "his face was like the sun," and of the woman in Revelation 12:1 that she appeared "clothed with the sun." The sun there is love and wisdom emanating from the Lord. The woman there is the church called the New Jerusalem.
[4] Since the sun means the Lord with respect to love and wisdom, it is apparent what the sun symbolizes in the following places:
Behold, the day of Jehovah is coming, cruel... The sun will be darkened at its rising, and the moon will not cause its light to shine. I will visit upon the world its wickedness, and upon the impious their iniquity. (Isaiah 13:9-11)
...Jehovah will visit [punishment] in the high place upon the host of the high place, and on the earth upon the kings of the earth... Then the moon will blush and the sun be ashamed. (Isaiah 24:21, 23)
When I put out your light, I will cover the heavens, and make their stars dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not cause its light to shine... and I will... bring darkness upon your land. (Ezekiel 32:7-8)
...the day of Jehovah is coming..., a day of darkness... The sun and moon (will not cause their light to shine), and the stars have diminished their brightness. (Joel 2:1-2, 10)
The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great... day of Jehovah. (Joel 2:31)
...the day of Jehovah is near in the valley of decision. The sun and moon have grown dark... (Joel 3:14-15)
The fourth angel sounded: and a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars..., and a third of the day did not shine... (Revelation 8:12)
...the sun became as black as sackcloth of goat's hair, and the moon became as blood... (Revelation 6:12)
...the sun was... darkened because of the smoke of the pit. (Revelation 9:2)
The sun in these places does not mean the world's sun, but the sun of the angelic heaven, which is the Lord's Divine love and wisdom. These are said to be obscured, darkened, covered, or become black when falsities and evils are present in a person.
[5] It is apparent, therefore, that something similar is meant by the Lord's words when speaking of the end of the age, which is the final period of the church:
Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven... (Matthew 24:29, cf. Mark 13:24-25)
So, too, in the following places:
The sun shall go down on the prophets, and the day shall be dark for them. (Micah 3:6)
...in that day... I will make the sun go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in broad daylight. (Amos 8:9)
She... who has borne seven... will breath her last; her sun will go down while it is yet day. (Jeremiah 15:9)
The subject here is the Jewish Church, which will breathe its last or perish. The sun's going down means that there will no longer be any love or charity.
[6] It is said in Joshua that the sun stood still in Gibeon, and the moon in the valley of Aijalon (Joshua 10:12-13). This seems to be an historical statement, but in fact it is prophetic, for it comes from the book of Jasher, which was a prophetic book; for in verse 13 it says, "Is this not written in the Book of Jasher?" The same book is called a prophetic one by David in 2 Samuel 1:17, 18.
A similar statement is found in Habakkuk:
The mountains... were shaken... The sun and moon stood still in their habitation. (Habakkuk 3:10-11)
[In Isaiah:]
Your sun shall no longer go down, nor shall your moon wane. (Isaiah 60:20)
For to cause the sun and moon to stand still would be to destroy the universe.
[7] Since the sun means the Lord with respect to Divine love and wisdom, therefore in their holy worship ancient peoples turned their faces to the rising sun, and their temples also, a practice that continues to this day.
That the sun in these passages does not mean the world's sun is clear from the fact that it was profane and an abomination for people to worship the world's sun and moon (see Numbers 25:1-4, Deuteronomy 4:19; 17:3, 5, Jeremiah 8:1-2; 43:10, 13; 44:17-19, 25). For the world's sun means self-love and a conceit in one's own intelligence, and self-love is diametrically opposed to Divine love, while a conceit in one's own intelligence is opposed to Divine wisdom. To worship the world's sun is also to accept nature as the creator of all things and one's own prudence as the effecter of all things, which entails a denial of God and a denial of Divine providence.
Deuteronomy 4
1
Now, Israel, listen to the statutes and to the ordinances, which I teach you, to do them; that you may live, and go in and possess the land which Yahweh, the God of your fathers, gives you.
2
You shall not add to the word which I command you, neither shall you diminish from it, that you may keep the commandments of Yahweh your God which I command you.
3
Your eyes have seen what Yahweh did because of Baal Peor; for all the men who followed Baal Peor, Yahweh your God has destroyed them from the midst of you.
4
But you who did cling to Yahweh your God are all alive this day.
5
Behold, I have taught you statutes and ordinances, even as Yahweh my God commanded me, that you should do so in the midst of the land where you go in to possess it.
6
Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who shall hear all these statutes, and say, "Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people."
7
For what great nation is there, that has a god so near to them, as Yahweh our god is whenever we call on him?
8
What great nation is there, that has statutes and ordinances so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?
9
Only take heed to yourself, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things which your eyes saw, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life; but make them known to your children and your children's children;
10
the day that you stood before Yahweh your God in Horeb, when Yahweh said to me, "Assemble me the people, and I will make them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children."
11
You came near and stood under the mountain; and the mountain burned with fire to the heart of the sky, with darkness, cloud, and thick darkness.
12
Yahweh spoke to you out of the midst of the fire: you heard the voice of words, but you saw no form; only [you heard] a voice.
13
He declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even the ten commandments; and he wrote them on two tables of stone.
14
Yahweh commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and ordinances, that you might do them in the land where you go over to possess it.
15
Take therefore good heed to yourselves; for you saw no kind of form on the day that Yahweh spoke to you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire.
16
Lest you corrupt yourselves, and make yourself an engraved image in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female,
17
the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the sky,
18
the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth;
19
and lest you lift up your eyes to the sky, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, even all the army of the sky, you are drawn away and worship them, and serve them, which Yahweh your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole sky.
20
But Yahweh has taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be to him a people of inheritance, as at this day.
21
Furthermore Yahweh was angry with me for your sakes, and swore that I should not go over the Jordan, and that I should not go in to that good land, which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance:
22
but I must die in this land, I must not go over the Jordan; but you shall go over, and possess that good land.
23
Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of Yahweh your God, which he made with you, and make you an engraved image in the form of anything which Yahweh your God has forbidden you.
24
For Yahweh your God is a devouring fire, a jealous God.
25
When you shall father children, and children's children, and you shall have been long in the land, and shall corrupt yourselves, and make an engraved image in the form of anything, and shall do that which is evil in the sight of Yahweh your God, to provoke him to anger;
26
I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that you shall soon utterly perish from off the land whereunto you go over the Jordan to possess it; you shall not prolong your days on it, but shall utterly be destroyed.
27
Yahweh will scatter you among the peoples, and you shall be left few in number among the nations, where Yahweh shall lead you away.
28
There you shall serve gods, the work of men's hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.
29
But from there you shall seek Yahweh your God, and you shall find him, when you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.
30
When you are in oppression, and all these things are come on you, in the latter days you shall return to Yahweh your God, and listen to his voice:
31
for Yahweh your God is a merciful God; he will not fail you, neither destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which he swore to them.
32
For ask now of the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and from the one end of the sky to the other, whether there has been [any such thing] as this great thing is, or has been heard like it?
33
Did ever a people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and live?
34
Or has God tried to go and take him a nation from the midst of [another] nation, by trials, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, according to all that Yahweh your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?
35
It was shown to you so that you might know that Yahweh is God. There is no one else besides him.
36
Out of heaven he made you to hear his voice, that he might instruct you: and on earth he made you to see his great fire; and you heard his words out of the midst of the fire.
37
Because he loved your fathers, therefore he chose their seed after them, and brought you out with his presence, with his great power, out of Egypt;
38
to drive out nations from before you greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land for an inheritance, as at this day.
39
Know therefore this day, and lay it to your heart, that Yahweh he is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is none else.
40
You shall keep his statutes, and his commandments, which I command you this day, that it may go well with you, and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land, which Yahweh your God gives you, forever.
41
Then Moses set apart three cities beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise;
42
that the manslayer might flee there, who kills his neighbor unawares, and didn't hate him in time past; and that fleeing to one of these cities he might live:
43
[namely], Bezer in the wilderness, in the plain country, for the Reubenites; and Ramoth in Gilead, for the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan, for the Manassites.
44
This is the law which Moses set before the children of Israel:
45
these are the testimonies, and the statutes, and the ordinances, which Moses spoke to the children of Israel, when they came forth out of Egypt,
46
beyond the Jordan, in the valley over against Beth Peor, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon, whom Moses and the children of Israel struck, when they came forth out of Egypt.
47
They took his land in possession, and the land of Og king of Bashan, the two kings of the Amorites, who were beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise;
48
from Aroer, which is on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, even to Mount Sion (the same is Hermon),
49
and all the Arabah beyond the Jordan eastward, even to the sea of the Arabah, under the slopes of Pisgah.
