863. And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. This symbolically means that they were destroyed by the lusts of their hellish love.

The fire that came down out of heaven and devoured them symbolizes lusts for evil, or the lusts of a hellish love, as in nos. 494, 748 above, since people who engage in external worship divorced from any internal worship are caught up in evils of every kind and in lusts for them, because the evils in them have not been removed by any actual repentance (no. 859).

We are told that the fire came down from God out of heaven. This occurred in ancient times when everything connected with the church was represented before their eyes, thus when the church was a representational one. But today, now that representations have ceased, similar imagery is used, and it has the same symbolic meaning as before when the meaning was represented.

That fire came down out of heaven on those who profaned sacred things may be seen in nos. 494, 748 above.

Something similar is said of Gog and Magog in Ezekiel:

I will cause... fire and brimstone to rain down on him, and on his troops, and on the many peoples who are with him. (Ezekiel 38:22)

I will send fire on Magog... (Ezekiel 39:6)

494. And if anyone wants to harm them, fire will proceed from their mouth and devour their enemies. (11:5) This symbolically means that anyone who wishes to destroy these two essential elements perishes from a hellish love.

To want to harm the two witnesses means, symbolically, to wish to destroy the two essential elements of the New Church, namely, an acknowledgment of the Lord as being God of heaven and earth even as to His humanity, and a life in accordance with the Ten Commandments. To be shown that these are the two witnesses, see no. 490 above.

Fire's proceeding from their mouth means, symbolically, that hellish love will do so; and its devouring their enemies means, symbolically, that those who harm them will perish because of it. Here, however, it is not to be supposed that fire will issue from the mouth of the witnesses, but that it will do so from people who wish to destroy these two essential elements of the New Church, meant by the two witnesses (no. 490). The fire is the fire of hell; for people who do not live according to the Ten Commandments, and who do not turn to God, their Savior and Redeemer, cannot help but be caught up in a hellish love and perish.

[2] The case is the same as elsewhere in the Word where we are told that Jehovah sends fire that consumes the wicked, or that Jehovah does other things like that out of the fire of His wrath, anger, or fury, which mean not that they come from Jehovah, but that they do so from the hellish love of the wicked.

We read of instances like that in the Word because that is how they appear, and the Word in its literal sense was composed in terms of appearances and things that correspond.

Since we are told that fire proceeded from their mouth, and this means that it originated from people caught up in a hellish love, we will cite some passages where fire is said to issue from Jehovah:

The breath of Jehovah, like a stream of brimstone, will consume it. (Isaiah 30:33)

Smoke went up from His nostrils, and fire from His mouth...; coals were kindled by it. (Psalms 18:8)

(I will) pour out on them... the wrath of My anger; for all the earth shall be devoured in the fire of My zeal. (Zephaniah 3:8)

...behold, Jehovah will come with fire... for retribution in the wrath of His anger, and His rebuke in flames of fire. (Isaiah 66:15)

You will be visited by Jehovah... with the flame of devouring fire. (Isaiah 29:6, cf. 30:30)

And so on in many places elsewhere.