255. To this I will append the following account:

To prevent someone from entering into the spiritual meaning of the Word and perverting the genuine truth found in that meaning, the Lord has set protections, which in the Word are meant by cherubim, which is what the four living creatures here are.

That protections have been set was represented to me in the following way:

[2] I was given to see large purses, looking like sacks, which had stored away in them a great deal of silver. And since they were open, it seemed as if anyone might take the silver deposited in them, even to make off with it, but next to those purses two angels were sitting as guards. The place where the purses rested looked like a manger in a stable. In the next room I saw modest maidens, together with a chaste wife. Near that room were two little children, and I heard it said that they were not to be played with in a childish way, but wisely. And afterward a harlot appeared, then a horse lying dead.

[3] Having seen these things, I was told that they represented the literal meaning of the Word, which has a spiritual meaning within. The large purses full of silver symbolized concepts of truth and goodness in great abundance. The purses' being open and yet guarded by angels, meant symbolically that anyone might acquire concepts of truth there, but that one should take care not to falsify the spiritual meaning, which contains only truths.

The manger in the stable where the purses were sitting symbolized spiritual instruction for the intellect. (A manger has this symbolism, like the manger where the newborn Lord lay, because a horse, which eats from it, symbolizes an understanding of the Word.)

[4] The modest maidens I saw in the next room symbolized affections for truth, and the chaste wife the conjunction of truth and good. The little children symbolized the innocence of the wisdom in the Word (they were angels from the third heaven, all of whom appear like little children). The harlot together with the dead horse symbolized the falsification of the Word by many people today, by which all understanding of the truth has perished. (A harlot symbolizes falsification, and a dead horse no understanding of truth.)

[5] I have been given to speak with many people after death who believed they would shine like stars in heaven. They believed this, they said, because they held the Word holy, read it often, took many things from it, and used them to defend the tenets of their faith. As a result they were celebrated as learned in the world, so that they believed they would become Michaels or Raphaels. ¹ A number of them were examined, however, to see what love prompted them to study the Word. And it was discovered that some did so out of self-love, in order to appear great in the world and to be worshiped as leaders of the church, while others did so out of a love of the world, in order to acquire riches.

When they were explored to discover what they knew from the Word, they were found to know no genuine truth, but only what we call falsified truth, which in itself is false; and in the spiritual world this stinks in the nostrils of angels. Moreover the people were told that this was the case with them because their objectives were focused on themselves and the world, or to say the same thing, on their loves of these, and not on the Lord and heaven. And when people have themselves and the world as their focus, then when they read the Word their mind fastens on themselves and the world, and therefore they think continually in accord with their self-interest, which is in darkness regarding everything connected with heaven. In this state a person cannot be withdrawn from his own light and so be raised into the light of heaven. Consequently, neither can he receive anything flowing in from the Lord through heaven.

[6] I have also seen people like this let into heaven. But when they were discovered to be without truths, they were divested of their clothing and were seen with their private parts exposed. And because those who had falsified truths stunk, they were expelled. Still, however, there remained in them the conceit and confidence that they were deserving.

The outcome was different with people who had studied the Word out of an affection for knowing the truth because it is true, and because it served the useful ends of a spiritual life, not only their own life, but their neighbor's as well. I saw them raised into heaven and so into the light in which Divine truth exists there, and raised at the same time then into angelic wisdom and into its felicity, which is eternal life.

അടിക്കുറിപ്പുകൾ:

256. CHAPTER 5

1. And I saw in the right hand of Him who sat on the throne a book written inside and on the back, sealed with seven seals.

2. Then I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, "Who is worthy to open the book and to loose its seals?"

3. And no one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the book, or to look in it.

4. So I wept much, that no one was found worthy to open and read the book, or to look in it.

5. But one of the elders said to me, "Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the book and to loose its seven seals."

6. And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, a Lamb standing as though slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.

7. Then He came and took the book out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne.

8. Now when He had taken the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a lyre, and a golden bowl full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

9. And they sang a new song, saying, "You are worthy to take the book and to open its seals, because You were slain and have redeemed us to God by Your blood, out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation,

10. and have made us kings and priests to our God; and we shall reign on the earth."

11. Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands,

12. saying with a loud voice, "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom, and... honor and glory and blessing!"

13. And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying, "Blessing and honor and glory and strength be to Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, forever and ever!"

14. Then the four living creatures said, "Amen!" And the twenty-four elders fell down and worshiped Him who lives forever and ever.

THE SPIRITUAL MEANING

The Contents of the Whole Chapter

The meaning is that the Lord in His Divine humanity will execute a judgment based on the Word and in accordance with it, because He embodies the Word; and that all in the three heavens acknowledge this.

The Contents of the Individual Verses:

THE EXPOSITION

And I saw in the right hand of Him who sat on the throne a book written inside and on the back. (5:1) This symbolizes the Lord in respect to His underlying Divinity from eternity, to whom belongs omnipotence and omniscience, and who embodies the Word, who also of Himself knows the states of life of all in heaven and on earth, in every particular and in their entirety.

He who sat on the throne means the Lord in respect to His underlying Divinity from which His humanity originates, for the statement follows that the Lamb took the book out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne (verse 7), and the Lamb means the Lord in respect to His humanity. The book written inside and on the back means the Word in every particular and in its entirety - "inside" meaning in every particular, and "on the back," in its entirety. Inside and on the back also mean the inner meaning of the Word, which is spiritual, and its outer meaning, which is natural. The right hand means the Lord in respect to His omnipotence and omniscience, because the subject is the exploration of all in heaven and on earth on whom the Last Judgment would fall, and their separation.

As the embodiment of the Word, the Lord knows of Himself the states of life of all in heaven and on earth, because He is Divine truth itself, and Divine truth itself, of itself, knows everything. This, however, is a secret which we disclosed in Angelic Wisdom Regarding Divine Love and Wisdom.

The fact that the Lord was the Word, that is to say, Divine truth, in respect to His Divinity from eternity is apparent from this statement in John:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John 1:1)

And the fact that the Lord came to embody the Word even in respect to His humanity, from this statement also in John:

And the Word became flesh... (John 1:14)

It can be seen from this what is meant by the testimony that the book was in right hand of Him who sat on the throne, and that the Lamb took the book from it (verse 7).

[2] Since the Lord embodies the Word, and the Word is the Divine truth which forms heaven and the church in general, and each angel in particular so as to have heaven in him, and each person so as to have the church in him, and because the Word is here meant by the book on the basis of which and according to which all are to be judged, therefore we find references here and there to being written in the book, to being judged on the basis of the book, and to being blotted out from the book, where the subject is someone's state of eternal life, as in the following places:

(The Ancient of Days) sat in judgment, and the books were opened. (Daniel 7:10)

...your people shall be delivered, every one who is found written in the book. (Daniel 12:1)

My frame was not hidden from You... ...on Your book were written all the days..., and not one of them is missing. (Psalms 139:15-16)

(Moses said,) ."..I pray, blot me out of Your book which You have written." And Jehovah said..., "He who has sinned against Me, him I will blot out of My book." (Exodus 32:32-33)

Let them be blotted out of the book of life, and not be written with the righteous. (Psalms 69:28)

I saw (that) books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to the things which were written in the Book, according to their works..., and if anyone was not found written in the Book of Life, he was cast into the lake of fire. (Revelation 20:12-15)

There shall not enter into (the New Jerusalem) anything... but those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. (Revelation 21:27)

All... will worship (the beast), whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb... (Revelation 13:8, cf. 17:8)

That the Book means the Word may be seen in the book of Psalms:

In the scroll of the book it is written of me. (Psalms 40:7)

And in Ezekiel:

I looked, and lo, there was a hand stretched out to me, and... in it the scroll of a book... written in front and in back... (Ezekiel 2:9-10)

...the book of the words of Isaiah... (Luke 3:4)

...the Book of Psalms... (Luke 20:42)