Apocalypse Revealed #315
315. "A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius." This symbolically means, because the value these people placed on goodness and truth was so little as to be scarcely anything.
This is the symbolic meaning because a quart, which is a measure and its contents, symbolizes the character of a thing, as shown in no. 313 above. Wheat and barley symbolize goodness and truth, and a denarius, being a very small coin, symbolizes a value so little as to be scarcely anything.
Three quarts of barley are specified because the number three symbolizes all and is predicated of truths (no. 400).
Wheat and barley symbolizes goodness and truth, here the goodness and truth of the church acquired from the Word, because everything connected with a field or vineyard symbolizes something having to do with the church - a field symbolizing the church in respect to its goodness and consequent truth, and a vineyard symbolizing the church in respect to its truth and consequent goodness. Therefore, where these are mentioned in the Word, angels, who perceive everything spiritually, have no other understanding of them - as for example in Joel:
The field is wasted, the land mourns, because the grain is wasted, the new wine is dried up, the oil fails. Ashamed are the farmers, the vinedressers wail, over the wheat and the barley, because the harvest of the field has perished. (Joel 1:10-12)
All of these things symbolize things having to do with the church.
[2] That wheat and barley symbolize the goodness and truth of the church can be seen from the following passages:
(John said of Jesus that He would) gather his wheat into the granary and burn the chaff with fire... (Matthew 3:11-12)
(Jesus said,) "Let (weed and wheat) grow together..., and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, 'First gather together the weeds... to burn them, but gather the wheat into my granary.'" (Matthew 23:24-30)
...I have heard from Jehovah God... a consummation and determination... Plant the measured wheat, and the appointed barley... (Thus) He instructs him for judgment; His God teaches him. (Isaiah 28:21-26)
...Jehovah... will bring you into... a land of wheat and barley... (Deuteronomy 8:7-8)
The land of wheat and barley here is the land of Canaan, which symbolizes the church.
They shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of Jehovah, for wheat and new wine... (Jeremiah 31:12)
(Jehovah) will fill you with the finest wheat. (Psalms 147:12-14, cf. Deuteronomy 32:13-14, Psalms 81:13, 16)
Jehovah told the prophet Ezekiel to make himself a cake of barleycorn mixed with dung and eat it (Ezekiel 4:12, 15). And He told the prophet Hosea to take to himself an adulterous woman, whom he bought for one and a half omers of barleycorn (Hosea 3:1-2). The prophets did these things to represent the falsifications of truth in the church, for barleycorns are truths, and barleycorns mixed with dung are truths falsified and profaned. An adulterous woman also symbolizes truth falsified (no. 134).
Joel 1
1
The Word of Yahweh that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel.
2
Hear this, you elders, And listen, all you inhabitants of the land. Has this ever happened in your days, or in the days of your fathers?
3
Tell your children about it, and have your children Tell their children, and their children, another generation.
4
What the swarming locust has left, the great locust has eaten. What the great locust has left, the grasshopper has eaten. What the grasshopper has left, the caterpillar has eaten.
5
Wake up, you drunkards, and weep! Wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine; for it is cut off from your mouth.
6
For a nation has come up on my land, strong, and without number. His teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he has the fangs of a lioness.
7
He has laid my vine waste, and stripped my fig tree. He has stripped its bark, and thrown it away. Its branches are made white.
8
Mourn like a virgin dressed in sackcloth for the husband of her youth!
9
The meal offering and the drink offering are cut off from Yahweh's house. The priests, Yahweh's ministers, mourn.
10
The field is laid waste. The land mourns, for the grain is destroyed, The new wine has dried up, and the oil languishes.
11
Be confounded, you farmers! Wail, you vineyard keepers; for the wheat and for the barley; for the harvest of the field has perished.
12
The vine has dried up, and the fig tree withered; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all of the trees of the field are withered; for joy has withered away from the sons of men.
13
Put on sackcloth and mourn, you priests! Wail, you ministers of the altar. Come, lie all night in sackcloth, you ministers of my God, for the meal offering and the drink offering are withheld from your God's house.
14
Sanctify a fast. Call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders, and all the inhabitants of the land, to the house of Yahweh, your God, and cry to Yahweh.
15
Alas for the day! For the day of Yahweh is at hand, and it will come as destruction from the Almighty.
16
Isn't the food cut off before our eyes; joy and gladness from the house of our God?
17
The seeds rot under their clods. The granaries are laid desolate. The barns are broken down, for the grain has withered.
18
How the animals groan! The herds of livestock are perplexed, because they have no pasture. Yes, the flocks of sheep are made desolate.
19
Yahweh, I cry to you, For the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame has burned all the trees of the field.
20
Yes, the animals of the field pant to you, for the water brooks have dried up, And the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.
