Apocalypse Revealed #343
343. Holding back the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, on the sea, or on any tree. This symbolizes the Lord's holding back and restraining a closer and thus stronger influx into the lower regions where good people were attached to evil ones.
It must be known that a last judgment takes place when evil people multiply below the heavens in the world of spirits, and this to such a degree that angels in the heavens cannot continue in the state of their love and wisdom, as they are then without a support and foundation. Since this results from a multiplication of evil people below, therefore in order to preserve the angels' state, the Lord flows in more and more strongly with His Divinity, and this continually until no influx can preserve them unless the evil people below are separated from the good. This is accomplished by a subsidence and closing in of the heavens, with a consequently stronger influx, until the evil cannot bear it. And at that point the evil flee away and cast themselves into hell.
This, too, is what is symbolized in the preceding chapter by the statement, "They said to the mountains and rocks, 'Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?'" (Revelation 6:16-17)
[2] Now for the exposition:
The four winds symbolize an influx of the heavens. The earth, the sea, and every tree symbolize all the lower regions and all that they contain - the earth and sea symbolizing all the lower regions, and every tree all that they contain.
That a wind symbolizes influx - properly speaking, the influx of truth into the intellect - can be seen from the following passages:
Thus says the Lord Jehovih, "Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live." (Ezekiel 37:9-10)
(There appeared four chariots to which were harnessed four horses.) These are the four winds of the heavens... (Zechariah 6:1-5)
You must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes, and... cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. (John 3:7-8)
The Maker of the earth... prepares the world by His wisdom... He brings the wind out of His treasuries. (Jeremiah 10:12-13; 51:15-16, cf. Psalms 135:7)
He causes His wind to blow, and the waters flow. He declares His Word..., His statutes and His judgments... (Psalms 147:18-19)
It praises Jehovah..., the stormy wind, doing His Word... (Psalms 148:7-8)
(Jehovah) makes His angels winds... (Psalms 104:4)
(Jehovah) rode... upon the wings of the wind. (Psalms 18:10, cf. 104:3)
The wings of the wind are Divine truths that flow in. The Lord is therefore called "the breath of our nostrils" (Lamentations 4:20), and we are told that He "breathed into (Adam's) nostrils the breath of life" (Genesis 2:7); moreover, that "He breathed on (the Disciples) and said..., "Receive the Holy Spirit" (John 20:21-22). The Holy Spirit is the Divine truth emanating from the Lord, the influx of which into the Disciples was represented and thus symbolized by the Lord's breathing on them.
[3] A wind and breathing symbolize the influx of Divine truth into the intellect, owing to the correspondence of the lungs with the intellect, a treatment of which may be seen in Angelic Wisdom Regarding Divine Love and Wisdom, nos. 371-429.
Since a closer and stronger Divine influx through the heavens dispels truths in the case of evil people, therefore a wind symbolizes the dispersion of truth in them, and thus their conjunction with hell and perishing - as may be seen from the following passages:
I will bring upon Elam the four winds from the four ends of heaven and scatter him. (Jeremiah 49:36)
You shall scatter them, that the wind may carry them away and the storm disperse them. (Isaiah 41:16)
The breath of Jehovah, like a stream of brimstone, sets them on fire. (Isaiah 30:33)
The workers of iniquity... perish by the breathing of God, and by the breath of His nostrils they are consumed. (Job 4:8-9)
...the foundations of the world were uncovered at the rebuke (of Jehovah), at the blast of the breath of Your nostrils. (Psalms 18:15)
I saw in my vision..., and behold, the four winds... were rushing upon the Great Sea. And four beasts came up... (Daniel 7:2-3ff.)
...from a storm of Jehovah has gone forth fury... It will rush upon the head of the wicked. (Jeremiah 23:19; 30:23)
O my God..., ...pursue them with Your storm, ...frighten them with Your tempest. (Psalms 83:13, 15)
(Jehovah's) way in the storm and in the tempest... (Nahum 1:3)
And so also elsewhere, as in Jeremiah 25:32, Ezekiel 13:13, Hosea 8:7, Amos 1:14, Zechariah 9:14, Psalms 11:6; 50:3; 55:8, and Psalms 107, where we read:
...He commands the stormy wind to blow... (God) causes the storm to subside, so that its waves are still. (Psalms 107:25, 29)
[4] It is apparent from this what is symbolically meant in the spiritual sense by the following:
(Jesus in the boat) rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ."..be still!" And... there was a... calm. (Mark 4:39, cf. Luke 8:23-24)
The sea here symbolizes hell, and the wind an influx from it.
A strong influx, too, is symbolically meant by the east wind in Ezekiel 17:10, Jeremiah 18:17, Ezekiel 19:12, Hosea 13:15, Psalms 48:7. And by that same wind which dried up the Red Sea (Exodus 14:21), regarding which Moses said:
At the blast of Your nostrils the waters were heaped up... You blew with Your wind, the sea covered them. (Exodus 15:8, 10)
It can now be seen from this that holding back the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, symbolizes the holding back and restraining of a closer and thus stronger influx into the lower regions.
John 2
1
The third day, there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee. Jesus' mother was there.
2
Jesus also was invited, with his disciples, to the marriage.
3
When the wine ran out, Jesus' mother said to him, "They have no wine."
4
Jesus said to her, "Woman, what does that have to do with you and me? My hour has not yet come."
5
His mother said to the servants, "Whatever he says to you, do it."
6
Now there were six water pots of stone set there after the Jews' way of purifying, containing two or three metretes apiece.
7
Jesus said to them, "Fill the water pots with water." They filled them up to the brim.
8
He said to them, "Now draw some out, and take it to the ruler of the feast." So they took it.
9
When the ruler of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and didn't know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the ruler of the feast called the bridegroom,
10
and said to him, "Everyone serves the good wine first, and when the guests have drunk freely, then that which is worse. You have kept the good wine until now!"
11
This beginning of his signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.
12
After this, he went down to Capernaum, he, and his mother, his brothers, and his disciples; and they stayed there a few days.
13
The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
14
He found in the temple those who sold oxen, sheep, and doves, and the changers of money sitting.
15
He made a whip of cords, and threw all out of the temple, both the sheep and the oxen; and he poured out the changers' money, and overthrew their tables.
16
To those who sold the doves, he said, "Take these things out of here! Don't make my Father's house a marketplace!"
17
His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for your house will eat me up."
18
The Jews therefore answered him, "What sign do you show us, seeing that you do these things?"
19
Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."
20
The Jews therefore said, "It took forty-six years to build this temple! Will you raise it up in three days?"
21
But he spoke of the temple of his body.
22
When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he said this, and they believed the Scripture, and the word which Jesus had said.
23
Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in his name, observing his signs which he did.
24
But Jesus didn't trust himself to them, because he knew everyone,
25
and because he didn't need for anyone to testify concerning man; for he himself knew what was in man.
