The Bible

 

Ezékiel 12:1

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1 És lõn az Úrnak szava énhozzám, mondván:

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Revealed #350

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350. Of the tribe of Judah twelve thousand were sealed. (7:5) This symbolizes celestial love, which is love toward the Lord, and this in all those people who will be in the Lord's New Heaven and New Church.

In the highest sense Judah symbolizes the Lord in relation to celestial love; in the spiritual sense, the Lord's celestial kingdom and the Word; and in the natural sense, the doctrine of a celestial church drawn from the Word. Here, however, Judah symbolizes celestial love, which is love toward the Lord; and because it is named first in the series, it symbolizes that love in all those people who will be in the New Heaven and in the Lord's New Church. For the tribe named first is everything in the rest, being to them as though their head and serving as a universal property entering into all those that follow, tying them together, qualifying them and affecting them. This property is love toward the Lord.

To be shown that twelve thousand symbolizes all who possess that love, see no. 348 above.

[2] People know that after the death of Solomon the twelve tribes of Israel were divided into two kingdoms: the kingdom of Judah and the kingdom of Israel. The kingdom of Judah represented the celestial kingdom or the Lord's priestly kingdom, while the kingdom of Israel represented the spiritual kingdom or the Lord's royal kingdom. But the latter was destroyed when the people had nothing spiritual left in them, whereas the kingdom of Judah was preserved, for the sake of the Word, and because the Lord would be born there. However, when the people adulterated the Word completely, and thus could not recognize the Lord, then their kingdom was destroyed.

It can be seen from this that the tribe of Judah symbolizes celestial love, which is love toward the Lord. But because the people were of the character they were with respect to the Word and with respect to the Lord, the tribe of Judah symbolizes also the opposite love, which is love of self - properly speaking, a love of dominating springing from a love of self - a love which we call diabolical love.

[3] The fact that Judah and his tribe symbolize the celestial kingdom and its love, which is love toward the Lord, follows from these passages:

Judah, your brothers shall praise you... The scepter shall not be taken from Judah... until Shiloh comes; and to Him shall be the obedience of the people. Binding his donkey's foal to the vine, his donkey's colt to the choice vine, he washes his garment in wine... His eyes are redder than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk. (Genesis 49:8-12)

...David shall be their prince forever, and I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them..., and I will set My sanctuary in their midst forevermore. (Ezekiel 37:25-26)

Exult and rejoice, O daughter of Zion! ...Jehovah will make Judah an inheritance for Himself, His portion on the holy land. (Zechariah 2:10-12)

O Judah, celebrate your feasts, perform your vows. For Belial 1 shall no more pass through you; he is utterly cut off. (Nahum 1:15)

The Lord... will suddenly come to His temple... Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be sweet to Jehovah as in the days of old... (Malachi 3:1, 4)

Judah shall abide forever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation. (Joel 3:20)

Behold, the days are coming..., that I will raise to David a righteous Branch... In His days Judah will be saved... (Jeremiah 23:5-6)

I will bring forth offspring from Jacob, and from Judah an heir of My mountains, that My elect may possess it... (Isaiah 65:9)

Judah became His sanctuary, and Israel His dominion. (Psalms 114:2)

Behold, the days are coming..., when I will make a new covenant... with the house of Judah... ...this will be the covenant...: I will put My law within them, and write it on their heart... (Jeremiah 31:27, 31, 33-34)

In those days ten men... shall grasp the sleeve of a Jewish man, saying, "We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you." (Zechariah 8:23)

...as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make shall remain before Me..., so shall your offspring and your name remain.

Kings (of the nations) shall be your foster fathers, their princesses your nursing mothers. They shall bow down to you, their faces to the ground, and lick the dust of your feet. (Isaiah 66:22; 49:23)

[4] From these and many other passages, which we do not have the space to cite because of their number, it can be clearly seen that Judah means not Judah but the church. We are told, for example, that the Lord would make a new and eternal covenant with that nation, that He would make it His heir and His sanctuary forevermore, and that kings of the nations and their princesses would bow down to them, licking the dust of their feet, and so on.

[5] That the tribe of Judah, regarded in itself, means the diabolic kingdom, which is one of a love of dominating springing from a love of self, can be seen from the following passages:

I will hide My face from them, I will see what their posterity will be. ...they are a perverse generation, children in whom is no faith... ...they are a nation void of counsel... ...their vine is of the vine of Sodom and of the fields of Gomorrah; its grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter. Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps. Is this not laid up in store with Me, sealed up in My treasuries? (Deuteronomy 32:20-34)

(Know that) it is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart... that Jehovah... is... giving you (the land of Canaan)..., for you are a stiff-necked people. (Deuteronomy 9:5-6)

...according to the number of your cities have been your gods, O Judah... ...according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem you have set up altars... to burn incense to Baal. (Jeremiah 2:28; 11:13)

You are of your father the devil, and you choose to do the desires of your father. (John 8:44)

Jews are said to be full of hypocrisy, iniquity, and uncleanness (Matthew 23:27-28.

Footnotes:

1. In the Old Testament, the personification of wickedness and destruction, originally conceived perhaps as some sort of spirit demon.

  
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Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Revealed #348

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348. And I heard the number of those who were sealed, one hundred and forty-four thousand. (7:4) This symbolizes all people who acknowledge the Lord as God of heaven and earth and are governed by truths of doctrine springing from the goodness of love, received from Him through the Word.

These are symbolized by the number 144,000 from the twelve tribes of Israel because the twelve tribes of Israel symbolize a church that consists of people who possess goodness and truth from the Lord and acknowledge Him as God of heaven and earth. The number 144,000 means all such. For that number has the same symbolism as the number twelve, since it is the product of twelve times twelve, which is then multiplied by 1000; and any number multiplied by itself and then by 10, 100, or 1000, has the same symbolism as the original number. Thus the number 144,000 has the same symbolism as 144, and this the same symbolism as twelve, as 144 is the product of twelve times twelve. Similarly, the product of the 12,000 sealed from each tribe times twelve is 144,000.

The number twelve means, symbolically, all, and is predicated of truths springing from goodness, because twelve is the product of three times four, and the number three symbolizes everything connected with truth, and the number four, everything connected with good. Thus the number twelve here symbolizes everything connected with truth that springs from the goodness of love.

[2] Numbers all symbolize additional properties of things that determine their quality or quantity, and this can be clearly seen from numbers in the book of Revelation, which in many places would not have any meaning unless they were symbolic.

From the foregoing it can now be seen that the 144,000 sealed, and the 12,000 from each tribe, mean not that these many were sealed or chosen from the tribes of Israel, but that all those were who are governed by truths of doctrine springing from the goodness of love received from the Lord.

This is the general symbolism of the twelve tribes of Israel, and also of the Lord's twelve apostles, but each tribe and each apostle individually symbolizes some truth springing from good. What each tribe symbolizes here, however, we will say in the following considerations.

Since the twelve tribes symbolize all doctrinal truths springing from the goodness of love received from the Lord, therefore they also symbolize all constituents of the church. Consequently the church was represented by the twelve tribes of Israel, and likewise by the twelve apostles.

[3] Because the number twelve is predicated of the church's truths and goods, therefore the New Jerusalem, meaning the Lord's New Church, is described in its individual parts by the number twelve. So for instance, the city had a length and breadth of 12,000 stadia. 1 Its wall was 144 cubits 2 (144 being twelve times twelve). It had twelve gates, and the gates consisted of twelve pearls. Over the gates were twelve angels, and on the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. It had twelve foundations, and on them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. These consisted also of twelve precious stones. Moreover, the city had in it the tree of life which bore twelve fruits, in correlation with the twelve months. All of this may be seen in Revelation, chapters 21, 22.

Out of the kind of people described here the Lord formed a new heaven and is in the process of forming a new church. For they are the same people mentioned in chapter fourteen and thereafter, where we read about them the following:

Then I looked, and behold, a Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with Him one hundred and forty-four thousand... And they sang... a new song before the throne...; and no one could learn the song except the hundred and forty-four thousand who were redeemed from the earth. ...they are virgins..., (and) follow the Lamb wherever He goes. (Revelation 14:1, 3-4)

[4] Since the twelve tribes symbolize the Lord's church in respect to all its truths and goods, therefore the number twelve became an ecclesiastical number, and one customary in its sanctities. So for example, on the breastpiece of judgment, containing the Urim and Thummim, there were twelve precious stones (Exodus 28:21). Twelve cakes of showbread were placed on the table in the Tabernacle (Leviticus 24:5-6). Moses built an altar at the foot of Mournt Sinai and set up twelve pillars. (Exodus 24bb4) Twelve men were sent to explore the land of Canaan (Deuteronomy 1:23). Twelve men carried twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan (Joshua 4:1-9, 20). At the dedication of the altar, twelve leaders brought twelve silver plates, twelve silver bowls, twelve gold censers, twelve young bulls, twelve rams, twelve lambs, and twelve goats (Numbers 7:84, 87). Elijah took twelve stones and built an altar (1 Kings 18:31, 32). Elijah found Elisha when Elisha was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen, and he himself was the twelfth, and Elijah then threw his mantle over him (1 Kings 19:19). Solomon placed under the bronze sea twelve oxen (1 Kings 7:25, 44). He made a throne, and standing on its steps twelve lions (1 Kings 10:19, 20). On the head of the woman clothed with the sun was a crown of twelve stars (Revelation 12:1).

It can now be seen from this that 144,000 sealed, 12,000 from each tribe, means not this number of Jews and Israelites, but all who, as part of the new Christian heaven and of the New Church, will be governed by truths of doctrine springing from the goodness of love, received from the Lord through the Word.

Footnotes:

1. Plural of stadium, an ancient Greek measure of distance equal to about 607 feet or 185 meters.

2. An ancient unit of linear measure based on the length of a man's forearm from the tip of the middle finger to the elbow, equivalent to approximately 18 inches or 46 centimeters.

  
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Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.