Apocalypse Explained #152
152. Who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire. That this signifies Divine providence from His Divine love, and Divine wisdom and intelligence communicated to those who are in love to and thence in faith towards Him is evident from what was said above (n. 68), where it was shown, that eyes like unto a flame of fire, when said of the Lord, signify His Divine providence from His Divine love. The reason why by this are also denoted Divine wisdom and intelligence communicated to those who are in love to and thence in faith towards Him is, that by eyes, in the Word, when said of man, is signified the understanding of truth, and the understanding of truth is intelligence and wisdom; hence by eyes, when said of the Lord, are signified Divine wisdom and intelligence proceeding from Him, and what proceeds from Him is communicated to angels and to men who are in love to, and thence in faith towards Him. All wisdom and intelligence also, pertaining to angels and men, are not of themselves, but of the Lord with them. This is also well known in the church; for it is there known that all the good of love, and all the truth of faith are from God, and nothing of them from man; and truths interiorly seen and acknowledged, constitute intelligence, and being united with goods interiorly perceived, and thence seen, they constitute wisdom. Hence then it is, that by having his eyes like unto a flame of fire, is also signified the Divine wisdom and intelligence of the Lord communicated to those who are in the goods of love, and thence in faith towards Him.
[2] The reason why eyes signify the understanding is, that all the sight of the eyes with men and angels is therefrom. That all the sight of the eyes is from the understanding, seems like a paradox to those who do not know the interior causes of things, from which effects are manifested in the body. Those who are ignorant of those causes believe simply that the eye sees of itself, that the ear hears of itself, that the tongue tastes of itself, and that the body feels of itself, when, nevertheless, the interior life of man, which is the life of his spirit, this being the life of his understanding and will, or of his thought and affection, feels by the organs of the body the things that are in the world, and thus perceives them naturally. The whole body, with all its sensories, is only an instrument of its soul or spirit. This also is the reason why, when the spirit of man is separated from his body, the latter is altogether without sensation, but the former afterwards sensates as before. (That a man's spirit sees, hears and feels, after it is freed from the body, just as it did before in the body, may be seen in the work, Heaven and Hell 461-469. Concerning the correspondence of the understanding with the sight of the eye, see Arcana Coelestia 4403-4421, 4523-4534.) With beasts also, their interior life, which is also called their soul, sensates in a similar manner by means of the external organs of their body, but with this difference, that a beast does not sensate rationally like man, thus does not think from understanding and will, as man does (as may be seen in the work, Heaven and Hell 108; and in the work, The Last Judgment 25).
[3] This then is why eye in the Word signifies the understanding of truth or intelligence and wisdom, as may be seen from the following passages:
"Say to this people, hear ye in hearing, but understand not; and see ye in seeing, and know not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and smear their eyes, lest they see with their eyes" (Isaiah 6:9, 10; John 12:40).
To smear the eyes lest they see with their eyes, is to darken their understanding lest they should understand.
[4] In the same:
"Jehovah hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes; the prophets and your heads, the seers, hath he covered" (29:10).
Here closing the eyes, covering the prophets, and the heads and the seers hath He covered denotes the [covering] of the understanding of truth. By prophets are meant those who teach truths; these are also called heads, because the head signifies intelligence; and they are also called seers, from the revelation of Divine truth with them.
[5] In the same:
"The eyes of them that see shall not blink, and the ears of them that hear shall harken" (32:3).
The eyes of them that see denote those who understand truths. In the same:
"Who shutteth his eyes lest they may see evil. Thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty" (33:15, 17).
To shut the eyes lest they may see evil denotes not to admit evil into the thought; that their eyes should see the king in his beauty denotes that they should understand truth in its own light with pleasantness; for by the king in this passage, is not meant a king, but truth (as may be seen above, n. 31).
[6] In Jeremiah:
"Hear this, O foolish people, who are without heart who have eyes, and see not; who have ears, and hear not " (5:21; Ezekiel 12:2).
In Lamentations:
"The crown of our head hath fallen; for this our heart is become faint, and for this our eyes are dim" (5:17).
By the crown of the head is denoted wisdom (as may be seen above, n. 126); the heart being faint denotes that the will of good is no more. (That the heart denotes the will and love, may be seen in the work, Heaven and Hell 95.) The eyes denote the understanding of truth, and are said to grow dim when truth is no more understood.
[7] In Zechariah:
"The punishment of the shepherd deserting the flock, a sword upon his right eye; and his right eye in darkening shall be darkened" (11:17).
By the sword upon the right eye, and the right eye in darkening shall be darkened, is meant that all truth in the understanding should perish by falsity. (That sword denotes the destruction of truth by falsity, may be seen above, n. 131.)
[8] Again:
"The plague wherewith Jehovah will smite all peoples who shall fight against Jerusalem; their eyes shall consume away in their sockets" (14:12).
The peoples who shall fight against Jerusalem denote those who fight against the church: Jerusalem is the church; that their eye should consume away denotes that all intelligence should perish, because they fight from falsities against truths.
[9] Again, in Zechariah:
"I will smite every horse with astonishment, and every horse of the peoples with blindness" (12:4).
The vastation of the church is there treated of; by horse is signified the Intellectual, wherefore by the horse being smitten with astonishment and blindness is denoted the stupidity and blindness of the understanding. (That horse signifies the Intellectual, may be seen in the small work, The White Horse 1-5.)
[10] In David:
"Hear me, O Jehovah, my God! enlighten mine eyes lest I sleep death" (Psalm 13:3).
Here eyes denote the understanding. In Moses:
"Thou shalt not take a gift, for a gift doth blind the eyes of the wise" (Deuteronomy 16:19).
To blind the eyes of the wise denotes to prevent them from seeing or understanding the truth.
[11] In Matthew:
"The lamp of the body is the eye; if thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness" (6:22, 23; Luke 11:34).
By eye in this passage is not meant eye, but the understanding; by a single eye, the understanding of truth; by an evil eye, the understanding of falsity; darkness denotes falsities, the whole body denotes the whole spirit, for this is wholly of such a quality as the will and the understanding therefrom.
If man's spirit has the understanding of truth from the will of good, it is then an angel of light, but if it has only the understanding of falsity, it is a spirit of darkness. In the above passage is described the reformation of man by the understanding of truth; hence it is clear, that he who knows what the eye signifies, may know the arcanum contained in those words. (That man is reformed by means of truths received in the understanding, may be seen above, 112, 126.)
[12] In Matthew:
"If thy right hand offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee; for it is good to enter into life one-eyed, rather than having two eyes to be cast into the gehenna of fire" (5:29; 18:9; Mark 9:47).
By eye in these passages is not meant eye, but the understanding thinking; by the right eye offending, the understanding thinking evil; to pluck it out, and cast it away, denotes not to admit such evil, but to reject it; one-eyed, denotes the understanding not thinking evil, but truth only; for the understanding can think truth: if it thinks evil, it is from the will of evil. The reason why the right eye is mentioned, is, that the right eye signifies the understanding of good, and the left eye the understanding of truth (see Arcana Coelestia 4410, 6923).
[13] In Isaiah:
"In that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness" (29:18).
In the same:
"Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf" (35:5).
In the same:
Again:
"I will give thee for a light of the nations; to open the eyes of the blind, to lead him that is bound out of the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house" (42:6, 7).
Again:
"Bring forth the blind people that have eyes, and the deaf that have ears" (43:8).
To open the eyes of the blind is to instruct those who as yet are ignorant of truths, but who, yet, desire them; these are signified by the nations. Similar things are signified by the
Lord's healing the blind (Matthew 9:27-29; 20:30 to the end; 21:14; Mark 8:23, 25; Luke 18:35 to the end; John 9:1-21).
For all the miracles of the Lord involve those things that belong to the church and heaven, and therefore they were all Divine (as may be seen, Arcana Coelestia 7337, 8364, 9031).
[14] Because the eye signified the understanding, it was commanded among the statutes given to the sons of Israel,
That no one of the seed of Aaron who was blind, or had a blemish in the eye, should approach to offer the sacrifice, nor enter within the veil (Leviticus 21:17-23);
That what was blind should not be offered for a sacrifice (Leviticus 22:22; Mal. 1:8):
hence also it was among the curses,
That a fever should consume the eyes (Leviticus 26:16).
From these considerations it may now be known that, by the eyes of the Son of man which were as a flame of fire is signified the Divine wisdom and intelligence communicated to those who are in love and thence in faith towards the Lord.
[15] That His Divine providence is also hereby signified, is evident from what was shown above (n. 68), to which may be added what was said of the cherubim in Ezekiel, and of the four animals about the throne mentioned in the Apocalypse, by which is also signified the Divine providence, and specifically a guard that the Lord should not be approached except by means of good. In Ezekiel:
"I looked, behold four wheels near the cherubim: their whole flesh, and their backs, and their hands, and their wings, and the wheels were full of eyes round about" (10:9, 12).
And in the Apocalypse:
"About the throne were four animals full of eyes, before and behind; each one had wings about him, and they were full of eyes within" (4:6, 8).
These four animals also were cherubim, for the description given of them is almost similar to that of the cherubim in Ezekiel. So many eyes are ascribed to them because the Divine providence of the Lord, which is signified by cherubim, is His government of all things in the heavens and in the earths from Divine wisdom; for the Lord from His Divine providence sees all things, disposes all things, and foresees all things. (That by cherubim is signified the Divine providence of the Lord, and specifically a guard that the Lord should not be approached except by means of good, may be seen, n. 9277, 9509, 9673.)
Luke 19
1
He entered and was passing through Jericho.
2
There was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector, and he was rich.
3
He was trying to see who Jesus was, and couldn't because of the crowd, because he was short.
4
He ran on ahead, and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was to pass that way.
5
When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and saw him, and said to him, "Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house."
6
He hurried, came down, and received him joyfully.
7
When they saw it, they all murmured, saying, "He has gone in to lodge with a man who is a sinner."
8
Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, "Behold, Lord, half of my goods I give to the poor. If I have wrongfully exacted anything of anyone, I restore four times as much."
9
Jesus said to him, "Today, salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham.
10
For the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost."
11
As they heard these things, he went on and told a parable, because he was near Jerusalem, and they supposed that the Kingdom of God would be revealed immediately.
12
He said therefore, "A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return.
13
He called ten servants of his, and gave them ten mina coins, and told them, 'Conduct business until I come.'
14
But his citizens hated him, and sent an envoy after him, saying, 'We don't want this man to reign over us.'
15
"It happened when he had come back again, having received the kingdom, that he commanded these servants, to whom he had given the money, to be called to him, that he might know what they had gained by conducting business.
16
The first came before him, saying, 'Lord, your mina has made ten more minas.'
17
"He said to him, 'Well done, you good servant! Because you were found faithful with very little, you shall have authority over ten cities.'
18
"The second came, saying, 'Your mina, Lord, has made five minas.'
19
"So he said to him, 'And you are to be over five cities.'
20
Another came, saying, 'Lord, behold, your mina, which I kept laid away in a handkerchief,
21
for I feared you, because you are an exacting man. You take up that which you didn't lay down, and reap that which you didn't sow.'
22
"He said to him, 'Out of your own mouth will I judge you, you wicked servant! You knew that I am an exacting man, taking up that which I didn't lay down, and reaping that which I didn't sow.
23
Then why didn't you deposit my money in the bank, and at my coming, I might have earned interest on it?'
24
He said to those who stood by, 'Take the mina away from him, and give it to him who has the ten minas.'
25
"They said to him, 'Lord, he has ten minas!'
26
'For I tell you that to everyone who has, will more be given; but from him who doesn't have, even that which he has will be taken away from him.
27
But bring those enemies of mine who didn't want me to reign over them here, and kill them before me.'"
28
Having said these things, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.
29
It happened, when he drew near to Bethsphage and Bethany, at the mountain that is called Olivet, he sent two of his disciples,
30
saying, "Go your way into the village on the other side, in which, as you enter, you will find a colt tied, whereon no man ever yet sat. Untie it, and bring it.
31
If anyone asks you, 'Why are you untying it?' say to him: 'The Lord needs it.'"
32
Those who were sent went away, and found things just as he had told them.
33
As they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, "Why are you untying the colt?"
34
They said, "The Lord needs it."
35
They brought it to Jesus. They threw their cloaks on the colt, and set Jesus on them.
36
As he went, they spread their cloaks in the way.
37
As he was now getting near, at the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works which they had seen,
38
saying, "Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest!"
39
Some of the Pharisees from the multitude said to him, "Teacher, rebuke your disciples!"
40
He answered them, "I tell you that if these were silent, the stones would cry out."
41
When he drew near, he saw the city and wept over it,
42
saying, "If you, even you, had known today the things which belong to your peace! But now, they are hidden from your eyes.
43
For the days will come on you, when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, surround you, hem you in on every side,
44
and will dash you and your children within you to the ground. They will not leave in you one stone on another, because you didn't know the time of your visitation."
45
He entered into the temple, and began to drive out those who bought and sold in it,
46
saying to them, "It is written, 'My house is a house of prayer,' but you have made it a 'den of robbers'!"
47
He was teaching daily in the temple, but the chief priests and the scribes and the leading men among the people sought to destroy him.
48
They couldn't find what they might do, for all the people hung on to every word that he said.
