Apocalypse Revealed #649
649. And he cried with a loud cry to him who had the sharp sickle, saying, "Thrust in your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of grapes of the vine of the earth." This symbolizes the Lord's operation from the goodness of His love through the Word's Divine truth into the works of charity and faith among people belonging to the Christian Church.
This is the spiritual meaning of these words, inasmuch as the two angels symbolize the heavens of the Lord's spiritual and celestial kingdoms (nos. 647, 648), and the heavens do nothing of themselves, but from the Lord. For the angels in the heavens are only recipient vessels. Consequently in the spiritual sense nothing else is symbolized but the Lord's operation, here His operation into the church in the Christian world and into the works of charity and faith among the people in it. The vine, indeed, symbolizes that church, as we shall see after this in number 651, and grapes and clusters of grapes symbolize works of charity. This is the symbolism of grapes and clusters of grapes because they are the fruits of the vine in a vineyard, and fruits in the Word symbolize good works.
[2] The angel who came out from the altar told the angel who came out of the temple to thrust in his sickle and gather the grapes because, as we said before, the angel who came out from the altar symbolizes the heavens of the celestial kingdom, or heavens characterized by the goodness of love, while the angel who came out of the temple symbolizes the heavens of the spiritual kingdom, or heavens characterized by truths of wisdom; and the goodness of love does nothing by itself, but only through the truth of wisdom, and the truth of wisdom does nothing by itself, but only in response to the goodness of love. The reality of this is something we showed many times in Angelic Wisdom Regarding Divine Love and Wisdom. That is why the angel who came out from the altar told the angel who came out of the temple to thrust in his sickle and gather the clusters of grapes of the vine of the earth.
That now is why this description symbolizes the Lord's operation from the goodness of His love through the Divine truth of His Word.
[3] That grapes and clusters of grapes symbolize goods and the works of charity can be seen from the following passages:
Woe is me! ...I have become like the gatherings of summer, like the gleanings of vintage grapes; there is no cluster to eat; first-ripe fruit my soul desires. The holy man has perished from the earth, and the upright among men. (Micah 7:1-2)
Their grapes are grapes of gall, they have bitter clusters. (Deuteronomy 32:32)
My beloved had a vineyard... He expected it to produce good grapes, but it produced wild grapes. (Isaiah 5:1-2, 4)
They look to other gods, they love flagons of grapes. (Hosea 3:1)
...every tree is known by its own fruit. ...people do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they gather grapes from a bramble bush. (Luke 6:44)
...in the midst of the land... it shall be... like the gleanings of grapes when the grape harvest is done. (Isaiah 24:12-13)
If the gatherers of the grapes come to you, they will not leave any gleanings. (Jeremiah 49:9, cf. Obadiah verses 4, 5)
The plunderer has fallen on... your grape harvest. (Jeremiah 48:32-33)
You will be troubled, you complacent ones, for the grape harvest is failing, the gathering will not come. (Isaiah 32:9-10)
And so on elsewhere where the fruit of the vineyard and the fruit of the vine are mentioned.
Some goods are the goods of a celestial love, and some are the goods of a spiritual love. The goods of a celestial love are those of love toward the Lord, and the goods of a spiritual love are those of a love for the neighbor. The latter goods are called goods of charity and are those meant by the fruits of the vineyard, which are grapes and clusters of grapes. But the goods of love toward the Lord are meant in the Word by the fruits of trees, primarily olives.
[4] "For her grapes are ripe." This symbolically means, because the Christian Church has reached its last state.
The ripening of the vineyard's grapes has the same symbolic meaning as the drying of the harvest above, but a harvest is mentioned in reference to the church in general, while a vineyard is mentioned in reference to the church in particular. The drying of the harvest symbolizes the last state of the church, as may be seen in no. 645 above, and so likewise does the ripening of the grapes of the vineyard.
A vineyard symbolize the church which has the Word's Divine truth and where the Lord is thereby known, since wine symbolizes the interior truth that comes from the Lord through the Word. The vineyard here accordingly symbolizes the Christian Church.
That wine symbolizes truth springing from the goodness of love, thus from the Lord, may be seen in no. 316 above.
Obadiah 1
1
The vision of Obadiah. This is what the Lord Yahweh says about Edom. We have heard news from Yahweh, and an ambassador is sent among the nations, saying, "Arise, and let's rise up against her in battle.
2
Behold, I have made you small among the nations. You are greatly despised.
3
The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who dwell in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high, who says in his heart, 'Who will bring me down to the ground?'
4
Though you mount on high as the eagle, and though your nest is set among the stars, I will bring you down from there," says Yahweh.
5
"If thieves came to you, if robbers by night--oh, what disaster awaits you--wouldn't they only steal until they had enough? If grape pickers came to you, wouldn't they leave some gleaning grapes?
6
How Esau will be ransacked! How his hidden treasures are sought out!
7
All the men of your alliance have brought you on your way, even to the border. The men who were at peace with you have deceived you, and prevailed against you. Friends who eat your bread lay a snare under you. There is no understanding in him."
8
"Won't I in that day," says Yahweh, "destroy the wise men out of Edom, and understanding out of the mountain of Esau?
9
Your mighty men, Teman, will be dismayed, to the end that everyone may be cut off from the mountain of Esau by slaughter.
10
For the violence done to your brother Jacob, shame will cover you, and you will be cut off forever.
11
In the day that you stood on the other side, in the day that strangers carried away his substance, and foreigners entered into his gates, and cast lots for Jerusalem, even you were like one of them.
12
But don't look down on your brother in the day of his disaster, and don't rejoice over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction. Don't speak proudly in the day of distress.
13
Don't enter into the gate of my people in the day of their calamity. Don't look down on their affliction in the day of their calamity, neither seize their wealth on the day of their calamity.
14
Don't stand in the crossroads to cut off those of his who escape. Don't deliver up those of his who remain in the day of distress.
15
For the day of Yahweh is near all the nations! As you have done, it will be done to you. Your deeds will return upon your own head.
16
For as you have drunk on my holy mountain, so will all the nations drink continually. Yes, they will drink, swallow down, and will be as though they had not been.
17
But in Mount Zion, there will be those who escape, and it will be holy. The house of Jacob will possess their possessions.
18
The house of Jacob will be a fire, the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau for stubble. They will burn among them, and devour them. There will not be any remaining to the house of Esau." Indeed, Yahweh has spoken.
19
Those of the South will possess the mountain of Esau, and those of the lowland, the Philistines. They will possess the field of Ephraim, and the field of Samaria. Benjamin will possess Gilead.
20
The captives of this army of the children of Israel, who are among the Canaanites, will possess even to Zarephath; and the captives of Jerusalem, who are in Sepharad, will possess the cities of the Negev.
21
Saviors will go up on Mount Zion to judge the mountains of Esau, and the kingdom will be Yahweh's.
