Commentary

 

King

  
Meeting of three kings in Potsdam and Charlottenburg, 1709, by Samuel Theodor Gericke

In Genesis 14:1, kings signify apparent goods and truths having the upper hand. In the next verse, they stand for the dominant evils and falsities against which the Lord fought as he passed He grew up on Earth.

In Genesis 14:3, we see that these evils and falsities were unclean; and in Genesis 14:4, that they burst forth later. (Arcana Coelestia 1661-1664).

In Genesis 14:14-15, this signifies that the Lord gained victory over them the evils represented earlier in the chapter. (Arcana Coelestia 1711-1715)

In Isaiah 33:17, a king signifies seeing genuine truth. (Apocalypse Explained 304[31])

In Revelation 9:11, a king signifies one who is in truth from an affection for what is good, and abstractly that truth itself -- here, in the opposite sense. (Apocalypse Revealed 440)

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Revealed #366

Study this Passage

  
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366. Standing before the throne and before the Lamb. This symbolically means, listening to the Lord and doing what He commands.

To stand before the Lord means, symbolically, to hear and do what He commands, like one who stands before a king.

This is also the symbolic meaning of standing before God, or in the presence of God, elsewhere in the Word, as when the angel said to Zacharias,

I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God... (Luke 1:19)

A man who stands before Me shall not be cut off forever. (Jeremiah 35:19)

These are the two offspring of the olive tree, who stand before the Lord of the whole earth. (Zechariah 4:14)

(He) separated the tribe of Levi... to stand before Jehovah... (Deuteronomy 10:8)

And so on elsewhere.

  
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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.