564. But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the river which the dragon had spewed out of its mouth. (12:16) This symbolically means that the multitude of reasonings flowing from falsities that followers of the dragon put forward come to nothing in the face of the spiritual truths rationally understood that are advanced by the Michaels of whom the New Church is formed.

The earth that helped the woman symbolizes the church in respect to its doctrine (no. 285). And because the subject is the reasonings flowing from falsities that followers of the dragon put forward, truths from the Word are the means by which the earth, or rather the church, "helps the woman." To open the mouth means, symbolically, to advance those truths. The river that the dragon spewed out of its mouth symbolizes a multitude of reasonings flowing from falsities (no. 563). To swallow means, symbolically, to cause to come to nothing.

Michaels mean people of the New Church - Michael being those who are wise there, and his angels being the rest.

[2] Since in the New Church the dogma is rejected that the intellect should be held captive in obedience to faith, and accepted instead is the tenet that the church's truth must be seen to be believed (no. 224), and because truth can be seen only when it is seen rationally, therefore we say, "in the face of the spiritual truths rationally understood."

How can anyone be led by the Lord and affiliated with heaven if he closes up his intellect in such matters as have to do with salvation and eternal life? Is it not the intellect that must be enlightened and instructed? What else is the intellect that has been closed up by religion but a mass of darkness, and the kind of darkness that deflects away from itself any illuminating light?

Who, moreover, can acknowledge any truth and retain it if he does not see it? What is truth not seen but a word without meaning, which sensual, carnal people are accustomed to retain in memory, but which the wise cannot? Indeed, wise people cast empty words out of the memory, namely, words which have not entered from an understanding of them - as for example, that the one God is three in respect to persons, or that the Lord born from eternity is not identical with the Lord born in time, so that one Lord is God and not the other; or further, that a life of charity, which consists in good works and at the same time in repentance from evil works, contributes nothing to salvation. A wise person does not understand this, and consequently because of his rationality says, "Religion in that case accomplishes nothing. Is it not an article of religion to refrain from evil and do good? Is this not what the church's doctrine teaches, and what a person is also meant to believe, so that he does the goods of religion from God?"

7293. 'It will then be a water-serpent' means by the prospect that sheer illusions and resulting falsities will reign among them. This is clear from the meaning of 'a serpent' as the sensory and bodily level of mind, dealt with in 6949, and therefore illusions since that level of mind when separated from the rational level, that is, when not subordinate to it, is filled with illusions, to such an extent that it consists of scarcely anything else than illusions, see 6948, 6949. 'A water-serpent' is what is meant here; for in the original language the same word is used for this kind of serpent as that which is used to refer to a monster that is a very large fish of the sea; and 'a (sea-)monster' means factual knowledge in general.

When therefore falsities resulting from illusions are meant by 'the Egyptians', that word used in the original language denotes a serpent - a water-serpent since it can also be used to refer to the monster living in water and 'the water of Egypt' means falsities.

[2] The fact that Pharaoh or Egypt is called 'a monster' is clear in Ezekiel,

Speak and say, Thus said the Lord Jehovih, Behold, I am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great monster that lies in the midst of his rivers. Ezekiel 29:3.

In the same prophet,

Son of man, raise a lamentation over Pharaoh king of Egypt, and say to him, You have become like a young lion of the nations, you are like monsters in the seas, and you have come forth with your rivers; you have stirred up your rivers Ezekiel 32:2.

Here 'monster' means known facts in general which, being the product of what a person's senses tell him, are used to pervert matters of faith. The reason why 'monster' means factual knowledge in general is that 'a fish' means that knowledge in particular, 40, 991. And since known facts perverting the truths of faith are meant by 'monsters', reasonings based on illusions, which give rise to falsities, are also meant by the same word.

[3] The same things are meant by 'monsters' in David,

You broke up the sea by your strength; you broke the heads of the monsters upon the waters. Psalms 74:13.

Much the same is also meant by 'leviathan' in Isaiah,

On that day Jehovah will make a visitation with His hard and great and strong sword upon Leviathan the full-length serpent, ¹ and upon Leviathan the twisting serpent, and He will slay the monsters that are in the sea. Isaiah 27:1.

And in David,

You broke in pieces the heads of Leviathan; you gave him as food to the people, the Ziim. Psalms 74:14.

In the good sense 'Leviathan' stands for reason based on truths, in Job 41:1-34; reason based on truths is the opposite of reasonings based on falsities.

[4] Since 'monsters' means reasonings that are based on illusions and pervert truths, 'water-serpents' - the word for which in the original language is the same as that used for 'monsters' - means the actual falsities resulting from illusions which give rise to reasonings and lead to perversions of the truth. Falsities are meant by such 'serpents' in the following places: In Isaiah,

The iim will reply in its palaces, and serpents in the delightful palaces. Isaiah 13:22.

In the same prophet,

Thorns will come up into its palaces, thistle and brier in its fortifications, so that it may be a dwelling-place of serpents, a courtyard for daughters of the owl. Isaiah 34:13.

In the same prophet,

In the dwelling-place of serpents will his bed be, grass instead of reed and rush. Isaiah 35:7.

In Jeremiah,

I will make Jerusalem heaps of rubble, the dwelling-place of serpents. Jeremiah 9:11.

In Malachi,

I have turned the mountains of Esau into a waste, and his inheritance into [a place] for the serpents of the wilderness. Malachi 1:3.

In all these places 'serpents' stands for falsities on which reasonings are based.

[5] The same things are also meant by 'dragons', but 'dragons' are reasonings that spring from self-love and love of the world, thus from desires for what is evil, which pervert not only truths but forms of good as well. These reasonings are produced by people who in their hearts repudiate the truths and forms of the good of faith, but affirm them with their lips because of their intense desire to obtain dominance and gain. Thus such reasonings are also produced by those who render truths and forms of good profane. Both of these kinds of people are meant by 'the dragon, the serpent of old, who is called the devil and satan, who leads the whole world astray', Revelation 12:9, and also by this same dragon which persecuted the woman who had given birth to a son who was caught up to God and to His throne, Revelation 11:5, and which emitted water from its mouth like a river, to swallow up the woman, Revelation 12:13, 15.

[6] The son to whom the woman had given birth is Divine Truth now revealed at the present day, 'the woman' being the Church. 'The dragon, the serpent' is those who are going to persecute it, and 'the water like a river which the dragon emitted' is falsities arising out of evil and the resulting reasonings which they are going to use in their endeavour to destroy the woman, that is, the Church. But the fact that they will not at all accomplish this is described by the statement that 'the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river which the dragon emitted', Revelation 12:16.

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