1296. The symbolism of come, let us make bricks, as the falsities that they would invent for themselves can be seen from the symbolism of brick. In the Word, stone symbolizes truth. So brick, as a human product, symbolizes falsity, since it is artificial, manufactured stone. This symbolism of brick can also be seen from the following passages. In Isaiah:

I have spread my hands out all day to a defiant people walking on a path that is not good, in pursuit of their own thoughts, sacrificing in gardens and offering incense on bricks. (Isaiah 65:2-3)

To offer incense on bricks is to base one's worship on fictions and falsity, which is why the people are said to be pursuing their own thoughts. In the same author:

... on account of haughtiness and pride of heart in Ephraim and in the resident of Samaria, who say, "Bricks have fallen, and we will build with carved stone." (Isaiah 9:9-10)

Ephraim stands for a discerning person who has sunk into corrupt ways, who calls truth falsity or turns truth into falsity, falsity being the bricks. Carved stone stands for a fabrication. In Nahum:

Draw water for the siege for yourselves; shore up your strongholds; go into the clay and tread mortar; repair the brick kiln. There fire will consume you and the sword will cut you off. (Nahum 3:14-15)

The treading of mortar stands for falsity; repairing the brick kiln, for worship based on falsity. Fire is the penalty exacted by corrupt desire; a sword, the penalty incurred by false thinking. In Ezekiel:

Take yourself a brick and put it in front of you, and carve the city of Jerusalem on it. (Ezekiel 4:1)

Then comes a command to lay siege to it. This prophetic act involves the idea that worship has been falsified.

The symbolism of brick as falsity stands out even more clearly from the symbolism of stone as truth, to be dealt with just below.