1326. The symbolism of for this reason he called its name Babel as this type of worship — specifically the type symbolized by Babel — is evident from what has been said so far. It is worship that has self-love deep inside it and consequently everything that is unclean and profane. Self-love is nothing but the conviction that we answer to ourselves alone, and the filth and profanity of human selfhood can be seen from the explanation presented earlier, in §§210, 215.

From philautia ¹ — from self-love, that is, or a sense of autonomy — flows every kind of evil, such as hatred, vengefulness, cruelty, adultery, deceit, hypocrisy, and godlessness. So when our worship harbors self-love, or the desire to be our own ruler, it harbors evils like these, but with differences in amount and kind, depending on the amount and kind of influence self-love has. This is where all profanation in worship comes from.

The fact of the matter is that the more self-love or a misplaced sense of independence worms its way into our worship, the more internal worship recedes, or becomes nonexistent. Inward devotion consists in an affection for what is good and an acknowledgment of truth, but the more egoism or self-dependence advances or enters, the more an affection for goodness and the acknowledgment of truth withdraw or leave. Holiness can never coexist with profanation, just as heaven cannot coexist with hell. The one needs to separate from the other; that is what conditions in the Lord's kingdom, and the way it is organized, require. This is the reason why inward worship does not exist in those whose worship is called "Babel." Instead they worship something dead and even cadaverous that lies within. It is evident, then, what outward worship is like when something like this lies at its core.

[2] The fact that this kind of worship is Babel can be seen in the many places where the Word describes Babel [Babylon]. Daniel contains one example in the statue that Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, saw in a dream. Its head was gold; its chest and arms, silver; its belly and thighs, bronze; its legs, iron; its feet, part iron and part clay. The statue symbolizes the fact that from true worship there finally evolved the kind of worship called Babylon, and that is why a stone cut out of a rock crushed the iron, bronze, clay, silver, and gold. (See Daniel 2:31, 32, 33, 44-45.) The statue of gold that Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, set up, and that the people worshiped, was also nothing else (Daniel 3). Likewise the fact that the king of Babylon drank wine with his nobles out of the golden vessels from Jerusalem's Temple, that they praised gods made of gold, silver, bronze, iron, and stone, and that this resulted in the handwriting on the wall (Daniel 5). Then there was the command by Darius the Mede that he be revered as god (Daniel 6); and there were the beasts that Daniel saw in a dream (Daniel 7), and likewise the beasts and Babylon in John's Book of Revelation. ²

[3] The fact that this kind of worship is symbolized and represented is clear to see not only in Daniel and John but also in the prophets. In Isaiah:

Their faces are faces aflame. The stars of the heavens and their constellations do not shed their light. The sun has been shadowed over in its entrance, and the moon does not radiate its light. Tsiyim lie down there, and their houses are filled with ochim, and daughters of the owl live there, and satyrs leap there, and iyim answer in its palaces, and serpents in its pleasure halls. ³ (Isaiah 13:8, 10, 21-22)

This passage is talking about Babylon and describing the inner content of this kind of worship. It does so through the faces aflame (cravings), the failure of the stars (individual religious truths) to shine, the overshadowing of the sun (sacred love), the failure of the moon (religious truth as a whole) to radiate, and the tsiyim, ochim, daughters of the owl, satyrs, iyim, and serpents (inward aspects of worship) because these properties characterize self-love. So in John (Revelation 17:5), Babylon is also called the mother of obscenities and abominations. And the same author calls it "a dwelling place for serpents, ⁴ and a prison for every unclean spirit, and a prison for every unclean and loathsome bird" (Revelation 18:2). When such attributes lie at the core, obviously no religious goodness or truth can exist, and the good effects of love and the true ideas of faith retreat as those attributes invade. In Isaiah 21:9 they are also called carved images of the Babylonian gods.

[4] The fact that self-love (arrogant self-dependence) is what pervades self-worship, or actually constitutes self-worship, is plain to see in Isaiah:

Prophesy this parable over the monarch of Babylon: You have said in your heart, "I will scale the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God and sit on the mountain of assembly, on the flanks of the north. ⁵ I will climb above the loftiest parts of the cloud; I will become like the Highest One." Nevertheless, you will be thrown down to hell. (Isaiah 14:4, 13-14, 15)

In these verses, clearly, Babylon is one who wishes to be worshiped as a god; in other words, it is self-worship.

[5] In the same author:

Go down and sit in the dirt, virgin daughter of Babylon; sit on the earth. There is no throne, daughter of the Chaldeans. You trusted in your wickedness; you said, "There is no one to see me." Your wisdom and your knowledge turned you away. You said in your heart, "I am, and there is no one else like me." (Isaiah 47:1, 10)

In Jeremiah:

Here now, I am against you, ruinous mountain, ruining the whole earth; and I will stretch my hand out over you and roll you down from the rocks and make you a mountain aflame. If Babylon climbs into the heavens, and if it fortifies its lofty stronghold, destroyers will come to it from me. (Jeremiah 51:25, 53)

This too shows that Babylon is self-worship.

[6] Jeremiah describes the fact that they have no light of truth — none of the truth that faith espouses — but pure darkness:

The word that Jehovah has spoken against Babylon, against the land of the Chaldeans: "A nation from the north will come up over them. It will make their land a desolation, and nothing will live in it; from human to animal they will move off, they will leave." (Jeremiah 50:1, 3)

The north stands for darkness, or lack of truth. No human and no animal stands for a lack of goodness.

For more on Babylon, see below at verse 28, where it speaks of Chaldea [§1368].

Footnotes:

1368. The symbolism of Ur of the Chaldeans as outward worship that involves falsities can be seen from the symbolism of Chaldeans in the Word.

It was shown above at verse 9 that Babel symbolizes worship that has evil inside it [§1326]. Chaldea, on the other hand, symbolizes worship that has falsity inside it. Babel, then, symbolizes worship that has nothing good inside it, while Chaldea symbolizes worship that has nothing true inside. Worship that has nothing good and nothing true inside is worship that has a profane, idolatrous quality inside. The fact that Chaldea symbolizes this kind of worship in the Word can be seen from the following places. In Isaiah:

Look: the land of the Chaldeans! This people is not. Assyria founded [the land] among tsiyim. They will erect their spy towers; [the Chaldeans] will raise up their palaces. [Assyria] will make it a ruin. (Isaiah 23:13) ¹

The land of Chaldeans who were not a people stands for falsity. "Assyria founded it" stands for the fact that rationalizations laid the foundation. The spy towers stand for delusions. In the same author:

This is what Jehovah, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, has said: "Because of you I have sent to Babylon and thrown down the bars of the gates, all of them, and the Chaldeans, in whose ships there is shouting." (Isaiah 43:14)

Babylon stands for worship that has evil deep inside. The Chaldeans stand for worship that has falsity deep inside. The ships are a knowledge of truth, but knowledge that has been perverted.

[2] In the same author:

Sit silent and go into the dark, daughter of the Chaldeans, because you will no longer be called an overseer of kingdoms. I was enraged with my people. I profaned my inheritance and gave them into your hand. These two things will come to you suddenly on one day: loss of children and widowhood together. To their full extent they will come over you, because of the abundance of your sorceries and because of the scope of your spells. (Isaiah 47:5-6, 9)

It is evident here that Chaldea is the profanation of truth, which is referred to as sorceries and spells. In the same author:

Leave Babylon; flee from the Chaldeans. (Isaiah 48:20)

This stands for running from the profanation of anything good or true in worship. In Ezekiel:

Make known to Jerusalem its abominations. Your father is an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. You whored with the sons of Egypt. You whored with the sons of Assyria. Therefore you multiplied your whoredom all the way into the land of Chaldea. (Ezekiel 16:2-3, 26, 28-29)

This speaks of the Jewish religion in particular. The sons of Egypt stand for facts. The sons of Assyria stand for rationalizations. The land of Chaldea, to which Jerusalem spread its increasing whoredom, stands for the profanation of truth. Anyone can see that Egypt, Assyria, and Chaldea do not mean different lands and that the passage is not talking about whoredom at all.

[3] In the same author:

Oholah whored and doted on her lovers, the neighboring Assyrians, and her whorings from [her time in] Egypt she did not abandon. She added to her whorings and looked at men, a portrayal on the wall, images of Chaldeans painted in vermilion, sashes girdling their hips, floppy dyed turbans on their heads, all of them appearing to be leaders, looking like the sons of Babylon, Chaldeans, in the land of their birth. She lusted for them at one glance of her eyes and sent messengers for them to Chaldea. The sons of Babylon defiled her through their whorings. (Ezekiel 23:5, 8, 14, 15, 16-17)

The Chaldeans are called sons of Babylon, who stand for the presence of profaned truth in worship. Oholah stands for the spiritual church, which is called Samaria [Ezekiel 23:4].

[4] In Habakkuk:

I am rousing the Chaldeans, a nation bitter and hasty, invading the breadth of the land to take possession of dwellings that are not theirs. Terrifying and fearsome [is that nation], and from itself alone do its judgment and its superiority issue. Its horses are nimbler than leopards, and its eyes are [nimbler] than wolves at evening. ² And in all directions its riders spread, and its riders approach from a distance; they fly forward like an eagle darting in to eat. The whole [nation] comes intent on violence. Its breathless desire faces eastward. ³ (Habakkuk 1:6, 7, 8-9)

This passage depicts the nation of Chaldea through many representative images symbolizing the profanation of truth in worship.

[5] Two entire chapters in Jeremiah (chapters 50, 51) also describe Babylon and Chaldea, and they make it quite clear what each symbolizes: Babylon symbolizes the profanation of heavenly qualities in worship and Chaldea the profanation of spiritual qualities in worship.

These quotations show, then, what Ur of the Chaldeans symbolizes: external worship that has something profane and idolatrous deep inside. The worship of the Chaldeans was actually like this too, as I was permitted to learn from the Chaldeans themselves. ⁴

Footnotes: