795. The meaning of all the high mountains that were under the whole heaven were covered as the fact that all the good effects of charity were obliterated can be seen from the symbolism of mountains among the earliest people.
Among the earliest people, mountains symbolized the Lord, because it was on mountains that they held worship to him. Their reason for doing so was that mountains were the highest points on earth. Consequently mountains symbolized heavenly qualities — love and charity, and so the good effects of love and charity, which are heavenly — and the people also referred to these things as "most high."
Employing an opposite sense, the Word also refers to those who are conceited — and accordingly to self-love itself — as mountains.
Mountains in the Word symbolize the earliest church too, because they rise so high above the earth and in this way are (in a sense) closer to heaven, the origin of everything.
[2] The symbolism of mountains as the Lord and all the heavenly qualities that come from him (in other words, the good effects of love and charity) is established by the following places in the Word. These passages reveal the particular meanings of mountains, since the way things stand with each and every object depends on the subject at hand. In David:
The mountains will bring peace, as will the hills, in justice. (Psalms 72:3)
The mountains stand for love for the Lord, the hills for neighborly love, of the type the earliest church possessed. Because it possessed this type of love, mountains and hills in the Word symbolize that church as well. In Ezekiel:
"On my holy mountain, on the mountain of Israel's high ground," says the Lord Jehovih, "where all the house of Israel — the whole of that house in the land — will serve me ..." (Ezekiel 20:40)
The holy mountain stands for love for the Lord; the mountain of Israel's high ground, for charity toward others. In Isaiah:
It will happen in the end of days that the mountain of Jehovah's house will stand firm, will become the head of the mountains, and will be loftier than the hills. (Isaiah 2:2)
Here they stand for the Lord and so for every heavenly quality. In the same author:
Jehovah Sabaoth will make for all peoples on this mountain a banquet of rich foods. And he will swallow up on this mountain the enveloping layers. 1
(Isaiah 25:6-7)
The mountain stands for the Lord and so for every heavenly quality.
[3] In the same author:
It will be that on every high mountain and on every lofty hill there will be brooks, channels of water. (Isaiah 30:25)
The mountains stand for the good effects of love, the hills for the good effects of charity. Out of these come the true ideas that make up faith, which are the brooks and channels of water. In the same author:
You will have song like the holy observance of a feast at night, and joy of heart like that of one who goes about with a flute to come onto Jehovah's mountain, toward Israel's rock. (Isaiah 30:29)
Jehovah's mountain stands for the Lord in relation to the good that comes of love. Israel's rock stands for the Lord in relation to the good that comes of charity. In the same author:
Jehovah Sabaoth will come down to do battle on Zion's mountain and on its hill. (Isaiah 31:4)
The mountain of Zion here and in many other places stands for the Lord and so for every heavenly quality (love), while hills stand for a lesser heavenly quality (charity).
[4] In the same author:
Zion, bringer of good news, take yourself up onto a high mountain. Jerusalem, bringer of good news, lift your voice with strength. (Isaiah 40:9)
Going up onto a high mountain and bringing good news is worshiping the Lord in love and charity, which lie at our deepest level and are therefore described as being highest. (What lies deepest is also referred to as highest.) In the same author:
Let those who live on the crag sing; from the head of the mountains let them shout. (Isaiah 42:11)
Those who live on a crag stand for those who live in charity. Shouting from the head of the mountains stands for worshiping the Lord with love. In the same author:
How gratifying on the mountains are the feet of the one who brings good news, who lets people hear about peace, who brings good news of something good, who lets people hear about salvation. (Isaiah 52:7)
Bringing good news on the mountains stands in a similar way for preaching about the Lord — and worshiping him — from teachings about love and charity. In the same author:
The mountains and hills will ring before you with song, and all the trees of the field will clap the palms of their hands. (Isaiah 55:12)
This stands for worshiping the Lord in love and charity (which are the mountains and hills) and in the faith that grows out of them (which is the trees of the field.)
[5] In the same author:
I will turn all my mountains into a road, and my paths will be lifted high. (Isaiah 49:11)
The mountains stand for love and charity, a road and paths for the truth belonging to faith that springs from them. These are said to be lifted high when truth does develop out of love and charity, since these are the deepest entities in us. In the same author:
The one who trusts in me will own the land as an inheritance and will inherit my holy mountain. (Isaiah 57:13)
This stands for the Lord's kingdom, where there is nothing but love and charity. In the same author:
From Jacob I will produce seed, and from Judah, the heir to my mountains; and the ones I have chosen will own it. (Isaiah 65:9)
The mountains stand for the Lord's kingdom and for heavenly kinds of goodness. Judah stands for the heavenly church. In the same author:
This is what the High and Exalted One dwelling to eternity has said — and the Holy One is his name: "High and holy I dwell." (Isaiah 57:15)
The height mentioned here stands for holiness, which is the reason that mountains, because they stand high above the earth, symbolize the Lord and his holy, heavenly qualities. And this is why the Lord also issued the law from Mount Sinai.
The Lord too was referring to love and charity when he mentioned mountains in speaking about the end of the age, saying that whoever was in Judea should then flee into the mountains (Matthew 24:16; Luke 21:21; Mark 13:14). In this passage, Judea stands for the church after it had been devastated.
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