2. Horses are often mentioned in the prophetic books of the Word, ¹ but until now no one has been aware that a horse means understanding and its rider means someone who is intelligent. This is perhaps because it seems strange and bewildering to say that a horse has this kind of meaning when spiritually understood, and therefore has this kind of meaning in the Word. There is support for this, however, in many passages in the Word, of which I should like here to cite only a few.

In Israel’s prophecy about Dan:

Dan will be a serpent on the way, a darting serpent on the path, that bites the horse’s heels, and its rider falls backward. (Genesis 49:17, 18)

No one will understand the meaning of this prophecy about one of the tribes of Israel who does not know the meaning of a serpent and of a horse and a rider. No one can fail to know, though, that something spiritual is involved. You may see what these particular things mean in Secrets of Heaven 6398, 6399, 6400, 6401, where this prophecy is explained.

In Habakkuk:

God, you are riding on your horses; your chariots are salvation. You walked through the sea with your horses. (Habakkuk 3:8, 15)

We can see that horses here mean something spiritual because these things are being said of God. Otherwise, what would be involved in God riding on his horses and walking through the sea with his horses?

The same holds true for Zechariah 14:20: “On that day ‘Holiness belongs to Jehovah’ will be engraved on the bells of the horses”; and for Zechariah 12:4, 5: “‘On that day,’ says Jehovah, ‘I will strike every horse with confusion and its rider with madness. I will open my eyes on the house of Judah and strike every horse of the people with blindness.’” This is about the purging of the church that happens when there is no longer any understanding of what is true, so it is described in terms of horse and rider. Otherwise, what would be involved in striking every horse with confusion and striking every horse of the people with blindness? What does this have to do with the church?

In Job:

[Because] God deprived [the ostrich] of wisdom and did not endow her with understanding, when she lifts herself up on high, she scorns the horse and its rider. (Job 39:17, 18, 19, and following)

Here it is obvious that the horse means understanding. This is also the case in David when it speaks of “riding on the word of truth” (Psalms 45:4) and in many other passages.

Further, who would know why Elijah and Elisha were called “the chariot of Israel and its cavalry” and why Elisha’s servant saw the mountain full of horses and chariots of fire if they did not know what a chariot and a cavalry mean and what Elijah and Elisha represent? For Elisha said to Elijah, “My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and its cavalry” (2 Kings 2:11, 12); and King Joash said to Elisha, “My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and its cavalry” (2 Kings 13:14); and it says of Elisha’s servant, “Jehovah opened the eyes of Elisha’s servant, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha” (2 Kings 6:17).

The reason Elijah and Elisha were called the chariot of Israel and its cavalry is that both represent the Lord as the Word, the chariot meaning a body of teaching drawn from the Word and the cavalry meaning understanding. On Elijah and Elisha as representing the Lord as the Word, see Secrets of Heaven 5247, 7643, 8029, 9372; and on a chariot as meaning a body of teaching drawn from the Word see §§5321, 8215.

Footnotes:

4534. 'The Grand Man and Correspondence' is continued at the end of the next chapter.

4337. THE INTERNAL SENSE

Where Jacob is referred to in previous chapters, the subject in the internal sense has been the acquisition of truth within the Natural, an acquisition which is made there so that such truth may be joined to good; for all truth exists for the sake of that end. In the internal sense 'Jacob' is that truth, and 'Esau' is the good to which it is joined. Before the two are joined together truth seems to occupy first place, but after they have been joined good in fact does so, see 3539, 3548, 3556, 3563, 3570, 3576, 3603, 3701, 3995.

This is also what is meant by Isaac's prophecy addressed to Esau,

By your sword you will live, and you will serve your brother; and it will be, when you have dominion over him, that you will break his yoke from your neck. Genesis 27:40.

That state foretold there is the actual subject now. And this is why in verses 5, 8, 13-14 of the present chapter Jacob calls Esau his lord and himself Esau's servant

[2] It should be recognized that 'Jacob' at this point represents the good of truth. But regarded in itself such good is simply truth, for as long as truth exists solely in the memory it is referred to as truth. But once it exists in the will and as a consequence in action it is called the good of truth, for the performance of truth is nothing else. Whatever proceeds from the will is called good since in essence the will consists in love and in affection flowing from love, and everything that is done from love and attendant affection is termed good. Nor is truth able to be joined to good which flows in by way of the internal man and is Divine in origin - which good is represented here by 'Esau' - until truth exists as truth in will and action, that is, as the good of truth. For good which flows in by way of the internal man and is Divine in origin flows into the will, and there meets the good of truth which has been introduced by way of the external man.