Joel Chapter 1, the Internal Sense.

(From Swedenborg's work, "The Inner Meaning of the Prophets and Psalms")

(Verse 1) The Word has been perverted by false worship,

(2) when instead the Word should have been obeyed by everyone in the Church,

(3) and communicated to everyone who holds false beliefs that arise from evil loves.

(4) Instead, the spiritual things of the Church have been destroyed by sensualism.

(5) Now, remorse should be awakened, because of this loss of faith,

(6) a faith which has been destroyed by the lust of worshipping false gods,

(7) depriving the Church of spiritual truth and good.

(8) The Church should return to the Lord

(9) with inward mourning and contrition

(10) over the loss of good and truth in the natural and spiritual man -

(11) especially people who seek the good of the Church and who desire its genuine doctrine: for the Church is about to perish.

(12) Spiritual truth, its good, its knowledge, and its delights, which constitute the Church, are perverted.

(13) Only by repentance can communion with the Lord be renewed.

(14) The Church can only remove the evil and falsity by acknowledging and worshipping the Lord,

(15) for the end of the Church is near, when it will be judged.

(16) Good works are not being done, nor are there any people who delight in spiritual things.

(17) Natural good has been subordinated to evil, and the truth and good of the Word are rejected.

(18) Wherefore there is no good in the Church,

(19) and our hearts must be turned again to the Lord: for the love of self has corrupted all things in the church.

(20) Although truth is desired, it has been misappropriated to ourselves.

773. "Fine linen and purple, silk and scarlet." This symbolically means that these Roman Catholics no longer have these because they do not have any of the celestial goods and truths to which such things correspond.

The valuables mentioned previously - gold, silver, precious stones and pearls - in general symbolize spiritual goods and truths, as said in no. 772 above. However, the valuables here - fine linen, purple, silk and scarlet - in general symbolize celestial goods and truths. For in people in heaven and in the church some goods and truths are spiritual, and some goods and truths are celestial. Spiritual goods and truths are ones of wisdom, and celestial goods and truths are ones of love. And because the Roman Catholics meant here have none of these goods and truths, but evils and falsities that are their opposites, therefore these valuables are now mentioned, since they come next in sequence.

Now because the case with these valuables is the same as with the previous ones, no further explication is needed than the one presented in the previous number.

What fine linen symbolizes specifically we will say in the next chapter, in dealing with the words there, "for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints" (Revelation 19:8, nos. 814, 815). That purple symbolizes celestial good, and scarlet celestial truth, may be seen in no. 725 above. Silk symbolizes an intermediate celestial goodness and truth - goodness because of its softness, and truth because of its shine. It is mentioned only in Ezekiel 16:10, 13.