79. There are many passages in the prophets about our understanding of the Word, passages about the church, where it tells us that the church exists only where the Word is properly understood, and that the quality of a church depends on the quality of the understanding of the Word among its members. There are also many passages in the prophets that describe the church among the Israelite and Jewish people, a church that was utterly destroyed and annihilated by the distortion of the Word’s meaning or message, for this is exactly what destroys a church.

[2] The name Ephraim in the prophets, especially in Hosea, symbolizes both true and false understandings of the Word, because Ephraim in the Word means the understanding of the Word in the church. It is because the understanding of the Word makes a church that Ephraim is called “a precious child, and one born of delights” (Jeremiah 31:20), “the firstborn” (Jeremiah 31:9), “the strength of Jehovah’s head” (Psalms 60:7; 108:8), “powerful” (Zechariah 10:7), and “filled with a bow” (Zechariah 9:13); and the children of Ephraim are called “armed” and “bow-shooters” (Psalms 78:9). The bow means a body of teaching from the Word fighting against what is false.

So too, Ephraim was transferred to the right of Israel and blessed, and accepted in place of Reuben (Genesis 48:5, 11, and following; [1 Chronicles 5:1]). And therefore Ephraim, together with his brother Manasseh, was exalted over all by Moses in his blessing of the children of Israel in the name of their father Joseph (Deuteronomy 33:13-17).

[3] The prophets, especially Hosea, also use “Ephraim” to describe what the church is like when its understanding of the Word has been lost, as we can see from the following:

Israel and Ephraim will stumble. Ephraim will be desolate. Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgment. I will be like a lion to Ephraim: I will tear them and leave; I will carry them off and no one will rescue them. (Hosea 5:5, 9, 11, 14)

What shall I do to you, Ephraim? Your holiness goes away like a cloud at dawn and like the morning dew that falls. (Hosea 6:4)

[4] They will not dwell in the land of Jehovah: Ephraim will go back to Egypt and will eat what is unclean in Assyria. (Hosea 9:3)

The land of Jehovah is the church, Egypt is the preoccupation of the earthly self with mere facts, and Assyria is rationalizing based on those facts; all of which lead to distortion of the Word in regard to the way it is understood. That is why it says that Ephraim will go back to Egypt and will eat what is unclean in Assyria.

[5] Ephraim feeds on the wind and chases the east wind. Every day he increases lies and devastation. He makes a covenant with Assyria, and oil is carried down into Egypt. (Hosea 12:1)

To feed on the wind, chase the east wind, and increase lies and devastation is to distort what is true and in this way destroy the church.

[6] Much the same is also meant by Ephraim’s whoredom, since whoredom means distortion of the way the Word is understood - that is, distortion of its genuine truth. See the following passages:

I know Ephraim; he has committed whoredom in every way and Israel has been defiled. (Hosea 5:3)

I have seen something foul in the house of Israel: Ephraim has committed whoredom there, and Israel has been defiled. (Hosea 6:10)

Israel is the church itself and Ephraim is the understanding of the Word that is the source of the church and that determines its quality, so it says that Ephraim has committed whoredom and Israel has been defiled.

[7] Since the church among Jews had been completely destroyed because of its distortions, it says of Ephraim,

Am I to give you up, Ephraim? Am I to hand you over, Israel? Like Admah? Shall I make you like Zeboiim? (Hosea 11:8)

Since the book of the prophet Hosea, from the first chapter to the last, is about the distortion of the Word and the consequent destruction of the church, and since whoredom means the distortion of truth in the church, the prophet was commanded to represent that state of the church by taking a whore as his wife and fathering children by her (chapter 1); and also by forming a relationship with a woman who was committing adultery (chapter 3).

[8] These instances have been presented so that readers may know and be assured from the Word that the quality of a church depends on the quality of the understanding of the Word in it - outstanding and priceless if its understanding comes from genuine truths from the Word, but in ruins, actually filthy, if it comes from distortions.

For further evidence that Ephraim means the understanding of the Word, and in its opposite sense a distorted understanding leading to the destruction of the church, you may check some other passages that deal with Ephraim: Hosea 4:17-18; 7:1, 11; 8:9, 11; 9:11-13, 16; 10:11; 11:3; 12:1, 8, 14; 13:1, 8, 14; Isaiah 17:3; 28:1; Jeremiah 4:15; 31:6, 18; 50:19; Ezekiel 37:16; 48:5; Obadiah verse 19; Zechariah 9:10.

9323. 'And He will bless your bread and your water' means the increase of the good of love and of the truth of faith. This is clear from the meaning of 'being blessed by Jehovah' as being made fruitful in forms of good and being multiplied in truths, dealt with in 2846, 3406, 4981, 6091, 6099, 8939, thus an increase in the kinds of things that belong to love and faith; from the meaning of 'bread' as the good of love, dealt with in 276, 680, 2165, 2177, 3478, 3735, 3813, 4211, 4217, 4735, 4976, 6118, 8410; and from the meaning of 'water' as the truth of faith, dealt with in 680, 739, 2702, 3058, 3424, 4976, 5668, 6346, 7307, 8568. Since 'bread' meant all the good of love and 'water' all the truth of faith in their entirety, and since 'being blessed by Jehovah' means every increase in them, people in the ancient Churches were accustomed to express the wish, May Jehovah bless [your] bread and water. It was also common to speak of 'bread and water' when all natural food and drink were to be expressed and all spiritual goodness and truth to be understood; for the latter are what nourish spiritual life, just as the former nourish natural life, 4976.

[2] Such goodness and truth are meant by 'bread and water' in the following places: In Isaiah,

Behold, Jehovah Zebaoth is taking away from Jerusalem and Judah the whole staff of bread, and the whole staff of water. Isaiah 3:1.

'The staff of bread' stands for power and life provided by good, 'the staff of water' for power and life provided by truth. In Ezekiel,

Behold, I am breaking the staff of bread in Jerusalem, so that they may eat bread by weight and with anxiety, and drink water by measure and with dismay; that they may be in want of bread and water, and will be dismayed with one another, ¹ and waste away on account of their iniquity. Ezekiel 4:16-17.

'Being in want of bread and water' means being deprived of the good of love and of the truth of faith, as is plainly evident since it says 'that they will be dismayed with one with another, and waste away on account of iniquity'.

[3] The like occurs again in the same prophet,

They will eat their bread with anxiety, and drink their water with dismay, so that her land may be devastated of its fullness, on account of the violence of all who dwell in it. Ezekiel 12:19.

In Amos,

Behold, the days are going to come, in which I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but for hearing the words of Jehovah. Amos 8:11.

In the first Book of Kings,

The man of God said to Jeroboam, If you were to give me half your house, I would not go in with you; nor would I eat bread nor drink water in this place. For Jehovah had so commanded, saying, You shall not eat bread, nor drink water, nor return by the way you came. But a prophet from Bethel said to him that he had been told by Jehovah that he was to eat bread and drink water with him (he was lying). ² And he went back with him, and ate bread in his house, and drank water. For that reason he was torn to pieces by a lion. 1 Kings 13:8-9, 16-19, 24.

His refusal to eat bread or drink water with Jeroboam was a sign of his abhorrence of the good there and also of the truth, because they had been rendered profane. For Jeroboam had profaned the altar and all the holy things of worship, as is evident from the historical descriptions at this point in the Word.

[4] A lack of spiritual goodness and truth was meant by the absence of rain for three and a half years when Ahab was king, resulting in a lack of bread and of water, during which time Elijah went to a widow in Zarephath and asked her for a little water in a vessel so that he might drink, and a piece of bread so that he might eat, 1 Kings 17, 18. For 'bread' meant all the good of the Church, and 'water' all the truth of the Church, as stated above. Since such things in those times were representative for the reason that only something representative of the Church existed among those people, and since things of a representative nature were used therefore in the composition of the Word, including the historical section, goodness and truth laid waste was accordingly represented by the lack of bread and water. And because 'bread' meant all the good of love in its entirety, therefore also the sacrifices were referred to as 'bread', 2165, and therefore also the Lord calls Himself 'the bread which comes down from heaven', John 6:48, 50-51; for the Lord is the Good itself of Love.

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