21. To His God and Father. This symbolically means, thus images of His Divine wisdom and of His Divine love.

In the spiritual sense "God and Father" does not refer to two persons, but God means the Divine in respect to wisdom, and Father the Divine in respect to love. For the Lord has in Him two attributes: Divine wisdom and Divine love, or Divine truth and Divine good. These two are meant in the Old Testament by "God" and "Jehovah," and here by "God" and "Father."

Now because the Lord teaches that He and the Father are one, and that He is in the Father and the Father in Him (John 10:30; 14:10-11), therefore "God and Father" does not mean two persons, but the Lord alone. The Divine, moreover, is one and indivisible. Consequently the statement that Jesus Christ has made us kings and priests to His God and Father means, symbolically, that they appear before Him as images of His Divine wisdom and of His Divine love. The image of God consists in these two qualities in people and angels.

It may be seen in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Lord that the Divine, which in itself is one, is designated by various names in the Word.

That the Lord is also Himself the Father follows from the following declarations. In Isaiah:

...unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given..., (whose) name will be called Wonderful..., God, Mighty One, ¹ Father of eternity, Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6)

In the same prophet:

You, Jehovah, are our Father, our Redeemer from everlasting is Your name. (Isaiah 63:16)

And in John:

"If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him."

Philip said to Him, "Lord, show us the Father...."

Jesus said to him, ."..He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how then can you say, 'Show us the Father'... ...Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me...." (John 14:7-9, 11)

See no. 962 below.

Фусноте:

226. And the first voice that I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, "Come up here." This symbolizes a Divine influx, resulting in an elevation of the mind and consequent clear perception.

When a voice is heard from heaven, it means Divine truth flowing in (see nos. 37, 50 above), thus a Divine influx. And a voice like a trumpet symbolizes a clear perception (see again no. 37 above). "Come up here," moreover, symbolizes an elevation of the mind, for in the spiritual world, the higher one ascends, the purer the light that he comes into, by which the intellect is progressively opened or the mind elevated. Consequently the statement also follows that John was then in the spirit, meaning that he was conveyed into a spiritual state, in which the things found in heaven clearly appear.

The voice sounded like a trumpet because the subject is the organization of the heavens for a last judgment. Moreover voices like trumpets are heard in heaven when assemblies and organizations are taking place. Consequently in the case of the children of Israel also, with whom everything was representative of heaven and the church, it was a statute that they make trumpets of silver, and that the sons of Aaron sound them to assemble the congregation; to decamp; on days of celebration; at festivals; at the beginnings of months; upon the offering of sacrifices; as a memorial; and to go to war (Numbers 10:1-10).

But we shall speak of trumpets and the sounding of them in our exposition of chapter 8, where the subject is the seven angels who were given seven trumpets.