Apocalypse Revealed #863
863. And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. This symbolically means that they were destroyed by the lusts of their hellish love.
The fire that came down out of heaven and devoured them symbolizes lusts for evil, or the lusts of a hellish love, as in nos. 494, 748 above, since people who engage in external worship divorced from any internal worship are caught up in evils of every kind and in lusts for them, because the evils in them have not been removed by any actual repentance (no. 859).
We are told that the fire came down from God out of heaven. This occurred in ancient times when everything connected with the church was represented before their eyes, thus when the church was a representational one. But today, now that representations have ceased, similar imagery is used, and it has the same symbolic meaning as before when the meaning was represented.
That fire came down out of heaven on those who profaned sacred things may be seen in nos. 494, 748 above.
Something similar is said of Gog and Magog in Ezekiel:
I will cause... fire and brimstone to rain down on him, and on his troops, and on the many peoples who are with him. (Ezekiel 38:22)
I will send fire on Magog... (Ezekiel 39:6)
Numbers 10:1-10
1
Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
2
"Make two trumpets of silver. You shall make them of beaten work. You shall use them for the calling of the congregation, and for the journeying of the camps.
3
When they blow them, all the congregation shall gather themselves to you at the door of the Tent of Meeting.
4
If they blow just one, then the princes, the heads of the thousands of Israel, shall gather themselves to you.
5
When you blow an alarm, the camps that lie on the east side shall go forward.
6
When you blow an alarm the second time, the camps that lie on the south side shall go forward. They shall blow an alarm for their journeys.
7
But when the assembly is to be gathered together, you shall blow, but you shall not sound an alarm.
8
"The sons of Aaron, the priests, shall blow the trumpets. This shall be to you for a statute forever throughout your generations.
9
When you go to war in your land against the adversary who oppresses you, then you shall sound an alarm with the trumpets. Then you will be remembered before Yahweh your God, and you will be saved from your enemies.
10
"Also in the day of your gladness, and in your set feasts, and in the beginnings of your months, you shall blow the trumpets over your burnt offerings, and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings; and they shall be to you for a memorial before your God. I am Yahweh your God."
