3
I will give your wealth and all your stores to be taken away in war without a price, because of your sins in every part of your land.
Jeremiah 17:3
Apocalypse Revealed # 277
277. And a golden bowl full of incense. This symbolizes a confession of the Lord's Divine humanity springing from spiritual goods.
Incense symbolizes worship springing from spiritual goods - although here a confession springing from those goods - because worship in the Jewish and Israelite churches consisted principally in sacrifices and the burning of incense. Consequently they had two altars, one for sacrifices and one for the burning of incense. The first stood outside the Tabernacle and was called the altar of burnt offering, while the second was inside the Tabernacle and was called the golden altar. 1 The reason for the two was that all worship springs from two kinds of goods - celestial good and spiritual good. Celestial good is the good of love toward the Lord, while spiritual good is the good of love for the neighbor. Worship by means of sacrifices was worship springing from celestial good, whereas worship by means of the burning of incense was worship springing from spiritual good.
It makes no difference whether you say worship or confession, as all worship is a confession.
The symbolic meaning of incense is also the symbolic meaning of the bowls that contained the incense, since a container and its contents, like an instrumental and principal cause, form a single unit.
[2] Worship springing from spiritual good is symbolized by incense in the following passages:
...from the rising of the sun, even to its going down, My name shall be great among the nations, and in every place incense shall be offered to My name... (Malachi 1:11)
They shall teach Jacob Your judgments... They shall present the smell of incense to Your nose, and a whole burnt offering on Your altar. (Deuteronomy 33:10)
I will offer to You burnt offerings of fatlings, with the incense... (Psalms 66:15)
They shall come from (round about) Judah... bringing a burnt offering..., a grain offering and frankincense... (Jeremiah 17:26)
...from Sheba they shall come; they shall bring gold and frankincense, and they shall proclaim the praises of Jehovah. (Isaiah 60:6)
Frankincense has the same symbolic meaning as incense, because frankincense was the principal aromatic substance from which incense was made.
So likewise in Matthew:
(Wise men from the east) opened their treasures, (and) they presented (to the newborn Lord) gold, frankincense, and myrrh. (Matthew 2:11)
They presented these three gifts, because gold symbolized celestial good, frankincense spiritual good, and myrrh natural good, and it is from these three goods that all worship springs.
Mga talababa:
Revelation 5
1
I saw, in the right hand of him who sat on the throne, a book written inside and outside, sealed shut with seven seals.
2
I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, "Who is worthy to open the book, and to break its seals?"
3
No one in heaven above, or on the earth, or under the earth, was able to open the book, or to look in it.
4
And I wept much, because no one was found worthy to open the book, or to look in it.
5
One of the elders said to me, "Don't weep. Behold, the Lion who is of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome; he who opens the book and its seven seals."
6
I saw in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, having seven horns, and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God, sent out into all the earth.
7
Then he came, and he took it out of the right hand of him who sat on the throne.
8
Now when he had taken the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each one having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.
9
They sang a new song, saying, "You are worthy to take the book, and to open its seals: for you were killed, and bought us for God with your blood, out of every tribe, language, people, and nation,
10
and made us kings and priests to our God, and we will reign on earth."
11
I saw, and I heard something like a voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousands of ten thousands, and thousands of thousands;
12
saying with a loud voice, "Worthy is the Lamb who has been killed to receive the power, wealth, wisdom, strength, honor, glory, and blessing!"
13
I heard every created thing which is in heaven, on the earth, under the earth, on the sea, and everything in them, saying, "To him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb be the blessing, the honor, the glory, and the dominion, forever and ever! Amen!"
14
The four living creatures said, "Amen!" The elders fell down and worshiped.
