Jerusalem, on Mount Zion, signifies the doctrine of love to the Lord, and how it governs your life. Jerusalem first comes to our attention in 2 Samuel 5, when King David takes the city from the Jebusites and makes it his capital. In the next chapter he brings the Ark of the Covenant there, and later it is where Solomon builds the temple, and his own palace. From then on Jerusalem is the center of worship of the Israelitish church. It is the place where the Lord was presented in the temple as a baby, where He tarried to talk to the priests at age twelve, where He cleansed the temple, had the last supper, was crucified and then rose. It is a central place in both the old and new Testaments. The city was built on Mount Zion, the highest point of the mountains of Judea. A city, in the Word, represents doctrine, the organized knowledge of the truths of the church. Mountains represent love of the Lord and the consequent worship. If you put those things together, Jerusalem on Mount Zion signifies the doctrine of love to the Lord, and how it governs your life. This is why David was led to make Jerusalem the most important city of the land, and why all worship was conducted there. And this is also why Jeroboam was condemned for introducing idol worship in Samaria. In the Book of Revelation, John's vision of the city New Jerusalem descending from God is a prophecy of a new dispensation of doctrine coming from the Lord.

(Mga Sanggunian: Arcana Coelestia 4539, 8938; The Apocalypse Explained 365 [35-38])

4103. 'Jacob rose up' means a raising up of the good meant by 'Jacob'. This is clear from the meaning of 'rising up' as that which implies a raising up, dealt with in 2410, 2785, 2912, 2927, and from the representation of 'Jacob' as the good of the natural, often dealt with already, at this point good which is coming closer to the Divine because it is to be separated from intermediate good, or 'Laban', 4073. By the raising up that is meant by 'rising up' one should understand a coming closer to the Divine. As regards man, he is said to be raised up when he comes closer to heavenly things, and the reason for this is the belief that heaven exists raised up or on high. But this description of where heaven is is due to the appearance; for heaven and therefore the things that belong to heaven, namely celestial and spiritual ones, do not exist on high but in what is internal, see 450, 1735, 2148. Consequently a person is in heaven inwardly when spiritual love and faith are present in him.