Apocalypse Revealed # 350
350. Of the tribe of Judah twelve thousand were sealed. (7:5) This symbolizes celestial love, which is love toward the Lord, and this in all those people who will be in the Lord's New Heaven and New Church.
In the highest sense Judah symbolizes the Lord in relation to celestial love; in the spiritual sense, the Lord's celestial kingdom and the Word; and in the natural sense, the doctrine of a celestial church drawn from the Word. Here, however, Judah symbolizes celestial love, which is love toward the Lord; and because it is named first in the series, it symbolizes that love in all those people who will be in the New Heaven and in the Lord's New Church. For the tribe named first is everything in the rest, being to them as though their head and serving as a universal property entering into all those that follow, tying them together, qualifying them and affecting them. This property is love toward the Lord.
To be shown that twelve thousand symbolizes all who possess that love, see no. 348 above.
[2] People know that after the death of Solomon the twelve tribes of Israel were divided into two kingdoms: the kingdom of Judah and the kingdom of Israel. The kingdom of Judah represented the celestial kingdom or the Lord's priestly kingdom, while the kingdom of Israel represented the spiritual kingdom or the Lord's royal kingdom. But the latter was destroyed when the people had nothing spiritual left in them, whereas the kingdom of Judah was preserved, for the sake of the Word, and because the Lord would be born there. However, when the people adulterated the Word completely, and thus could not recognize the Lord, then their kingdom was destroyed.
It can be seen from this that the tribe of Judah symbolizes celestial love, which is love toward the Lord. But because the people were of the character they were with respect to the Word and with respect to the Lord, the tribe of Judah symbolizes also the opposite love, which is love of self - properly speaking, a love of dominating springing from a love of self - a love which we call diabolical love.
[3] The fact that Judah and his tribe symbolize the celestial kingdom and its love, which is love toward the Lord, follows from these passages:
Judah, your brothers shall praise you... The scepter shall not be taken from Judah... until Shiloh comes; and to Him shall be the obedience of the people. Binding his donkey's foal to the vine, his donkey's colt to the choice vine, he washes his garment in wine... His eyes are redder than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk. (Genesis 49:8-12)
...David shall be their prince forever, and I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them..., and I will set My sanctuary in their midst forevermore. (Ezekiel 37:25-26)
Exult and rejoice, O daughter of Zion! ...Jehovah will make Judah an inheritance for Himself, His portion on the holy land. (Zechariah 2:10-12)
O Judah, celebrate your feasts, perform your vows. For Belial 1 shall no more pass through you; he is utterly cut off. (Nahum 1:15)
The Lord... will suddenly come to His temple... Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be sweet to Jehovah as in the days of old... (Malachi 3:1, 4)
Judah shall abide forever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation. (Joel 3:20)
Behold, the days are coming..., that I will raise to David a righteous Branch... In His days Judah will be saved... (Jeremiah 23:5-6)
I will bring forth offspring from Jacob, and from Judah an heir of My mountains, that My elect may possess it... (Isaiah 65:9)
Judah became His sanctuary, and Israel His dominion. (Psalms 114:2)
Behold, the days are coming..., when I will make a new covenant... with the house of Judah... ...this will be the covenant...: I will put My law within them, and write it on their heart... (Jeremiah 31:27, 31, 33-34)
In those days ten men... shall grasp the sleeve of a Jewish man, saying, "We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you." (Zechariah 8:23)
...as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make shall remain before Me..., so shall your offspring and your name remain.
Kings (of the nations) shall be your foster fathers, their princesses your nursing mothers. They shall bow down to you, their faces to the ground, and lick the dust of your feet. (Isaiah 66:22; 49:23)
[4] From these and many other passages, which we do not have the space to cite because of their number, it can be clearly seen that Judah means not Judah but the church. We are told, for example, that the Lord would make a new and eternal covenant with that nation, that He would make it His heir and His sanctuary forevermore, and that kings of the nations and their princesses would bow down to them, licking the dust of their feet, and so on.
[5] That the tribe of Judah, regarded in itself, means the diabolic kingdom, which is one of a love of dominating springing from a love of self, can be seen from the following passages:
I will hide My face from them, I will see what their posterity will be. ...they are a perverse generation, children in whom is no faith... ...they are a nation void of counsel... ...their vine is of the vine of Sodom and of the fields of Gomorrah; its grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter. Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps. Is this not laid up in store with Me, sealed up in My treasuries? (Deuteronomy 32:20-34)
(Know that) it is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart... that Jehovah... is... giving you (the land of Canaan)..., for you are a stiff-necked people. (Deuteronomy 9:5-6)
...according to the number of your cities have been your gods, O Judah... ...according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem you have set up altars... to burn incense to Baal. (Jeremiah 2:28; 11:13)
You are of your father the devil, and you choose to do the desires of your father. (John 8:44)
Jews are said to be full of hypocrisy, iniquity, and uncleanness (Matthew 23:27-28.
Mga talababa:
1. In the Old Testament, the personification of wickedness and destruction, originally conceived perhaps as some sort of spirit demon.
Matthew 22
1
And Jesus answered and spake unto them again by parables, and said,
2
The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son,
3
And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come.
4
Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage.
5
But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise:
6
And the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them.
7
But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city.
8
Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy.
9
Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage.
10
So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests.
11
And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment:
12
And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless.
13
Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
14
For many are called, but few are chosen.
15
Then went the Pharisees, and took counsel how they might entangle him in his talk.
16
And they sent out unto him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, Master, we know that thou art true, and teachest the way of God in truth, neither carest thou for any man: for thou regardest not the person of men.
17
Tell us therefore, What thinkest thou? Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar, or not?
18
But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites?
19
Shew me the tribute money. And they brought unto him a penny.
20
And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription?
21
They say unto him, Caesar's. Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's.
22
When they had heard these words, they marvelled, and left him, and went their way.
23
The same day came to him the Sadducees, which say that there is no resurrection, and asked him,
24
Saying, Master, Moses said, If a man die, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother.
25
Now there were with us seven brethren: and the first, when he had married a wife, deceased, and, having no issue, left his wife unto his brother:
26
Likewise the second also, and the third, unto the seventh.
27
And last of all the woman died also.
28
Therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the seven? for they all had her.
29
Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.
30
For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.
31
But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying,
32
I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.
33
And when the multitude heard this, they were astonished at his doctrine.
34
But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together.
35
Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying,
36
Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
37
Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38
This is the first and great commandment.
39
And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
40
On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
41
While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them,
42
Saying, What think ye of Christ? whose son is he? They say unto him, The Son of David.
43
He saith unto them, How then doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying,
44
The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool?
45
If David then call him Lord, how is he his son?
46
And no man was able to answer him a word, neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions.
