10182. 'Its horns shall be of one piece with it' means the powers of truth derived from the good of love and charity. This is clear from the meaning of 'horns' as the powers of truth, dealt with in 2832, 9719-9721. The reason why derived from the good of love and charity is meant is that all the power which truth possesses comes from that good. Therefore also the horns continued from the altar itself or were of one piece with it; for this altar was representative of the Lord, of His hearing and receiving everything of worship that springs from love and charity, 10177.

[2] The statement that all the power which truth possesses comes from the good of love is unintelligible to those who have only a material idea of power, and therefore the nature of that power must be described. In the heavens all power is derived from Divine Truth emanating from the Lord's Divine Good. This is the source of the power angels possess, for angels are recipients of Divine Truth from the Lord, 1752, 4295, 8192. By means of the power which they receive from that source they protect a person by removing the hells from him; for a single angel is stronger than a thousand who come from hell. This power is what Peter's keys serve to mean, though Peter, who in the same place is referred to as a rock, means the Lord in respect of the truth of faith springing from the good of love, see Preface to Genesis 22, and 3750, 4738, 6000, 6073(end), 6344(end), 10087, 'the Rock' being the Lord in respect of the truth of faith, 8581.

[3] The power that Divine Truth possesses is also meant by 'the voice of Jehovah' in David,

The voice of Jehovah is upon the waters; the voice of Jehovah is powerful; the voice of Jehovah breaks the cedars; the voice of Jehovah strikes a flame of fire; the voice of Jehovah causes the wilderness to shake; the voice of Jehovah strips the forests bare; Jehovah gives strength to His people. Psalms 29:3-5, 7-9, 11.

'The voice of Jehovah' is the Divine Truth emanating from His Divine Good, see 9926.

[4] The power that Divine Truth possesses is also meant by 'the Word' in John,

All things were made through the Word, and without Him nothing was made that was made. John 1:3.

'The Word' is the Divine Truth emanating from Divine Good, see 9987. Therefore also the Lord, when He was in the world, first made Himself Divine Truth, which is also meant in John 1:14 by the Word became flesh. The Lord made Himself Divine Truth then to the end that He might fight against all the hells and overcome them, and in so doing might restore all things to order there, and at the same time in the heavens, 9715, 9809, 10019, 10152.

[5] The fact that truths springing from good possess all power, while on the other hand falsities arising from evil have no power, is very well known in the next life. For this reason the evil who come there from the world have their belief, which is no more than persuasion, and also their knowledge of any truth, taken away from them. This then leaves them with the falsities belonging to their evil.

[6] The statement that truths springing from good possess such power is unintelligible to those who have the idea that truth or a belief in truth is no more than mental activity, when yet a person's mental activity, under the control of his will, constitutes all the strength which the body has; and if the Lord were to instill it through His Divine Truth into that body the person would possess the strength of Samson. But yet it is the Lord's good pleasure to impart strength to a person through faith springing from love in the things that belong to his spirit and that contribute to eternal life.

[7] From all this one may see what should be understood by the power of truth springing from good, the power meant by 'the horns' of both the altar of burnt offering and the altar of incense. That this power is meant by 'the horns' is clear from places in the Word where 'horns' are mentioned, as in Ezekiel,

On that day I will make a horn grow up for the house of Israel. Ezekiel 29:21.

In Amos,

Have we not by our own strength taken horns for ourselves? Amos 6:13.

In the first Book of Samuel,

Jehovah will give strength to His king, and exalt the horn of His anointed. 1 Samuel 2:10.

In David,

Jehovah has exalted the horn of His people. Psalms 148:14.

In the same author,

All the horns of the wicked I will cut off; the horns of the righteous will be exalted. Psalms 75:10.

In Jeremiah,

The Lord has cut down in His very fierce anger ¹ the whole horn of Israel. And He has exalted the horn of your foes. Lamentations 2:3, 17.

In Ezekiel,

You push with side and shoulder, and butt with your horns all the weak sheep, until you have scattered them abroad. Ezekiel 34:21.

In Zechariah,

I saw four horns. The angel said, These are the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem. The smiths have come to cast down the horns of the nations lifting up their horn against the land of Judah. Zechariah 1:18-21.

In Moses,

His horns are unicorn horns ² . With these he will strike the peoples together to the ends of the earth. Deuteronomy 33:17.

In these places it is self-evident that power is meant by 'horns', and indeed power in both senses, that is to say, of truth directed against falsity and of falsity directed against truth; for the state of the Church is the subject in the internal sense of every one of these places.

[8] Something similar occurs in Amos,

On that day I will visit the altars of Bethel, and the horns of the altar will be cut away and fall to the ground. Amos 3:14.

'The altars of Bethel' and 'the horns of the altar' mean the evils and falsities destroying the Church's goodness and truth, regarding which it says that they 'will be cut away'.

[9] From all this one may see what should be understood by 'the horns' mentioned so frequently by Daniel, and by John in the Book of Revelation. Daniel describes the beast which had ten horns and also a horn speaking, Daniel 7:8, 11, 20; and he says that the horn was making war with the saints and prevailing, until the Ancient of Days ³ came, Daniel 7:11, 21-22, 24. He also speaks about the horns of the ram and the horns of the he-goat, which they used to make war against each other, Daniel 8:3-21. And John mentions that the dragon had ten horns, Revelation 12:3, as did the beast coming up out of the sea, Revelation 13:1, and also the scarlet beast, Revelation 17:12. In this verse it is also stated that the ten horns are ten kings; and the same words occur in Daniel 7:24. By 'kings' in the Word truths are meant, and in the contrary sense falsities, see 1672, 2015, 2069, 3009, 4575, 4581, 4966, 5044, 5068, 6148.

[10] It is because 'horn' means truth in its power, or in the contrary sense falsity destroying truth, that speech is attributed to a horn in Revelation 9:13; Daniel 7:8; Psalms 22:21.

[11] The anointing of kings with oil from a horn, 1 Samuel 16:1, 13; 1 Kings 1:39, represented truth springing from good, in its power; for truths in their power are meant by 'horns', good by 'oil', and those who are guided by truths springing from good by 'kings'. For the meaning of 'oil' as good, see 886, 9780; and for that of 'kings' as those who are guided by truths springing from good, thus - in the abstract sense - as truths springing from good, 6148. So it is also that in Psalms 132:17 a horn is said to bud, because all spiritual budding is that of truth springing from good. Therefore also in former times they made [imitations of] budding horns.

All power belongs to good and is exercised through truth, or what amounts to the same thing, belongs to truth springing from good, see the places referred to in 10019.

Примітки:

9327. 'I will send My terror before you' means the terror felt, on account of truths springing from good, by those immersed in evils arising from falsity. This is clear from the meaning of 'terror' as the terror felt by those immersed in evils that arise from falsity; and from the meaning of 'the children of Israel', before whom the terror would be sent, as those governed by spiritual good, which is truth springing from good, dealt with in 5803, 5806, 5812, 5817, 5819, 5826, 5833, 7957, 8234, 8805. The nations in the land of Canaan who would feel terror on account of the children of Israel mean evils arising from falsity and falsities arising from evil, see 1413, 1437, 1573, 1574, 1607, 1868, 4517, 6306, 8054, 8317. So it is that 'I will send My terror before you' means the terror felt by those immersed in evils arising from falsity, on account of truths springing from good. The implications of all this are that all power in the spiritual world is provided by truths that spring from good, thus by truths that emanate from the Lord.

[2] This is made perfectly clear by the consideration that the Lord arranges into order all things in heaven and all things in hell, as well as all things in the world, by means of truths coming from Him. For Divine Truth emanating from the Lord is the actual means by which all things are brought into being and by which all things are kept in being. This is incomprehensible to those who think on solely a material level, as those people do who attribute the origin and continued existence of all things to natural forces. These people cannot have any other idea about truths than this, that truths do not possess any power because they are solely objects of thought, and thought is not seen by them to be an essential entity, still less something substantial, ¹ even though they know that thought controls the whole body and causes individual parts to move in exact accord with its own disposition. Nor also do they see that in the whole of creation nothing exists which lacks connection with truth that springs from good. Regarding truth, that it holds all power within it and is a supreme essential entity, see 8200. From all this it is evident that angels possess power which they receive from God's truth that emanates from the Lord, and that this is why they are called 'powers'. As regards the nature of truths that spring from good, that is, of truths coming from the Lord, see my experience involving the arm which corresponds to such truth, spoken of in 4932-4935.

[3] Since all power belongs to truth it follows that no power whatever resides in falsity arising from evil, since it is an absence of truth springing from good, and so is an absence of power. Therefore also those in hell, since all there are steeped in falsities arising from evil, have absolutely no power at all. This being so, thousands of them can be rebuffed, thrown down, and dispelled by a single angel, almost exactly as fluff in the air can be by a puff from the mouth. From this one may see the reason for the terror felt by those steeped in falsities arising from evil on account of truths springing from good. This terror is called 'the terror of God' in Genesis 35:5; Job 13:21; and in Ezekiel,

I will put My terror in the land of the living, when he had been made to lie in the midst of the uncircumcised with those slain by the sword, Pharaoh and all his multitude. Ezekiel 32:32.

And in Moses,

If you despise My statutes, and if your soul abhors My judgements, so that you do not do all My commandments, I will inject dismay into their heart, that the sound of a driven leaf may pursue them, and they may flee, like flight from the sword, and they may fall without [anyone] pursuing. Leviticus 26:15, 36.

This describes the terror experienced by those who despise and reject statutes, judgements, and commandments, thus that felt by those who are immersed in evils arising from falsity and in falsities arising from evil. It says that 'the sound of a leaf will pursue them, and they will flee, like flight from the sword'; and the reason why it says this is that 'a leaf' means truth, 885, and 'the sword' truth engaged in conflict against falsity arising from evil, 2799, 6353, 8294. The fact that those people possess absolutely no power at all against truth is meant by 'they will fall without [anyone] pursuing'.

Примітки: