Apocalypse Revealed#897
897. 21:11 Having the glory of God, and its light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, bright as crystal. This symbolically means that in that church the Word will be understood, because its spiritual sense will come shining through.
The glory of God symbolizes the Word in its Divine light, as will be seen next. Its light symbolizes the Divine truth in it, for this is the meaning of light in the Word (no. 796). "Like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, bright as crystal," symbolizes the Word shining and translucent because of its spiritual sense, as will also be seen next.
These words describe the understanding of the Word among people who possess the doctrine of the New Jerusalem and live in accordance with it. In their case the Word seems to shine when they read it. It shines because of the Lord's presence in the midst of the spiritual sense, because the Lord embodies the Word, and the spiritual sense exists in the light of heaven that emanates from the Lord as its sun. Moreover, the light that emanates from the Lord as a sun is in its essence the Divine truth of His Divine wisdom.
Every single thing in the Word contains a spiritual meaning, which angels see and from which they have their wisdom, and the light of that spiritual sense comes shining through with people who possess genuine truths from the Lord, as we showed in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Sacred Scripture.
[2] That the glory of God means the Word in its Divine light can be seen from the following passage:
The Word became flesh..., and we beheld His glory, the glory as though of the only begotten of the Father... (John 1:14)
That the glory is the glory of the Word, or the Divine truth in the Lord, is plain, since it says, "The Word became flesh."
Glory has the same meaning in verse 23 below, where it says, "the glory of God illuminated it, and the Lamb is its lamp" (Revelation 21:23).
The same is meant by the glory in which people will see the Son of Man when He comes in the clouds of heaven (Matthew 24:30, Mark 13:26). See nos. 22, 642, 820 above.
Nor is anything else meant by the throne of glory on which the Lord will sit when He comes to execute the Last Judgment (Matthew 25:31), because He will judge everyone in accordance with the Word's truths. Therefore we are told as well that He will come in His glory.
We are, moreover, told that after the Lord was transfigured, Moses and Elijah appeared in glory (Luke 9:30-31). Moses and Elijah there symbolize the Word. The Lord Himself also then caused Himself to appear to the disciples as the Word in its glory.
To be shown that glory symbolizes Divine truth, more citations from the Word may be seen in no. 629 above.
[3] The Word is likened to a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, bright as crystal, because a precious stone symbolizes the Divine truth in the Word (nos. 231, 540, 726, 823), and a jasper stone symbolizes the Divine truth in the spiritual sense shining through the Divine truth in the literal sense. This is the symbolic meaning of jasper stone in Exodus 28:20, Ezekiel 28:13, and in the following verses in the present chapter, where we are told that the construction of the wall of the holy Jerusalem was of jasper (verse 18). Moreover, because the Word's spiritual sense shines through in its literal sense, we are told that the jasper stone was as bright as crystal. All enlightenment that people have who possess Divine truths from the Lord comes from that.
Apocalypse Revealed#628
628. 14:7 Saying with a loud voice, "Fear God." This symbolizes an admonition not to do evil, because it is to act against the Lord.
A loud voice symbolizes an admonition, and to fear God means, symbolically, not to do evil, because it is to act against the Lord. To fear God is to love Him, fearing to do evil because it is to act against Him - every love having this fear within it - as may be seen in no. 527 above.
This admonition is addressed now to people who will belong to the new church on earth, because the first step in reformation is to live according to the Ten Commandments, where the evils that are not to be done are listed. For anyone who does those evils does not fear God. But someone who does not do them, refraining from them because they are acts against God - such a one does fear God, and also loves the Lord, as the Lord Himself teaches in John 14:20-24. 1
脚注:
1. "At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him." Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, "Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?" Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father's who sent Me."
