以利亚(在新约中被称为以利亚)是著名的先知,被派往分裂的以色列王国和犹大王国. 他的第一次出现是在《列王纪》第17章,他来到以色列国王亚哈面前说话. 他与亚哈和亚哈的妻子耶洗别,以及后来亚哈的儿子亚哈谢争论. 这些争论在许多众所周知的故事中传给了我们. 在《列王纪》第二章中,以利亚被火车抬上天,他的衣钵交给了他的弟子和继承人以利沙.

以利亚代表了主在圣言中来到我们身边,也就是我们在阅读圣言(尤其是圣言中的预言部分)时对主的思考方式. 以利亚与施洗者约翰有类似的代表.

(参考: 属天的奥秘5247 [6], 6752, 9372 [2])

8367. 'And they came to Elim' means a state of enlightenment and affection, and so a state of comfort after temptation. This is clear from the meaning of 'Elim'; as with all the other places to which the children of Israel came, it embodies and has as its meaning the state and essential nature of the reality to which it refers, see 2643, 3422, 4298, 4442. In this instance a state after temptation is meant, which is a state of enlightenment and affection, and so of comfort. Every spiritual temptation is followed by enlightenment and affection, and so by feelings of pleasure and delight, pleasure as a result of enlightenment through truth, delight as a result of affection for good.

[2] For the fact that comfort follows temptations, see 4572, 5246, 5628, 6829; and the reason why is that through temptations truths and forms of good are instilled and linked together, as a result of which inwardly, as to his spirit, a person is brought into heaven and to heavenly communities among which he has not been before. Once a temptation is completed, contact with heaven, contact which previously was partially shut off, is opened up. Enlightenment and affection, and consequently pleasure and delight, result from this, because the angels with whom he is now in contact enter in by means of truth and by means of good. The enlightenment through truth and the pleasure this gives are meant by 'twelve springs of water', since truths are meant by 'springs'; and an affection for truth arising from good and the delight this affords are meant by 'seventy palm trees', spoken of in what comes next.