Apocalypse Revealed#672
672. 15:7 Then one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls. This symbolizes the truths and goods by which evils and falsities in the church are exposed, drawn from the literal sense of the Word.
The four living creatures, being cherubim, symbolize the Word in its outmost expressions, and protections to keep its genuine truths and goods from being violated, as may be seen in no. 239 above. And because the interior truths and goods in the Word are protected by its literal meaning, therefore that meaning of the Word is symbolized by one of the four living creatures.
The seven bowls have the same symbolic meaning as the seven plagues, for the bowls are vessels, and vessels in the Word have the same symbolic meaning as their contents. So for example, a cup has the same symbolic meaning as the wine in it, and a dish the same symbolic meaning as the food. That cups, goblets, bowls, plates and saucers have the same symbolic meaning as their contents may be seen from the passages that follow after this.
We have already said what the seven angels symbolize above.
The angels were given the bowls because the subject is the influx of truth and goodness into the church in order to expose its evils and falsities, and naked goods and truths cannot flow in, as they are not accepted, but truths clothed can, such as are found in the literal sense of the Word. Moreover, the Lord also operates always from inmost elements through outmost ones, or in fullness. This is the reason the angels were given bowls, which symbolize containing truths and goods such as constitute the Word's literal sense, by which falsities and evils are exposed.
That the literal sense of the Word is a containing vessel may be seen in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Sacred Scripture, 27-36nos. and 37-49.
[2] That bowls, saucers, cups and goblets, and also wineskins, have the same symbolic meaning as the things they contain can be seen from the following passages:
(Jehovah said,) "Take this... cup of wrath from My hand, and cause all the nations... to drink... ...when they refuse to take the cup..., then you shall say to them, '...You shall surely drink!'" (Jeremiah 25:15-16, 28)
Babylon was a golden cup in Jehovah's hand, that made all the earth drunk. (Jeremiah 51:7)
...I will put (your sister's) cup in your hand... You will be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, with the cup of... devastation, the cup of your sister Samaria. (Ezekiel 23:31-34)
The cup of... Jehovah will come around to you, that there may be vomit on your glory. (Habakkuk 2:16)
...O daughter of Edom...; the cup shall also pass over to you; you shall be drunk and laid bare. (Lamentations 4:21)
Upon the wicked (Jehovah) will rain... stormy winds, the portion of their cup. (Psalms 11:6)
...in the hand of Jehovah there is a cup, and He has mixed it with wine; He has filled it with the mixed wine and poured it out; ...all the wicked of the earth shall drink... (Psalms 75:8)
(Those who worship the beast) shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed with pure wine in the cup of His indignation. (Revelation 14:10)
Awake...! Arise, O Jerusalem, who have drunk from the hand of Jehovah the cup of His wrath; You have drunk the dregs of the cup of trembling... (Isaiah 51:17)
The woman... having in her hand a golden chalice full of abominations and the filthiness of her licentiousness. (Revelation 17:4)
...repay her double...; in the cup in which she has mixed, mix double for her. (Revelation 18:6)
...I am making Jerusalem a cup of trembling to all the surrounding peoples... (Zechariah 12:2)
Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup..., that the outside of them may be clean also. (Matthew 23:25-26, cf. Luke 11:39)
Jesus... said (to the sons of Zebedee), ."..Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink....?" (Matthew 20:22-23)
...Jesus said to Peter, ."..Shall I not drink the cup which My Father has given Me?" (John 18:11)
(In Gethsemane Jesus said,) ."..if it be possible, let this cup pass from me." (Matthew 26:39, 42, 44)
(Jesus) taking the cup, ...gave it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you. This is My blood, the blood of the new covenant...." (Matthew 26:27-28, Luke 22:17)
O Jehovah, You are... my cup, You uphold my lot. (Psalms 16:5)
You will prepare a table before me...; my cup shall overflow. (Psalms 23:5)
What shall I render to Jehovah...? I will take the cup of salvation... (Psalms 116:12-13)
...the cup of consolation to drink... (Jeremiah 16:7)
A bowl has the same symbolic meaning as a cup or chalice, and so also does a wineskin (Matthew 9:17; Luke 5:37-38; Jeremiah 13:12; 48:12; Habakkuk 2:15).
Bowls, censers and thuribles containing incense have the same symbolic meaning as incense. Vessels of every kind in general have the same symbolic meaning as the things they contain.
Habakkuk第2章
1
I will stand at my watch, and set myself on the ramparts, and will look out to see what he will say to me, and what I will answer concerning my complaint.
2
Yahweh answered me, "Write the vision, and make it plain on tablets, that he who runs may read it.
3
For the vision is yet for the appointed time, and it hurries toward the end, and won't prove false. Though it takes time, wait for it; because it will surely come. It won't delay.
4
Behold, his soul is puffed up. It is not upright in him, but the righteous will live by his faith.
5
Yes, moreover, wine is treacherous. A haughty man who doesn't stay at home, who enlarges his desire as Sheol, and he is like death, and can't be satisfied, but gathers to himself all nations, and heaps to himself all peoples.
6
Won't all these take up a parable against him, and a taunting proverb against him, and say, 'Woe to him who increases that which is not his, and who enriches himself by extortion! How long?'
7
Won't your debtors rise up suddenly, and wake up those who make you tremble, and you will be their victim?
8
Because you have plundered many nations, all the remnant of the peoples will plunder you, because of men's blood, and for the violence done to the land, to the city and to all who dwell in it.
9
Woe to him who gets an evil gain for his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the hand of evil!
10
You have devised shame to your house, by cutting off many peoples, and have sinned against your soul.
11
For the stone will cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the woodwork will answer it.
12
Woe to him who builds a town with blood, and establishes a city by iniquity!
13
Behold, isn't it of Yahweh of Armies that the peoples labor for the fire, and the nations weary themselves for vanity?
14
For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of Yahweh, as the waters cover the sea.
15
"Woe to him who gives his neighbor drink, pouring your inflaming wine until they are drunk, so that you may gaze at their naked bodies!
16
You are filled with shame, and not glory. You will also drink, and be exposed! The cup of Yahweh's right hand will come around to you, and disgrace will cover your glory.
17
For the violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you, and the destruction of the animals, which made them afraid; because of men's blood, and for the violence done to the land, to every city and to those who dwell in them.
18
"What value does the engraved image have, that its maker has engraved it; the molten image, even the teacher of lies, that he who fashions its form trusts in it, to make mute idols?
19
Woe to him who says to the wood, 'Awake!' or to the mute stone, 'Arise!' Shall this teach? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in its midst.
20
But Yahweh is in his holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before him!"
