22
Ο Ιωσηφ, κλαδος καρποφορος, κλαδος καρποφορος πλησιον πηγης, του οποιου οι βλαστοι εκτεινονται επι του τοιχου·
Γένεση第49章:22
Apocalypse Revealed#20
20. And makes us kings and priests. (1:6) This symbolically means, who grants those who are born from Him, that is, who are reborn or regenerated, to be governed by wisdom from Divine truths, and by love from Divine goods.
People know that in the Word the Lord is called a king and also a priest. He is called a king owing to His Divine wisdom, and a priest owing to His Divine love. People who are governed by wisdom from the Lord are consequently called children of the king, and also kings, while people who are governed by love from Him are called ministers and priests. For the wisdom and the love in them do not originate from them, and so are not theirs but the Lord's. It is these people who are therefore meant in the Word by kings and priests. Not that they are kings and priests, but that they have the Lord in them, and He causes them to be termed such.
Such people are called also children born of Him, children of the kingdom, children of the Father, and heirs - children born of Him in John 1:12-13ff.), children of the kingdom in Matthew 8:12; 13:38, children of their Father in heaven in Matthew 5:45, and heirs in Psalms 127:3, 1 Samuel 2:8, Matthew 25:34. And being heirs, children of the kingdom, and children born of the Lord as their Father, they are therefore called kings and priests. Moreover, in Revelation 3:21 it is also said that they will sit with the Lord on His throne.
[2] The whole of heaven has been divided into two kingdoms - the spiritual kingdom and the celestial kingdom. The spiritual kingdom is what is called the Lord's kingship, and because all who are in it are governed by wisdom founded on truths, therefore it is they who are meant by the kings that the Lord will make those people who are governed by wisdom from Him. The celestial kingdom, on the other hand, is what is called the Lord's priesthood, and because all who are in it are governed by love arising from goodness, therefore it is they who are meant by the priests that the Lord will make those people who are governed by love from Him. The Lord's church on earth is likewise divided into two kingdoms. Regarding these two kingdoms, see nos. 24, 226 in the book Heaven and Hell, published in London, 1758.
[3] Someone who does not know the spiritual meaning of kings and priests may be deluded in regard to many things said in the prophets and in the book of Revelation about them. For example, in regard to these statements in the prophets:
The sons of foreigners shall build up your walls, and their kings shall minister to you... You shall suck the milk of gentiles, even the breasts of kings you shall suck, that you may know that I, Jehovah, am your Savior and your Redeemer... (Isaiah 60:10, 16)
Kings shall be your foster fathers, and their princesses your wet nurses. (Isaiah 49:23)
Also elsewhere, as in Genesis 49:20; Psalms 2:10; Isaiah 14:9; 24:21; 52:15; Jeremiah 2:26; 4:9; 49:3; Lamentations 2:6, 9; Ezekiel 7:26-27; Hosea 3:4; Zephaniah 1:8. Kings there do not mean kings, but people who are governed by Divine truths from the Lord, and abstractly, Divine truths themselves, from which comes wisdom.
"The king of the south" and "the king of the north" who waged war with each other in Daniel 11 do not mean kings either, but the king of the south means people who are governed by truths, and the king of the north people who are caught up in falsities.
[4] Likewise in the book of Revelation, which many times mentions kings, as in the following passages:
The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, so that the way of the kings from the rising of the sun might be prepared. (Revelation 16:12)
(With) the great harlot who sits on many waters... the kings of the earth committed whoredom... (Revelation 17:1-2)
...of the wine of the wrath of (Babylon's) whoredom all the nations have drunk, and the kings of the earth have committed whoredom with her... (Revelation 18:3)
And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war with Him who sat on the (white) horse... (Revelation 19:19)
And the nations that are saved shall walk in His light, and the kings of the earth shall bring their glory and honor into (the New Jerusalem). (Revelation 21:24)
Elsewhere also, as in Revelation 16:14; 17:9-14; 18:9-10. The kings there means people who are governed by truths, and in an opposite sense, people caught up in falsities, and abstractly, truths or falsities themselves. The whoredom of Babylon with the kings of the earth means the falsification of the truth of the church. Obviously Babylon, or the woman who sat on the scarlet beast, did not commit whoredom with kings, but rather falsified truths of the Word.
[5] It is apparent from this that the Lord's going to make people who are wise from Him kings does not mean that they will be kings, but that they will be wise. The reality of this is also something that enlightened reason sees.
Likewise in the following:
You have made us kings and priests to our God, that we may reign on the earth. (Revelation 5:10)
That by king the Lord meant truth is apparent from His words to Pilate:
Pilate... said to Him, "Are You a king then?"
Jesus answered, "As you have said, because I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice."
Pilate said to Him, "What is truth?" (John 18:27, 38)
To bear witness to the truth is to be Himself the embodiment of truth. And because He called Himself a king by virtue of it, Pilate said, "What is truth?" - which is to say, "Is truth a king?
As for priests, we will see in later explanations that they symbolize people who are governed by the goodness of love, and abstractly, goods of love themselves.
Ezekiel第7章
1
Moreover the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,
2
You, son of man, thus says the Lord Yahweh to the land of Israel, An end: the end is come on the four corners of the land.
3
Now is the end on you, and I will send my anger on you, and will judge you according to your ways; and I will bring on you all your abominations.
4
My eye shall not spare you, neither will I have pity; but I will bring your ways on you, and your abominations shall be in the midst of you: and you shall know that I am Yahweh.
5
Thus says the Lord Yahweh: An evil, an only evil; behold, it comes.
6
An end has come, the end has come; it awakes against you; behold, it comes.
7
Your doom has come to you, inhabitant of the land: the time has come, the day is near, [a day of] tumult, and not [of] joyful shouting, on the mountains.
8
Now will I shortly pour out my wrath on you, and accomplish my anger against you, and will judge you according to your ways; and I will bring on you all your abominations.
9
My eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: I will bring on you according to your ways; and your abominations shall be in the midst of you; and you shall know that I, Yahweh, do strike.
10
Behold, the day, behold, it comes: your doom is gone forth; the rod has blossomed, pride has budded.
11
Violence is risen up into a rod of wickedness; none of them [shall remain], nor of their multitude, nor of their wealth: neither shall there be eminency among them.
12
The time is come, the day draws near: don't let the buyer rejoice, nor the seller mourn; for wrath is on all its multitude.
13
For the seller shall not return to that which is sold, although they be yet alive: for the vision is touching the whole multitude of it, none shall return; neither shall any strengthen himself in the iniquity of his life.
14
They have blown the trumpet, and have made all ready; but none goes to the battle; for my wrath is on all its multitude.
15
The sword is outside, and the pestilence and the famine within: he who is in the field shall die with the sword: and he who is in the city, famine and pestilence shall devour him.
16
But those of those who escape shall escape, and shall be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them moaning, every one in his iniquity.
17
All hands shall be feeble, and all knees shall be weak as water.
18
They shall also clothe themselves with sackcloth, and horror shall cover them; and shame shall be on all faces, and baldness on all their heads.
19
They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be as an unclean thing; their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of Yahweh: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels; because it has been the stumbling block of their iniquity.
20
As for the beauty of his ornament, he set it in majesty; but they made the images of their abominations [and] their detestable things therein: therefore have I made it to them as an unclean thing.
21
I will give it into the hands of the strangers for a prey, and to the wicked of the earth for a spoil; and they shall profane it.
22
My face will I turn also from them, and they shall profane my secret [place]; and robbers shall enter into it, and profane it.
23
Make the chain; for the land is full of bloody crimes, and the city is full of violence.
24
Therefore I will bring the worst of the nations, and they shall possess their houses: I will also make the pride of the strong to cease; and their holy places shall be profaned.
25
Destruction comes; and they shall seek peace, and there shall be none.
26
Mischief shall come on mischief, and rumor shall be on rumor; and they shall seek a vision of the prophet; but the law shall perish from the priest, and counsel from the elders.
27
The king shall mourn, and the prince shall be clothed with desolation, and the hands of the people of the land shall be troubled: I will do to them after their way, and according to their own judgments will I judge them; and they shall know that I am Yahweh.
