Apocalypse Revealed#494
494. And if anyone wants to harm them, fire will proceed from their mouth and devour their enemies. (11:5) This symbolically means that anyone who wishes to destroy these two essential elements perishes from a hellish love.
To want to harm the two witnesses means, symbolically, to wish to destroy the two essential elements of the New Church, namely, an acknowledgment of the Lord as being God of heaven and earth even as to His humanity, and a life in accordance with the Ten Commandments. To be shown that these are the two witnesses, see no. 490 above.
Fire's proceeding from their mouth means, symbolically, that hellish love will do so; and its devouring their enemies means, symbolically, that those who harm them will perish because of it. Here, however, it is not to be supposed that fire will issue from the mouth of the witnesses, but that it will do so from people who wish to destroy these two essential elements of the New Church, meant by the two witnesses (no. 490). The fire is the fire of hell; for people who do not live according to the Ten Commandments, and who do not turn to God, their Savior and Redeemer, cannot help but be caught up in a hellish love and perish.
[2] The case is the same as elsewhere in the Word where we are told that Jehovah sends fire that consumes the wicked, or that Jehovah does other things like that out of the fire of His wrath, anger, or fury, which mean not that they come from Jehovah, but that they do so from the hellish love of the wicked.
We read of instances like that in the Word because that is how they appear, and the Word in its literal sense was composed in terms of appearances and things that correspond.
Since we are told that fire proceeded from their mouth, and this means that it originated from people caught up in a hellish love, we will cite some passages where fire is said to issue from Jehovah:
The breath of Jehovah, like a stream of brimstone, will consume it. (Isaiah 30:33)
Smoke went up from His nostrils, and fire from His mouth...; coals were kindled by it. (Psalms 18:8)
(I will) pour out on them... the wrath of My anger; for all the earth shall be devoured in the fire of My zeal. (Zephaniah 3:8)
...behold, Jehovah will come with fire... for retribution in the wrath of His anger, and His rebuke in flames of fire. (Isaiah 66:15)
You will be visited by Jehovah... with the flame of devouring fire. (Isaiah 29:6, cf. 30:30)
And so on in many places elsewhere.
Apocalypse Revealed#43
43. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands. This symbolizes a new church, which will have an enlightenment from the Lord from the Word.
We are told in the last verse of this chapter that the seven lampstands are the seven churches, and it may be seen in no. 10 above that the seven churches mean all in the Christian world who turn to the church - and this in every case according to each one's state of reception (no. 41).
The seven lampstands mean a new church because the Lord is in it and in the midst of it. For we are told that in the midst of the seven lampstands John saw one like the Son of Man, and the Son of Man means the Lord in relation to the Word.
The lampstands appeared golden, because gold symbolizes goodness, and every church is a church by virtue of the goodness that is formed through truths. That gold symbolizes goodness will be seen in subsequent explanations.
[2] These lampstands were not next to one another or placed so as to touch each other, but stood at some intervals forming a kind of circle, as it apparent from this statement in the following chapter,
These things says He who... walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands. (Revelation 2:1)
We are not told anything about the lamps on the lampstands, but later it is said that the Holy Jerusalem, which is to say, the New Church, "has no need of the sun or of the moon," because "its lamp is the Lamb, and the nations that are saved shall walk in its light" (Revelation 21:23-24). And furthermore,
They need no lamp..., for the Lord God gives them light. (Revelation 22:5)
For those people who will be constituents of the Lord's New Church are the only "lampstands" that will shine with light from the Lord.
[3] The golden lampstand in the Tabernacle represented nothing else than the church in relation to its enlightenment by the Lord. Regarding this lampstand, see Exodus 25:31-40; 37:17-24; 26:35, Numbers 8:2-4. That it represented the Lord's church as to Divine spiritual love, which is love for the neighbor, see Arcana Coelestia (The Secrets of Heaven), nos. 9548, 9555, 9558, 9561, 9570, 9783. See also no. 493 below.
The lampstand in Zechariah 4 also symbolizes a new church to be established by the Lord, since it symbolizes a new house of God or temple, as is apparent from what follows there; and a house of God or temple symbolizes the church, and in the highest sense, the Lord's Divine humanity, as He Himself teaches in John 2:19-21, 1 and elsewhere.
But we will say what in turn is symbolically meant in Zechariah 4, when the lampstand appeared to him:
The particulars contained in verses 1-7 symbolize the Lord's enlightenment of a new church from the goodness of love by means of truth. The olive trees there symbolize the church in regard to the goodness of love.
The particulars from 8-10 verse there mean, symbolically, that the enlightenment comes from the Lord. Zerubbabel there, who is to build the house, thus the church, represents the Lord.
The particulars from verse 11-14 mean, symbolically, that that the church will also have in it truths from a heavenly origin.
This explanation of that chapter was given to me by the Lord through heaven.
脚注:
1. Jesus answered and said to them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." Then the Jews said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?" But He was speaking of the temple of His body.
