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Apocalypse Revealed #241
241. The first living creature was like a lion. (4:7) This symbolizes the Divine truth of the Word in respect to its power.
A lion symbolizes truth in its power, here the Divine truth of the Word in respect to its power, as can be seen from the power of the lion, which surpasses that of every other animal on the earth. It can be seen as well from lions in the spiritual world and the fact that they are images representative of the power of Divine truth. And it can be seen, too, from the Word, in which lions symbolize Divine truth in its power. The nature of the power of Divine truth in the Word may be seen in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Sacred Scripture 49, and in the book Heaven and Hell, nos. 228-233.
So it is that Jehovah or the Lord is likened to a lion, and also called a lion, as in the following passages:
A lion has roared! Who does not fear? The Lord Jehovih has spoken! Who does not prophesy? (Amos 3:8)
I will not turn back to destroy Ephraim... They shall walk after Jehovah. He roars like a lion. (Hosea 11:9-10)
As a lion roars, and a young lion..., so Jehovah... will come down to fight upon Mount Zion... (Isaiah 31:4)
Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed... (Revelation 5:5)
Judah is a lion's whelp... He bowed down, he lay down... as an old lion. Who rouses him? (Genesis 49:9)
[2] A lion in these passages describes the power of the Divine truth emanating from the Lord. Roaring symbolizes His speaking and acting with power against the hells, which try to carry off a person as a lion does its prey, but from which the Lord rescues him. To bow down means to put Himself into a condition of power. Judah, in the highest sense, symbolizes the Lord (nos. 96, 266).
(The angel) cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roars. (Revelation 10:3)
He bows down, he lies down... as an old lion. Who rouses him? (Numbers 24:9)
Lo, the people rises like an old lion, and like a young lion lifts itself up. (Numbers 23:24)
This last declaration is said of Israel, which symbolizes the church, whose power, which lies in Divine truths, is thus described.
So likewise:
The remnant of Jacob shall be... in the midst of... peoples, like a lion among the beasts of the forest, like a young lion among flocks of sheep... (Micah 5:7-8)
And so on in many other places, as in Isaiah 11:6; 21:6-9; 35:9; Jeremiah 2:15; 4:7; 5:6; 12:8; 50:17; 51:38; Ezekiel 19:3, 5-6; Deuteronomy 33:20.
Numbers 23
1
Balaam said to Balak, "Build me here seven altars, and prepare me here seven bulls and seven rams."
2
Balak did as Balaam had spoken; and Balak and Balaam offered on every altar a bull and a ram.
3
Balaam said to Balak, "Stand by your burnt offering, and I will go: perhaps Yahweh will come to meet me; and whatever he shows me I will tell you." He went to a bare height.
4
God met Balaam: and he said to him, "I have prepared the seven altars, and I have offered up a bull and a ram on every altar."
5
Yahweh put a word in Balaam's mouth, and said, "Return to Balak, and thus you shall speak."
6
He returned to him, and behold, he was standing by his burnt offering, he, and all the princes of Moab.
7
He took up his parable, and said, "From Aram has Balak brought me, the king of Moab from the mountains of the East. Come, curse Jacob for me. Come, defy Israel.
8
How shall I curse whom God has not cursed? How shall I defy whom Yahweh has not defied?
9
For from the top of the rocks I see him. From the hills I see him. Behold, it is a people that dwells alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations.
10
Who can count the dust of Jacob, or number the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous! Let my last end be like his!"
11
Balak said to Balaam, "What have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, and behold, you have blessed them altogether."
12
He answered and said, "Must I not take heed to speak that which Yahweh puts in my mouth?"
13
Balak said to him, "Please come with me to another place, where you may see them; you shall see but the utmost part of them, and shall not see them all: and curse me them from there."
14
He took him into the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, and built seven altars, and offered up a bull and a ram on every altar.
15
He said to Balak, "Stand here by your burnt offering, while I meet [Yahweh] yonder."
16
Yahweh met Balaam, and put a word in his mouth, and said, "Return to Balak, and say this."
17
He came to him, and behold, he was standing by his burnt offering, and the princes of Moab with him. Balak said to him, "What has Yahweh spoken?"
18
He took up his parable, and said, "Rise up, Balak, and hear! Listen to me, you son of Zippor.
19
God is not a man, that he should lie, nor the son of man, that he should repent. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not make it good?
20
Behold, I have received a command to bless. He has blessed, and I can't reverse it.
21
He has not seen iniquity in Jacob. Neither has he seen perverseness in Israel. Yahweh his God is with him. The shout of a king is among them.
22
God brings them out of Egypt. He has as it were the strength of the wild ox.
23
Surely there is no enchantment with Jacob; Neither is there any divination with Israel. Now it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, What has God done!
24
Behold, the people rises up as a lioness, As a lion he lifts himself up. He shall not lie down until he eat of the prey, and drinks the blood of the slain."
25
Balak said to Balaam, "Neither curse them at all, nor bless them at all."
26
But Balaam answered Balak, "Didn't I tell you, saying, 'All that Yahweh speaks, that I must do?'"
27
Balak said to Balaam, "Come now, I will take you to another place; perhaps it will please God that you may curse me them from there."
28
Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, that looks down on the desert.
29
Balaam said to Balak, "Build me here seven altars, and prepare me here seven bulls and seven rams."
30
Balak did as Balaam had said, and offered up a bull and a ram on every altar.
