Spiritual Meaning of REVELATION 7:8
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AR 359
. Verse 8. Of the tribe of Zebulon were sealed twelve thousand, signifies the conjugial love of good and truth also with those who will be of the Lord‘s New Heaven and New Church. By "Zebulon," in the highest sense, is signified the union of the Divine Itself and the Divine Human in the Lord; in the spiritual sense, the marriage of good and truth with those who are in heaven and in the church; and, in the natural sense, conjugial love itself; therefore here, by "Zebulon" is signified the conjugial love of good and truth; he was also named from cohabitation (Genesis 30:19, 22); and cohabitation is predicated of married partners whose minds are joined into one, for such conjunction is spiritual cohabitation. The conjugial love of good and truth, which is here signified by "Zebulon," is the conjugial love of the Lord and the church. The Lord is the good of love itself, and gives to the church to be truth from that good; and cohabitation is effected, when the man of the church receives good from the Lord in truths. In this case the marriage of good and truth takes place with man, which is the church itself, and he becomes a heaven. Hence it is that the kingdom of God, that is, heaven and the church, is so often compared in the Word to a marriage.
AR 360
. Of the tribe of Joseph were sealed twelve thousand, signifies the doctrine of good and truth with those who will be of the Lord’s New Heaven and New Church. By "Joseph" is signified the Lord as to the spiritual Divine, in the spiritual sense, the spiritual kingdom; and, in the natural sense, fructification and multiplication; but by "Joseph" is here signified the doctrine of good and truth, which is with those who are in the Lord‘s spiritual kingdom. Joseph here has this signification, because he is named after the tribe of Zebulon, and before the tribe of Benjamin, thus in the middle; and the tribe which is first named in a series or class, signifies some love which is of the will; and the tribe which is named after it signifies something of wisdom which is of the understanding; and the tribe which is named last signifies some use or effect derived from them. Thus each series is full. As Joseph signifies the Lord’s spiritual kingdom, therefore he was made ruler in Egypt (Genesis 41:38-44; Psalms 105:17-22); where each particular signifies such things as are of the Lord‘s spiritual kingdom. The spiritual kingdom is the Lord’s royalty; and the celestial kingdom is His priesthood. "Joseph," here signifies the doctrine of good and truth, because he is here in the place of Ephraim; and by "Ephraim" is signified the intellectual of the church; see The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem concerning the Sacred Scripture (Sacred n. 79); and the intellectual of the church is all from the doctrine of good and truth from the Word. The reason why Joseph is here in the place of Ephraim, is because Manasseh, who was Joseph‘s other son, and signified the voluntary of the church, was before reckoned among the tribes (n. 355). The intellectual of the church being derived from the doctrine of good and truth, therefore that intellectual, and also that doctrine, are signified by "Joseph" in the following passages:--
Joseph is the son of a fruitful one, even a fruitful one near a fountain; in the strength of his bow he shall sit; he shall be blessed with the blessings of heaven from above, and with the blessings of the deep that lieth below (Gen. 49:22-26).
"A fountain" signifies the Word, and "a bow" doctrine (n. 299).
Blessed of Jehovah is the land of Joseph, for the precious things of heaven, for the dew, and for the deep lying below; and for the precious things of the products of the sun, and for the precious things of the products of the moons, and for the precious things of the earth and its fulness; let it come upon the head of Joseph (Deut. 33:13-17).
By "the precious things" are signified the knowledges of good and truth, from which is doctrine:--
Who drink from bowls of wine, and are not grieved for the breaking of Joseph (Amos 6:6).
And I will make the house of Judah powerful, and I will save the house of Joseph; and they shall be like mighty Ephraim, and their heart shall rejoice as through wine (Zech. 10:6, 7).
Here also "Joseph" signifies doctrine, and "wine," the truth of it from good (n. 316).
AR 361
. Of the tribe of Benjamin were sealed twelve thousand, signifies the life of truth from good according to doctrine, with those who will be in the Lord’s New Heaven and New Church. When by "Zebulon" is signified the conjugial love of good and truth; and by "Joseph," the doctrine of good and truth; then by "Benjamin" because he is third in the series, is signified the life of truth from good. Benjamin has this signification, because he was born last, and was called by his father Jacob, "the son of his right hand" (Gen. 35:18), and by the son of the right hand is signified truth from good; therefore also his tribe dwelt round about Jerusalem, where the tribe of Judah was, and the city of Jerusalem signified the church as to doctrine, and its environs the things which are from doctrine; (Joshua 18:11-28; Jeremiah 17:26; 32:8, 44; 33:13).
AR 362
. In the enumeration of the tribes of Israel neither Dan nor Ephraim is named; the reason is, because Dan was the last of the tribes, and his tribe dwelt in the most remote part of the land of Canaan, and thus could not signify anything in the Lord‘s New Heaven and New Church, where there will be only celestial and spiritual things; wherefore Manasseh is put in the place of Dan, while Joseph is put in the place of Ephraim; see in (n. 360).
REVELATION 7:8
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