spiritual meaning cannot help believing that those actual things are what
is meant. They do not know that a garden, a grove, and a forest mean
wisdom, intelligence, and knowledge; an olive, a grapevine, a cedar, a
poplar, and an oak mean the heavenly, the spiritual, the rational, the
earthly, and the sensory forms of good and truth in the church. A lamb, a
sheep, a goat, a calf, and an ox mean innocence, goodwill, and earthly
feelings. Mountains, hills, and valleys mean the higher, the lower, and the
lowest aspects of the church. [ 3 ] Egypt means scholarly study; Assyria,
our rational faculty; Edom, our earthly aspect. Moab means the contam-
ination of what is good; the children of Ammon mean the contamina-
tion of what is true. The Philistines mean faith without goodwill; Tyre
and Sidon mean our concepts of goodness and truth; and Gog means
external worship that lacks anything deeper. Generally speaking, Jacob in
the Word means the earthly aspect of the church, Israel means the spiri-
tual aspect of the church, and Judah means the heavenly aspect of the
church.
When we know all this, we are able to think that the Word deals only
with heavenly topics, and the worldly details in it are only outer things
that have heavenly things inside them.
[ 4 ] Let us take an example from the Word as an illustration: We read
in Isaiah,
On that day there will be a pathway from Egypt into Assyria so that
Assyria can go into Egypt and Egypt into Assyria. The Egyptians will
serve with Assyria. On that day Israel will be part of a group of three
with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the middle of the land. Jehovah
Sabaoth will bless that group of three, saying, “Blessed be my people
Egypt, and Assyria, the work of my hands, and Israel, my blessing.”
(Isaiah 19 : 23 , 24 , 25 )
Spiritually these words mean that when the Lord’s coming occurs,
scholarly study, rationality, and spirituality are going to become one. Schol-
arly study will then serve rationality, and both of them will serve spiritu-
ality. (As I have said, Egypt means scholarly study, Assyria means
rationality, and Israel means spirituality.) The “day” being named twice
means the Lord’s First Coming and his Second Coming.
4. The spiritual meaning of the Word has been unknown until now.All 201
things that exist in the material world correspond to something spiritual;
likewise all things that exist in the human body, as I have shown in the
§201 sacred scripture 281