do not search it for genuine truths to believe and genuinely good ways to
live are like people who know from reading newspapers that there are
astounding treasures in those other lands, but they themselves do not get
a penny from those treasures.
People who own the Word but do not receive from it any under-
standing of genuine truth or any willingness to do genuine good are like
people who think they are rich because they have borrowed money from
others or who think themselves well off because they include in their
reckoning other people’s properties, houses, and possessions, which as
anyone can see is not their wealth. They are also like people who parade
around in magnificent clothing and ride in gilded carriages with atten-
dants on the back and sides, and with heralds running out in front, but
not a bit of this magnificence belongs to them.246 The Jewish nation used to be like this. Because it possessed the Word,
the Lord compared it to a rich man who wore purple and fine linen and
gloriously indulged himself every day, but did not get enough truth or
good out of the Word even to show compassion to poor Lazarus, covered
with sores, who was lying in front of his door [Luke 16 : 19 , 20 ]. The mem-
bers of that nation not only failed to assimilate any truths from the Word,
but they assimilated falsities in such quantities that in the long run noth-
ing true was apparent to them. Falsities do not simply cover up truths;
they obliterate and annihilate them. This was why the Jews did not
acknowledge the Messiah even though all the prophets had announced
his coming.
247 Many passages in the Prophets show that the church among the
Israelite and Jewish nation was completely destroyed and was no longer a
church because its members had falsified the meaning, or their under-
standing, of the Word. Nothing else destroys a church.
In the Prophets, especially in Hosea, the name “Ephraim” stands for
an understanding of the Word, whether true or false. Throughout the
Word, in fact, “Ephraim” means the church’s understanding of the Word.
Because an understanding of the Word forms the church, Ephraim is
called a precious childand one born of delight(Jeremiah 31 : 20 ); a firstborn
(Jeremiah 31 : 9 ); the strength of Jehovah’s head(Psalms 60 : 7 ; 108 : 8 ); power-
ful(Zechariah 10 : 7 ); and someone outfitted with a bow(Zechariah 9 : 13 );
and Ephraim’s children are said to be armedand to shoot with a bow
(Psalms 78 : 9 ). A “bow” means a body of teaching from the Word that
fights against false ideas. For this reason Israel laid his right hand rather