2. Someone who thinks in this way, however, does not reflect that Jehovah Himself, the God of heaven and earth, spoke the Word through Moses and the prophets, and that it must therefore be Divine truth itself. For whatever Jehovah Himself utters is such truth. Nor does that person reflect that the Lord, who is the same as Jehovah, spoke the Word reported by the Gospel writers, much of it in person, and the rest by the breath of His mouth, which is the Holy Spirit. Consequently what He Himself says is, in His own words, life, and He is the light that enlightens, and truth personified.

[2] That Jehovah Himself spoke the Word through the prophets is something we showed in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Lord 52-53.

That the words the Lord Himself spoke, as reported by the Gospel writers, are life, is something He said in John:

The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. (John 6:63)

Again in John, Jesus said to the woman at Jacob’s spring:

If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, “Give Me a drink, ” you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.... Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” (John 4:6, 10, 14)

Jacob’s spring symbolizes the Word, as in Deuteronomy 33:28 as well. That, too, is why the Lord sat there and spoke with the woman. And the water symbolizes the Word’s truth.

[3] Again in John:

...Jesus...(said), “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture says, out of his belly will flow rivers of living water.” (John 7:37-38)

And again:

...Peter (said to Jesus), “...You have the words of eternal life.” (John 6:68)

Therefore the Lord says in Mark:

Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away. (Mark 13:31)

The Lord’s words are life because He is the life and the truth, as He tells us in John:

I am the way, the truth, and the life. (John 14:6)

And again in John:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word.... In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. (John 1:1, 4)

The Word there means the Lord in relation to Divine truth, in which alone there is life and light.

[4] It is on this account that the Word, being from the Lord and embodying the Lord, is called “a fountain of living waters” (Jeremiah 2:13, 17:13), “a fountain of salvation” (Isaiah 12:3), “a fountain” (Zechariah 13:1). Also “a river of the water of life” (Revelation 22:1). And we are told that “the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters” (Revelation 7:17).

There are in addition many other places where the Word is called the sanctuary and the tabernacle in which the Lord dwells with mankind.

9. 2. The presence of the spiritual meaning in each and every particular of the Word. This can best be seen from illustrations, such as the following. In the book of Revelation, John says:

I saw heaven opened, when behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and does combat. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many jewels. He had a name written that no one knew but Himself. He was clothed with a garment stained with blood, and His name is called “The Word of God.” (His) hosts in heaven followed Him on white horses, wearing fine linen, white and clean.... He has on His garment and on His thigh a name written: “King of kings and Lord of lords.”

I saw moreover an angel standing in the sun, who cried with a loud voice..., “Come and gather together for the great supper..., that you may eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of commanders, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, both small and great.” (Revelation 19:11-18)

No one can see the symbolic meanings of these words apart from the Word’s spiritual sense, and no one can see the spiritual sense apart from a knowledge of correspondences. For the words are all correspondents; no word there is without meaning.

A knowledge of correspondences makes plain the symbolic meaning of the white horse and of Him who sat on the horse, of the eyes that were like a flame of fire, of the jewels on the head, of the garment stained with blood, of the white linen worn by His hosts in heaven, of the angel standing in the sun, of the great supper for which all were to come and gather together, and of the flesh of kings, commanders, and several others that they were to eat.

[2] The symbolic meanings of each of these images may be seen in the short book, The White Horse, where we explained them. We therefore forgo any further explanation of them here. In that short book we showed that the above description is a depiction of the Lord in relation to the Word, that His eyes like a flame of fire, the jewels on His head, and the name that no one knew but Himself mean the Word’s spiritual sense, and that no one knows that sense but the Lord Himself and he to whom the Lord wills to reveal it. We showed as well that the garment stained with blood means the Word’s natural sense, which is its literal sense, to which violence has been done.

That it is the Word which is so described is clearly apparent, for we are told that His name is called “The Word of God.” And that it is the Lord who is meant is also clearly apparent, for we are told that the name written of Him who sat on the horse was “King of kings and Lord of lords.”

That the Word’s spiritual sense will be revealed at the end of the church is symbolically meant not only by what we have now said about the horse and Him who sat on it, but also by the great supper to which the angel standing in the sun summoned people to come and eat the flesh of kings and commanders, of mighty men, of horses and of those who sit on them, and of all people, free and slave.

All of these statements would be meaningless words, devoid of life or spirit, without something spiritual concealed within them, like a soul in its body.

44. Truths and goods in the Word’s literal sense are meant by the Urim and Thummim. The Urim and Thummim were placed on the ephod of Aaron, whose priesthood represented the Lord in respect to His Divine goodness and in respect to His work of salvation. Priestly vestments or holy garments represented Divine truth springing from Divine goodness. The ephod represented Divine truth in its outmost expression, thus the Word in its literal sense, for that is Divine truth in its outmost expression, as we said above. Consequently the twelve precious stones, bearing the names of the twelve tribes of Israel, which were the Urim and Thummim, represented Divine truths springing from Divine goodness in their entirety.

[2] Regarding the Urim and Thummim, we read in Exodus the following:

They shall make the ephod of gold, blue and purple, of scarlet double-dyed, and fine linen interwoven.... (Afterward) you shall make the breastpiece of judgment..., according to the workmanship of the ephod.... And you shall fill it with settings of stones, four rows of stones: ...a garnet, a topaz, and an emerald, the first row; ...a chrysoprase, a sapphire, and a diamond, the second row; a lazulite, an agate, and an amethyst, the third row; a beryl, a sardius, and a jasper, the fourth row.... These stones shall have the names of the sons of Israel..., like the engravings of a signet, each one with its own name, for the twelve tribes.... And Aaron shall bear (the Urim and Thummim) on the breastplate of judgment...over his heart, when he goes in...before Jehovah. (Exodus 28:6, 15-21, 29-30)

[3] What Aaron’s vestments represented — his ephod, robe, tunic, turban, and sash — was explained in Arcana Coelestia (The Secrets of Heaven) in our treatment of this chapter. There we showed that the ephod represented Divine truth in its outmost expression; that the precious stones on it represented truths made translucent by goodness; that the twelve precious stones represented all outmost expressions of truth in succession made translucent by the goodness of love; that the twelve tribes of Israel represented everything having to do with the church; that the breastpiece represented Divine truth springing from Divine goodness; and that the Urim and Thummim represented the radiance in outmost expressions of Divine truth springing from Divine goodness. For Urim means a shining fire, and Thummim means, in angelic language, radiance, and in Hebrew, perfection. Answers, moreover, were given by variegations of the light, and at the same time by a tacit perception or by hearing a voice, and in other ways as well.

It can be seen from this that these precious stones also represented truths springing from goodness in the Word’s outmost sense. Nor were answers given from heaven by any other means, because in that sense the emanating Divinity is present in its fullness.

[4] Precious stones and jewels symbolize Divine truths in their outmost expressions, the kind of truths found in the Word’s literal sense, and this has been made clearly apparent to me from the precious stones and jewels in the spiritual world possessed by angels and spirits there, whom I have seen wearing them, and which they also have in their jewelry cases. I have been given to know moreover that these precious stones and jewels correspond to truths in outmost expressions, indeed that they also exist and are visible because of those truths.

Because jewels and precious stones have this symbolism, therefore jewels were seen by John on the head of the dragon in Revelation 12:3, and on the horns of the beast in Revelation 13:1. And he saw precious stones on the harlot sitting on the scarlet beast in Revelation 17:4. These were seen on them because those figures symbolize people in the Christian world who possess the Word.