11. The seventh chapter in the book of Revelation tells us that one hundred and forty-four thousand [of the servants of God] were sealed, twelve thousand out of each tribe of Israel — out of the tribes of Judah, Reuben, Gad, Asher, Naphtali, Manasseh, Simeon, Levi, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, and Benjamin.

The spiritual meaning of this is that all people are saved who have the church in them from the Lord. For in the spiritual sense to be sealed or to have a mark placed on the forehead means, symbolically, to be acknowledged by the Lord and saved. The twelve tribes of Israel symbolize all people of the church. The numbers 12, 1,200, and 144,000 symbolically mean all people. Israel symbolizes the church. And each of the tribes symbolizes some particular aspect of the church.

People who are not aware of the spiritual content of these words may suppose that only that number of people are to be saved, and these solely from the Israelite and Jewish nations.

47. The outer constituents of the Temple in Jerusalem represented the outer constituents of the Word, which are those of its literal sense. That is because the Temple had the same representation as the Tabernacle, namely heaven and the church, and so also the Word.

That the Temple in Jerusalem symbolized the Lord’s Divine humanity is something the Lord Himself tells us in John:

Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.... But He was speaking of the temple of His body. (John 2:19, 21)

And wherever the Lord is meant, the Word is meant as well, because the Lord embodies the Word.

Now because the inner constituents of the Temple represented the inner constituents of heaven and the church, thus also those of the Word, therefore its outer constituents represented and symbolized the outer constituents of heaven and the church, thus also those of the Word, which are those of its literal sense.

Regarding the outer constituents of the Temple, we read that they were built of whole, uncut stone, and inside of cedar; that all its walls within were carved with figures of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers; and that the floor was overlaid with gold (1 Kings 6:7, 18, 29-30). All of these particulars, too, symbolized the outer constituents of the Word, which are the holy ones of its literal sense.