Apocalypse Explained, volume 1 - Swedenborg Foundation

APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED 99“brass” signifies the external of the church, which in itself isnatural, can in some measure know why:The altar of burnt offering was overlaid with brass, and the gratingabout it was of brass, and the vessels of brass (Exod. 27:1–4);as also why:The great vessel, which was called the sea, with the twelve oxenunder it, and the ten lavers with the bases, and also all the vessels of thetabernacle for the house of God, were made by Solomon of polishedbrass (1 Kings 7:43–47).[5] He who knows what “brass” signifies may also enter into thearcanum why it was commanded that a serpent of brass be set upfor the people to look at, of which it is thus written in Moses:Jehovah sent serpents among the people, and they bit the people.And he said unto Moses, Make thee a serpent, and set it upon astandard, and it shall come to pass that everyone that is bitten, andlooketh upon it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and set itupon a standard; and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten anyman, and he looked unto the serpent of brass, he lived (Num. 21:6,8–9).That this “serpent” signified the Lord, he himself teaches in John:As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must theson of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him may notperish, but may have everlasting life (John 3:14–15).By the “serpent” is signified that which is the ultimate of life withman, and is called the external sensual, which is the natural.Because this ultimate in the Lord was Divine, a serpent of brass wasmade among the sons of Israel, with whom all things wererepresentative; and this signified that if they would look to theDivine human of the Lord they would live again, that is, if theywould believe in him they would have eternal life, as the Lordhimself also teaches. (That to “see” is in the spiritual sense tobelieve, see above, n. 37, 68; and that the “serpent” is the externalsensual, which is the ultimate of man’s life, see Arcana Coelestia, n.