Apocalypse Explained, volume 1 - Swedenborg Foundation

APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED 270Those that “trust in the mountains of Samaria” are those that trustin themselves, and from self-intelligence hatch out doctrines.“Samaria” is the perverted spiritual church; “beds of ivory” arefallacies of the senses on which doctrine is founded; “to stretchthemselves upon couches” is to confirm and multiply the falsitiestherefrom; “to eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out ofthe midst of the stall, to drink out of bowls of wine and to anointthemselves with the firstlings of the oils,” is to draw the truths andgoods of the Word out of the sense of its letter and to apply andfalsify them. “Not to be grieved over the breach of Joseph” is not tocare that the spiritual church is perishing, and that its truths arebeing infringed upon. (That “Joseph” in the highest sense signifiesthe Lord in respect to the Divine spiritual; in the internal sense theLord’s spiritual kingdom, thus also the spiritual church; and in theexternal sense the fructification of good and multiplication of truth,see Arcana Coelestia, n. 3969, 3971, 4669, 6417, 6526.)[5] In Moses:May the blessings of thy father prevail above the blessings of myparents, may they be on the head of Joseph, and on the head of thebed 14 of his brethren (Gen. 49:26).“Joseph,” as was said, is the Lord’s spiritual church; “the head ofthe bed of his brethren” is the spiritual that flows into all the truthsand goods of that church (for the twelve sons or tribes of Israelsignify all the truths and goods of the church in the complex, seeArcana Coelestia, n. 3858, 3926, 4060, 6335).[6] In Luke:I say unto you, In that night there shall be two [men] in one bed;one shall be taken, the other shall be left. There shall be two [women]grinding together; one shall be taken, the other shall be left. There shallbe two [men] in the field; one shall be taken, the other shall be left(Luke 17:34–36).This treats of the consummation of the age, which is the last timeof the church when judgment takes place. To be “in one bed” is to