Spiritual Meaning of Windows

Spiritual Meaning of

Windows

That windows signify the things of the internal sight that is, of the understanding which in one word are called intellectual things, is evident from those passages of the Word which were adduced in (AC 655); and further from the following. In Joel:--

They shall run to and fro in the city, they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up into the houses, they shall enter in by the windows as a thief (Joel 2:9)

speaking of the evils and falsities of the last days of the church climbing up into the houses denotes destroying the goods of the will. House denotes the goods of the will (AC 710, 2233, 2334); and entering in by the windows denotes destroying truths and their knowledges which are of the understanding. In Zephaniah:--

Jehovah will stretch out His hands upon the north, and destroy Asshur; herds shall lie down in the midst of her; every wild animal of his kind both the pelican and the osprey, shall pass the night in the pomegranates thereof; a voice shall sing in the windows, drought shall be upon the threshold, because he hath laid bare the cedar (Zephaniah 2:13, 14)

where the destruction of the truths of faith by reasonings, which are Asshur, is treated of (AC 119, 1186); that a voice shall sing in the windows signifies the desolation of truth, thus of the intellectual faculty as to truth.

[3] In the book of Judges:--

Through the window she looked forth, and the mother of Sisera cried through the lattice, Why is his chariot so long in coming? (Judges 5:28)

this is the prophecy of Deborah and Barak concerning the resuscitation of a spiritual church; looking forth through a window denotes through the reasonings of those who deny truths and thus destroy what is of the church; for such reasonings are intellectual things in the opposite sense. In Jeremiah:--

Woe unto him that buildeth his house without righteousness, and his chambers without judgment that saith I will build me a roomy house and spacious chambers and cutteth him out windows and it is ceiled with cedar, and painted with vermilion (Jeremiah 22:13, 14)

building a house without righteousness, and chambers without judgment denotes building up a religious system from what is not good and not true. Righteousness and judgment are good and truth (AC 2235); cutting him out windows and ceiling with cedar, and painting with vermilion, denotes falsifying intellectual and spiritual truths. The windows of the temple at Jerusalem represented nothing but that which belongs to intellectual and thus to spiritual things. The like is signified by the windows of the new temple described in (Ezekiel 40:16, 22, 25, 33, 36; 41:16, 26)

from AC 3391

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Author: E. Swedenborg (1688-1772).

Design: I.J. Thompson, Feb 2002.