Those People Who Will Be Part of the New Heaven and of the Lord's New Church

(Sorry so long, but hopefully helpful.)

AR 350 [1-2. 5] - Judah

Of the tribe of Judah twelve thousand were sealed.
(Revelation 7:5)

In the highest sense Judah symbolizes the Lord
in relation to celestial love;
in the spiritual sense,
the Lord's celestial kingdom and the Word;
and in the natural sense,
the doctrine of a celestial church
drawn from the Word.
Here, however, Judah symbolizes celestial love,
which is love toward the Lord;
and because it is named first in the series,
it symbolizes that love in all those people
who will be in the New Heaven
and in the Lord's New Church.
For the tribe named first is everything in the rest,
being to them as though their head
and serving as a universal property
entering into all those that follow,
tying them together,
qualifying them and affecting them.
This property is love toward the Lord.

. . . twelve thousand symbolizes
all who possess that love . . ..

People know that after the death of Solomon
the twelve tribes of Israel
were divided into two kingdoms:
the kingdom of Judah and the kingdom of Israel.
The kingdom of Judah represented
the celestial kingdom or the Lord's priestly kingdom,
while the kingdom of Israel represented
the spiritual kingdom or the Lord's royal kingdom.
But the latter was destroyed
when the people had nothing spiritual left in them,
whereas the kingdom of Judah was preserved,
for the sake of the Word,
and because the Lord would be born there.
However,
when the people adulterated the Word completely,
and thus could not recognize the Lord,
then their kingdom was destroyed.

AR 351 [1-2, 3] - Reuben

Of the tribe of Reuben twelve thousand were sealed.
(Revelation 7:5)

In the highest sense Reuben symbolizes omniscience;
in the spiritual sense, wisdom,
intelligence and knowledge, also faith;
and in the natural sense, sight.
Here, however, Reuben symbolizes wisdom,
because he comes after Judah,
who symbolizes celestial love,
and celestial love produces wisdom.
For there is no love without its partner,
which is knowledge, intelligence, or wisdom.
The partner of natural love is knowledge;
that of spiritual love is intelligence;
and that of celestial love is wisdom.

Reuben symbolizes these three
because his name was derived from a word
meaning to look or see,
and natural sight spiritually is knowledge,
spiritual sight is intelligence,
and celestial sight is wisdom.

Reuben was also Jacob's firstborn,
and therefore Israel called him
"my might, the beginning of my strength,
excellent in eminence and excellent in valor".
(Genesis 49:3)
Of such a character also
is wisdom springing from celestial love.

Because the tribes all symbolize
their opposites as well,
so too does the tribe of Reuben;
and in an opposite sense
he symbolizes wisdom divorced from love,
and thus also faith divorced from charity.

AR 352 - Gad

Of the tribe of Gad twelve thousand were sealed.
(Revelation 7:5)

In the highest sense Gad symbolizes omnipotence;
in the spiritual sense, goodness of life,
which also is useful endeavor;
and in the natural sense, work.
Here he symbolizes useful life endeavors,
because he comes after Reuben and Judah,
and celestial love by means of wisdom
produces useful endeavors.

There are three things that hang together
and cannot be separated:
love, wisdom and useful life endeavor.
If one is taken away, the other two collapse.

It should be known that the tribes of Israel here
are all distinguished into four groups,
as they were in the Urim and Thummim,
and as they were in their encampment,
and that each group contains three tribes,
because the three go together as a unit,
like love, wisdom and useful service,
and like charity, faith and work.
For, as we said, if one is missing,
the other two have no reality.

AR 353 - Asher

Of the tribe of Asher twelve thousand were sealed.
(Revelation 7:6)

In the highest sense Asher symbolizes eternity;
in the spiritual sense, eternal bliss;
and in the natural sense,
an affection for goodness and truth.
Here, however, Asher symbolizes
a love of performing useful services,
which is found among people
who are in the Lord's celestial kingdom,
and is called there mutual love.
This love descends directly from love toward the Lord,
since the Lord's love
is to perform useful services to the community
and to each society in the community,
and He does these through the agency of people
who possess a love for Him.

AR 354 - Naphtali

Of the tribe of Naphtali twelve thousand were sealed.
(Revelation 7:6)

In the highest sense
Naphtali symbolizes the intrinsic power
of the Lord's Divine humanity;
in the spiritual sense,
temptation or trial, and victory;
and in the natural sense,
resistance on the part of the natural self.
For his name was derived from
a word meaning wrestling.
Here, however,
Naphtali symbolizes a perception of useful endeavor,
and of what is useful,
because in the series he comes after Asher,
who symbolizes a love of useful services.
Moreover those people
who have overcome in temptations or trials
have an interior perception of useful ends;
for temptations or trials
open the interior constituents of the mind.

AR 355

Of the tribe of Manasseh twelve thousand were sealed.
(Revelation 7:6)

There are three things that follow in order:
love toward the Lord, wisdom, and useful endeavor . . ..
So again here:
mutual love, understanding or perception,
and will or action.
These also form a unit,
so that if one is missing,
the other two have no reality.
A will to serve, combined with action,
constitute the effect,
thus the final element,
in which the two prior ones are present and coexist.

Manasseh has this symbolism because Joseph,
who was the father of Manasseh and Ephraim,
symbolizes the spiritual component of the church,
and the spiritual component of the church
is goodness of will
and at the same time truth in the intellect.
Manasseh consequently symbolizes
the volitional component of the church,
and Ephraim its intellectual component.

Manasseh symbolizes
the volitional component of the church
because Ephraim symbolizes
its intellectual component . . ..
And because Manasseh symbolizes
the volitional component of the church,
he also symbolizes action or practice;
for will is the impetus in every action,
and where impetus exists,
there action takes place whenever possible.

AR 356 - Simeon

Of the tribe of Simeon twelve thousand were sealed.
(Revelation 7:7)

In the highest sense Simeon symbolizes providence;
in the spiritual sense,
love for the neighbor or charity;
and in the natural sense,
obedience and giving ear.

In the first two series
the subject was people
who are in the Lord's celestial kingdom.
In this series, now,
the subject is people
who are in the Lord's spiritual kingdom.
Their love is termed a spiritual love,
which is love for the neighbor and charity.

Simeon and his tribe represented this love
and thus symbolize it in the Word
because he was born after Reuben
and was the next before Levi,
and these three - Reuben, Simeon and Levi -
in that sequence symbolized truth
in the intellect or faith, truth in the will or charity,
and truth in practice or good work,
like Peter, James and John.
As Simeon and his tribe
consequently represented truth in the will,
which is both charity and obedience,
therefore he was given a name
derived from a word meaning to hear,
and to hear symbolizes
both to understand truth and to will it or obey -
to understand it in the phrase to "hear someone,"
and to will it and obey in the phrase to
"listen to someone" or hearken.

AR 357 - Levi

Of the tribe of Levi twelve thousand were sealed.
(Revelation 7:7)

In the highest sense
Levi symbolizes love and mercy;
in the spiritual sense, charity in practice,
which constitutes goodness of life;
and in the natural sense,
association and conjunction.
The name Levi also
comes from a word meaning to attach,
which in the Word symbolizes
a conjunction by love.
Here, however,
Levi symbolizes a love or affection for truth
and the resulting intelligence,
because he comes after Simeon
and is the middle one in this series.

Since this is what Levi represents,
therefore that tribe became the priesthood.

That the tribe of Levi symbolizes a love of truth,
which is the fundamental love
that causes a church to be a church,
and at the same time the resulting intelligence . . ..

AR 358 - Issachar

Of the tribe of Issachar twelve thousand were sealed.
(Revelation 7:7)

In the highest sense
Issachar symbolizes the Divine good of truth
and truth of good;
in the spiritual sense,
the conjugal love of heaven,
which is one of goodness and truth;
and in the natural sense, recompense.
Here, however, it is goodness of life,
because in this group Issachar is the third in order,
and the third element in every group
symbolizes the final one,
which is the product of the first two,
as an effect is of its causes.
And the effect produced by spiritual love,
which is love for the neighbor
and symbolized by Simeon,
operating through an affection for truth,
which is symbolized by Levi,
is goodness of life, which is Issachar.
The name Issachar also comes from
a word meaning payment,
thus recompense;
and goodness of life has in it its own recompense.

AR 359 - Zebulun

Of the tribe of Zebulun twelve thousand were sealed.
(Revelation 7:8)

In the highest sense
Zebulun symbolizes the union of the Divine itself
and the Divine humanity in the Lord;
in the spiritual sense,
the marriage of goodness and truth
in those people who are in heaven and in the church;
and in the natural sense,
married love itself.
Thus Zebulun here symbolizes
the conjugal love of goodness and truth.
His name also comes from
a word meaning cohabitation,
and cohabitation is a word used of married partners,
whose minds are joined into one;
for that conjunction is a spiritual cohabitation.

The conjugal love of goodness and truth
that Zebulun symbolizes here
is the conjugal love of the Lord and the church.
For the Lord is love's goodness itself,
and He grants that the church be
the truth springing from that love;
and a cohabitation results
when the person of the church receives
in truths goodness from the Lord.
The person then has formed in him
a marriage of goodness and truth,
which is the essential church,
and he becomes a heaven.

It is because of this that God's kingdom -
which is to say, heaven and the church -
is so often likened in the Word to a marriage.

AR 360 - Joseph

Of the tribe of Joseph twelve thousand were sealed.
(Revelation 7:8)

In the highest sense Joseph symbolizes
the Lord
in respect to His Divinity on the spiritual plane;
in the spiritual sense, the spiritual kingdom;
and in the natural sense,
reproduction and multiplication.
Here, however, Joseph symbolizes
the doctrine of goodness and truth
that is found in people
who are in the Lord's spiritual kingdom.
Joseph has this symbolism here
because he is named
after the tribe of Zebulun
and before the tribe of Benjamin,
thus in between them,
and the tribe mentioned first in a series or group
symbolizes some love pertaining to the will;
the tribe mentioned after that
symbolizes some aspect of wisdom
pertaining to the intellect;
and the tribe mentioned last
symbolizes some useful outcome or effect
resulting from them.
Every series is thus a complete one.

. . . The spiritual kingdom is the Lord's royal one,
while the celestial kingdom is His priestly one.

Joseph here symbolizes
a doctrine of goodness and truth
because he is substituted here for Ephraim,
and Ephraim symbolizes
the intellectual component of the church,
the intellectual component of the church
being everything derived from
the doctrine of goodness and truth
drawn from the Word.

Joseph is substituted here for Ephraim
because Manasseh, Joseph's second son,
who symbolized
the volitional component of the church,
was already included among the tribes (no. 355).

Because the intellectual component of the church
is derived from a doctrine of goodness and truth,
therefore Joseph symbolizes this
intellectual component and also that doctrine . . ..

AR 361 - Benjamin

Of the tribe of Benjamin twelve thousand were sealed.
(Revelation 7:8)

Since Zebulun symbolizes
the conjugal love of goodness and truth,
and Joseph symbolizes
a doctrine of goodness and truth,
Benjamin, being third in the series,
symbolizes a life of truth springing from goodness.

Benjamin bears this symbolic meaning
because he was the last-born.
Moreover, his father Jacob called him
"Son-of-the-Right-Hand" (Genesis 35:18),
and a son of the right hand symbolizes
truth springing from goodness.

This tribe also lived, therefore,
in the vicinity of Jerusalem,
which was in the territory of Judah,
the city of Jerusalem symbolizing
the church in respect to doctrine,
and the places around it
such matters as proceed from doctrine.

AR 362 - Dan, Ephraim

In this list of the tribes of Israel,
no mention is made of Dan or Ephraim.
The reason is that Dan was the last of the tribes,
and its tribe lived in the most remote part
of the land of Canaan.
Thus it could not symbolize anything
in the New Heaven or in the Lord's New Church,
where there would be
only celestial and spiritual people.
Therefore Manasseh is substituted for Dan.
That Joseph is substituted for Ephraim
may be seen in no. 360 above.