By the Rev. David Sonmor

Texts:  Joel 2:23 to 32, Luke 18:9 to 14, Rev. 11.

A parable is a story about a real life-situation that is used to describe a moral or a spiritual process that is taking place within us. We should therefore be more concerned with what it points to than with what the words say or describe literally. The inner picture is always more relevant and important than the outer. We must therefore be prepared to look at the words as having a different meaning based on the context in which they are being presented and the spiritual state or condition of the reader or hearer of the story. 

This does not hold true just for the stories that Jesus identified in the Gospels as being "parables" but is true for all of the books of the Bible that are Divinely inspired and which constitute the "Word of God." 

The three texts I have suggested you read (If you haven't it would help if you stop now and do so.) involve stories that are placed in vastly different settings and were written in different times, probably with a time span of about 400 years between each of them, so 800 years between the story from Joel and the one from John's Revelation. Yet they all speak of a single issue which is the nature or state of the relationship between God and mankind, which is the state of the church in heaven and on earth. 

In Joel we have presented to us a situation where the people have just passed through a time of terrible devastation, They have come out of exile in Babylon and returned to their homeland which has been destroyed, first, by their enemies and then by drought and finally by a plague of locusts. Now Joel preaches to them about a promise of deliverance. He tells them to rejoice: "So rejoice, O sons of Zion and be glad in the Lord your God. For He has given you the early rain of your vindication." They are promised plentiful crops. Their natural lives will be secure. He will be in their midst. Then will follow an improvement in their spiritual life. He will pour His spirit on all mankind. They will become more spiritual beings. "Sons and daughters will prophesy" or will look toward the future. "Old men will dream dreams, and young men will see visions." But even with this improvement in their natural and spiritual life, Joel tells them that before the awesome day of the Lord comes He will display wonders in the sky and on the earth. Blood, fire and smoke; the sun turned to darkness, the moon turned to blood, and then only those will escape destruction who call upon the name of the Lord. 

In the parable in the gospel of Luke about the Pharisee and the Publican (tax gatherer) The Lord is teaching us about the value of prayer and we can compare the content of the prayer-worship of these two witnesses. The one is very self centered. He extols his virtues stating how much better he is than other people and he seems to expect that he should be readily accepted by the Lord. The other merely acknowledges that he is a sinner and asks the Lord's forgiveness.  The Pharisee is a member of the largest Jewish sect living in Jesus time. He was not an exception but was rather the standard of the majority of the people of the church at that time. We see which one was acceptable to the Lord. Jesus' obvious lesson is that those who exalt themselves will be humbled but those who are humble will be exalted. 

These two witnesses are somewhat like the two witnesses in the story from Revelation but there they are not described as being a Pharisee and a Publican. They are instead referred to as: "the two olive trees and the two lampstands which are standing before the God of the earth." But in the beginning of the reading in Revelation, John indicates that he was given a rod to measure the temple and the altar, and those who worship in it. He is specifically told not to measure the outer court. The two witnesses are to prophesy for twelve hundred and sixty days and be clothed in sackcloth. They have the power to shut up the sky or heaven and prevent the rain from falling during the time of their prophesying. They can also turn the waters into blood and smite the earth with plagues. Then, strangely, a beast will appear and make war on them and kill them and their dead bodies will lie on the streets of a city called Sodom and Egypt, which is said to be the same city where Jesus was crucified. The people of the earth are happy about this and rejoice, But three and a half days later God breaths life into them and they are raised up to heaven with Him. Next there is a great earthquake and 7000 are killed and the rest terrified. So they give glory to God.  

That is quite a picture. But what does it and the other two stories mean to us? I said at the beginning of the sermon that the Word everywhere speaks of the state of the Lord's Church in heaven and on earth. So to understand what these stories mean requires that we accept that that, ultimately, is what they are talking about. They really have nothing to do with history and the people and church in Judah and Jerusalem after the exile, nor the people and church of Jesus time, nor the people and church at the time John was on the Isle of Patmos. No. They are about the people and the church in the world now. They are about you and me and all the other people in the churches and synagogues and temples down the street. 

The three stories show a process that the universal church and the people go through in order to reach the reason for their existence, which is union with the Lord in His heavenly kingdom, a heaven of angels from the human race.  

We are born in a state of pure innocence but the earthly things we are born into including the people we are exposed to and relate with soon begin to affect us and our innocence begins to fade and we become worldly wise rather than spiritually wise. The truth and good implanted in us by the Lord at birth becomes corrupted; the truth becomes falsified and the good becomes selfish and evil. The locusts in Joel's prophesy signify falsity from evil in outward things. The Jewish people of the Old Testament represent us in our early days of life and early stages of spiritual development. We, as they, are constantly confronted with enemies and often become enslaved and embroiled in ungodly life and the activity of ungodly nations. We are corrupted and buy into those evil societies and lifestyles. When plague and famine strike our souls as a result of our actions we wail and moan and cry out to the Lord and He is there for those who want to be with Him and are willing to re-commit themselves. Our lives are outwardly improved. Rain falls on the parched soil of our soul and wonderful nurturing crops begin to grow and flourish. The seasonable rain is the influx of Divine Truth into us, from which we have spiritual life. It is a fertile rain that opens our minds to new truths and ripens in us the dormant truths that were implanted in us at birth. We reach a new level of spirituality where God is becoming the center of our lives. As the Lord pours out His spirit upon us we open ourselves to new religious experience, our sons and daughters prophesy or we heed the Word of God through teaching and preaching, and so are instructed concerning new truths in our life. The Old Man in us dreams dreams and young man in us has visions. We reach states where we can receive revelation and where we can perceive revelation. The old man is wise and open to receive from the Lord. The young man is intelligent and can understand or perceive what it means. This distinction is made because in our spiritual journey we first receive revelation by seeking it through reading or hearing it, but like a dream it is obscure and unclear, yet still interesting and pleasurable, and then we begin to perceive it so it becomes clear like a vision. 

The danger that arises here is like the state of the Pharisee in the story from Luke. Pride of self intelligence can interject itself and the individual may begin to believe that he is wise and intelligent from his own self and not from the Lord, and so after a time of self indulgence things start to become unclear, and smoke and darkness obscure our life until we again begin to realise that only God can deliver us. 

The story presented in the book of Revelation presents the same process of spiritual evolution but in a more advanced and more inward fashion. It talks of the development of the New Christian church that is coming into the world. The business of using a measuring rod at the beginning to measure the Temple and those who worship in it is to establish the spiritual quality of the church in the world and those in it; specifically the state of it's goodness and truth. The two witnesses, described as: "the two olive trees and the two lampstands", signifies the good of love to the Lord and of charity towards the neighbour, and the truth of doctrine and of faith from which are heaven and the church. ." "And I will give unto My two witnesses," signifies those who confess and acknowledge from the heart that the Lord is the God of heaven and earth, and that His Human is Divine, and who are conjoined to Him by a life according to the precepts of the Decalogue (Ten Commandments). The reason why these are here meant by "the two witnesses," is, because these are the two essentials of the New Church. The first essential is acknowledgement that the Lord is the God of heaven and earth, and that His Human is Divine. This is a testimony and therefore everyone who confesses it and acknowledges it in the heart is a witness to it. The second essential of the New Church, is conjunction with the Lord by a life according to the precepts of the Decalogue. This also is a testimony to the Lord because it is a continuous recognition of His power and Oneness. To obey God is to love God and be one with Him. 

There are so many images and correspondences in this passage that we cannot cover them all here. But it does not include the final state of our spiritual process. That comes further on in Revelation. It does, however bring us to a similar place to that in the story of Joel. It talks of plagues and water turning to blood and people being destroyed. It warns that there are many in the Christian world who are opposed to the changes that are taking place. A beast kills the two witnesses and many people rejoice and dance in the streets of a city called Sodom and Egypt, which represent two infernal loves: the love of dominating from self-love and the love of ruling from the pride of ones own intelligence, which are in the church where "One God" is not acknowledged, and where they do not live according to the precepts of the Ten Commandments. The true Witnesses were not dead as to their spirit but only as to their bodies, and so the Lord God breathed his spirit into them and raised them into heaven with Him.

Our Communion Service clearly involves the two essentials of the New Church. It is an opportunity for each of us to once again remind ourselves to acknowledge God and that He is One and that He is the Lord who came into the world to save us. Also that we must live our lives according to the commandments of God. The litany of Ten Commandments at the beginning of the service serves as such a reminder and provides us with a chance to examine how well we have been living in accordance with the Decalogue. It reminds us also that we should live in accordance with them every day of our life and in all our relationships with other people. We should be thankful to the Lord that we have been blessed with insights into the deeper meanings of scripture and pray that we can use this knowledge for the growth and betterment of His New Church in the world.

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1999 Bruce DeBoer
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