904. Verse 15. And he that spoke with me had a golden reed to measure the city and the gates thereof and the wall thereof, signifies that there is given by the Lord to those who are in the good of love the faculty of understanding and knowing what the quality of Lord's New Church is, as to doctrine and its introductory truths, and as to the Word from which they are. And "he that spake with me," signifies the Lord speaking out of heaven, because he was one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, mentioned above (verse 9), by whom is meant the Lord speaking out of heaven (n. 895); by "a reed" is signified power or faculty from the good of love, by "a reed" power or faculty (n. 485), and by "gold" the good of love (n. 211, 726); by "measuring" is signified to know the quality of a thing, consequently to understand and know (n. 486). By "the city," which was the holy Jerusalem, is signified the church as to doctrine (n. 879-880); by "gates" are signified the knowledges of truth and good from the sense of the letter of the Word, which from the spiritual life in them are truths and goods (n. 899); and by "a wall" is signified the Word, in the sense of the letter, from which they are (n. 898). Hence it is evident that by "he that spoke with me had a golden reed to measure the city, and the gates thereof, and the wall thereof," is signified that there is given by the Lord to those who are in the good of love, the faculty of understanding and knowing what is the quality of the Lord's New Church, as to doctrine and its introductory truths, and as to the Word from which they are. [2] That these things are signified cannot be seen at all in the sense of the letter, for in this it only appears that an angel who was speaking with John had a golden reed to measure the city, its gates, and wall; but, nevertheless, that another sense, which is spiritual, is contained in these words, is plain from this, that by "the city Jerusalem" is not meant any city, but the church, wherefore all things which are said of Jerusalem as a city signify such things as relate to the church, and all things relating to the church are in themselves spiritual. Such a spiritual sense is also contained in what is said above, where these words occur:
And there was given unto me a reed, like unto a staff, and the angel stood, saying, Arise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that adore therein (Rev. 11:1). There is also a like spiritual sense in all the things which the angel "measured with a reed" (in Ezekiel, chapter 40-48). And likewise in these words in Zechariah:
I lifted up mine eyes and saw, and behold, a man, with a measuring line in his hand. And I said, Whither goest thou? who said unto me, To measure Jerusalem, to see what is the breadth thereof, and what is the length thereof (Zech. 2:1-2). Yea such a spiritual sense is in all things of the tabernacle, and in all things of the temple in Jerusalem, the measures of which we read, and also in the measures themselves; and yet nothing of them can be seen in the sense of the letter.
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