344. Verse 2. And I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, signifies the Lord providing and regulating. "An angel" here means the Lord as to the Divine love, because He ascended "from the rising of the sun," and "from the rising of the sun" or from the east is from the Divine love, for in the spiritual world the Lord is the sun and the east, and is so called as to that love. That He was providing and moderating is evident from His command to the four angels, "not to hurt the earth and the sea, till the servants of God were sealed on their foreheads." That the Lord's Divine Human is meant by "an angel," in the highest sense is manifest from these passages:
The angel of the faces of Jehovah delivered them; on account of His love and His pity, He redeemed them, and He bare them, and carried them all the days of eternity (Isa. 63:9). The angel who redeemed me from all evil bless them (Gen. 48:16). The Lord whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple, and the angel of the covenant, whom ye desire (Mal. 3:1). Behold, I send an angel before thee to keep thee in the way, beware of his face, for My name is in the midst of him (Exod. 23:20-23). "Angel" and "sent" in the Hebrew language, are expressed by one word; hence it is that the Lord so often calls himself "sent by the Father," by which is meant the Divine Human. But "an angel," in a relative sense is everyone who receives the Lord, both in heaven and in the world.
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