247. There are many passages in the prophets describing how the church among the Israelite or Jewish race was utterly destroyed and annihilated by their falsifying the meaning or understanding of the Word; for it is this and nothing else which destroys a church. The understanding of the Word, both true and false, is described in the prophets, especially Hosea, by Ephraim; for this name stands in the Word for the understanding of the Word in the church. Since the understanding of the Word makes the church, Ephraim is called the precious son and the child of delight (Jer. 31:20); the first-born (Jer. 31:9); the strength of Jehovah's head (Ps. 60:7; 108:8); the powerful one (Zech. 10:7); the one armed with the bow (Zech. 9:13). The sons of Ephraim are called armed men and shooters of the bow (Ps. 78:9); for a bow means doctrine from the Word militating against falsities. For the same reason too Ephraim was transferred to Israel's right hand and blessed, and also received in place of Reuben* (Gen. 48:5, 11ff). Also Ephraim with his brother Manasseh was raised above all others by Moses when he blessed the sons of Israel in the name of Joseph their father (Deut. 33:13-17).
[2] What the church, however, is like when its understanding of the Word is destroyed is also described by Ephraim in the prophets, especially in Hosea, as in the following passages:
Israel and Ephraim will fall; Ephraim will become a wilderness. Ephraim is overwhelmed and shaken in judgment. Hosea 5:5, 9, 11-14.
What shall I do to you, Ephraim? For your holiness has departed, like the clouds of dawn and like the dew that falls in the morning. Hosea 6:4.
They will not dwell in the land of Jehovah; Ephraim will return to Egypt, and will eat unclean food in Assyria. Hosea 9:3.
The land of Jehovah is the church; Egypt is the factual knowledge of the natural man; Assyria is reasoning from this. It is these two together which lead to falsification of the Word in respect of its inward understanding. This is why it is said that Ephraim will return to Egypt and eat unclean food in Assyria.
[3] Ephraim pastures the wind and pursues the east wind; every day he increases the lie and devastation; he makes an agreement with
Assyria and oil is carried down into Egypt. Hosea 12:1.
Pasturing the wind, pursuing the east wind and increasing the lie and devastation is falsifying truths and so destroying the church. Ephraim's whoring has a similar meaning, as whoring means the falsification of the understanding of the Word, that is, of its genuine truth, in the following passages:
I know Ephraim, that he has utterly given himself to whoring, and Israel is defiled. Hosea 5:3.
In the house of Israel I have seen a foul thing; there Ephraim went whoring and Israel is defiled. Hosea 6:10.
Israel is the church itself, and Ephraim is the understanding of the Word, the source which determines what sort of church it is. This is why it says that Ephraim went whoring and Israel is defiled.
[4] The church among the Israelite and Jewish people was utterly destroyed by falsifying the Word, so therefore it is said of Ephraim:
I shall give you up, Ephraim, I shall hand you over, Israel, like Admah and I shall make you like Zeboyim. Hosea 11:8.
So because the book of the prophet Hosea from the first chapter to the last is about the falsification of the genuine understanding of the Word and the resultant destruction of the church, and because whoring there means the falsification of truth, that is why the prophet was ordered to represent that state of the church by taking to wife a whore and having sons by her (chapter 1), and again by taking an adulterous woman (chapter 3).
These passages have been quoted to provide knowledge and proof from the Word that what the church is like depends on how the Word is understood in it. It is excellent and valuable, if its understanding is based upon genuine truths from the Word, but ruined and actually foul, if based upon falsified truths.
* Thought by some editors to be an error for Manasseh, but the reference may be to verse 5: 'Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine as Reuben and Simeon are.'
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