Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
And Lot lifted up his eyes, and he saw all the plain of Jordan, that the whole of it was well-watered, before Jehovah destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, like the garden of Jehovah, like the land of Egypt as you come to Zoar. (Genesis 13:10)
• 'And Lot lifted up his eyes' means that the external man received light from the internal.
• 'And he saw all the plain of Jordan' means the goods and truths that resided with the external man.
• 'That the whole of it was well-watered' means that they are able to grow there.
• 'Before Jehovah destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah' means before the external man was destroyed by desires for evil and by persuasions of falsity.
• 'Like the garden of Jehovah' means rational concepts in the external man.
• 'Like the land of Egypt as you come to Zoar' means facts acquired from affections for good.
These statements mean that the external Man appeared to the Lord as it is in its beauty when joined to the Internal Man.
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• 'And he saw all the plain of Jordan' means the goods and truths that resided with the external man. This is clear from the meaning of 'a plain' and of 'the Jordan'. In the internal sense 'the plain surrounding the Jordan' means the external man as regards all his goods and truths. The reason the plain of Jordan has this meaning is that the Jordan was a boundary of the land of Canaan. 'The land of Canaan', as stated and shown already, means the Lord's kingdom and Church, and in particular its celestial and spiritual things; this also explains why it was called the Holy Land, and the heavenly Canaan. And because it means the Lord's kingdom and Church, it means in the highest sense the Lord Himself, who is the All in all of His kingdom and of His Church.
For this reason all things in the land of Canaan were representative. Those in the midst of the land, or that were inmost, represented His internal Man - Mount Zion and Jerusalem, for example, representing respectively celestial things and spiritual things. More outlying districts represented things more remote from internals. And the most outlying districts, or those which formed the boundaries, represented the external man. There were several boundaries to the land of Canaan, but in general, they were the two rivers Euphrates and Jordan, and also the Sea, (i.e. the Great or Mediterranean Sea), for which reason the Euphrates and the Jordan represented external things. Here therefore 'the plain of Jordan' means, as it also represents, all things residing in the external man. The meaning of the land of Canaan is similar when used in reference to the Lord's kingdom in heaven, to the Lord's Church on earth, to the member of that kingdom or Church, or abstractly to the celestial things of love, and so on.
Almost all the cities therefore, and indeed all the mountains, hills, valleys, rivers, and other features in the land of Canaan, were representative. The river Euphrates, being a boundary, represented, sensory evidence and facts that belong to the external man, and so too did the Jordan and the plain of Jordan, as becomes clear from the following places: In David,
O my God, my soul bows itself down within me; (lit. upon me) therefore I remember You from the land of Jordan, and the Hermons from the little mountain. Ps 42:6.Here 'the land of Jordan' stands for that which is lowly and so is distant from the celestial, as a person's externals are from his internals.
The crossing of the Jordan when the children of Israel entered the land of Canaan and the dividing of its waters at that time also represented the approach to the internal man by way of the external, as well as a person's entry into the Lord's kingdom, and much more besides, Josh. 3:14 on to the end of Chapter 4. And because the external man is constantly hostile towards the internal and strives for domination over it, the arrogance or the pride of the Jordan came to be phrases used by the Prophets, as in Jeremiah,
How will you compete with horses? And confident in a land of peace how do you deal with the pride of the Jordan? Jer. 12:5.'The pride of the Jordan' stands for those things belonging to the external man which rear up and wish to have dominion over the internal, such as reasonings, meant here by 'horses', and 'the confidence' they give.
In the same prophet,
Edom will become a desolation. Behold, like a lion it will come up from the arrogance of the Jordan against the habitation of Ethan. Jer. 49:17, 19.'The arrogance of the Jordan' stands for the pride of the external man against the goods and truths of the internal. In Zechariah,
Howl, O fir tree, for the cedar is fallen, for the magnificent ones have been laid waste! Howl, O oaks of Bashan, for the impenetrable forest has come down. The sound of the howling of shepherds [is heard], for their magnificence has been laid waste; the sound of the roaring of young lions, that the pride of the Jordan has been laid waste. Zech. 11:2, 3.The fact that the Jordan was a boundary of the land of Canaan is clear from Num. 34:12, and the eastern boundary of the land of Judah, in Josh. 15:5.
• 'That the whole of it was wall-watered' means that they, that is to say, goods and truths, are able to grow there. ...
• 'Before Jehovah destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah' means before the external man was destroyed by desires for evil and by persuasions of falsity. This becomes clear from the meaning of 'Sodom' as desires for evil, and from the meaning of 'Gomorrah' as persuasions of falsity. These two (desires for evil and persuasions of falsity) are indeed what destroy the external man and separate it from the internal, and it was these two that destroyed the Most Ancient Church prior to the Flood. Desires for evil belong to the will, and persuasions of falsity to the understanding. And when these two are in control, the whole of the external man is destroyed, a destroying which also entails its separation from the internal man. It is not that the soul or spirit is separated from the body but that good and truth have been separated from the person's soul or spirit so that their influx is felt only from a distance. ...
Because among the human race the external man had been so destroyed and its link with the internal, that is, with good and truth, had been severed, the Lord came into the world to join together and unite the External Man to the Internal Man, that is, the Human Essence to the Divine Essence. This verse describes the nature of the external man when joined to the internal, that is to say, by the words 'before Jehovah destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, like the garden of Jehovah, like the land of Egypt as you come to Zoar'
• 'Like the garden of Jehovah' means the rational concepts in the external man. This is clear from the meaning of 'the garden of Jehovah' as intelligence, ... consequently, the rational which comes in between the internal man and the external man. The rational is intelligence as it exists in the external man. It is called 'the garden of Jehovah' when the rational is celestial, that is, when it has a celestial origin, as was the case with the Most Ancient Church. This is described in Isaiah as follows,
Jehovah will comfort Zion, He will comfort all her waste places, and will make her wilderness like Eden and her desert like the garden of ]Jehovah. Joy and gladness will be found in her, confession and the voice of song. Isa. 51:3.When however the rational is spiritual, that is, when it has a spiritual origin, as was the case with the Ancient Church, the expression 'the garden of God' is used, as in Ezekiel,
Full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty, you were in Eden, the garden of God. Ezek. 28:12, 13.A person's rational is compared to a garden because this is how it is represented in heaven. It is man's rational that manifests itself in just this way when that which is celestial-spiritual flows into it from the Lord. Indeed it is this which presents to view the paradise gardens whose magnificence and beauty surpass everything the human mind can imagine. This is the effect which the influx of celestial-spiritual light from the Lord produces. It is not the loveliness and beauty of these gardens that stir the emotions but the celestial-spiritual elements that live within them.
• 'Like the land of Egypt as you come to Zoar' means facts acquired from affections for good. This becomes clear from the meaning of 'Egypt' ... as knowledge, and from the meaning of 'Zoar' as the affection for good. Zoar was a city not far from Sodom, to which also Lot fled when he was snatched by angels from the fire of Sodom, as described in Gen. 19:20, 22, 30. In addition to this, Zoar is referred to in Gen. 14:2, 8; Deut. 34:3; Isa. 15:5; Jer. 48:34, in all of which places also it means an affection. And since it means the affection for good, it also means in the contrary sense, as is usual, the affection for evil.
There are three constituent parts of the external man - rational, factual, and external sensory. The rational part is more interior, the factual more exterior, and the external sensory the most external.
The rational is the part by means of which the internal man is joined to the external, the character of the rational determining the character of this conjunction.
The external sensory part consists, in the present instance, in sight and hearing. But in itself the rational has no existence if affection does not flow into it, making it active so as to receive life. Consequently the rational receives its character from that of the affection flowing into it. When the affection for good flows in, that affection for good becomes with the rational an affection for truth; and the contrary happens when the affection for evil flows in.
Because the factual part attaches itself to the rational and serves as its agent it also follows that the affection flows into and reorganizes the factual part. For nothing has life in the external man apart from affection. The reason is that the affection for good comes down from the celestial, that is, from celestial love, which imparts life to everything into which it flows, even to affections for evil, that is, to evil desires.
Actually, the good of love from the Lord flows in constantly, doing so through the internal man into the external. But anyone who is governed by an affection for evil, that is, by an evil desire, corrupts that good. Nevertheless, the life brought to it remains. Such may be seen from a comparison with objects on which the sun's rays fall. There are some objects which accept them in a most beautiful way, converting them into the most beautiful colors, as a diamond, ruby, jacinth, sapphire, and other precious stones do. Other objects however do not accept them in that manner but convert them into the ugliest colors. The same point may be shown from the very characters of people. There are some who accept the good actions of another with every display of affection, while others convert them into evil. From this it becomes clear what the knowledge acquired from affections for good is which is meant by 'the land of Egypt as you come to Zoar' when the rational is 'like the garden of Jehovah'.
That these statements mean that the External Man appeared to the Lord as it is in its beauty when joined to the Internal Man becomes clear from the internal sense, in which the Lord as regards His Internal Man is represented by 'Abram' and as regards His External Man by 'Lot'. It is impossible to describe how beautiful the External Man is when joined to the Internal since that beauty does not exist with any human being, but solely with the Lord, and any which does exist with any man or angel comes from the Lord. The nature of it becomes in some small measure clear from the image of the Lord as regards His External Man in the heavens. The three heavens are images of the Lord's External Man, yet it is in no way possible to give a description of the nature of their beauty that anyone can comprehend. Just as everything in the Lord is Infinite, so everything in heaven is boundless. And the boundlessness of heaven is an image of the Lord's Infinity.
(from Arcana Coelestia 1584-1590)