243. The third living creature had a face like a human being. This symbolizes the Divine truth of the Word in respect to its wisdom.

A human being in the Word symbolizes wisdom, because the human being was born to receive wisdom from the Lord and become an angel. The wiser someone is, therefore, the more human he is. True human wisdom consists in perceiving the existence of God, the nature of God, and what pertains to God. This is what the Divine truth of the Word teaches.

That a human being symbolizes wisdom is apparent from the following passages:

I will make a man more rare than fine gold, and a human being more rare than the gold of Ophir. (Isaiah 13:12)

A man means intelligence, and a human being wisdom.

...the inhabitants of the earth shall be burned up, and rare will be the human being left. (Isaiah 24:6)

...I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of a human being and the seed of an animal. (Jeremiah 31:27)

You are My flock...; you are humankind, I am your God. (Ezekiel 34:31)

...the ruined cities shall be filled with a flock of humankind. (Ezekiel 36:38)

I looked upon the earth when, lo, it was empty and void, and to the heavens when they had not their light... I looked when, lo, there was no human being... (Jeremiah 4:23, 25)

They sacrifice a human being, they kiss the calves. (Hosea 13:2)

He measured the wall (of the Holy Jerusalem): one hundred and forty-four cubits, the measure of a human being, which is that of an angel. (Revelation 21:17)

So, too, in many other places, where a human being symbolizes someone who is wise, and in an abstract sense, wisdom itself.

2411. 'The men grasped his hand, and his wife's hand, and his daughters' hands' means that the Lord withheld him powerfully from evils and in so doing strengthened goods and truths meant by 'Lot, his wife, and his daughters'. This is clear from the meaning of 'the men' as the Lord, dealt with above; from the meaning of 'hand' as power, dealt with in 878; also from the meaning of 'Lot' as good that flows from charity, dealt with in 2324, 2351, 2371, 2399; from the meaning of 'wife' as the truth of faith, dealt with in verse 26 below; and from the meaning of 'daughters' as affections for truth and for good, dealt with in 489-491, 2362. Last of all it is clear from what has been stated in 2388, that is to say, that good and truth flow in from the Lord in the measure that a person is withheld from evil. Consequently the goods and truths meant by 'Lot, his wife, and his two daughters' are in that measure strengthened.

[2] This anyone may know from personal experience, if he stops to reflect. To the extent he is removed from bodily and worldly interests his ideas are spiritual, that is, he is lifted up towards heaven, as happens when engaged in any kind of sacred worship, when undergoing any temptation, and also when experiencing misfortune or sickness. At such times bodily and worldly interests - that is, the loves of them - are, as is well known, removed. The reason, which has been stated, is that what is celestial and spiritual is flowing in constantly from the Lord, but evil together with derivative falsity exists, and falsity together with derivative evil, which flow in from the bodily and worldly interests and obstruct the reception of what is celestial and spiritual.