9335. 'And the wild animal of the field multiplies against you' means an inrush of falsities arising from the delights of self-love and love of the world. This is clear from the meaning of 'multiplying', when it has reference to a hurried removal of evils and falsities, as an inrush; and from the meaning of 'the wild animal of the field' as falsities arising from the delights of self-love and love of the world. For affections, good and bad, are meant in the Word by different kinds of beasts, 9280, and therefore affections for falsity that arise from the delights of self-love and love of the world are meant by 'wild animals'. These affections are also represented in the next life by wild animals, such as panthers, tigers, boars, wolves, or bears. Such affections furthermore resemble wild animals, for people ruled by those loves are steeped in evils of every kind and in the falsities arising from them. They are like wild animals in the way they see and treat companions. The fact that those loves are the source of all evils and falsities, see 2041, 2045, 2057, 2363, 2364, 2444, 4750, 4776, 6667, 7178, 7255, 7364, 7366-7377, 7488, 7490-7494, 7643, 8318, 8487, 8678.

[2] The reason why a hurried removal of evils and falsities leads to an inrush of falsities arising from those loves is that forms of good and truths, implanted in successive stages, must remove them; for falsities are not removed except by truths, nor evils except by forms of good. If this removal is not done in successive stages and in keeping with proper order, falsities that lend support to those selfish loves enter in, since those loves reign with every person before he has been regenerated; and when the falsities enter in truths cease to be acknowledged any longer. Also a person who is being regenerated is maintained in an affection for truth; and when maintained in this he searches for truths in all directions among factual knowledge in the natural. But at this time illusions of the outward senses, which exist in great abundance in the natural, present themselves there. From those illusions, when the delights of self-love and love of the world hold sway, the person deduces nothing except falsities, which come in and fill his mind if falsities arising from evil are removed suddenly. These are the considerations that are meant in the internal sense by I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest perhaps the land becomes desolate and the wild animal of the field multiplies against you. Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you become fruitful and inherit the land.

[3] The fact that 'wild animal' means falsity and evil arising from self-love and love of the world is evident from places in the Word which mention it, as in Isaiah,

There will be a path there and a way, which will be called the way of holiness. The unclean will not pass through it; the savage of the wild animals will not go up it. Isaiah 35:8-9.

In Ezekiel,

I will send famine and evil wild animals upon you, that they may make you bereft. Ezekiel 5:17.

In the same prophet,

When I cause evil wild animals to pass through the land and they leave it bereft so that ¹ it becomes a desolation, with the result that no one passes through on account of the wild animals ... Ezekiel 14:15.

In the same prophet,

You will fall on the open field; ² to the wild animals of the earth, and to the birds of the air I will give you for food. Ezekiel 29:5.

In the same prophet,

At that time I will make with them a covenant of peace, and I will banish ³ the evil wild animal from the land, in order that they may dwell securely in the wilderness. They will no longer be a prey for the nations, and the wild animals of the field will no longer devour them. Ezekiel 34:25, 28.

[4] In Hosea,

I will lay waste her vine and her fig tree; and I will make them into a forest, and the wild animals of the field will eat them. Hosea 2:12.

In the same prophet,

The land will mourn and every inhabitant will waste away because of the wild animals of the field and the birds of the air. Hosea 4:3.

In David,

The boar of the forest tramples on it, and the wild animal of the fields feeds on it. Return, O God Zebaoth, and visit Your vine. Psalms 80:13-14.

In the same author,

You dispose the darkness to become night, in which every wild animal of the forest comes forth. Psalms 104:20.

In Moses,

If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments and do them, I will banish ³ the evil wild animals from the land. But if you despise My statutes, I will send into you the wild animals of the field, which will lay you waste. Leviticus 26:3, 6, 15, 22.

In the same author,

Jehovah your God will cast out the nations before you little by little, lest perhaps the wild animals of the field multiply against you. Deuteronomy 7:22.

In these places 'the wild animals of the field', 'the wild animals of the earth', and 'the wild animals of the forest' stand for the falsities and evils that belong to self-love and love of the world.

[5] Since 'wild animal' means falsity, and falsity can spring from two different origins, that is to say, it may stem from evil or it may stem from good, 9258, 'wild animal' in the Word also means upright nations or gentiles who, though they are subject to falsity, nevertheless lead upright lives. The term 'wild animal' is used in this sense in David,

Every wild animal of the forest is Mine, and beasts on mountains of thousands; I know every bird of the mountains, and the wild animal of My fields is with Me. Psalms 50:10-11.

In the same author,

Praise Jehovah, wild animals and all beasts! Psalms 148:7, 10.

In Isaiah,

All wild animals of My fields - come to eat, all wild animals in the forest. Isaiah 56:9.

In Ezekiel,

In the branches of the cedar, which was Asshur, all the birds of the air made their nests, and under its branches every wild animal of the field brought forth, and in its shadow dwelt all great nations. Ezekiel 31:6.

Poznámky pod čarou:

5116. 'Its blossom came up' means the state next to regeneration. This is clear from the meaning of 'the blossom' which appears on the tree before the fruit as the state before regeneration. The budding and fruiting of a tree represents, as stated immediately above in 5115, the person's rebirth. Becoming covered with leaves represents the first state, with blossom the second, that is, the one immediately before regeneration, and fruiting the third, which is the actual state of one who has been regenerated. Consequently 'leaves' means the things that belong to intelligence, which are the truths of faith, 885, for these come first in a person's rebirth or regeneration. By 'blossoms' however are meant the things that belong to wisdom, which are the goods of faith, since these come immediately before rebirth or regeneration, while 'fruits' means the things that are matters of life, which are the works of charity, in that these come after rebirth and constitute the actual state of one who is regenerate.

[2] These features of the vegetable kingdom owe their existence to the influx of the spiritual world into it; but people who attribute everything to natural forces and nothing to the Divine are in no way able to believe this. Those however who attribute everything to the Divine and nothing to natural forces have the ability to see that every single thing owes its existence to that influx. Not only that, each individual thing also has a correspondence, and because it has a correspondence it is a representative. In the end such people have the ability to see that the whole natural system is a theatre representative of the Lord's kingdom, thus that the Divine exists within each individual thing, so much so that the whole natural system is a representation of that which is eternal and infinite - eternal because the reproduction of species continues without end, infinite because the multiplication of seeds is unlimited. Such endeavours to reproduce and multiply could not possibly come to exist in each individual thing in the vegetable kingdom if the Divine were not flowing into it unceasingly. This influx is what provides the impulse to reproduce and to multiply; the impulse brings the power to make this a reality, and that power leads to the actual realization of it.

[3] People who attribute everything to natural forces say that such impulses to reproduce and to multiply were introduced into fruits and seeds when things were first created, and because of the power which they have received from those impulses fruits and seeds ever since then are carried spontaneously into such activities. But those people do not take into consideration the fact that continuance in being is constant coming into being, or what is much the same, that reproduction is creation taking place constantly. Nor do they take into consideration the fact that an effect is the continuation of its cause, and that when a cause ceases to exist so does the effect, and consequently that without constant influx from its cause every effect perishes in an instant. Neither do they take into consideration the fact that anything that is not linked to the first being of all, consequently to the Divine, instantly ceases to have any existence; for to have any being, what is posterior must have what is prior existing unceasingly within it.

[4] If those attributing everything to natural forces and little, scarcely anything, to the Divine were to take these facts into consideration they would also be able to acknowledge that every single thing in the natural system represents something akin to it in the spiritual world, and therefore something akin to it in the Lord's kingdom, where the closest representation of the Lord's Divine exists. This is why reference has been made to an influx coming from the spiritual world; but by this is meant an influx from the Lord's Divine coming by way of the spiritual world. The reason adherents to naturalism do not take such facts into consideration is that they are not willing to acknowledge them, since they are immersed in earthly and bodily interests and as a consequence in the life belonging to self-love and love of the world. As a result, so far as things belonging to the spiritual world, that is, to heaven are concerned, the complete reverse of true order exists with them; and to view such matters from within a state in which order is turned around is not possible, since higher things are then seen as lower ones, and lower things as higher ones. This also accounts for the fact that, when persons like these are seen in the next life in the light of heaven, they are seen with their heads pointing downwards and their feet upwards.

[5] Who among these, when he sees blossom on a tree or on anything else that grows, thinks of it as an expression of gladness so to speak that fruit and seeds are now being brought forth? All that such persons see is that blossom comes first and remains until rudimentary forms of the fruit and seeds are formed within it, whereby sap is conveyed into them. If they knew anything about human rebirth or regeneration, or rather if they wanted to know, they would also see in that blossom, because of the similarity there, a representative of a person's state before regeneration. They would see that because of the good which his intelligence and wisdom desires he is in a similar way blooming, that is, he possesses an inner gladness and beauty, because now he is endeavouring to implant these - that is to say, forms of good desired by intelligence and wisdom - in his life; that is, he is endeavouring to bear fruit. Such persons cannot know about the nature of this state because knowledge of what that inner gladness and inner beauty so represented are does not exist at all with people who feel no gladness other than that which accompanies love of the world and no delight other than that connected with self-love. Worldly or selfish feelings of gladness or delight cause inner ones to be seen as the opposite of gladness and delight, so much so that those persons loathe them. In loathing them they also brush them aside as something worthless or as something that has no actual existence. As a consequence they refuse to accept them, and at the same time they refuse to accept that what is spiritual or celestial is really anything at all. This is how the absurd thinking of the present day which is believed to be wisdom comes about.