10530. Unto a land flowing with milk and honey. That this signifies what is pleasant and delightful from the good of faith and of love, is evident from the signification of “land,” as being the church (of which in the places cited in n. 9325); from the signification of “milk,” as being spiritual good, which is the good of faith (see n. 2184); from the signification of “honey,” as being celestial good, which is the good of love; and from the signification of “flowing,” as being to be full. And because these things are signified by “a land flowing with milk and honey,” that which is pleasant and delightful from the good of faith and of love is also signified (n. 5620). It is said what is pleasant and delightful from these, because heavenly pleasantness and delight itself is in the good of faith and of love; for every good has its delight, for that is called good which is loved, and all delight is of love. The delight which is meant by heavenly joy, and by eternal happiness, is from no other source than the love of truth and of good. That this delight is superior to any delight of any love whatsoever that is to be found in the world, is quite unknown to those who make all delight to consist in worldly, bodily, and earthly things.

739. That by the “flood of waters” is signified the beginning of temptation, is evident from temptation as to things of the understanding being here treated of, which temptation precedes, and, as before said, is light; and for this reason it is called a “flood of waters” and not simply “a flood” as in the seventeenth verse (Genesis 7:17). For “waters” signify especially the spiritual things of man, the intellectual things of faith, and the opposites of these, which are falsities; as may be confirmed by very many passages from the Word.

[2] That a “flood” or “inundation” of waters signifies temptation, is evident from what was shown in the introduction to this chapter. So also in Ezekiel:

Thus saith the Lord Jehovih, I will make a stormy wind to break through in My fury, and an inundating rain shall there be in Mine anger, and hailstones in wrath, unto the consummation, that I may destroy the wall that ye have daubed with what is unfit (Ezekiel 13:13-14).

Here a “stormy wind” and an “inundating rain” denote the desolation of falsities; the “wall daubed with what is unfit” denotes fiction appearing as truth.

In Isaiah:

Jehovah God is a protection from inundation, a shadow from the heat, for the breath of the violent is as an inundation against the wall (Isaiah 25:4).

An “inundation” here denotes temptation as to things of the understanding, and is distinguished from temptation as to things of the will, which is called “heat.”

[3] Again:

Behold the Lord hath a mighty and strong one, as an inundation of hail, a destroying storm, as an inundation of mighty waters, overflowing (Isaiah 28:2),

where degrees of temptation are described. And again:

When thou passest through the waters I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee; when thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burned, and the flame shall not kindle upon thee (Isaiah 43:2).

“Waters” and “rivers” here denote falsities and phantasies, “fire” and “flame” evils and cupidities.

In David:

For this shall everyone that is holy pray unto Thee at a time of finding; so that in the inundation of many waters they shall not reach unto him; Thou art my hiding place; Thou wilt preserve me from trouble (Psalms 32:6-7),where the “inundation of waters” denotes temptation which is also called a “flood.” In the same:

Jehovah sitteth at the flood; yea, Jehovah sitteth King forever (Psalms 29:10).

From these passages, and from what was premised at the beginning of this chapter, it is evident that a “flood” or “inundation” of waters signifies nothing else than temptations and vastations, although described historically, after the manner of the most ancient people.