10731. 'Everyone doing work on it shall die' means spiritual death to those who are led by self and selfish loves, and not by the Lord. This is clear from the meaning of '[doing] work on the sabbath day' as being led by self and selfish loves, and not by the Lord, dealt with in 8495, 10360, 10362, 10364; and from the meaning of 'dying' as damnation or spiritual death, dealt with in 6119, 9008. Those led by self and selfish loves do not believe in the Lord, for belief in the Lord consists in being led by Him and not by self. Nor, as a result of this, do they see any value at all in the union of His Human with the Divine itself, nor indeed any value at all in being regenerated by the Lord, nor thus any value in the Church's truths either. For they say to themselves, What are such things? Or, What advantage do we have if we know them, indeed think about them and desire them? Surely we live in the way others do, so what difference does it make? The reason why they think like this is that the life of the world, not the life of heaven, governs their thinking; the life of heaven is something about which they are ignorant and no one's thought can be governed by that of which he is ignorant. People such as these therefore cannot be saved, for they do not have heaven within them and consequently cannot be in heaven; their interiors are not in accord with it. For unless their interiors have been rearranged by the Lord to conform to an image of heaven there can be no joining to heaven. This is what those people are like who refuse to believe in those all-embracing realities. This condition in a person is what is meant by '[doing] work on the sabbath day', and the spiritual death of such is what is meant by their natural death.

10362. 'He who profanes it' means being led by self and one's own loves, and not by the Lord. This is clear from the meaning of 'profaning the sabbath', or doing work on the sabbath day, as being led by self and not by the Lord, thus by one's own loves. That this is what 'profaning the sabbath' means is clear in Isaiah,

If you turn you foot away from the sabbath, so that you do not do your own will on My holy day, and do not do your own ways, and do not find your own desire and speak [your own] words ... Isaiah 58:13.

'Turning one's foot away from the sabbath' means forsaking such things as belong to the natural man. 'Doing one's own will' means doing that which is favourable to selfish desires and the evils of self-love and love of the world. 'Doing one's own ways' means doing that which is favourable to the falsities of evil. 'Finding one's own desire' means leading a life that accords with the delights that belong to those types of love, and 'speaking [one's own] words' thinking such things. From all this it is evident that 'profaning the sabbath' means being led by self and one's own loves, and not by the Lord, who in the highest sense is the sabbath, as shown just above.

[2] The like is meant by the kinds of work, such as cutting wood, lighting a fire, preparing food then, gathering in the harvest, and many other kinds, which people were prohibited from doing on the sabbath day; all these had a like meaning. 'Cutting wood' meant being led by self to do what was good; 'lighting a fire' meant being inflamed to do it by their own selfish loves; and 'preparing food' meant teaching themselves by means of their own intelligence. No one can know except from the internal sense that these prohibitions which have been mentioned imply such things.

[3] It should in addition be remembered that being led by self and being led by the Lord are two opposites. Someone who is led by self is led by his own loves, and so by hell since the loves that are a person's own originate there; but someone who is led by the Lord is led by heaven's loves, which are love to the Lord and love towards the neighbour. One who is led by these loves is allured away from selfish loves, whereas one who is led by selfish loves is allured away from heaven's loves; for selfish loves agree in no way at all with heaven's loves. A person's life is located either in heaven or in hell; it is impossible for it to be in one and at the same time in the other. This is how the Lord's words in Matthew should be understood,

No one can serve two lords, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will cling to the one and disregard the other. Matthew 6:24.

From all this it is evident what 'doing work on the sabbath day' means.