1463. That 'sojourning' means receiving instruction becomes clear from the meaning in the Word of 'sojourning' as receiving instruction, and it has this meaning because sojourning and passing on, or moving from one place to another, is in heaven nothing else than a change of state, as shown already in 1376, 1379. Therefore every time travelling, sojourning, or transferring from one place to another occurs in the Word nothing else suggests itself to angels than a change of state such as takes place with them. There are changes of state both of thoughts and of affections. Changes of the state of thoughts are cognitions, which in the world of spirits are represented by means of forms of instruction. This also explains why members of the Most Ancient Church, having communication with the angelic heaven, did not perceive anything else by 'sojourning'. Thus the statement here that 'Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn' does not mean anything other than the Lord's being instructed.

[2] Something similar is meant by Jacob and his sons going down into Egypt, as in Isaiah,

Thus said the Lord Jehovih, My people went down to Egypt at first to sojourn there, and Asshur oppressed them without cause. Isaiah 52:4.

Here 'Asshur' stands for reasonings. This is also why in the Jewish Church people who were receiving instruction were called 'sojourners, sojourning in their midst' who, it was commanded, were to receive the same treatment as the native-born, Exodus 12:48-49; Leviticus 24:22; Numbers 15:13-16, 26, 29; 19:10. Regarding sojourners it is said in Ezekiel,

You shall divide this land among you according to the tribes of Israel. You shall divide it by lot as an inheritance for yourselves and for sojourners, sojourning in your midst. They shall be to you as native-born among the children of Israel, they shall cast lots with you for an inheritance in the midst of the tribes of Israel. In the tribe with which the sojourner has sojourned, there shall you give him his inheritance. Ezekiel 47:21-23.

This refers to the new Jerusalem, or the Lord's kingdom. 'Sojourners sojourning' is used to mean people who allow themselves to receive instruction, consequently the gentiles. That 'sojourners' stands for people who are receiving instruction is clear from the fact that it is said 'in the tribe with which he has sojourned, there shall an inheritance be given him'. 'Tribes' stands for the things that constitute faith.

[3] 'Sojourning' is also similar in meaning to travelling and dwelling. 'Travelling' means the established patterns and order of life, while 'dwelling' means living, both dealt with already in 1293. For the same reasons the land of Canaan is also called 'the land of the sojournings of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob', in Genesis 28:4; 36:7; 37:1; Exodus 6:4. And Jacob said to Pharaoh,

The days of the years of my sojournings; few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their sojournings. Genesis 47:9.

Here 'sojourning' stands for life and for forms of instruction.

7197. 'The land of their sojournings in which they sojourned' means where those things reside that are aspects of faith and charity in which they have received instruction and which they have practised in life. This is clear from the meaning of 'the land' as the Lord's kingdom in heaven and on earth, dealt with immediately above in 7196, and so too the things that belong to the Lord's kingdom, which, it is well known, are faith and charity (these too are therefore meant by 'the land of Canaan when the subject is instruction and life, meant by 'sojourning'); and from the meaning of 'sojourning' as instruction and life, dealt with in 1463, 2015, 3672. From this it is evident that 'the land of their sojournings in which they sojourned' means where those things reside that are aspects of faith and charity in which they have received instruction and which they have practised in life. The implications of all this are that heaven is given to each person in the next life in the measure that aspects of faith and charity reside with him; for charity and faith compose heaven with everyone, though when it is said that charity and faith compose heaven this means a life of charity and faith. Yet it should be fully recognized that the life which holds heaven within it is a life led in conformity with those truths and forms of the good of faith which a person has been taught about. Unless they are the rules and standards of his life his expectation of heaven is in vain, no matter how he has lived. Without them a person is like a reed which sways with every wind, for he is moved equally by those who are evil as by those who are good. This is because he has no firmly established truth or good at all within himself which the angels can use to maintain him in truths and forms of good, and to steer him away from the falsities and evils constantly introduced by those from hell. In short, a life of Christian goodness is what composes heaven, not a life of natural goodness.