As we face temptation, in the struggle between our desire to be good and our lust for evil, the next step is to try to mollify our evil desires, to sort of convince ourselves that being good will be just as much fun as being bad, that we can turn away from evil acts, do what’s right and be happy without really changing.

That’s illustrated here as Lot (representing those in the Ancient Church who are still good) offers the men of Sodom (the evil people of the Ancient Church) his virgin daughters (affections for what is truen and for doing what is good, which have not been defiled by falsity) as something that will bring them a state of blessedness if they will stop trying to attack the idea of the Lord, represented by the two visiting angels. The idea is that they could get just as much delight from being good as they could from being evil.

This meaning is, of course, pretty deep under the surface of a story which is pretty horrifying on its outer face. In a way, casting the rape of the daughters as a good thing shows just how twisted our logic gets when we’re trying to cling to our evils in a state of temptation.

(Odkazy: Arcana Coelestia 2361)

5071. That they on the left hand are called “cursed,” and their punishment “eternal fire,” as where it is said:

Then shall He say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from Me ye cursed into the eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels;

and,

These shall go away into eternal punishment;

is because they have averted themselves from good and truth, and have turned to evil and falsity. A “curse,” in the internal sense of the Word, signifies a turning away (n. 245, 379, 1423, 3530, 3584). The “eternal fire” into which they must depart is not natural fire, nor is it torment of conscience, but is concupiscence of evil; for the concupiscences in man are spiritual fires which consume him in the life of the body, and torment him in the other life. By these fires the infernals torture one another in direful ways.

[2] That “eternal fire” is not natural fire, is evident. That it is not torment of conscience, is because all who are in evil have no conscience, and they who have had none in the life of the body cannot have any in the other life. But that it is concupiscence is because all vital fire is from the loves in man-heavenly fire from the love of good and truth, and infernal fire from the love of evil and falsity-or what is the same, heavenly fire is from love to the Lord and love toward the neighbor, and infernal fire is from the love of self and the love of the world. That all the fire or heat within man is from this source, anyone may know if he pays attention to the matter. It is for this reason also that love is called spiritual heat, and that by “fire” and “heat” in the Word nothing else is signified (n. 934, 1297, 1527, 1528, 1861, 2446, 4906). The vital fire in the evil is such that when they are in the vehemence of their concupiscences, they are also in a kind of fire, from which they are in the ardor and fury of tormenting others; but the vital fire in the good is such that when in a high degree of affection, they also are in a kind of fire, but from it they are in the love and zeal of benefiting others.