When we’re suffering temptation, often the worst part of it is the feeling that the Lord has abandoned us – that just when we need Him most, he’s not there. The fact is, of course, that He is there; that feeling is part of the necessary process if we are to truly trust Him and let him take our evils from us.

That feeling is illustrated in this verse, when the angels – who represent the Lord’s human aspect and his active effect – initially turn down Lot’s invitation.

The story here is about the Lord judging the remnants of the Ancient Church, which had fallen into falsity and love of self. Lot represents the people within that church who still had a desire to be good; they recognized that judgment was near and ask the Lord to be with them. But their cry seems to go unheard; when the angels say they will sleep in the square, it represents the idea that the Lord is willing to judge the people based solely on factual evidence, which would have condemned them.

(Odkazy: Arcana Coelestia 2328)

1997. I will multiply thee very exceedingly. That this signifies the fruitfulness to infinity of the affection of truth, may be seen from the signification of “to be multiplied,” as being predicated of truth (explained, n. 43, 55, 913, 983); and as the Lord is treated of, it signifies the fruitfulness to infinity of the truth that is from good (as before, n. 1940). There are two affections, namely, the affection of good, and the affection of truth. The affection of good is to do what is good from the love of good, and the affection of truth is to do what is good from the love of truth. At the first view these two affections appear to be the same; but in reality they are distinct from each other both as to essence and as to origin. The affection of good, or doing what is good from the love of good, is properly of the will; but the affection of truth, or doing what is good from the love of truth, is properly of the understanding. Thus these two affections are distinct from each other in the same way as are the will and the understanding. The affection of good is from celestial love, but the affection of truth is from spiritual love.

[2] The affection of good can be predicated solely of the celestial man, but the affection of truth, of the spiritual man. What the celestial or the celestial man is, and what the spiritual or the spiritual man, has been sufficiently shown in Part First. The Most Ancient Church, which existed before the flood, was in the affection of good; but the Ancient Church, which existed after the flood, was in the affection of truth; for the former was a celestial church, but the latter a spiritual church. All the angels in the heavens are distinguished into the celestial and the spiritual. The celestial are they who are in the affection of good, the spiritual are they who are in the affection of truth; to the former the Lord appears as a sun, but to the latter as a moon (n. 1529-1531, 1838). This latter affection, of truth, the Lord united to the affection of good, which is to do what is good from the love of good, when He united the Human Essence to the Divine Essence. Hence by “multiplying very exceedingly,” is signified the fruitfulness to infinity of the truth that is from good.