2438. 'For I cannot do anything until you come to it' means that before judgement is effected on the evil those with the affection for truth have to be saved. This becomes clear from the fact that the words 'I cannot do anything' mean the judgement effected on the evil, described shortly by the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, and from the fact that the words 'until you come to it' mean the prior salvation of those with the affection for truth, whom Lot represents here. This is also what 'Lot's coming to Zoar' means, verse 23.

[2] That the salvation of good and righteous persons takes place before the destruction of the wicked and unrighteous is also clear from elsewhere in the Word, as in Matthew where the Last Judgement is the subject. There it is said that the sheep were separated from the goats; then the sheep were told to enter the Lord's kingdom before the goats were told to depart into eternal fire, Matthew 25:32, 34, 41. Something similar was also represented by the children of Israel, when they went out of Egypt, being saved before the Egyptians were drowned in the Sea Suph.

[3] The same is also meant by the statements made in various places in the Prophets to the effect that after the faithful had been brought back from captivity their enemies would undergo punishments and perish. This is constantly happening in the next life, that is to say, the faithful are saved first and then the faithless are punished, or what amounts to the same, the former are first raised up into heaven by the Lord and after that the latter hurl themselves into hell. The reason these events do not take place at one and the same time is that unless the good were snatched away from the evil, they would easily be destroyed by the evil desires and by the false persuasions which the evil constantly cast around like poisons. Generally however before any such thing happens, steps are taken with the good to separate evils, and with the evil to separate goods, so that the good may be lifted up by the Lord by means of goods into heaven and the evil cast themselves by means of evils down into hell. This matter will in the Lord's Divine mercy be discussed further on in 2449, 2451.

'Land' in the Word, denotes the church, for the things which signify the church also signify the things relating to the church, for these constitute the church. The reason why 'land' denotes the church in the Word is because the land of Canaan was the land in which the church had been since the most ancient times. Hence, when 'land' is named in the Word, it means the land of Canaan, which then means the church. For when the expression 'the land' appears there, people in the spiritual world do not concern themselves with the idea of a land, only with the idea of the nation inhabiting it. And yet not with an idea of that nation but with an idea of the essential nature of it.

'Land' or 'earth,' as in Genesis 20:15, signifies the doctrine of love and charity.

'Land' signifies the celestial principle of love in Genesis 24:4.

In Genesis 26:12, 'land' signifies rational things.

In Genesis 28:13, this signifies the good of the natural.

The 'land' represents the divine of the rational principle in Genesis 30:25.

(Odkazy: Arcana Coelestia 5577)