365. We may gather from this that rich people arrive in heaven just as much as poor people do, one as easily as the other. The reason people believe that it is easy for the poor and hard for the rich is that the Word is misunderstood when it talks about the rich and the poor. In the spiritual meaning of the Word, "the rich" means people who are amply supplied with understandings of what is true and good, that is, people in the church where the Word is. "The poor" means people who lack these understandings but who long for them, or people outside the church, where the Word is not found.

[2] The rich person dressed in purple and fine linen who was cast into hell means the Jewish nation. Because they had the Word and were therefore amply supplied with understandings of what is good and true, they are called "rich." The garments of purple actually mean understandings of what is good, and the fine linen means understandings of what is true. ¹ The poor person who was lying in the gateway and who longed to feast on the crumbs that were falling from the rich person's table, who was carried up into heaven by angels, means the non-Jews who did not have understandings of what is good and true but who still longed for them (Luke 16:19, 31).

The rich who were invited to the great feast but who excused themselves also mean the Jewish nation, and the poor who were brought in to replace them mean the non-Jews who were outside the church (Luke 12:16-24, 14:16-24).

[3] We need also to explain who are meant by the rich of whom the Lord said, "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God" (Matthew 19:24). "The rich person" here means the rich in both senses, natural and spiritual. Rich people in the natural sense are people who have abundant wealth and set their hearts on it, while in a spiritual sense they are people who are amply supplied with insights and knowledge (for these are spiritual wealth) and who want to use them to get themselves into heavenly and ecclesiastical circles by their own intellect. Since this is contrary to the divine design, it says that it is easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle. On this level of meaning, a camel means our cognitive and informational level in general, and the eye of a needle means spiritual truth. ²

Nowadays people do not know that this is the meaning of the camel and the eye of a needle because there has not yet been any access to the knowledge that teaches what is meant spiritually by the things that the Word says literally. There is spiritual meaning in the details of the Word, and natural meaning as well; because the Word was written in pure correspondences of natural realities with spiritual ones in order to effect a union of heaven and the world, or of angels with us, once the direct union had ceased. We can see from this exactly who are meant by the rich in the Word.

[4] We may gather from a number of passages that on the spiritual level "the rich" in the Word refers to people who enjoy insights into what is good and true and that wealth means those insights themselves, which are spiritual riches: see Isaiah 10:12-14; 30:6-7; 45:3, Jeremiah 17:3; 47:7 [Jeremiah 48:7?], Jeremiah 50:36-37; 51:13, Daniel 5:2-4, Ezekiel 26:7, 12; 27:1-36; Zechariah 9:3-4; Psalms 45:12; Hosea 12:9; Revelation 3:17-18, Luke 14:33, and elsewhere. On the poor in the spiritual sense as people who do not have insights into what is good and true but who long for them, see Matthew 11:5; Luke 6:20-21; 14:21; Isaiah 14:30; 29:19; 41:17-18; Zephaniah 3:12, 18 [13]. An explanation of the spiritual meaning of all these passages may be found in 10227 of Secrets of Heaven.

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457. Still did not repent of the works of their hands. This symbolically means, nor did they refrain from their native proclivities, which are evils of every kind, as being sins.

The works of a person's hands symbolize a person's native proclivities, which are evils and their attendant falsities, because the hands symbolize in summary the things that emanate from a person; for the forces of the mind and consequently of the body are directed into the hands and terminate there. Consequently the hands in the Word symbolize power. For the same reason the works of a person's hands symbolize his native proclivities, which are evils and falsities of every kind. Evils are the native proclivities of his will, and the attendant falsities the native proclivities of his intellect.

We are told regarding the people who are the subject here that they did not repent, because people who make faith alone the totality of religion say to themselves, "What need do I have of repentance, when through faith alone our sins are forgiven and we are saved? What do our works contribute to this? I know that I was born in sin and that I am a sinner. If I confess this and pray that my faults not be imputed to me, then I have repented. What need do I have of anything more?"

Thus the person then gives no thought to sin, even to the point of not knowing what sins are. Consequently the delight and gratification they afford continually carry him along in them and into them, the way a favorable wind and current carry a ship onto rocks when both captain and crew are asleep.

[2] In the natural sense of the Word, the works of a person's hands mean carved images, cast images, and idols; but in its spiritual sense, they symbolize evils and falsities of every kind, which are a person's native proclivities. As, for example, in the following passages:

...do not provoke Me to anger by the work of your hands...; (if you were) to provoke Me to anger by the work of your hands to your own hurt..., I will repay them according to their work and according to the deeds of their hands. (Jeremiah 25:6-7, 14)

...the children of Israel have provoked Me... to anger by the work of their hands... (Jeremiah 32:30, cf. 44:8)

I will utter My judgments against them concerning all their wickedness, because they... bowed themselves to the works of their hands. (Jeremiah 1:16)

In that day... people's eyes will look to the Holy One of Israel, and... not to the altars, the work of their hands, and... what their fingers have made... (Isaiah 17:7-8, cf. 31:7; 37:19, Jeremiah 10:9)

[3] The work of a person's hands is his own doing, thus evil and falsity, and this can be clearly seen from the fact that it was for this reason that the Israelites were forbidden to built an altar or temple out of hewn stones, or to use an iron tool on those stones; for they symbolized the work of a person's hands:

If you make Me an altar of stones, you shall not build it of hewn stones; for if you use your chisel on it, you will profane it. (Exodus 20:25)

Joshua built... an altar of... stones, on which he did not use an iron tool. (Joshua 8:30-31)

The temple (at Jerusalem)...was built of whole stone, and no hammer or axe or any iron tool was heard... while it was being built. (1 Kings 6:7)

[4] Everything that the Lord does is likewise called the work of His hands, and these are His inherent attributes, which in themselves are goods and truths. As, for example, in the following places:

The works of (Jehovah's) hands are truth and judgment. (Psalms 111:7)

Your mercy, O Jehovah, endures forever; do not cease the works of Your hands. (Psalms 138:8)

Thus said Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker: "Seek from Me signs concerning My children; concerning the work of My hands, command Me." (Isaiah 45:11)

Your people are all just..., the offshoot of My planting, the work of My hands... (Isaiah 60:21)

...O Jehovah, You are our Father, we are the clay, and You our potter, and all we the work of Your hands. (Isaiah 64:8)