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Genesis 19

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1 And the two angels came to Sodom at even. And Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. And Lot saw them, and rose up to meet them; and he bowed down, the face toward the ground,

2 and he said, Behold now, my lords, turn in, I pray you, into your servant's house, and lodge, and wash your feet; and ye shall rise up early, and go on your way. And they said, No; but we will pass the night in the open place.

3 And he urged them greatly; and they turned in unto him, and entered into his house. And he made them a repast, and baked unleavened cakes; and they ate.

4 Before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, from the youngest to the oldest -- all the people from every quarter.

5 And they called to Lot, and said to him, Where are the men that have come in to thee to-night? bring them out to us that we may know them.

6 And Lot went out to them to the entrance, and shut the door after him,

7 and said, I pray you, my brethren, do not wickedly!

8 Behold now, I have two daughters who have not known a man: let me now bring them out to you; and do to them as is good in your sight: only, to these men do nothing; for therefore have they come under the shadow of my roof.

9 And they said, Back there! And they said [again], This one came to sojourn, and he must be a judge? Now we will deal worse with thee than with them. And they pressed hard on the man -- on Lot; and drew near to break the door.

10 And the men stretched out their hand, and brought Lot into the house to them, and shut the door.

11 And they smote the men that were at the entrance of the house with blindness, from the smallest to the greatest; and they wearied themselves to find the entrance.

12 And the men said to Lot, Whom hast thou here besides? a son-in-law, and thy sons, and thy daughters, and all whom thou hast in the city -- bring [them] out of the place.

13 For we are going to destroy this place, because the cry of them is great before Jehovah, and Jehovah has sent us to destroy it.

14 And Lot went out, and spoke to his sons-in-law, who had married his daughters, and said, Up, go out of this place, for Jehovah will destroy the city. But he was as if he jested, in the sight of his sons-in-law.

15 And as the dawn arose, the angels urged Lot, saying, Up, take thy wife and thy two daughters who are present, lest thou perish in the iniquity of the city.

16 And as he lingered, the men laid hold on his hand, and on the hand of his wife, and on the hand of his two daughters, Jehovah being merciful to him; and they led him out, and set him without the city.

17 And it came to pass when they had brought them outside, that he said, Escape for thy life: look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain: Escape to the mountain, lest thou perish.

18 And Lot said to them, Not [so], I pray thee, Lord;

19 behold now, thy servant has found favour in thine eyes, and thou hast magnified thy goodness, which thou hast shewn to me in preserving my soul alive; but I cannot escape to the mountain, lest calamity lay hold on me, that I die.

20 Behold now, this city is near to flee to, and it is small: I pray thee, let me escape thither -- is it not small? -- and my soul shall live.

21 And he said to him, Behold, I have accepted thee concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow the city of which thou hast spoken.

22 Haste, escape thither; for I cannot do anything until thou art come there. Therefore the name of the city is called Zoar.

23 The sun rose upon the earth when Lot came to Zoar.

24 And Jehovah rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from Jehovah out of heaven,

25 and overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew upon the ground.

26 And his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.

27 And Abraham rose early in the morning [and went] to the place where he had stood before Jehovah;

28 and he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld, and lo, a smoke went up from the land as the smoke of a furnace.

29 And it came to pass when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in which Lot dwelt.

30 And Lot went up from Zoar, and dwelt in the mountain, and his two daughters with him; for he feared to dwell in Zoar. And he dwelt in a cave, he and his two daughters.

31 And the first-born said to the younger, Our father is old, and there is not a man in the land to come in to us after the manner of all the earth:

32 come, let us give our father wine to drink, and let us lie with him, that we may preserve seed alive of our father.

33 And they gave their father wine to drink that night. And the first-born went in, and lay with her father, and he did not know of her lying down, nor of her rising.

34 And it came to pass on the next day that the first-born said to the younger, Lo, I lay last night with my father: let us give him wine to drink to-night also, and go thou in, lie with him, that we may preserve seed alive of our father.

35 And they gave their father wine to drink that night also. And the younger arose, and lay with him; and he did not know of her lying down, nor of her rising.

36 And both the daughters of Lot were with child by their father.

37 And the first-born bore a son, and called his name Moab: the same is the father of the Moabites to this day.

38 And the younger, she also bore a son, and called his name Ben-ammi; the same is the father of the children of Ammon to this day.

   

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Arcana Coelestia #2343

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2343. 'And they ate' means making one's own. This is clear from the meaning of 'eating' as being communicated and joined together, thus being made one's own, dealt with already in 2187. What has been stated and explained so far makes clear how the contents of the previous and the present verses are arranged and link together in the internal sense - from the fact that 'the angels' means the Lord's Divine Human and His Holy proceeding, 'turning aside to him' means staying with, 'coming to his house' being confirmed in good, 'making a feast' dwelling together, 'baking unleavened bread' being purified, and 'eating' taking into oneself and making one's own. It shows the nature of the train of thought in the internal sense, though nothing at all of that sense is apparent in the historical sense.

[2] Such is the order and the train of thought that exists with all the individual parts of the Word. But the nature of that actual train of thought cannot begin to reveal itself when each word is explained separately; for in that case each is seen in isolation from the rest and the continuity of meaning is lost. It reveals itself when all the separate details are seen together within one complete idea, or are perceived as one complete mental picture, as is done by those who have the internal sense and who at the same time dwell in heavenly light from the Lord. Within these words [used here in Genesis] such people are given to see the entire process of the reformation and regeneration of those who become members of the Church, represented here by Lot. That is to say, they first of all perceive some degree of temptation, but when they persevere and overcome the Lord stays with them, and confirms them in good, brings them to Himself into His kingdom, and dwells together with them, and there purifies and perfects them, at the same time granting them as their own things that are good and happy. All this He accomplishes by means of His Divine Human and His Holy proceeding.

[3] Within the Church it is indeed well known that all regeneration or new life, and therefore salvation, comes from the Lord alone, but few believe it. The reason they do not believe it is that the good of charity does not exist in them. It is as impossible for those in whom that good does not exist to believe it as it is for a camel to go through the eye of a needle; for the good of charity is the very seed-bed of faith. Truth and good agree together, but truth and evil never do. They have contrary natures and turn away from each other. Insofar therefore as someone is moved by good, he can be governed by truth, that is, insofar as charity exists with him faith is able to, especially the most fundamental matter of faith that all salvation comes from the Lord.

[4] That this is the most fundamental matter of faith is clear from many places in the Word, as in John,

God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that everyone who believes in Him may not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16.

In the same gospel,

He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not believe in the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God rests upon him. John 3:36.

In the same gospel,

This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom the Father has sent. John 6:29.

In the same gospel,

This is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. John 6:40.

In the same gospel,

Unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins. John 8:24.

In the same gospel,

I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he die, yet will he live. And everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. John 11:25-26.

[5] Nobody is able to believe in the Lord unless he is governed by good, that is, no one can possess faith unless he has charity. This too is clear in John,

As many as received Him, to them He gave power to be sons of God, to those believing in His name, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. John 1:12-13.

And in the same gospel,

I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for without Me you can do nothing. If a man does not abide in Me he is cast forth as a branch and is withered. As the Father has loved Me so I have loved you; abide in My love. This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. John 15:5-6, 9, 12.

[6] From all these quotations it becomes clear that love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbour constitute the life of faith. But that people who are immersed in evil, that is, who lead a life of evil, cannot possibly believe that all salvation comes from the Lord has become clear to me from those who have entered the next life from the Christian world; and also from people who during their lifetime have confessed with their lips the established teaching of faith, and indeed have taught it themselves, that without the Lord there is no salvation, but who, for all that, have led a life of evil. At the very mention of the Lord's name these people have filled the atmosphere around them entirely with objections. For in the next life solely that which people are thinking is perceived and sends out from itself a sphere, in which the nature of the faith possessed by those people reveals itself, see 1394.

[7] At the mere mention of love or charity among these people I perceived emanating from them something that was so to speak full of darkness and at the same time dust-filled. The product of some filthy love, it was by nature such that it obliterated, stifled, and corrupted all feeling of love to the Lord and of charity towards the neighbour. Such is the faith at the present day, which, they say, saves without the goods that flow from charity.

[8] The same people were also asked what faith they had since it was not the faith they had professed during their lifetime. Since in the next life nobody can conceal what he actually thinks, they said that they believed in God the Creator of all things. They were examined however as to whether this was really so, and it was discovered that they did not believe in any God at all but thought that all things were the product of natural forces, and all that has been said about eternal life is nonsense. Such is the faith of everyone inside the Church who does not believe in the Lord but says that he believes in God the Creator of all things. For truth cannot flow in from any other source than the Lord, and truth cannot be sown in anything other than good which is derived from the Lord.

[9] That the Lord's Divine Human and His Holy proceeding are together the channel and the source of life and salvation is well recognized from the words of the Holy Supper, 'This is My body, This is My blood', which is the Lord's Divine Human. And it is clear that this is the source of everything holy. Whether we speak of the Divine Human, or His Body, or Flesh, or Bread, or Divine Love, it amounts to the same thing; for the Lord's Divine Human is pure Love, and the Holy [proceeding] consists in love alone, while the Holy that constitutes faith is derived from this.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.