358. Of the tribe of Issachar twelve thousand were sealed. This symbolizes goodness of life in those people who will be part of the New Heaven and of the Lord's New Church.

In the highest sense Issachar symbolizes the Divine good of truth and truth of good; in the spiritual sense, the conjugal love of heaven, which is one of goodness and truth; and in the natural sense, recompense. Here, however, it is goodness of life, because in this group Issachar is the third in order, and the third element in every group symbolizes the final one, which is the product of the first two, as an effect is of its causes. And the effect produced by spiritual love, which is love for the neighbor and symbolized by Simeon, operating through an affection for truth, which is symbolized by Levi, is goodness of life, which is Issachar. The name Issachar also comes from a word meaning payment (Genesis 30:17-18), thus recompense; and goodness of life has in it its own recompense.

Something of the kind is symbolized by Issachar, too, in Moses' blessing of him:

Rejoice, Zebulun, in your going out, and Issachar in your tents! They shall call peoples to the mountain; there they shall offer sacrifices of righteousness; for they shall suck the affluence of the sea and the hidden objects of the sand. (Deuteronomy 33:18-19)

In his father Israel's blessing of him (Genesis 49:14-15), however, Issachar symbolizes a merit-seeking goodness of life. See Arcana Coelestia (The Secrets of Heaven) 6388.

6389. 'Is a bony ass' means lowest-ranking service. This is clear from the meaning of 'an ass' as service, dealt with in 5958, 5959; and from the meaning of 'bone' as that which possesses little spiritual life, dealt with in 5560, 5561. Thus 'a bony ass' is the lowest-ranking service, for people who do good for the sake of recompense do, it is true, perform useful services and act as servants; nevertheless they belong among those in the Lord's kingdom who occupy the lowest position. For the good that is communicated to them they pass on to none but those who can repay them. They overlook all others who may be in the greatest need; or if they do help them out it is to the end that the Lord may recompense them. They look on what they do as that which earns them merit and so on the Lord's mercy as their due. Thus they depart from a state of humility, and to the extent that they depart from it they depart from a state in which blessing and happiness are received from the Lord through heaven. From all this it may be seen that in the next life such people are, it is true, engaged in the performance of useful services; but they are the lowest ranking servants.