2669. 'Also, the son of the servant-girl I will make into a nation' means the spiritual Church which was to receive the good of faith. This is clear from the meaning of 'the son of the servant-girl' and also of 'a nation'. 'The son of the servant-girl' or Ishmael, while he was in Abraham's house, that is, while he was with Abraham, represented the Lord's first rational, as shown in 2652, 2653, 2657, 2658. But now he has been separated he takes on another representation, namely that of the spiritual Church, 2666. A similar change of representation occurred previously with Lot who while with Abraham represented the Lord's external man, 1428, 1429, 1434, 1547, 1597, 1598, 1698, but once he had been separated from Abraham he represented the external Church and many states of that Church, 2324, 2371, 2399, 2422, 2459, and in the whole of Chapter 19. As regards 'nation' meaning good, see 1159, 1258-1260, 1416, 1849. Here the good of faith is meant since it has reference to the spiritual Church. Hence the words used here, 'Also, the son of the servant-girl I will make into a nation', mean the spiritual Church which was to receive the good of faith, which is charity.

[2] The Lord's kingdom in heaven and on earth is celestial and spiritual, and therefore angels are distinguished into those who are celestial and those who are spiritual, see 202, 337. To celestial angels the Lord appears as the Sun, to spiritual as the Moon, 1053, 1521, 1529-1531. Men in a similar way are distinguished into those who are celestial and those who are spiritual. Those who belonged to the Most Ancient Church which existed before the Flood were celestial, dealt with in 607, 608, 784, 895, 920, 1114-1125, while those who belonged to the Ancient Church which existed after the Flood were spiritual, dealt with in 609, 640, 641, 765. For what the difference was between those two Churches, see 567, 607, and for what the difference is between what is celestial and what is spiritual, 81, 1155, 1577, 1824, 2048, 2069, 2088, 2227, 2507. The celestial are referred to by the Lord in the following,

He calls His own sheep by name and leads them out. And when He has led out His own sheep He goes before them, and the sheep follow Him, for they know His voice.

The spiritual however are referred to in these words,

And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice, and there will be one flock and one shepherd. John 10:3-4, 16.

The good of love is that which constitutes the celestial Church, but the good of faith that which constitutes the spiritual Church. The truth of faith does not constitute the Church but leads into it.

1547. 'And Lot with him' means the power of sensory perception. A brief description of this meaning has been given already in 1428. Because a specific reference is made here to Lot, one needs to know exactly what he represents in the Lord. 'Pharaoh' represented facts, which at length 'sent away' the Lord, whereas 'Lot' represented things of the senses, by which are meant the external man and the pleasures he derives from sensory things, thus the most external things which usually captivate the mind in childhood and lead it away from the things that are good. For to the extent a person indulges in pleasures arising from evil desires he is drawn away from the celestial things that belong to love and charity. Indeed, present within those pleasures there is love originating in self and in the world, and with those loves celestial love cannot accord. Besides these however there are pleasures which, despite having similar external appearance, do accord completely with celestial things. For these see what has been stated already in 945, 994, 995, 997. Pleasures however that have their origins in evil desires must be brought under control and wiped out because they block the approach to celestial things. It is these pleasures, not those that accord with celestial things, that are meant in this chapter by Lot's separation from Abram, the presence of those pleasures being meant here by 'Lot with him'. In general however Lot means the external man, as will be evident from what follows.