El río Jordán separa la tierra de Canaán de las tierras del este. Esta separación representa la división de la mente humana en una parte interna y otra externa, y es la mente interna donde se forma la iglesia en una persona.

El río también está limitado por dos lagos en el norte, Merom y Galilea, y el Mar Muerto en el sur. Dentro de estos límites están las cosas interiores de la mente, y fuera están las cosas exteriores.

Los países del exterior, tal y como se mencionan en la Biblia, pueden ser útiles. Representan el conocimiento básico, la capacidad de razonamiento, la racionalidad, la curiosidad y otras cualidades que, como amigos, pueden apoyar nuestras creencias religiosas, o como enemigos pueden argumentar contra ellas o conjurar falsos dioses para que los adoremos.

La tierra interior representa un estado de regeneración, o puede representar el fin último de ese estado, que es el cielo.

Desde fuera, pues, el Jordán es la entrada a algo mejor, la meta del viaje, y sus aguas representan el lavado mental del arrepentimiento, que es lo primero de la iglesia, por eso Juan bautizó allí, y Naamán se lavó allí.

Desde el interior, el Jordán es el borde de lo que está fuera de la iglesia, y por esta razón los Hijos de Israel fueron tan a menudo molestados por esas naciones de afuera: los madianitas, los amonitas, los sirios, Egipto y Babilonia, y las otras naciones de las que leemos en los Libros de los Jueces y los Reyes, y en los Profetas.

Las capacidades mentales de nuestras mentes externas pueden trabajar para lo que es bueno, pero también pueden trabajar para lo que es malo.

(რეკომენდაციები: Arcana Coelestia 1585 [1-3], 4255; Apocalipsis Explicado 514 [19], 700 [11-13])

1585. 'And he saw all the plain of Jordan' means the goods and truths that resided with the external man. This is clear from the meaning of 'a plain' and of 'the Jordan'. In the internal sense 'the plain surrounding the Jordan' means the external man as regards all his goods and truths. The reason the plain of Jordan has this meaning is that the Jordan was a boundary of the land of Canaan. 'The land of Canaan', as stated and shown already, means the Lord's kingdom and Church, and in particular its celestial and spiritual things; this also explains why it was called the Holy Land, and the heavenly Canaan. And because it means the Lord's kingdom and Church, it means in the highest sense the Lord Himself, who is the All in all of His kingdom and of His Church.

[2] For this reason all things in the land of Canaan were representative. Those in the midst of the land, or that were inmost, represented His internal Man - Mount Zion and Jerusalem, for example, representing respectively celestial things and spiritual things. More outlying districts represented things more remote from internals. And the most outlying districts, or those which formed the boundaries, represented the external man. There were several boundaries to the land of Canaan, but in general they were the two rivers Euphrates and Jordan, and also the Sea, ¹ for which reason the Euphrates and the Jordan represented external things. Here therefore 'the plain of Jordan' means, as it also represents, all things residing in the external man. The meaning of the land of Canaan is similar when used in reference to the Lord's kingdom in heaven, to the Lord's Church on earth, to the member of that kingdom or Church, or abstractly to the celestial things of love, and so on.

[3] Almost all the cities therefore, and indeed all the mountains, hills, valleys, rivers, and other features in the land of Canaan, were representative. The river Euphrates, being a boundary, represented, as shown already in 120, sensory evidence and facts that belong to the external man, and so too did the Jordan and the plain of Jordan, as becomes clear from the following places: In David,

O my God, my soul bows itself down within me; ² therefore I remember You from the land of Jordan, and the Hermons from the little mountain. Psalms 42:6.

Here 'the land of Jordan' stands for that which is lowly and so is distant from the celestial, as a person's externals are from his internals.

[4] The crossing of the Jordan when the children of Israel entered the land of Canaan and the dividing of its waters at that time also represented the approach to the internal man by way of the external, as well as a person's entry into the Lord's kingdom, and much more besides, Joshua 3:14 on to the end of Chapter 4. And because the external man is constantly hostile towards the internal and strives for domination over it, the arrogance or the pride of the Jordan came to be phrases used by the Prophets, as in Jeremiah,

How will you compete with horses? And confident in a land of peace how do you deal with the pride of the Jordan? Jeremiah 12:5.

'The pride of the Jordan' stands for those things belonging to the external man which rear up and wish to have dominion over the internal, such as reasonings, meant here by 'horses', and 'the confidence' they give.

[5] In the same prophet,

Edom will become a desolation. Behold, like a lion it will come up from the arrogance of the Jordan against the habitation of Ethan. Jeremiah 49:17, 19.

'The arrogance of the Jordan' stands for the pride of the external man against the goods and truths of the internal. In Zechariah,

Howl, O fir tree, for the cedar is fallen, for the magnificent ones have been laid waste! Howl, O oaks of Bashan, for the impenetrable forest has come down. The sound of the howling of shepherds [is heard], for their magnificence has been laid waste; the sound of the roaring of young lions, that the pride of the Jordan has been laid waste. Zechariah 11:2-3.

The fact that the Jordan was a boundary of the land of Canaan is clear from Numbers 34:12, and the eastern boundary of the land of Judah, in Joshua 15:5.

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