243. The third living creature had a face like a human being. This symbolizes the Divine truth of the Word in respect to its wisdom.

A human being in the Word symbolizes wisdom, because the human being was born to receive wisdom from the Lord and become an angel. The wiser someone is, therefore, the more human he is. True human wisdom consists in perceiving the existence of God, the nature of God, and what pertains to God. This is what the Divine truth of the Word teaches.

That a human being symbolizes wisdom is apparent from the following passages:

I will make a man more rare than fine gold, and a human being more rare than the gold of Ophir. (Isaiah 13:12)

A man means intelligence, and a human being wisdom.

...the inhabitants of the earth shall be burned up, and rare will be the human being left. (Isaiah 24:6)

...I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of a human being and the seed of an animal. (Jeremiah 31:27)

You are My flock...; you are humankind, I am your God. (Ezekiel 34:31)

...the ruined cities shall be filled with a flock of humankind. (Ezekiel 36:38)

I looked upon the earth when, lo, it was empty and void, and to the heavens when they had not their light... I looked when, lo, there was no human being... (Jeremiah 4:23, 25)

They sacrifice a human being, they kiss the calves. (Hosea 13:2)

He measured the wall (of the Holy Jerusalem): one hundred and forty-four cubits, the measure of a human being, which is that of an angel. (Revelation 21:17)

So, too, in many other places, where a human being symbolizes someone who is wise, and in an abstract sense, wisdom itself.

10675. 'And cause your borders to be enlarged' means the multiplication and increase in the range of truth that springs from good. This is clear from the meaning of 'enlarging the border' as the multiplication and increase in the range of truth springing from good, dealt with in 8063. The reason why 'enlarging the borders' has this meaning is that to the extent that evils and the falsities of evil are shifted away, the truths that spring from good are multiplied, because nothing except evils and the falsities arising from them stands in the way to stop truths from flowing in from the Lord and multiplying themselves with a person. To the extent therefore that those evils and falsities are shifted away, truths come in to replace them.

[2] The situation with the understanding part of the human mind is that it must consist either of truths that spring from good or of falsities that arise from evil; it cannot consist of both at one and the same time since they are opposites. The understanding part of the human mind is that which is receptive of and shaped by truths; for whatever is present in a person's understanding has connection with truth. From this it is evident that to the extent that falsities arising from evil are shifted away, truths springing from good are multiplied. This was represented by the expulsion of the nations from the land of Canaan; for the nations there represented evils and falsities, see in the places referred to in 10057(end), and the children of Israel forms of good and truths.

[3] The reason for saying that the understanding part of the human mind is that which is receptive of and shaped by truths is that, to be perfectly correct, nothing else ought to be called the understanding than that which consists of truths springing from good. That which consists of falsities arising from evil is not such, for it cannot possibly be said of falsities arising from evil that they have intelligence and wisdom within them. Falsities arising from evil completely destroy intelligence and wisdom, and replace them with stupidity and foolishness. Consequently the understanding part of a person's mind is undeveloped until the person perceives truths and loves them; and the perception and love of truth follow as a result of good. So it is that truths springing from good are what constitute the understanding.

[4] Anyone who thinks that the person who has developed his understanding because he is able to reason skillfully against the Church's truths is very much mistaken. For he does not see anything [from a source] within himself, only [from a source] outside himself. Seeing [from a source] within himself is doing so from heaven, seeing [from a source] outside himself is doing so from the world. And anyone who sees things solely from the world sees them in an illusory light, which becomes total darkness when the light from heaven enters it.