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.

6279. 'The angel redeeming me from every evil' means the Lord's Divine Human, the deliverer from hell. This is clear from the meaning of 'the angel' as the Lord's Divine Human, dealt with below; from the meaning of 'redeeming' as delivering, also dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'evil' as hell. The reason why 'evil' means hell is that hell itself is nothing but evil; for whether you say that all in hell are evil or that hell is evil, it amounts to the same thing. When the word 'evil' is used hell is meant in the spiritual sense; for whenever those who know the spiritual sense, as the angels in heaven do, think and express themselves, they do so without reference to any specific persons because they are concerned with the general and overall. This is why for them 'evil' means hell.

[2] The same applies to the word 'sin', when it is used to mean a dominant evil, as in Genesis 4,

Jehovah said to Cain, If you do not do well, sin is lying at the door. To you is his desire, and you will have dominion over him. Genesis 4:6-7.

Here 'sin' stands for hell, which is at hand when a person does what is evil. Also the evil present in a person is itself nothing else than hell, for it flows into him from there, making him at this time a miniature hell, even as each of its inhabitants is one. It is like the contrary situation when the good present with a person is itself nothing else than heaven in him, for good flows into him from the Lord through heaven, making the person with whom good resides a miniature heaven, even as each inhabitant of heaven is one.