Arcana Coelestia #1563
1563. And Lot also, who went with Abram. That this signifies the external man that was in the Lord, is evident from the representation of Lot, as being the sensuous man, or what is the same, the external man. That there is an internal and an external in every man, or what is the same, that man is internal and external, is known to everyone within the church (concerning which see what has been said before, n. 978, 994, 995, 1015). The external man receives its life principally from the internal man, that is, from the spirit or soul. Thence comes its very life in general; but this life cannot be received in its particulars, or distinctly, by the external man, unless its organic vessels are opened, which must be the recipients of the particulars and the singulars of the internal man. These organic vessels, which are to be the recipients, are not opened except by means of the senses, especially those of hearing and sight; and, as they are opened, the internal man can flow in with its particulars and singulars. They are opened with the senses as the media, by means of knowledges [scientifica et cognitiones], and also by means of pleasures and delights; those belonging to the understanding by means of knowledges, and those belonging to the will by means of pleasures and delights.
[2] From these things it may be seen that it must necessarily happen that such knowledges as cannot agree with spiritual truths will insinuate themselves into the external man; and that such pleasures and delights will insinuate themselves as cannot agree with celestial goods; as is the case with all those things which regard corporeal, worldly, and earthly things as the ends; which, when regarded as ends, draw the external man outward and downward, and so remove it from the internal man. Wherefore, unless such things are first dispersed, the internal man cannot possibly agree with the external; so that before the internal man can agree with the external, such things must first be removed. That with the Lord these things were removed or separated, is represented and signified by the separation of Lot from Abram.
Genesis 13
1
Abram went up out of Egypt: he, his wife, all that he had, and Lot with him, into the South.
2
Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold.
3
He went on his journeys from the South even to Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai,
4
to the place of the altar, which he had made there at the first. There Abram called on the name of Yahweh.
5
Lot also, who went with Abram, had flocks, and herds, and tents.
6
The land was not able to bear them, that they might live together: for their substance was great, so that they could not live together.
7
There was a strife between the herdsmen of Abram's livestock and the herdsmen of Lot's livestock: and the Canaanite and the Perizzite lived in the land at that time.
8
Abram said to Lot, "Please, let there be no strife between me and you, and between my herdsmen and your herdsmen; for we are relatives.
9
Isn't the whole land before you? Please separate yourself from me. If you go to the left hand, then I will go to the right. Or if you go to the right hand, then I will go to the left."
10
Lot lifted up his eyes, and saw all the plain of the Jordan, that it was well-watered everywhere, before Yahweh destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, like the garden of Yahweh, like the land of Egypt, as you go to Zoar.
11
So Lot chose the Plain of the Jordan for himself. Lot traveled east, and they separated themselves the one from the other.
12
Abram lived in the land of Canaan, and Lot lived in the cities of the plain, and moved his tent as far as Sodom.
13
Now the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinners against Yahweh.
14
Yahweh said to Abram, after Lot was separated from him, "Now, lift up your eyes, and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward,
15
for all the land which you see, I will give to you, and to your offspring forever.
16
I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then your seed may also be numbered.
17
Arise, walk through the land in its length and in its breadth; for I will give it to you."
18
Abram moved his tent, and came and lived by the oaks of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and built an altar there to Yahweh.
