365. We may gather from this that rich people arrive in heaven just as much as poor people do, one as easily as the other. The reason people believe that it is easy for the poor and hard for the rich is that the Word is misunderstood when it talks about the rich and the poor. In the spiritual meaning of the Word, "the rich" means people who are amply supplied with understandings of what is true and good, that is, people in the church where the Word is. "The poor" means people who lack these understandings but who long for them, or people outside the church, where the Word is not found.

[2] The rich person dressed in purple and fine linen who was cast into hell means the Jewish nation. Because they had the Word and were therefore amply supplied with understandings of what is good and true, they are called "rich." The garments of purple actually mean understandings of what is good, and the fine linen means understandings of what is true. ¹ The poor person who was lying in the gateway and who longed to feast on the crumbs that were falling from the rich person's table, who was carried up into heaven by angels, means the non-Jews who did not have understandings of what is good and true but who still longed for them (Luke 16:19, 31).

The rich who were invited to the great feast but who excused themselves also mean the Jewish nation, and the poor who were brought in to replace them mean the non-Jews who were outside the church (Luke 12:16-24, 14:16-24).

[3] We need also to explain who are meant by the rich of whom the Lord said, "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God" (Matthew 19:24). "The rich person" here means the rich in both senses, natural and spiritual. Rich people in the natural sense are people who have abundant wealth and set their hearts on it, while in a spiritual sense they are people who are amply supplied with insights and knowledge (for these are spiritual wealth) and who want to use them to get themselves into heavenly and ecclesiastical circles by their own intellect. Since this is contrary to the divine design, it says that it is easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle. On this level of meaning, a camel means our cognitive and informational level in general, and the eye of a needle means spiritual truth. ²

Nowadays people do not know that this is the meaning of the camel and the eye of a needle because there has not yet been any access to the knowledge that teaches what is meant spiritually by the things that the Word says literally. There is spiritual meaning in the details of the Word, and natural meaning as well; because the Word was written in pure correspondences of natural realities with spiritual ones in order to effect a union of heaven and the world, or of angels with us, once the direct union had ceased. We can see from this exactly who are meant by the rich in the Word.

[4] We may gather from a number of passages that on the spiritual level "the rich" in the Word refers to people who enjoy insights into what is good and true and that wealth means those insights themselves, which are spiritual riches: see Isaiah 10:12-14; 30:6-7; 45:3, Jeremiah 17:3; 47:7 [Jeremiah 48:7?], Jeremiah 50:36-37; 51:13, Daniel 5:2-4, Ezekiel 26:7, 12; 27:1-36; Zechariah 9:3-4; Psalms 45:12; Hosea 12:9; Revelation 3:17-18, Luke 14:33, and elsewhere. On the poor in the spiritual sense as people who do not have insights into what is good and true but who long for them, see Matthew 11:5; Luke 6:20-21; 14:21; Isaiah 14:30; 29:19; 41:17-18; Zephaniah 3:12, 18 [13]. An explanation of the spiritual meaning of all these passages may be found in 10227 of Secrets of Heaven.

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6588. 'And God will certainly visit you' means that the final period is about to come. This is clear from the meaning of 'being visited' as the final period, here that of the oppression of the children of Israel in Egypt, which in the internal sense is the final period of the old Church and the first of the new. In the Word this final period is called 'visitation', and this is used in reference both to the Church collectively and to those within the Church individually. It is used in reference to a new Church that is being born and an old one that is breathing its last, and to the individual member of the Church who is being saved, as well as to one who is damned.

[2] The fact that these things are meant in the Word by 'visitation' and 'the day of visitation' may be seen from the following places: In Luke,

Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited and brought deliverance to His people, through the heart ¹ of mercy of our God, by which the risen sun from on high has visited us, to appear to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death. Luke 1:68, 78-79.

In this prophecy of Zechariah regarding the Lord, telling what would happen after He had been born, 'being visited' stands for the raising up from death of a new Church and the enlightenment at that time of those who had no knowledge of the truth and good of faith, thus the deliverance of them. It is for this reason that the words 'He has visited and brought deliverance to His people, . . . has visited [us], to appear to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death' are used.

[3] In Moses,

Jehovah said to Moses, Gather the elders of Israel and say to them, Jehovah, the God of your fathers, has appeared to me, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, I will certainly visit you and what has been done to you in Egypt. Exodus 3:16.

And in the same author,

The people believed and heard that Jehovah had visited the children of Israel. Exodus 4:31.

'Being visited' here stands for the final period when the Church has gone out of existence and for the first period when it comes into existence - for the final period among the Egyptians, and for the first among the children of Israel, and so for the deliverance of them too.

[4] In Jeremiah,

They will be carried away to Babel, and there they will be until the day [ visit them. Then I will cause the vessels of the house of God to come up, and I will bring them back to this place. Jeremiah 27:22.

In the same prophet,

When seventy years have been completed at Babel I will visit you and fulfill My promise ² to you and bring you back to this place. Jeremiah 29:10.

'Visiting' stands for delivering, in general for the final period of captivity and desolation.

[5] 'Visitation' and 'the day of visitation' stand for the final period of the Church in Isaiah,

What will you do on the day of visitation and devastation? It will come from afar. To whom will you flee for help? Isaiah 10:3.

In the same prophet,

Behold, the day of Jehovah comes, cruel, and one of indignation and wrath and anger, to make the earth a waste. I will visit the world for evil, and the wicked for their iniquity. Isaiah 13:9, 11.

In Jeremiah,

They will fall among those who fall, and in the time of their visitation they will stumble. Jeremiah 8:12.

In Hosea,

The days of visitation have come, the days of recompense have come. Hosea 9:7.

In Moses,

Jehovah said to Moses, All the same, go, lead this people to [the place] of which I have spoken to you; behold, My angel will go before you. But on the day of My visiting, I will visit them for their sin. Exodus 32:34.

In Luke,

Jesus said regarding Jerusalem, They will not leave in you stone upon stone, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation. Luke 19:44.

'The day of visitation' stands for the Lord's Coming, and enlightenment at that time. But in reference to the Jewish nation - seeing that it did not recognize His Coming - 'the day of visitation' stands for the final period of the representative acts of the Church among them. For once Jerusalem was destroyed sacrifices came to an end and that nation was scattered abroad.

[6] In Ezekiel,

A loud voice called out in my ears, saying, The visitations of the city have drawn near, and each man has his weapon of destruction in his hand. Ezekiel 9:1.

Here the meaning is similar. In Isaiah,

The Rephaim will not rise. To that end You have visited them, You have wiped them out. Isaiah 16:14.

'The Rephaim' stands for descendants of the Most Ancient Church which existed before the Flood. They are also called the Nephilim and the Anakim, regarding whom see 567, 581, 1673. 'You have visited and wiped out the Rephaim' stands for the final period of that Church; it also stands for the casting of them into hell, regarding which see 1265-1272. 'Visitation' stands for retribution, thus for damnation, in Jeremiah,

Shall I not visit them on account of this? Or will not My soul be avenged on a nation which is like this? Jeremiah 5:9.

In the same prophet,

I will bring the disaster of Esau upon him, at the time I visit him. Jeremiah 49:8.

In Hosea,

I will visit upon him his ways, and requite his works. Hosea 4:9.

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